Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

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JazzGuitarGimp
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Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by JazzGuitarGimp »

Hi All,

I know it's a shot in the dark, but I am looking for a legacy install for Dropbox that will run under Windows XP Professional SP3. Anyone have a copy they care to share?

Thanks,
Lou
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Re: Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by pompeiisneaks »

I would hesitate to ever install end of date software except from the manufacturer, otherwise it could be riddled with malware/spyware/viruses. If someone here you know and trust has the file from a previous install, that would work, but I'm not seeing it anywhere and dropbox end of lifed it a while ago. (Microsoft end of lifed XP like 5 yrs ago)

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Re: Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by JazzGuitarGimp »

Hi Phil,

Thanks for your reply - Yes, I understand and agree with everything you said. The good news is, I run XP as a virtual client in VMWare Fusion on a Mac computer. I will take a Fusion Snapshot before I try to install any unknown app - that way, I can revert back to the snapshot in the event the install goes south.

The good (!) folks at Dropbox are not being cooperative with my request for a legacy install, though they tell me it is possible to install DB on XP, but will provide no further information. I found a discussion on the web that suggests if I had DB installed before they discontinued support (and the app would no longer open), that all you need do is right click the executable file, select Properties, and set "Compatiblity Mode to Windows 2000". I am one step short of that, in that I never had DB installed on the XP partition (just the Mac partition).

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Lou
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Re: Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by pompeiisneaks »

Oh if you're doing that, then just install DB on the mac and share the files via windows sharing and you should be able to see the shared files from your mac on the windows host.

Open the mac sharing preference in the system preferences. click on and enable the "File Sharing" and go to the "Options" section and choose "Share files and folders using SMB" SMB is the windows file sharing protocol, this should make the folders available to windows hosts. Then add the dropbox folder to the list and make sure to setup the mac local account you login with. Then on windows it shoudl show up, (so long as the VM has shared networking and can see it right, if not you may have to tweak that a bit). Then when it asks for a login/pass use your mac user/pass and you should have access to the dropbox folder from there.

Here's a VMware doc page on it too:

https://pubs.vmware.com/fusion-6/index. ... 9AEDE.html

~Phil
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Re: Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by JazzGuitarGimp »

Holy Cow! Thank you, Phil!

If I can be so bothersome to ask another question, can you answer this:

The DB tech support folks tell me this cannot be done, but I am not sure i believe it. Here is how I'd like to use DB: I want to basically use DB as an always on-line HDD backup utility. I'd like to backup my email, word processor docs, spreadsheet docs, music production (Digital Performer Projects, including audio files), etc from the Mac partition, as well as all of my CAD Projects files from the XP partition. Some of the pc board layouts I do can get as big as 20-MB, though most are in the 3- to 4-MB range. Living in a rural setting, the fastest internet I have access to is 1MB up / 6MB down. My PCB Layout program auto-saves every 5 minutes, so it is imperative that I work on these projects on my local drive, rather than from the DB cloud. Is it possible to mirror all of my data on the two partitions to DB, so that when I make a change to a file on my local HDD, the DB copy will automatically update?

Thanks,
Lou
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Re: Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by pompeiisneaks »

There is probably some software out there to do something like that, but realize that when you are using dropbox, you're not writing to the cloud. Dropbox syncronizes the physical disk storage in a folder to the cloud. I.e. if you hit 'save' to a file in dropbox, it first saves it to your local disk, it's still 'local' and then starts syncing the file to the cloud to ensure its' available on any other phone/computer you access dropbox with. When you go to another computer, it does take some time when it's first powered on to download and sync the files, but that can be done in the background and if you open a specific file, that one is moved to the front of the queue I believe because you've directly asked for it.

Now, another possible thing you could do, is to keep a machine (mac, windows whatever) up on the network at home, share a drive that is ALSO a dropbox drive and then whatever you 'save' to that shared folder is being backed up, and you can then access it on the local network from any host that can do windows sharing (windows, mac and even linux) so you would have a sort of 'file server' that is backed up to dropbox for any files in that dropbox folder. Just realize also that dropbox has a size limit for free, once you exceed that, it stops backing up files (it should warn/alert you) and you'll need to either clean up, or pay for some larger storage space.

