Is it possible to boot Windows XP from a USB

[DarkoStoj]

I have been messing around with this for a few hours with no luck. I have an old large format printer that works great, but the drivers only work with Windows XP & Vista.

I have Windows 10 on my computer, and want to still be able to use this printer, but I can't seem to get it to boot from a USB like I can with Linux and other operating systems.

Any recommendations on how I can run Windows XP and Windows 10 on the same computer easily?

Thanks!

 

[RSWANNABE]

Is it possible to just grab a crappy old box with XP on it and use it? If you don't get an answer by morning I'll ask our IT guy when in get in to work.

 

[Tin]

You can always run Windows XP in a virtual environment with a hypervisor such as Virtualbox. Virtualbox lets you pass devices through the host operating system to the guest operating system so your printer should work. That way, you won't have to shut down and boot into XP and you'd run both concurrent from the same computer. You'll also need to download the Virtualbox Extension Pack in order to use USB devices on the guest operating systems.

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

 

[Scooter70]

You can always run Windows XP in a virtual environment with a hypervisor such as Virtualbox. Virtualbox lets you pass devices through the host operating system to the guest operating system so your printer should work. That way, you won't have to shut down and boot into XP and you'd run both concurrent from the same computer. You'll also need to download the Virtualbox Extension Pack in order to use USB devices on the guest operating systems.

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

:nerd:

A simple "No" would have been sufficient. :lol:

 

[RSWANNABE]

:nerd:

A simple "No" would have been sufficient. :lol:

LoL

 

[Tin]

:nerd:

A simple "No" would have been sufficient. :lol:

True :lol:

 

[DarkoStoj]

You can always run Windows XP in a virtual environment with a hypervisor such as Virtualbox. Virtualbox lets you pass devices through the host operating system to the guest operating system so your printer should work. That way, you won't have to shut down and boot into XP and you'd run both concurrent from the same computer. You'll also need to download the Virtualbox Extension Pack in order to use USB devices on the guest operating systems.

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

I actually prefer to set it up that way, but I didn't know what it was called.

Is this all part of the program, or do things like hard drive partitioning still have to happen?

 

[Tin]

I actually prefer to set it up that way, but I didn't know what it was called.

Is this all part of the program, or do things like hard drive partitioning still have to happen?

You'll have space on your hard drive dedicated to the virtual machine. Since XP is so old, you'd be fine with 8GB to 16GB. You can also keep a backup of the image and migrate it to a future computer.

 

[Beigg]

is the driver not compatible due a bit format of windows 10? ie: 32 vs 64

 

[jspec]

You should be able to use the printer with the 98 drivers. There is an option in windows 10 to run a program like a 98 program of windows 7 program. I believe you can do the same thing with printers and devices. They tried to make it backward compatible.

 

[jspec]

what is make and model of the printer? Generic drivers maybe?

 

[LT1Pat]

I would use the free VMWare Desktop app and install Windows XP on a virtual machine. Windows also has something similar out of the box called Windows XP Mode. Hyper-V was also a non-VMWare virtual machine solution that would do this. The driver compatibility issues you're experiencing likely has more to do with the printer only supporting 32 bit systems and not the OS itself.