XP Last Resort

This page try to list last version of freeware that still run on Windows XP (SP3 presumed). Many great Open Source Software also at phasing-out state (saying it may run or not tested well). Those still hang on XP (for various reason) may "surprised" their "unsupported" OS no longer supported.


List of Freeware that still works but later version has dropped XP support:

Java
Since Java 8 XP is unsupported but will "run" anyway. Java 7 is the last officially supported for XP. [IMO basically Oracle don't intentionally or technically drop XP, except JavaFX being broken after u111]

PHP
version 5.4.45 http://windows.php.net/downloads/releases/php-5.4.45-Win32-VC9-x86.zip

GrepWin
version 1.6.3 https://sourceforge.net/projects/grepwin/files/Archive/ Note that the last version that grep binary file and show the result is 1.5.9

Adobe Reader (previously known as Acrobat Reader)
version 11.0.23 see ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/11.x/
note: latest update have broken component (not running on XP, will need to be replaced with older files)

Adobe DNG Converter
version 8.3 http://download.adobe.com/pub/adobe/dng/win/DNGConverter_8_3.exe

Autodesk TrueView
version 2014 http://download.autodesk.com/esd/dwgtrueview/2014/SetupDWGTrueView2014_ENU_32bit.sfx.exe

Autodesk DesignReview
version 2013 http://download.autodesk.com/esd/designreview/2013/ADR/enu/SetupDesignReview2013.msi.zip

Apple QuickTime
version 7.7.6 https://secure-appldnld.apple.com/QuickTime/031-08466.20141022.Xwlnm/QuickTimeInstaller.exe

Apple iTunes
version 12.1.3.6, however Apple seems randomly release update for XP when they want. https://secure-appldnld.apple.com/itunes12/031-34002-20150916-98D32A92-5C11-11E5-80AC-C25A6DA99CB1/iTunesSetup.exe

Apple Safari
version 5.34.57.2, as well as the last for all Windows. You can use slightly updated Webkit engine from Quicktime 7.7.6's AppleApplicationSupport (ASU).

Sketch Up
version 8.0.16846 of Trimble http://dl.trimble.com/sketchup/gsu8/FW-3-0-16846-EN.exe
Sketch Up Make 2014 is the last to run on XP with Ruby 2.0 API but it is Non-Commercial-Freeware, last Ruby 1.8 API was Sketch Up Make 2013 also Non-Commercial, all Sketch Up Viewer including the latest "could run" on XP. The last Sketch Up that allow DWG import is 7.1.6860. If you want OpenStudio integration, you can use OpenStudio 1.4.0v2 or legacy OpenStudio 1.0.11 with EPlus 8.1.0009 and Radiance 4.2.2.

Apophysis 7x
version 2.10.15.3 http://iweb.dl.sourceforge.net/project/apophysis7x/Old%20versions/Apophysis.7X15D.x86_amd64.zip

NMap/ZenMap
version 6.47, with some efforts new version can be backported https://nmap.org/dist/nmap-6.47-setup.exe

Wireshark
the last 1.12.x version. XP also where WinPCAP support dial up capture.

Visual Studio Express
version 2010 SP1 (its VC only target 32bit). You can get multi-target VC 2010 SP1 from WSDK 7.1 + KB2519277 (the last SDK for XP) then you can get multi-target VC 2008, ATL 8 and MFC 4.2 from WDK 7.1 (the last DDK for XP). You may also want vsyasm 1.3, masm 11, Nunit and LLVM 3.7.x (the last for XP). VS Shell Integrated still available at http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/7/0/D70CD265-3E18-41B0-AFC6-075AFA2DA631/VSIntShell.exe which you can install PTVS 2.0 and F# 2.0 CTP on it.

