OT - Draftsight on an XP system

I downloaded Draftsight based on recommendations on this forum, and have it installed on 2 systems fine (Win7 32 bit & Win8.1 64 bit) - but I just got an old WinXP laptop for using older 16 bit & DOS programs & installed it there, but when I start it I get 2 errors saying:

Procedure entry points not located in Kernel32.dll:
InitializeCriticalSectionEx
GetTickCount64

Then it crashes. I repaired WinXP & it still happens. I tried installing this on a colleagues WinXP system & he gets the same errors - so it must be something with XP.

On my other systems it's a great program, especially for free.

Haven't been able to access the Draftsight Knowledge Base even though I signed up, and they have no links for support I found.

Has anyone gotten past this?

GetTickCount64 and InitializeCriticalSectionEX are kernel functions that are only included in Windows Vista and up; XP doesn't support it.

rdrast said:

GetTickCount64 and InitializeCriticalSectionEX are kernel functions that are only included in Windows Vista and up; XP doesn't support it.

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Any idea why Draftsight, that is listed as XP compatible, is looking for these then?

Did you accidentally download the 64 bit version instead of the 32 bit version?

You need the 2014 or earlier version.

Windows Users: DraftSight 2015 is unsupported on Windows XP.

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kjacoby said:

Did you accidentally download the 64 bit version instead of the 32 bit version?

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I have downloaded both versions, XP & Win7 have 32 bit ver's installed, Win8.1 has 64 bit ver.

You need the 2014 or earlier version.

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Thanks, I'll check & see if I can find 2014 version

Interesting information. We still use XP one some systems and I like running Draftsight on them.. cause it's a _very_ cheap alternative to a system I've learned to work with and actually grown to love a bit. well hanging on to the "old" version doesn't bother me.. it works, and I don't think there's so much to improve on the software. It basically works like AutoCAD did like more than 10 years ago... It is a bit weird though that they don't support winXP anymore... that must be deliberate.
But then again.. they support Fedora and Ubuntu and that is nice. though only 64bit I guess.

XP is dead. Costs money to keep supporting it. Time to move on.

yeah theoretically you are right. but I know for a fact that it is not very hard for a software developer these days to (also) support windows XP. It is actually harder to support different systems like linux. So not supporting WinXP is imho a deliberate choice of the software maker but what can you say about free (not-paid for) software...

.. or am I too influenced by being made to support 20-30 year old hard- and software...

jkerekes said:

XP is dead. Costs money to keep supporting it. Time to move on.

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I didn't want to go back to XP, but my new Win8.1 64 bit laptop won't run a bunch of PLC software I have (Step7 Pro, Mitsubishi GX Developer, Step5, Quartech HMI's, and more that I use frequently for customers aging equipment.)

I just got the XP laptop a couple weeks ago.

Fortunately, I found that the C-Net download website had Draftsight 2013 on their server & have that installed & running fine. I really just wanted the option of being able to modify drawings on-site, as I mostly use Draftsight on my desktop for CAD work, because I don't really like working on laptop keyboards & touchpads (I regularly carry a mouse with me in my case.)

Instead of an XP laptop, run it in a VM. I too need to run software that won't ever work in Windows7. A VM makes life easier.

jkerekes said:

Instead of an XP laptop, run it in a VM. I too need to run software that won't ever work in Windows7. A VM makes life easier.

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Win 8.1, not Professional, doesn't support VM. You have to buy 8.1PRO & get Hyper-V (not VM), then buy a XP install disk.

It was cheaper, and easier, to buy a used laptop running XP. Which as a bonus also came with a built-in serial port and a full width PCMCIA slot for my Siemens 5512 Profibus card.

Can't wait for Windows 10 to come out & get rid of Win8.1.