Windows programs and utilities for pre-SSE2 processors

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Introduction

I recently needed to reinstall Windows XP on an HP PC from late 2004. The CPU in that PC is an AMD Athlon XP 3000+, which does not support SSE2 (Streaming SIMD Extensions 2). Windows XP itself installs and runs OK on this machine. However, the current versions of many popular applications and utilities are compiled to expect the processor to support SSE2, and will crash on startup if the processor does not support SSE2. Installing an older version of the program will sometimes allow it to run correctly.

How to tell if your processor supports SSE2

There are at least four different ways to do this.

If you already have a working Windows installation on the target CPU, download CPU-Z from CPUID and run it. On the "CPU" tab, look at the box that says "Instructions", about halfway down the screen. If "SSE2" is listed anywhere in that box, then your processor supports SSE2, and you probably don't need any of the old versions of the software listed on this page.
If you already have a working Linux installation on the target CPU, type the following command at a terminal
```
  cat /proc/cpuinfo
  
```
and hit Enter. Look for the line in the output that starts with "flags". If "sse2" is listed anywhere on that line, then your processor supports SSE2, and you probably don't need any of the old versions of the software listed on this page.
If you don't have any OS installed on the machine, try booting a "live" Linux distribution such as SystemRescueCD, and then giving the command above. Note that you don't have to install Linux to do this - you don't even need a hard drive in the system!
You may also be able to tell if you know what the processor is, from looking at the processor or from a sticker on the PC case or similar. As far as I can tell, these processors do not support SSE2:
- original AMD Athlon (Slot A)
- Athlon Thunderbird (Slot A or Socket A)
- Athlon XP (Palomino, Thoroughbred, Barton, Thorton) (Socket A)
- Athlon MP (Palomino)
- Mobile Athlon 4
- Mobile Athlon XP / XP-M
- VIA C3 (Samuel 2, Ezra, Nehemiah) (Socket 370)
- Transmeta Crusoe
- Intel Quark (Lakemont, Clanton, Silver Butte, Mint Valley, Atlas Peak)

How to tell if an application needs SSE2

In my experience, the applications that needed SSE2 would install correctly, but as soon as I tried to run them, I would immediately get the Windows standard "foo.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close" dialog box. There are a couple of ways to tell for sure if lack of SSE2 support is the problem.

On Windows, you need dumpbin (from Visual Studio). Do what this post on StackOverflow says. Note that dumpbin should work on an EXE file as well as on a DLL. You might also look at the post for Linux below for a list of the opcodes you are looking for.
On Linux, you need objdump (from GNU binutils) and either gawk or nawk. Do what this post on StackOverflow says.

List of software and where to get it

Sometimes the original developer or distributor makes old versions of their own software available.

If the original developer does not provide old versions, you may be able to download them from a third party. This is inherently more risky than downloading it directly from the developer. I have found that oldversion.com is usually reliable, but I make no guarantees.

Wherever you download the software from, scan it with an up-to-date antivirus, maybe on another machine or online (such as at VirusTotal), before installing it on the target machine.

Programs that need an older version to work

Name	Version I used	Where to get it	Notes
Mozilla Firefox	48.0.2	Mozilla	Most people probably want the 32-bit en-US version.
~~Sun~~ Oracle Java	6u33	Oracle	Requires free account registration. Later versions of Java 6 may also work. Java 8 will not work.
PuTTY	0.70	PuTTY	You must use the version from the "w32old" directory on PuTTY's download site. The .MSI and the files in the "w32" and "w64" directories will not work.
TightVNC	1.3.10	TightVNC	See also the next entry for TightVNC 2.
TightVNC	2.6.4	oldversion.com Third-party link	2.8.11, directly from TightVNC, will not work. See also the previous entry for TightVNC 1.
Piriform Speccy	1.20.446	oldversion.com Third-party link	1.32.740 does not work.
Piriform CCleaner	5.26.5937	oldversion.com Third-party link	5.46 does not work.

Programs for which the current version works

As of 18 September 2018.

Name	Version I used	Where to get it
Piriform Recuva	1.53.1087	Piriform
WinDirStat	1.1.12.80	FossHub
gVim	8.1	vim.org
Info-ZIP	zip 3.00, unzip 5.52	Info-ZIP.org: zip and unzip
GnuWin32	file 5.03, coreutils 5.3.0, probably others	SourceForge

The program I want to use isn't on this list!

Try looking at either the original developer's site or a third- party site for a list of older versions of the software. Usually, but not always, the last version that was released before the official end-of-life of Windows XP, on April 8, 2014, will work. Sometimes a version that was released after that date will also work - you just have to try it and see.

Last updated Tue Sep 18 02:14:29 CDT 2018