Other Visual C++ Compilers
Beside the VS Express 2005-2010, other compiler version can be obtained from:
.NET 1.0a SDK contain VC++ 7.0 but without STL support
.NET 1.1 SDK contain VC++ 7.1 but without STL support
VC++ 2003 Toolkit ( VC++ 7.1) support STL but only have static libraries
2003 SP2 DDK contain updated VC++ 7.1 with more feature but linked to OS msvcrt.dll
Vista SDK (WSDK 6) contain VC++ 8.0 standard edition (with cross-compilers)
WSDK 7.0 contain VC++ 9.0 standard edition
WDK 7.1 contain updated VC++ 9.0 with ATL/MFC but linked to OS msvcrt.dll
WSDK 7.1 contain VC++ 10.0 standard edition

Note: on 1.0a SDK, this installer incompatible with TabletPC because it bundle .NET 1.0, you'll need to edit the msi to remove the redist feature and assign new productcode to avoid being flagged.

Python
version  3.4.4, and entered security fixes mode (last source tarball is 3.4.10). Python2 ended at 2.7.18.
PyPy is broken for XP at py3.6 API level or later.
IronPython last working is 2.7.6.3, later version need .NET 4.5 or newer.

Ruby
version 1.9.x due to compiler issue later version can't run on XP

MS Security Essential
version 4.4.304. note: with PosReady disguise Virus Signatures still active probably till 2019, just make sure MSE don't upgrade itself to version 5 which can't run on XP. You can download virus signatures from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=121721&arch=x86

Mono .NET
version 3.2.3. This is the available build http://download.mono-project.com/archive/3.2.3/windows-installer/mono-3.2.3-gtksharp-2.12.11-win32-0.exe (partial .NET 4.5 compatible). Building Mono 4.x with MinGW and few patches may enable it to run on XP.

MS .NET framework
version 4.0.3. There many misconception of "the other .NET 4.x also supported" which is wrong. So if there are apps claim to be XP compatible but require .NET 4.5 then it won't run. In XP it's possible to install version 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 (3.5) and 4.0 side by side.

Paint dot net
version 3.5.11

MS E.M.E.T
version 5.2 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=46366

Nuget
version 2.8.5 The one from codeplex (2.8.60318.667) https://nuget.codeplex.com/downloads/get/1441483

Blender
version 2.76b. version 2.77 switch to python 3.5 which break XP

VLC
version 3.0.x scheduled to be the last XP compatible

XBMC
version 12.3 is the last dx9 compatible.

Brackets
version 1.8, or version 1.9 with node.js executable replaced with version 5.18
https://github.com/adobe/brackets/releases/download/release-1.8/Brackets.Release.1.8.msi

MySQL
version 5.5.47 http://cdn.mysql.com//Downloads/MySQL-5.5/mysql-5.5.47-win32.zip
mariadb 5.5.48 http://ftp.hosteurope.de/mirror/archive.mariadb.org/mariadb-5.5.48/win32-packages/mariadb-5.5.48-win32.msi

Windows Live Essential
version 14.0.8117.416. Microsoft has taken down the download but still available at archive.org. Size is 141399376.

LibreOffice
version 5.4.7 (python macros are broken), note some older 5.4.x version is broken out of the box on XP
http://ftp.igh.cnrs.fr/pub/tdf/libreoffice/stable/5.4.7/win/x86/LibreOffice_5.4.7_Win_x86.msi

Anaconda (Scientific Python distro)
https://repo.continuum.io/archive/Anaconda-2.3.0-Windows-x86.exe

Opera
version 12.18 https://get.geo.opera.com/pub/opera/win/1218/int/Opera_1218_int_Setup.exe for classic and 36.x for chrome-based Opera.

Vivaldi
version 1.0.x (1.0.435.46), chrome-based Opera-like browser.

