Solution to using older CAD / CAM software with modern PC's

This might help a few people, if you are maybe slightly older like myself and a bit set in your ways! You may also have a great CAD/CAD system that does all you need it to do for your slightly older machines, like mine - but it can't be installed on a modern Win10 system. In my case XP was a new as I could go. The cost of upgrading CAD/CAM to run on Win10 in my case would be many thousands.
The problems of safe browsing, checking emails etc with XP these days just get worse all the time, mine was just getting slower and freezing with this sort of application.
But a fresh installation of XP used only for CAD/CAM runs quickly and does the job just fine without being forced into a massive investment in new software and the downtime learning to use it.
I finally gave in and bought a Win10 pc for internet / emails /word-processing etc, therefore ended up with two pc's on one desk. This then leads to the problem of emails coming in with dxf drawings etc which needed to be transferred to the older PC.
I couldn't establish a network between XP and Win10 but heard file sharing could be done with a special USB cable so bought one, for about £20 it's described as:
Ugreen USB 2.0 Easy Transfer Data Link Cable ,Compatible with Win10/Win8/Win7/XP

This works great to drag files from one PC to the other, but what it also does is something even more useful.
If you move the mouse pointer off the edge of the screen of either PC towards the other PC then the mouse and keyboard takes control of the other PC. So one keyboard and mouse works both pc's - whichever way round you want. This saves a massive amount of time and means I can carry on indefinitely with the CAD/CAM software I prefer, I just have two monitors to look at. I bought mine here. ebay item 192028078366

Ugreen USB 2. Easy Transfer Data Link Cable ,Compatible with Win1/Win8/Win7/XP | eBay

I'm sure your solution works great for your needs, but it is honestly painful for me to see solutions for running older software that rely on maintaining extra hardware.

Virtualization software is very mature at this point and can work beautifully to have a instance of any other operating system running within whatever modern OS you use on your PC. For most older software running virtualized on modern hardware the resource overhead is negligible (unless you're into some particular type of heavy lifting like rendering). And for your file transfer/control switching, it's as simple as changing between different windows to control the virual instance and drag-and-dropping files to transfer between the host and virtual OS.

I have used VMWare to run Win 95, 98 and Server 2003 + others. Some examples- I support business critical 25+ year old software running on an instance of Server 2003 virtualized with VMWare that is extremely stable with no downtime other than needed for updates or other regular maintenance. This is database software with ~4 users running DOS executables at any one time, remotely over SSH. I have also used a virtual instance of 98 to run no-longer-supported motor driver interface software to diagnose and modify tool changer motor parameters over RS232 on a big 5 axis router I used to run. All done using modern Windows OS's as the "host"- although I suspect these solutions would work as well on Linux, Mac or whatever multitude of other OS flavors can run VMWare.

This is not esoteric stuff for competent IT people- lots to read about online and the big players in virtualization software usually have free versions of their software for personal/testing use.

I would second the advice above to use a VM. The additional benefit is you should be able to create a backup of the win XP install that runs on the VM with the installed CAD/CAM programs (and any other programs for that matter). So if it ever crashes you have a backup and you don't have to reinstall anything or redo licensing.

I'm not sure about win10, but my current workstation is windows 7 pro and has Windows XP Mode built in. Nice little XP virtual machine you can use for stuff like that. You don't have to run the VM to access those programs installed on it either, you can run those programs directly.

nj111 said:

Ugreen USB 2. Easy Transfer Data Link Cable ,Compatible with Win1/Win8/Win7/XP | eBay

Click to expand...

... Did not mean to rain on your parade on how you solved your problem. That is a cool device that I did not know existed. Thanks for sharing.

what have you got ?

well, there's egg and bacon,
egg sausage and bacon
egg and spam
egg, bacon and spam
egg, bacon, sausage and spam
spam, bacon, sausage and spam
spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam
spam, sausage, spam, spam, spam, bacon, spam tomato and spam
spam, spam, spam, egg and spam
spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam.

I don't like spam ;-)

SeaMoss said:

what have you got ?

well, there's egg and bacon,
egg sausage and bacon
egg and spam
egg, bacon and spam
egg, bacon, sausage and spam
spam, bacon, sausage and spam
spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam
spam, sausage, spam, spam, spam, bacon, spam tomato and spam
spam, spam, spam, egg and spam
spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam.

Click to expand...

Much as I like MPFC, in this case it's not spam. The guy registered in 2008, if he's so patient as to work nine years in advance to push a cheap data cable, then my hat's off to him.

I'd be more concerned that this (doubtless made in Chine) cable harbored malware, would make a terrific Trojan Horse to break in with.

There is also a possibility that in contains a tiny device sending signals to the Chinese guy at the parking lot ;-)