Around this time last year, I worked on a similar project but with a standard Intel-based PC. Everything went quite smoothly so this time I want to challenge myself a bit-and it’s also a way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of Windows XP.

Many of you might wonder how a laptop that doesn't use an Intel or AMD chip can possibly have such broad compatibility. Well, if you’ve ever looked into the history of the x86 architecture you’ll find that besides Intel and AMD there were several other companies that also produced x86 chips tho but in much smaller quantities. Notable among them is VIA Technologies which holds x86 licenses acquired through its purchase of Cyrix and Centaur, the two companies that had entered into cross-licensing agreements with Intel in the late 90s.

And what I have here is the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC powered by VIA C7-M, the last x86 32 bit CPU that was made by a third party. From the moment I bought it I knew this is a rare and truly special device, so what better way to explore its potential than to see just how many versions of Windows I could install on. It’s a bit of a shame that it’s a 32 bit CPU meaning the laptop can’t run Windows XP x64 or Windows 11. But in any case, 15 versions of Windows from 1.01 to 10 can certainly be considered a success to me.

The big improvement over the previous project is using Grub4dos bootloader instead of Xfdisk. This allows for direct loading the boot file of each Windows partition, bypassing the intermediate steps such as bootmgr→ntldr→io.sys that were previously required. Overall, the laptop runs stably but it still has some quirks that are unique to this one. You can check out the details of my experience in the video below:

Showcase video

Here are the specs for my laptop:

• CPU: VIA C7-M 1.6GHz

• iGPU: VIA S3 Chrome 9 HC

• Chipset: VIA CN896+VT8237S

• RAM: 2GB DDR2

• Storage: 160GB HDD SATA 2 (IDE mode)

• Display: 8.9 inches WXGA (1280x768)

• Wifi: WLAN 802.11; Bluetooth 2.0

I’m having trouble getting Legacy Update to work on Windows Vista. It gets stuck loading and eventually displays the screen shown below.
I’ve tried reinstalling Legacy Update multiple times and even reinstalled Vista twice, but the issue persists.
Interestingly, Legacy Update works perfectly on Windows XP, 7, 8.1, and 10 using the same laptop through Parallels Desktop, successfully downloading all available updates.
Has anyone experienced this issue on Vista or know how to fix it? Any help would be appreciated!

I've been using r3dfox (started with Supermium but left due to troubles with extensions iirc) and while it gets the job done, its UI doesn't fit Vista very well and feels pretty slow compared to ESR 52 (which is hardly usable even ignoring its vulnerabilities, any captcha wrecks it and it hits a lot of these). Scrolling and animations are always choppy and delayed even in lightweight or about: pages, while ESR 52 is quite smooth. I wouldn't be surprised if it's something inherent to FF backports though, I used many other forks in old OS X versions and they always felt worse than the OG, even compared to modern official releases in newer OS on the same hardware.

Are r3dfox and Supermium the only options, or maybe someone successfully patched r3dfox's UI with stuff like Echelon? I've tried the latter, but it crashed on startup after the dll swap, probably requires a newer OS. Would appreciate any tips on making r3dfox faster overall, though I probably should be asking that in Eclipse forums.

I know this sub is about Windows Vista, but is it okay to post things about windows mods based off Windows Vista like Windows Aqua? if not, thats okay, but please let me know.

I have the screen saver timer set to 10 minutes, and the sleep mode timer set to 15 minutes, but for some reason once the screen saver starts, it's like it completely resets the sleep mode timer and makes it take another 15 minutes after that instead of 5, making the whole process from the last time you moved the mouse to going into sleep mode take 25 minutes when I want it to be 15. Does anyone know how to fix this?

As the title says, I am trying to install Windows Vista onto an external 1TB HDD connected via USB. I first converted the drive into MBR and tried to install it. But when I try to install it, an error message pops up saying: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. Setup does not support configuration of or installation to disks connected through a USB or IEEE 1394 port."

I have made a 64 GB partition meant for Vista again, but how can I install Vista Ultimate x64 onto an EXTERNAL USB HDD? I'm doing this to try to run an old program that won't boot in Windows 7.

