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Setting up a Windows XP VM in %CURRENTYEAR%

WINDOWS XP IS OUTDATED AND INSECURE! While this guide will go over some mitigations, please keep in mind that the OS may be compromised anyways, so keep any personal data off this machine and segment it away from the rest of your network. More mitigations shall be discussed at the end of this page, but in general do not set up old operating systems with any access to the internet unless you are aware of the ramifications!

While there are some premade ISOs of Windows XP with a lot of these changes baked in, it generally is not a good idea to use modified Windows ISOs because you don't know what may be added in maliciously

This guide, while semi-general, is written under the context of needing a Windows XP installation to run software relevant for the AIBO ERS-7

1: Getting Started

Please prepare the following:

  • PC running hypervisor of choice
    • This guide will create the VM under Proxmox. You can use another hypervisor of choice, and the general concepts will still apply here
  • A clean Windows XP SP3 professional ISO with key
  • Hardware pass-through requirements (skip if not relevant):
    • IMPORTANT IF LOOKING FOR USB!. Windows XP predates USB 3.0 which most cards you can find online do use, so you do need to be aware of driver support which not all cards have for XP.
      • I used this card without issues following manual driver installation
  • A method to segment the VM from the rest of your LAN
    • Many hypervisors for their internet passthrough can have settings for this
    • In this case, I will be using an USB to ethernet adapter (through the USB PCIe card) as I need direct connection to a WIFI AP
  • A method to backup and restore different states of your VM
    • I will be using the Proxmox backup server of my proxmox cluster, please check for your hypervisor how to prepare for this.

2: Installing Critical Updates and Software

There is some software you would likely want to install regardless of what you plan on doing

  • Legacy Update
    • This tool helps install all missing updates to windows XP
    • Using IE on the computer (this is one of the few sites that support HTTP), go to http://legacyupdate.net
    • Scroll down and click Install Legacy Update (you may need to see the workaround mentioned if you cannot get it to run)
    • Install the application, update everything, and reboot
  • MyPal
    • This web browser works on XP and supports HTTPS, as well as other features that make it safer to use on the internet
      • You should still try not to browse the web from windows XP regardless, even with this tool
    • It can be retrieved from github here
  • Snappy Driver Installer
    • Simplifies grabbing some drivers
      • Upon install, first download the indexes
      • then, see if it found any drivers missing for your hardware
    • Can be retrieved here

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