I still remember the green grass field wallpaper of Windows XP, and that’s when I started seeing the evolution of computers. They’re a pretty big amount of people who uses a different operating system, but Microsoft somehow managed to hold its mark for the best operating system maker company up to date. Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP way back on April 8, 2014. I know there might be rare people present who are still be using the same old-school operating system that is Windows XP. If you want to set up Windows XP to feel the nostalgia, this can be done using a virtual machine.

Mind you, finding the Windows XP copy is not at all an easy task. And that’s what we are going to show you how can you download and set up Windows XP virtual machine because who might know whether we could able to run the old Windows XP on the latest hardware configuration? Therefore, it’s better to set up a Windows XP virtual machine instead.

About Windows XP availability

As mentioned, Microsoft has stopped supporting Windows XP, they have provided a mode that people can be able to run on Windows XP on Windows 7. However, due to a vast number of people shifted to Windows 10, Microsoft has ended the direct way of downloading the Windows XP mode option. So it’s somewhere uneasy to make Windows XP operating system available to access.

We will make available Windows XP using a virtual machine. We assume that you are using Windows 10 on your system.

Requirements to run Windows XP on Windows 10

Following are the requirements that we need to have in order to run Windows XP without issues on our system.

1. A system running Windows 10 with decent hardware configuration.
2. Download and install VirtualBox, make sure you have the latest version of it.
3. Download and install a file .Zip file extracter ot archiver, if you have WinRAR then it will work just fine, here we will use 7-ZIP.
4. Windows XP copy, that we will show you how to download.

How to Download Windows XP mode on your system

To do so, users need to do the following:

Step 1: Just visit Softonic’s official website and download Windows XP mode on your Windows 10 PC. But don’t install the file yet, let the file download completely.

Step 2: When the file is downloaded on your system, visit the file location and then do a right-click on the file and select 7-zip > Open archive > cab.

Step 3: This will open the downloaded Windows XP file into 7-ZIP, you can just open the file in WinRAR.

Step 4: Open the Sources folder.

Step 5: Do a double-click on xmp folder to open it.

Step 6: Under the xmp folder, you will get to see VirtualXPVHD, this file is currently in the Read-only format.

Step 7: Just extract all of the files into a new folder.

Step 8: Once done, visit the extracted file path and select VirtualXPVHD. Just rename the file as VirtualXP.VHD.

Once done, the file will be changed into a virtual hard disk and icon, and that’s how we can be able to install the Windows XP mode on a virtual machine.

How to Install Windows XP in Virtual Machine

Here, we will just install Windows XP Mode in Virtual Machine. Here, we assume that you have already downloaded the VirtualBox which is free to download the app so that we can be able to run Windows XP.

Step 1: Launch VirtualBox, and select New.

Step 2: Select Expert Mode located at the bottom of the Create Virtual Machine window. You might see the Expert Mode option as Guided Mode depending upon the VirtualBox version.

Step 3: Provide a name to the virtual machine.

Step 4: Now it’s time to provide a virtual machine memory, just provide 512 MB of RAM but don’t use 2048 MB of RAM as Windows XP won’t need that much.

Step 5: Then assign the virtual disk that we have extracted before. Under Hard disk, select Use an existing virtual hard disk file. Open the folder represented in the green arrow and select the folder that we have extracted out files, select VirtualXP, then click on Open.

Step 6: Once done, click on Create.

Windows XP mode disk settings

Before booting your Windows XP virtual machine, we need to look and change some disk settings in order to run Windows XP run.

Step 1: Press Settings on the VirtualBox toolbar.

Step 2: Select System from the left sidebar. On the right pane, under the Boot Order, untick Floppy drag it down the list. Tick on the Hard Disk.

Step 3: Select Display from the left sidebar, increase Video Memory to 128 MB.

That’s all with setting up correct disk settings for Windows XP mode.

Windows XP mode Machine Network Settings

Windows XP needs a manual network configuration. It works using default configuration as NAT to ensure VirtualBox-specific adapter whether Cable Connected is checked.

Step 1: Select Network from the left sidebar.

Step 2: Set Attached to Host-only Adapter

Step 3: Set Name: VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter

Step 4: Set Promiscuous Mode: Deby

Step 5: Check Cable Connected

Also, in the Start menu type network and select Network and Sharing Centre. Select Change adapter settings > hold CTRL and select Ethernet/wireless card and the VirtualBox Host-Only Network. Then do a right-click on Bridge Connection.

Furthermore, visit Virtual machine and change the following network adapter settings:

• Visit Conrtol Panel > Network and internet Connection > Network Connections.
• Do a right click on Local Area Connection and select Properties.
• Highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), then select Properties.
• Select Use the following IP address, enter IP address of your own home network.
• Enter Subnet mask and Default gateway.
• Enter the DNS settings, use Google DNS as 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
• And press OK.

Time to Run Windows XP Virtual Machine

After completing all the methods mentioned above, you are all set to launch Windows XP Virtual Machine.

• Just Highlight Windows XP mode virtual machone on VirtualBox window.
• Do a double click on it and let the window launch Windows XP.
• Your Windows XP will successfully run, you can press Ctrl+R to restart the virtual machine.

When it restarts, select Devices from the upper tab menu and select Insert Guest Additions CD image. The installation will start automatically using a keyboard, open My Computer > Press Windows icon and open the Start menu, use the default installation location and let the setup complete.

Select Continue Anyway if encountered any warnings, just select restart and you are good to go.

You might need to restart Virtual Machine once or twice if this fails. Mind you, the Windows XP virtual machine will run only for 30 days and after that, it will ask you for the license key. You can add the key virtual machine if you got one.

Final Thoughts

If Windows XP is running it doesn’t mean ṭhat you should run Windows XP as you might encounter high-security risks. If you are just experimenting whether it works or not then you should try it. Likewise, you can try out other operating systems such as Linux and more.