PaleMoon
version 24.7.2 available at their ftp archive,
alternatively unofficial "atom" 26.5 is the last for XP: https://www.palemoon.org/palemoon-atom.shtml

Firefox
version 52.9 https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/52.9.0esr/win32/en-US/Firefox Setup 52.9.0esr.exe

Chrome
version 49.0.2623.112 https://dl.google.com/release2/h8vnfiy7pvn3lxy9ehfsaxlrnnukgff8jnodrp0y21vrlem4x71lor5zzkliyh8fv3sryayu5uk5zi20ep7dwfnwr143dzxqijv/49.0.2623.112_chrome_installer.exe

SumatraPDF
version 3.1.2, rendering engine switching to direct2D in 3.2. https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/download-prev.html

SALOME (CAD/CAE Freeware)
version 7.7.1 is the last 32-bit version binaries http://files.salome-platform.org/Salome/Salome7.7.1/SALOME-7.7.1-WIN32.exe

MATLAB Compiler Runtime
version 2015aSP1 (8.5.1) http://www.mathworks.com/supportfiles/downloads/R2015a/deployment_files/R2015aSP1/installers/win32/MCR_R2015aSP1_win32_installer.exe

Scilab
version 5.5.x
http://www.scilab.org/download/5.5.2/scilab-5.5.2.exe

R-Studio (R frontend)
version 0.98.1103 listed as the last XP compatible but up to 0.99.441 seems works too.. http://download1.rstudio.org/RStudio-0.98.1103.exe

R
version 3.4.4
https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/old/3.4.0/R-3.4.0-win.exe

GRASS-GIS
no official announcement but version 7.x refuse to proceed after workspace opening dialog
https://grass.osgeo.org/grass64/binary/mswindows/native/WinGRASS-6.4.4-1-Setup.exe

Bitcoin (core)
version 0.12.x

Node.JS
version 5.12

PostgreSQL 
version 9.3.25, more of because the use of MSVC 2013 than technical issue in newer version.

MongoDB
version 2.0.9, later version may "run" but with reliability issue.

DB2 (Client)
version 10.1

Oracle (InstantClient)
version 11.2

Oracle VirtualBox
version 4.3.40 officially, 5.2.x version may have issues here and there despite able to run. YMMV.

VMware Player
the last 32bit host version: 6.0.7.2844087
http://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/player/6.0.7/2844087/windows/core/VMware-player-6.0.7-2844087.exe.tar

Neo4J
version 2.3.8 the last that work with JDK 7

Elastic Search
version 2.4.x for Elastic Search and Logstash, 1.3.x for *beat and kibana 4.6,

MariaDB
version 10.1.13. This is according to official deprecation policy.

IDA Free
Free version at 5.0, since there is no Free 6.x version. http://out7.hex-rays.com/files/idafree50.exe

Golang
According to official announcement was version 1.10.x, however actual test show version 1.11.x is the last version to run on XP out of the box. https://dl.google.com/go/go1.11.13.windows-386.zip

Cygwin/MSYS
version 2.5.2 for cygwin http://cygwin-xp.portfolis.net/cygwin/ and version 20160205 for msys2 http://repo.msys2.org/distrib/i686/msys2-i686-20160205.exe (you should not install binary tarball newer than that date!).

Erlang OTP 
version 17.5 http://erlang.org/download/otp_win32_17.5.exe

Racket
version 6.12, before version 6 Racket still default to SSLv3 for secure connection. There is also Scheme R7RS compat lib available. https://download.racket-lang.org/releases/6.12/

PellesC
version 8.x (the last 32-bit version), author said it may have openmp issue with XP

CMake
version 3.13.5

Haxe
Version 3.4 can run after simple subsystem version change, version 3.2 works out of the box
https://github.com/HaxeFoundation/haxe/releases/download/3.2.1/haxe-3.2.1-win.exe
Last lime that support XP is 5.5.0 thus matched openfl at version 6.1.2
Last hxcpp that output windows 32bit is 3.4.64
Based  on above, if you need flixel you're stuck with flixel 4.3.0 thus with lime 2.9.1 and openfl 3.6.1
Note there still issue with html5 preview as lime's node-windows.exe crashed, you can replace it with regular node 0.10.x executable

Android SDK 
Tools component last working is R24.4.1 (pre AVD emulator 2.0, which later become separate component)
Platform-tools component last working is R23.1.0 (contain ADB part)
NDK last working is R13b (using Clang/LLVM 3.8.x)
This  means with SDK on XP we could target up to Android 6 (API 23) while NDK target up to Android 7.0 (API 24)

Note that most of the breaks are rather trivial ones however Google has deprecated 32-bit SDK and Google Play has raised min. target requirement so much recently that it's no longer viable to do development on XP.

