4 ms·

Genuine question, not being sarcastic: why would someone want/need these downloads?

deleted 10mo ago
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hsbauauvhabzb 10mo ago
I have a legitimate need to replicate systems that are sometimes very legacy for security research (apps that sit on top, rather than the os itself). Building stuff like a base Windows XP image is easy enough, but sometimes system updates are required - even stuff like iirc tls1.2 isn’t supported in IE6
- hsbauauvhabzb 10mo ago
  I’ll also add: games and nostalgia.
dbcooper 10mo ago
There's a tool for blocking selected driver updates that still works on Windows 11. Very handy.
- bialpio 10mo ago
  Out of curiosity, what's the name of this tool? Your comment made me wonder if it's possible to reimplement it as FOSS.
  - dbcooper 10mo ago
    wushowhide.diagcab
NetOpWibby 10mo ago
Installing Acid Pro 6 requires Visual Studio Redistributable packages the Microsoft no longer has available. At least, last I checked.
- craigmoliver 10mo ago
  They have the C++ ones are available: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-support...
selfhoster11 10mo ago
Historical preservation, retro computing, period-correct hardware setups.
PinkMilkshake 10mo ago
Lots of workshops, factories, university research labs, etc. still use old machinery that would be a huge waste of money to replace just because the computer that controls it runs Windows 95. In some cases it can't be replaced because the company that created the software, drivers, or IO cards is long gone.
- hsbauauvhabzb 10mo ago
  the hardware and software licences for some of these systems can run into the millions too
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deleted 10mo ago
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nelqn 10mo ago
The C++ redistributables are necessary for many programs and, for some reason, recent versions of Windows do not include them all.
iberator 10mo ago
Imagine you have a 2m$ spectroscope or offset printing machine running windows xp.
- numpad0 10mo ago
  And it's not worth risking Windows 11 destroying it by slamming the irreplaceable robotic stuff into itself in such ways that NASA or NTSB would find fancy UI animations or virtualization based security culpable. You may insist that programs that control airplanes and nuclear reactors are supposed to be written in Rust + TypeScript on daily updated Linux installation that depends on AWS us-east-1, but they would insist it ain't stupid if it works.

deleted 10mo ago

[deleted]

I have a legitimate need to replicate systems that are sometimes very legacy for security research (apps that sit on top, rather than the os itself). Building stuff like a base Windows XP image is easy enough, but sometimes system updates are required - even stuff like iirc tls1.2 isn’t supported in IE6

hsbauauvhabzb 10mo ago
I’ll also add: games and nostalgia.

dbcooper 10mo ago

There's a tool for blocking selected driver updates that still works on Windows 11. Very handy.

bialpio 10mo ago
Out of curiosity, what's the name of this tool? Your comment made me wonder if it's possible to reimplement it as FOSS.
- dbcooper 10mo ago
  wushowhide.diagcab

NetOpWibby 10mo ago

Installing Acid Pro 6 requires Visual Studio Redistributable packages the Microsoft no longer has available. At least, last I checked.

craigmoliver 10mo ago
They have the C++ ones are available: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-support...

selfhoster11 10mo ago

Historical preservation, retro computing, period-correct hardware setups.

PinkMilkshake 10mo ago

Lots of workshops, factories, university research labs, etc. still use old machinery that would be a huge waste of money to replace just because the computer that controls it runs Windows 95. In some cases it can't be replaced because the company that created the software, drivers, or IO cards is long gone.

hsbauauvhabzb 10mo ago
the hardware and software licences for some of these systems can run into the millions too

deleted 10mo ago

[deleted]

deleted 10mo ago

[deleted]

nelqn 10mo ago

The C++ redistributables are necessary for many programs and, for some reason, recent versions of Windows do not include them all.

iberator 10mo ago

Imagine you have a 2m$ spectroscope or offset printing machine running windows xp.

numpad0 10mo ago
And it's not worth risking Windows 11 destroying it by slamming the irreplaceable robotic stuff into itself in such ways that NASA or NTSB would find fancy UI animations or virtualization based security culpable. You may insist that programs that control airplanes and nuclear reactors are supposed to be written in Rust + TypeScript on daily updated Linux installation that depends on AWS us-east-1, but they would insist it ain't stupid if it works.