I got this lovely HP Compaq 8510W maxed out and all with a fresh copy of Windows Vista and I fricking love this thing, it has genuinely turned into my happy place. I'm going to get some more games and software installed that I like. Let me know if there's anything I should know about Vista I only grew up with XP as a kid :p lol

I fixed it! I used a usb but this pc did not support usb booting thus I used a dvd-r on the internal drive and it worked spectacularly

Just found out that ublock origin lite is available to use on r3dfox. Seems to work just as well as ublock orign and maybe just my imagination but r3dfox seems to work better with the lite version

Tiene algún valor está nueva sellada de fabrica y sin uso

I posted this on some discord servers but forgot to post here lol.. Anyway https://github.com/jmacato/VistaRenewed if you want to take a look at the code. Not ready yet for plug and play install.

I've always wanted to see Windows Vista's aero running in its full glory, without having to hunt down old hardware, and given that VM's have advanced over the years, it should've been more than possible to get that fancy effect running properly (VirtualBox tried but yeah...)

So when i saw https://blog.getutm.app/2026/introducing-triton-directx-11-driver-for-qemu/ I got the inspiration to try and port it (with AI-assistance ofc) to Vista's WDDM SDK. After a few weeks worth of debugging and much chagrin, i was reaalllly thrilled to see Aero alive again!

Then i when i was playing with it, i kinda wanted to have a more well-rounded experience with it, so i figured, wine can replace IE with gecko right? that's just replacing MSHTML afaik... then it hit me. CEF -> some shim that fakes MSHTML -> iexplore! And boy surely did it work!

The sidebar stuff was relatively easy given it's just a collection of small html + js widgets.

anyway thank you for listening in to my crappy TED talk! Hope you find this of use or something :)

I just built a 2000s era pc with XP on it. Due to dx10 released in the same era I decided to dual boot to vista and install my dx10 non-eax supported games there. To keep things somewhat era appropriate I'll be using the oldest ssd I can get so I pulled this beast from its deep slumber. I got this ssd I think way back 2014 occassionally being used as an external drive and for a good bit of a year as a main linux drive. Surprisingly in decently healthy condition I shoudl add which is a surprise cause the last time I used it I remember it's literally dying at 60% health.

ASUS Prime B650M-A

Well i have installed windows vista and i need some drivers but the one i really need is the network controller and my laptop does not have the drivers for it but there is a windows 7 driver for my laptop i think someone can do something and Make it work on vista and if you can help thanks

Hello, so i am installing windows vista ultimate 64bit on my Acer Chrome Book R11 2 in 1, which has the relpaced mr.chromebox firmware. with uefi mode enabled by default. I have the chrome book in uefi mode now with the current latest firmware. and i think thats where most of my issues are currently standing. my goal is to get a fully fucntioal copy of windows vista 64bit on no matter what version it is on my chrome book. working. now do keep in mind i only have on board a "14gb EMMC" nand flash storage chip so i will be using external storage medium to run the operating from. i will be using a sd card. ive currently got linux mint running from a 128gb sd card running just fine. as a secondairy laptop. still trying to get the keyboard touchpad and touch screen working properly tho.

anyways, my Goal is to get Vista fully updated, a external gpu running, i have a plan for that, find out what possible ram upgrades are possible for this chrome book if any if i can do some soldering.

to get built in sound, networking, touch pad, touch screen and bluetooth, keyboard and eveything else working as well as usb 3 to. What quirks should i be aware of when doing this project? has anyone else attepeted this projected with there chromebook? my chrome book specs are a

Intel Celeron 3060

4gb DDr3 ram Soldered on

i plan on using avaible software driven community mods that are avaible as well.

so im currently on a acer aspire 7730z and the aspire 7730z came with win vista. issue is i deleted it and installed xp not realzing that when you do that it gets rid of the built in recovery. my laptop has a key for win vista home premium on the bottom but when you try to enter that key at win vista setup it denies it. also the key is a oemact key and thats also making this complicated. if anyone knows about my options let me know. thanks

I have the choice between Acer Ferrari 1000 (50€, with all original accessories) and the Dell Studio XPS 13 in Red (30€, with SSD).

Both are very rare now and I love both models. Which would you choose to buy?

Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 (1C/1T), 2GB DDR2, 250GB HDD, Intel GS45, Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 x86

I cant find any

I have an old, working, Vista PC. It has Home Premium (SP2), activated, including the COA and OEM DVD.

Before I try to sell it without the HDDs is the fact that it has a working vista install something people look for?

Or is it easy now to work around the ISO/activation/updates stages?

It will take some work to clean all my personal data off so I won’t unless this is a selling point.