In all honesty, I would dump the XP for Mint. Since XP is a huge security hole now it's not safe to use. Don't do anything besides browse with it, at most. Consider any accounts you use online with that system compromised.
If you don't want to give up fully yet you can get a second cheap hard drive and just unplug the one you have. Plug in the second one and install Mint on it so you can get back to normal useage without wiping out your old info/system or having to deal with boot loaders. Gradually pull your stuff off the old one to slowly transition over.
Building a system isn't difficult if you want to try it. The hardest part is making sure the components all match up. Things like getting the proper type memory and processor for the motherboard. A typical, non-gaming desktop system is pretty cheap and easy to build.
The rooster speaks truth. I had a client call and ask if we could put together some old parts from the back to build them a Windows 3.1 PC to run this custom software that they refuse to update. Told him we didn't have the parts to do it (And if we did, I wanted no part of that liability) and then I got off the phone ASAP.
So this is only a problem when running an older OS online. But not a problem running this OS that never goes online.
Correct?
If running an old OS on newer hardware, might as well give Oracle Virtual Box a try.
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Not so much a liability problem per se as much as it is a PITA problem. I fell into one of those traps once. Unstable, constantly having to return to correct issues, and eventually the customer not wanting to pay for my time, as if it was my fault he chose to deploy an unstable platform (against my vocal protests, but the customer is always right...)
I have learned when to say no. And mean it. Even walking away from a customer who was willing to throw handfuls of cash at me to stay... Sometimes it just isnt worth it.
Ok guys & Gals the problem has been found, turns out the update was from Google, I believe, for their browser, Chrome and it is no longer compatible with Windows XP, so I downloaded Firefox ESR v 52.8 which is still supported and compatible with Windows XP, problem solved thanks to Windows forum - XP.
So you found an older version of FireFox to run on a really old version of Windows (which is no longer supported with security updates and has not been for some time). This is really not a good idea. Even if you don't have anything on that machine that you care about, I wouldn't want it on a network with anything I did care about. That said, I am kind of surprised (but not shocked) that Chrome did not do a quick OS check during the update process to determine that it was XP and throw you a quick dialog message indicating it could not apply the update.