any reason to keep xp computers around?

Sure there is. They are fun to collect probably because I’m a bit of a pack rat. We still have one hooked up for my niece and nephews to play solitaire and other old XP games on. It doesn’t run on internet it’s been off the internet since we bought it at an office sale in 2007. We have kept all of ours.
 
+1 - Prime time to install Linux and become familiar with it.
thanks for the comments. i did just that . i put on ronin and will play with it some to see how it works. out of my 3 xp machines only one would take the linux. the others might be too old or the hardware issues. will probaly recycle those.

i tried to get android on them but non of them would take it
 
Define "won't take it" (Win10).

It depends on their performance level vs the tasks you might find them useful for, whether they are worth bothering with.

In many cases, a Winxp box is just too slow for modern uses, but a 2008 build, is not at all a WinXP era build. Systems of that age could have dual or quad core and 4GB to 8GB memory (if built well for the era) and fully capable of most common things people use computers for, just not very demanding apps.

How about Win7? Basically if you have any need that you could put a system to task doing, you then see what the newest OS is that it will be able to use to perform that function, if WinXP won't.

Contrary to what someone else suggested, it's not at all much of a worry to put a WinXP system on the internet. You just have to be aware of points of entry, for example, that it is behind a router, and that your browser is hardened and scripting disabled. Don't use it for data sensitive things like banking, and have an OS partition backup so you can just nuke it from orbit if you ever have a problem, which is pretty unlikely unless you start installing warez from untrusted sources. Otherwise it is mostly about making sure that your browser limits exploits, which means it won't work properly on many modern sites so-configured.

I'm thinking more of WinXP era here, if you run Win7 which a 2008 box is likely to have drivers for, you can run a modern browser version. A Win10 box is MUCH less secure than a Win7 box in the hands of an aware owner, because the primary threat become MS updates themselves, preventing it to even boot or loss of functionality.

Linux, meh that's silly unless this is a single purpose system, set up to be a firewall or caching web server or fileserver, etc. For general purpose use like a normal desktop PC, there are far fewer reasons to choose linux than not to.

Ultimately the devil is in the details. You probably don't need all 3 systems, but might want to keep one around as a backup or mix and match components to end up with the best of all 3 combined into one system. For example turn one into a NAS, but keep it functional enough you could use it for your everyday activities if you needed to because your reliance on Win10 puts you at risk of a sudden loss of those systems at any moment.

As far as what to recycle it depends on whether you build your own systems. Having a spare case and viable PSU lying around is very handy when it comes time to upgrade, you can build into that case while keeping your main use system up and running, used for everyday things while you test, install software, configure, etc, so there is a seamless transition from current daily use system to the replacement system.

Ultimately if you don't know what to do with them, then you don't have a use for them and should not recycle but rather see if any local charities, goodwill, or needy college students want them, but of course it would be worthwhile to see if they can run Win7 at least, but if they are free, then the recipient can do that work.
 
I use an XP machine for general web browsing only, not for any banking or purchases. It works for me. . If a bug is ever acquired, I would just wipe and reload. I also have a legacy sound card which I like and will only run on XP.
 
Pentium 4 chips guzzle electricity and run hot. Better to scrap those. The Core 2 chips which came next are much better and still worth keeping.
 
Ultimately if you don't know what to do with them, then you don't have a use for them and should not recycle but rather see if any local charities, goodwill, or needy college students want them, but of course it would be worthwhile to see if they can run Win7 at least, but if they are free, then the recipient can do that work.
No charity will take XP system these days. It is not "free" if it doesn't support most of the typical stuff people use. Students are doing fine with chromebook and it cost a lot less IT time.
 
I use Adobe PhotoDeluxe on a XP laptop nearly every month for editing photos. I tried to install on my W7 computer but couldn't. It also has Ford IDS software that won't work on 7 either.
 
I keep an old XP machine for any games that can't run on Win10. So far a majority of Win9x games can run in Win10.
 
I have two older laptops running XP.
Using one for TechStream and LabView, the other has old shareware 2-track audio recording software and CD/DVD burner software.
Both OSs are running as barebones as I could make them.
Bootup is less than 30sec.
I much prefer the user feel of my old Dell and Vostro laptops running XP over the current Dell I use for work. I just prefer the old touchpads, the non-reflective screens, and the menu navigation.
 
Linux, meh that's silly unless this is a single purpose system, set up to be a firewall or caching web server or fileserver, etc. For general purpose use like a normal desktop PC, there are far fewer reasons to choose linux than not to.

Really? Been seriousely using Linux for 15 years now and it does everything Windows will do, for me. 5 machines in the house. Wife's desktop and laptop. My desktop and laptop and a video server for the TV. Internet surfing, email, document writing, photo editing and backups and much more.
 
^ Yeah I see that a lot, people making token suggestions that it can do various kinds of things, but not with the vast choices of the best apps for each purpose, kinda like saying you can use a brick to pound nails.

To even suggest you can "do internet surfing" "email" "document writing", etc, shows that you are just getting by instead of the luxury of decades worth of windows apps where the world is your oyster.

It really makes no sense at all to run linux for a does-everything system opposed to a mission specific (one core function) one. For the latter, I fully support and prefer linux over windows.

And no, it does not even remotely do everything windows does. Where do I even start, how about driver support? How about app support?

Don't get me wrong, I think it's mindless to run Win10 if you don't really need it, don't at all like the direction MS has been going in recent years, but to run linux instead, you have to not only be very familiar with it but also have a must-have list and be willing to do without a lot that windows can support that linux can't, or at least not without a lot of extra work. I don't feel like extra work makes it even, not at all. More like slave to the machine.
 
I have two older laptops running XP.
Using one for TechStream and LabView, the other has old shareware 2-track audio recording software and CD/DVD burner software.
Both OSs are running as barebones as I could make them.
Bootup is less than 30sec.
I much prefer the user feel of my old Dell and Vostro laptops running XP over the current Dell I use for work. I just prefer the old touchpads, the non-reflective screens, and the menu navigation.
I still keep around a couple old Dell laptops with serial and parallel ports with XP installed for my GM OBD1 tuning. It just won't work on newer hardware and OS for certain things. Really don't use them for anything else anymore, XP is just too old. Although I have thought about throwing together a nice old XP gaming system to go with my old P3 WIN98 and 486 WIN3.1 systems for retro gaming fun. I don't use them often but sometimes its better than using something to emulate the games on newer hardware.
 
I liked XP 7,8,10 are all terrible not really better just more layers to dig through .
 
If the graphics and video cards in the PC's can stream 1080p60, I might suggest hooking one up to a TV as a really big computer monitor for Netflix, YouTube, and UFC fights (or whatever is your fancy) if you don't have an Xbox/Playstation set up.

Otherwise, you can keep the hard drives as oversized memory cards with a SATA to USB adapter and recycle the rest of the tower.
 
Depends on how you'd want to use them. I'm writing this on a 17-year-old XP laptop. Well, it was originally XP, now it's running Lubuntu Linux. (I did upgrade memory to its maximum of 2GB using some junk memory I had laying arounnd. It works fine.)

Other than that if you just need a computer to use standalone for running old hardware that only has XP drivers, those old PCs can be useful even running the original operating system. (You would not want to use XP for internet connectivity.)
 
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