Miktex
according to archive.org MikTeX drop XP support is broken around 2.9.5719 (I think it was TexWorks component that broken first, later MikTeX core component also broken). Since version 2.9.x is also current maintained version you might want to find MikTex 2.8 repo to avoid problem with other binary packages.

TexLive
version 2017 is last for XP, in 2018 luatex is broken and ICU >58 (xetex) no longer support XP.

Lyx
version 2.1.5, 2.2.x refuse to install
ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/bin/2.1.5/LyX-215-Installer-1.exe

Pandoc
version 1.19.2.1 due to compiler switch to GHC 8 in official binary, according its cabal manifest up to version 2.7.1 has been tested using GHC 7.10 which should build XP compatible binary.

Ghostscript
version 9.27, later version switch to VS2019 which drop XP support however makefiles targeting XP are provided (using as low as VS2010 compiler).

ImageMagick
version 6.9.11-19, official binaries after this use VS2019 with recent version of glib which also break XP, older binaries can be found here https://ftp.icm.edu.pl/packages/ImageMagick/binaries/

Hamachi
According to release note, version 2.2.0.633 will be the last to support XP.

OpenVPN
version 2.3.18



List of notable discontinued Freeware that works with XP:

TrueSpace
version 7.61 b3 with unofficial update from www.united3dartists.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=55. This is the last version and only freeware. Probably Blender by now is better but it's still a worthwhile 3d poly modeler. Made by Caligari bought by MS.

Borland TurboExplorer
version 2006 update 2, the only unrestricted freeware ever made and probably only compatible with NT 5.x (need .NET 1.1 for turbo.net versions). Consist of C++ and Delphi as well as .NET version of each. Embarcardero also made its Clang based compiler (version 10.1 targeting Win32 only) freely available for single user..

MS Works
version 9 is the last and released as freeware. It also works well with Office Viewer

MS Expression
version 4 SP2 with most of the suite (Web, Design and Encoder) released as freeware.

MS SharePoint Designer
version 2007 SP3 is the last for XP and the last version that can be (ab)used like standalone FrontPage. Installing this also indirectly give "free" OCR software MODI, as well as picture organizer. 

GMax
3ds MAX 4 but with only modeling tool (and scripting), it's the only freeware for those with MAX familiarity. Created by discreet, now distributed by turbosquid.

KingSoft WPS
The last freeware was version 2013 and 2014 (beta3) which developed by Kingsoft.


List of notable Freeware that works with XP:

SoftMaker FreeOffice
version 2016 use machine-locked online activation thus portable version may need re-activation, version 2013 is the last that didn't (based only on name and email).

MS Office Viewer
Components are scattered across different MS Office foundation from 2003 (Word), 2007 (Excel), 2010 (PowerPoint and Access) and 2013 (Visio). Only Visio Viewer 2013 that's not compatible with XP, use older 2010 version instead.

Piriform Utilities
Last pure freeware (no "upgrade" stuff) :
CCleaner 3.18 http://download.piriform.com/ccsetup318.exe
Defraggler 2.10 http://download.piriform.com/dfsetup210.exe
Recuva 1.42 http://download.piriform.com/rcsetup142.exe
Speccy 1.16 http://download.piriform.com/spsetup116.exe
Last non-nagging Freemium version :
CCleaner 5.4 http://download.piriform.com/ccsetup504.exe
Defraggler 2.21 http://download.piriform.com/dfsetup221.exe
Recuva 1.52 http://download.piriform.com/rcsetup152.exe
Speccy 1.29 http://download.piriform.com/spsetup129.exe