My new Windows XP Pro Computer arrived today. I hooked it up, plugged it in, and it booted right up to the XP start screen. I can't believe how new the computer itself looks. It's made by HP, a MS Windows XP Pro version 2000-Service Pk 3. It lists the Computer as: Intel (R) Core (TM) Duo CPU E6550 @2.33 GHz 1.97 GB Ram.

The first thing I did was to cancel updates because there might be the slight possibility that MS would want to make changes, like to Windows 7 and beyond. Then I installed Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 and that installed without a hitch. Next, I installed an early version of Photoshop and that installed ok. Both programs wanted me to register but at this point I am not connected to the internet so unable to perform that task. I looked at the options in the control panel for connecting to the internet and I tried the Connection Wizard but that did not work. The computer is currently connected to the modem via ethernet cable.......same modem my other computers are connected to......any suggestions what to try next?

Glad to hear that you seem to be having "fun" with the new system.

Personally, with the lack of updates and potential security issues, I'd stay off line. At least install the free version of Avast anti-virus.
https://www.avast.com/en-us/lp-ppc-hp-v4?ppc_code=013&ppc=a&msclkid=1079191627d3182a8d3346c5d7593e87& utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=en-us_ava_sch_brn_exc_bng_dtp&utm_term=download %20avast%20free&utm_content=top-avast_download_free-exact&gclid=CJPT7Ir7xu0CFcp9fgodeb4G7g&gclsrc=ds#pc
While Avast seems to still offer virus definitions it no longer offers feature updates to XP; still, better than nothing...

If you insist on making it go on-line here are some instructions. I don't remember having to do this when I ran XP as a main system but here it is. You will need a user name and password from your ISP; probably the same as that for ISP supplied email. I don't have to worry about this as my virtual machine just uses my main system internet.
https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/152/#:~:text=Step%201%20On%20the%20Windows%20taskbar %2C%20click%20the,page%2C%20choose%20Connect%20to%20the%20Internet%20then%20Next.

Here is another that is basically the same but offers another (probably better) option at the end.
https://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/12909/

As a note you would not be able to do Windows Updates if you wanted as, even though there were several between SP3 and end of life, it just is no longer available.

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Hi Jay........the tutorials looked fairly simple to connect to the net but the steps shown do not match up with the steps that open on my xp computer. I really have no reason to get on line with XP except to register the programs I installed. I don't know if registering is a requirement to continue use of the Programs or not. If not, I am perfectly happy to stay away from the internet.

My main problem right now is the background picture is too light and bright. I do not see a way to put up my own background pic but still messing with that to see what all I can do. If I remember correctly, the existing background pics were in "C">Windows> someplace but not sure exactly where.

For the background just right click on the desktop and select "Properties". Under the "Desktop tab" you can choose a few different backgrounds or browse to your own pictures. Of course you would need to copy such pictures from another system to this one. Don't forget to adjust the position of an image. The default is center. Usually stretch works best unless it distorts the image. I'd just use a flash drive. You can just put such images in your pictures folder. I use a sub folder named Themes.

As to software registration I assume that you are installing old software that you probably registered long ago. Registration is normally not needed to run software.

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Here are a couple of things you may like for your XP system. Of course you will need to download on another system.

1. A slide show for your XP desktop. I installed it on my XP virtual machine and it works fine. It allows you to select a folder of images as your desktop background along with time to display. XP normally does not allow a desktop slide show.
   https://sourceforge.net/projects/slideshowwall/
   
   1. You will need net frameworks 3.5 for the slide show.
      https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Download/confirmation.aspx?id=25150
2. Microsoft's XP Plus. It has some themes, screen savers, games, etc.. You will get an error during the install but just skip through it and things work fine. It is just a messed up picture file for the space theme. This is an ISO file. Right click on the file and select to burn to disk.
   https://jaylach.com/downloads/xpplus/xp_plus.iso

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I was able to copy all my backgrounds that I have on Windows 7 to a USB drive and then copy them all to Windows XP. It worked great to right click on the xp desktop like you said and then browse to the one I wanted and it installed without any problems..........and yes, I am installing old software and I find it very strange that I could put Word on XP, the very same Word that I could not install on Windows 7. So far, I have installed about 10 Programs and all is going well. It has used up 6gb of space and I have 68gb left. Again, thanks much for your help Jay.

No worries and you are welcome.

That's one of the reasons I run virtual machines for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8.1 and 10. I can test things on different operating systems instead of relying on memory or guessing.

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