More information, precautions and about this site

This website was set up in September 2018 as a service for Windows XP and other legacy operating system users after Mozilla dropped Firefox support as the last mainstream web browser for Windows XP. In March 2020 the 7browsers.com domain was registered to cater for the end of Windows 7 support. For more issues concerning Windows XP see XP Forever.

Microsoft has not supported Windows XP for around six years now (April 8 2014) so it has a large security problem. Installing service pack 3, an up to date antivirus and firewall will help, but there are multiple unpatched security holes. Browsing on Windows XP is therefore done at your own risk.

Using Windows XP for web browsing is not recommended for purposes such as online banking or other purposes that require security. It is recommended that any computer using it doesn’t have any important files that could be lost to ransomware or hacking. Windows XP does not natively support TLS 1.2, TLS 1.3 and newer protocols which makes accessing secure (https) sites difficult, but browsers like Mypal and New Moon include their own libraries for accessing secure sites. XPbrowsers.com is designed not to use https so older web browsers can access it. If you can’t download a browser try downloading Firefox first or transfer a setup file from a computer with a newer operating system.

It is recommended that modern operating systems such as Windows 8.1 and 10 should be used instead. An alternative to upgrading Windows is to install Linux or use a Mac, Phone, Tablet or Chromebook. A dual boot system or putting Windows XP in a virtual machine is also recommended. Businesses should not be connecting Windows XP to the internet at all. Of course Windows XP is still supported by hobbyists and advanced users. This site will continue to provide information about Windows XP and other legacy operating systems.

Browsers for Windows XP don’t have the latest rendering engines as they have not been ported to XP. Any website that requires a browser newer than Firefox version 52 or Chromium 49 will likely not work. New Moon and Mypal support HTML5 video. You may need to change your user agent settings to emulate a newer OS to get some websites to load. Advanced features like Web Assembly, WebGL and EME video are not supported well.

Many Windows XP era computers have processors that don’t support the SSE2 instruction set. These include Pentium III and Athlon XP. Modern browsers need these features so new hardware is recommended. Firefox 45ESR is the last major browser that can run on non SSE2 processors. There are builds of New Moon that can work too.

References:

1. Sechrest S., Fortin M. Windows XP Performance //Microsoft, dated Jun. – 2001. – Т. 1. – С. 20.
2. Ganapathi A., Ganapathi V., Patterson D. A. Windows XP Kernel Crash Analysis //LISA. – 2006. – Т. 6. – С. 49-159.
3. Stiegler M. et al. Polaris: virus-safe computing for Windows XP //Communications of the ACM. – 2006. – Т. 49. – №. 9. – С. 83-88.