Download on Windows XP
All you need to do to download Windows XP is to connect to the Microsoft website and select the item IE6 on XP give menu to tendin Virtual machine. After that you need to expand the drop down menu Select platform, select the name of your preferred virtualization software from the latter (eg. VirtualBox o VMWare) and click on the button Download .zip that appears on the right.
If you are using a Mac and want to virtualize Windows XP in software such as Parallels Desktop or VirtualBox (which is also available for OS X), before starting the download of the virtual machine make sure that the tab is selected Mac at the top of the page.
Please note: the Windows XP virtual machine weighs over 1GB. To download it you need a moderately fast ADSL connection… and a bit of patience!
Windows XP installation
After the download is complete, you need to open the zip file which contains the Windows XP virtual machine and extract it to a folder of your choice. In some cases the archive can be divided into several parts, to merge it you have to gather all the files that compose it in the same folder, you have to open the Command Prompt and you have to give the following commands.
- cd [folder] where instead of "folder" you must indicate the complete path of the folder where you gathered the files that make up the multi-volume archive.
- `copy / b * .zip.00? combined.zip`
When the operation is complete, extract the virtual machine from the unified zip archive and "feed" it to your favorite virtualization software. I recommend VirtualBox which is completely free and works on all major PC operating systems: Windows, OS X and Linux.
To import the Windows XP virtual machine into VirtualBox, start the latter and select the item Import virtual application from the menu Fillet which is located at the top left.
In the window that opens, click on the icon of folder, select the file .this Windows XP and click on the button first Continue and then Import to complete the virtual machine import process.
At this point, double click on the virtual machine name (IE6 - WinXP) that appeared on the main VirtualBox screen and wait a few seconds for the operating system to start. You can also delete the .ova file.
If you don't use VirtualBox but VMWare, find out how to import your virtual machine by following the instructions you find in the tutorial on how to virtualize with VMWare.
Windows XP configuration
As mentioned above, the Windows XP virtual machine is in English and expires after the first 90 days of use. Unfortunately it is not possible to translate it into cittàn, but you can still adjust the settings related to the keyboard layout and geographic region.
Then go to Start > Control panel, double click on the icon Regional and Language options and set the drop-down menus present in the window that opens on city (Italy) e Italy.
Then move to the tab Languagesclick on your bottone Details and set the layout of the language to cittàn by choosing the voice city (Italy) - city give menu to tendin Default input language. Click on OK per salvare i Cambiomenti.
As for the expiration of the virtual machine after 90 days, you can solve the problem by going to the menu Machine of VirtualBox and starting to create one snapshot (i.e. a snapshot of the virtual machine).
How to download ISO Windows XP
If you want download Windows XP in traditional format (therefore in ISO format) and not in the form of a virtual machine, I'm sorry, but this operation is no longer feasible. As abundantly pointed out above, Window XP is an outdated operating system and cannot be legally purchased or downloaded from the Internet. Indeed, if you still use it, immediately update it by following the advice you find in my guide on how to update XP.
How to download Windows XP
