Is your old computer old, too old even to run decently even with the lightest Linux distributions? No problem, this article is to give you some ideas on how to use a computer that is too old to connect to the network.
Fortunately, the methods to be able to use a dated computer offlinethere are so many.
Here are some methods to resurrect your old computer offline
1. multimedia station
Already Windows 95 had a now outdated player and sometimes QuickTime, if you use Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 offline (whose support ended this month), you can use the good old WMP (Windows Media Player).
Well, know that nothing prevents you from using it as a small cinema or as a small video station to watch movies or various downloaded videos.
2. typewriter
Do you have an old computer with even Windows 95 installed and a serial port printer that still works? Well you can easily print your documents, create stories, use Power Point, Excel sheets for accounting and who knows what else.
In the absence of Microsoft’s original Office, remember that you can install it too Open Officebeing compatible with very old versions of Windows.
3. Graphic works
Without bothering the dear old Paint that has been present on Windows systems since time immemorial, on Windows and Linux you can download GIMP (even old versions) or install (if you have any) old physical editions of Photoshop to be able to work with graphics, make photo montages, flyers and who knows what else.
Maybe you even have an older computer with an older version of Publisher. What are you waiting for?
4. Learn to code
From the old QuickBasic for MS-DOS, to newer languages that ran on 90’s versions of Windows (95 and 98), you can learn the basics of programming using any of these languages, such as good old Turbo Pascal.
5. Use programs that you need, but that are no longer compatible with new versions of Windows
The transition from 16-bit to 32-bit first, and from 32-bit to 64-bit later has led to quite a few compatibility problems, which maybe don’t even work by setting (precisely) the compatibility settings from the Windows properties , for this reason some companies are forced to have at least one old computer offline.
6. Use it to keep important files
It must be said that such an old computer, but not possible to connect to today’s network for purely technical reasons, can be used as a sort of “safe” to keep files that are very important to you: they can be documents that you consider important, MP3s, videos of your child’s communion, anything, your old computer can really become the “secret” archive that only you can access, physically among other things.
7. CCTV surveillance (offline)
Some programs have the ability to install their programs on 32-bit versions of Windows. Ivideon, a video surveillance program, actually has this capability as you can see from the official site.
Versions of Windows like 95 or 98 are starting to be too old, however if you have a laptop or an old desktop computer running XP or Vista it might be an interesting way to resurrect it.
8. Old video games
Windows 7, although discontinued, it has very good compatibility with old versions of Windows, especially for XP.
If outdated video games falter due to compatibility problems on Windows and sometimes even give problems with DOS-BOX, installing Windows 7 on an offline computer could be an idea, if you want the thrill of DOS, from when Windows didn’t exist yet (or wasn’t popular), you can even evaluate the idea of installing Windows 98 or Windows 95, which at the time worked coupled with the legendary MS-DOS.
What to install on such an old computer?
Some ideas could be versions of Windows of the time (from 3.1 up to XP or even Windows 7 if it is correct), MS-DOS (with which it will then be possible to install Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows 98, or if you are a geek you can evaluate a Linux version from the 90s, you can also try to look for some Linux distributions designed for such old computers: q4OS or Antix Linux to give two examples.
Concluding
This article intends to give only a hint for some ideas for using an old computer offline, obviously they are not all (who knows how many others have escaped!).
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