Ideas for using scientific equipment with Windows XP in virtual machines environment 2

[kjv1611]

From what I'm finding so far, it seems like Microsoft wants to almost vanish XP from the planet since they've dropped support, but there are some circumstances for some businesses, where sticking with XP on some computers is the only current viable option.

Where I work, we have probably 10 computers which we are skipping an update from XP to Windows 10 machines, because the scientific equipment manufacturers do not support newer operating systems for older equipment. The equipment works totally fine, and does not need any updates/upgrades/exchanges, so it wouldn't make sense to redo all the scientific equipment because Microsoft has moved on with Windows.

One option that I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to sort out a solid answer for is how to currently get a new computer running Windows 10, but then toss a virtual instance of XP on top and connect the lab machine to the virtual instance of XP. Doing this seems like it would also open up other possibilities for us which have always been assumed impossible.

Can anyone give me any real world experience of anything like what I'm talking about and/or any good references that might help? If it meant buying the additional Windows license, then maybe that'll be doable cost-wise, because of the possible benefits. I'm guessing it'll be near the end of this year or first of next year before I'd seriously be able to pursue this further. I had already done some research, and it seemed I was coming up empty, even when I thought for sure it was a doable idea.

Thanks in advance for anything.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[edfair]

You will eventually have to move to the newer operating system to handle newer applications. I would use the smallest, cheapest XP machines I could find to interface, then remote into them from the later based OS.

Virtual is a possibility but I've not moved to that yet.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[mikrom]

Maybe we have similar situation.
To support legacy applications we are using legacy development environment from 1990s, which does not run in newer Windows versions. So, we are running WinXPs in virtual machines. To run WinXP, we are using VMware running on Windows 7. Our partner company uses Virtualbox running on Mac. The difference is, that Virtualbox is free.
The approach was not very complicated. I installed one Virtual XP Machine with the legacy development environment and all other tools which the developer needs. Then our admin created template from my VM and from this template he cloned the VMs for other developers. Now, all VMs run on the server and every developer could connect to his VM using Remote Desktop and so he is able to support old applications.
IMHO, the only drawback is, that the fonts are little bit worse on VM, than in the native XP. But maybe the admin didn't install the right driver. On the other side, the connection speed is good.
IMHO, it has more pros than cons.
For example, if your hardware fails and you get new PC, you don't need to reinstall all the programs necessary on the new PC. You only connect via remote desktop to the VM from your new PC and you are ready to continue the work.
Or if you get a new developer, you only need to clone new VM from the template and he has it's development environment and all tools ready.

 

[xwb]

You could also use HyperV which comes free with Windows. You can still run XP on modern hardware, as long as you are using SP3, which has a SCSI driver.

How does the computer communicate with the hardware? Is it through USB, serial port, ethernet or with a special card? The big problem with some VMs is they won't pick up the cards.

Well, I guess it isn't as bad as my last workplace - they were still using Win 95 to control some hardware that cost over £100K. Basically way too expensive to replace. We had to get a PC with an IDE drive. It took them a while to figure out how to install Win95 on a disk that had more than 32Gb.

 

[kjv1611]

Thanks for the thoughts and ideas so far. I definitely agree that at some point, we HAVE to move on, b/c things eventually break. The computers running with the equipment have a lower fail rate than the newer machines, though, and those equipment connected computers are running now around 15 years old I think, maybe 10 at the newest. Kind of like somebody let loose the Energizer Bunny in some Dell Desktops.

xwb,

The machines connect mostly with serial ports, and maybe a couple over USB, and a few over network cable. It seems all the old machines only use serial ports. So yeah, that'd be an issue for sure: if we got a new machine, we'd need to find a PCI Express Serial card or Serial to USB adapter or something, and then make sure the virtual machine would pick it up. Glorious!

If I could sort out a way to test some of this, that'd be perfect. Like if there was an old machine like one of the ones we're using, but that's not currently in use. I could set it up and test using it in my office or in the back of a lab or something. Hopefully I can figure out a good safe way that doesn't get in the way of the folks in the labs to test setups for each. My main fear is that I try to do testing, and wind up accidentally changing some setting on the equipment from the computer I'm testing with. That'd probably be pretty bad.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57