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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WINDOWS XP IS OUTDATED AND INSECURE!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):
    • ToIMPORTANT connectIF toLOOKING theFOR Sony CLIE PDA for working with the AIBO, I needed a USB PCIe card to be passed through.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 using WEP for the AIBO
  • 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.
      • Keep in mind with PCIe hardware passthrough, you will likely need to power off your VM for every backup
  • A method to get files over to a freshly installed Windows XP
    • Some hypervisors have a built in way of handling this
    • Cloud storage sites likely dont work since Internet Explorer does not support HTTPS, which would block you from using 99% of the internet (also browsing the internet on IE is a BAD idea)
    • You may wish to setup an SMB / FTP server on the LAN instead. Just keep in mind that the standards supported by XP are quite old, and downgrading your existing SMB / FTP servers to an old protocol is a bad idea. I suggest setting up something seperate
    • You can also put any files you wish to bring over into an ISO image that you can mount via your hypervisor

2: Setting up your VM

Given this is an old OS, I set the following settings within proxmox:

  • RAM -> only 2 GB
  • 1 core for the CPU (KVM64)
  • SeaBIOS (not UEFI)
  • Default display manager
  • Machine -> i440fx 7.2 (not q35)
  • SCSI controller -> LSI 53C895A
  • Network device -> Realtek RTL8139
    • This is temporary in my case as I will later switch to only using USB Ethernet instead
  • PCIe passthrough
    • In this case passing through the address of the USB card. ROM-Bar is enabled, but not All Functions nor Primary GPU
  • No Audio device

Start the VM and go through the Windows XP installer. Set up your organization and user, and continue until you reach the Windows XP desktop, complete with its Bliss background

Go to the control panel, and for your user account, set a password and icon.

Make a backup of your VM at this point

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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