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Re: Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by JazzGuitarGimp »

Good information - thank you, Phil!

No need to "share with other devices". I'm a one-man operation, and only use one computer. My objective is to have a "never have to think about it" backup protocol in place in the event my computer or HDD drive fries, or I otherwise somehow lose the computer. I am thinking about ponying up for their standard service, which gives you 2T of cloud space for $100 per year. I've been on the free service for years, and it has been very useful for getting files between my Mac and iPad. For example, I keep my check registers in Excel format in the dropbox folder, and can then edit it from the desktop computer at home, and also when I am on the go, doing shopping in the big city, from the iPad.

I have not seen evidence of dropbox storing files on my local HDD though; there is a DB icon in the status bar along the top of the Mac screen. I can click on that icon and open a browser of the DB stuff, but I always assumed all of that data is in the cloud only. I am going to have to pull the plug on the internet and see if I can open a file from that browser. If I can, then I can simply move all of my data folders into the dropbox folder and work from there.

Thanks again,
Lou

EDIT: Ha! Son of a gun, you are right. I just took the Mac off-line and was able to open documents in the dropbox folder. It looks like my goal is attainable... Thanks again Phil.
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Re: RE: Re: Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by pompeiisneaks »

JazzGuitarGimp wrote:Good information - thank you, Phil!

No need to "share with other devices". I'm a one-man operation, and only use one computer. My objective is to have a "never have to think about it" backup protocol in place in the event my computer or HDD drive fries, or I otherwise somehow lose the computer. I am thinking about ponying up for their standard service, which gives you 2T of cloud space for $100 per year. I've been on the free service for years, and it has been very useful for getting files between my Mac and iPad. For example, I keep my check registers in Excel format in the dropbox folder, and can then edit it from the desktop computer at home, and also when I am on the go, doing shopping in the big city, from the iPad.

I have not seen evidence of dropbox storing files on my local HDD though; there is a DB icon in the status bar along the top of the Mac screen. I can click on that icon and open a browser of the DB stuff, but I always assumed all of that data is in the cloud only. I am going to have to pull the plug on the internet and see if I can open a file from that browser. If I can, then I can simply move all of my data folders into the dropbox folder and work from there.

Thanks again,
Lou

EDIT: Ha! Son of a gun, you are right. I just took the Mac off-line and was able to open documents in the dropbox folder. It looks like my goal is attainable... Thanks again Phil.
You betcha :)

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Re: Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by Colossal »

Guys, this is unrelated, but do either of you know of a decent replacement for DropBox? For me, the single best feature that DropBox had was Copy Public Link to share a file. It was incredibly easy, useful, and painless...and then they did away with it.
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Re: Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by pompeiisneaks »

what do you mean, like this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dmrm9tzlfzzsi ... 4.vsd?dl=0

if anyone wants the visio of my AC30/4 it's right there :)

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Re: Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by Colossal »

pompeiisneaks wrote: Sat Apr 15, 2017 3:23 am what do you mean, like this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dmrm9tzlfzzsi ... 4.vsd?dl=0

if anyone wants the visio of my AC30/4 it's right there :)

~Phil
All I know is my Public folder ain't public anymore and there is no right-click Copy Public Link.
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Re: RE: Re: Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by pompeiisneaks »

Colossal wrote:
pompeiisneaks wrote: Sat Apr 15, 2017 3:23 am what do you mean, like this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dmrm9tzlfzzsi ... 4.vsd?dl=0

if anyone wants the visio of my AC30/4 it's right there :)

~Phil
All I know is my Public folder ain't public anymore and there is no right-click Copy Public Link.
I did right click and share if I recall. Not in public folder, but just the file itself

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Re: RE: Re: Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by Colossal »

pompeiisneaks wrote: Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:08 am
Colossal wrote:
pompeiisneaks wrote: Sat Apr 15, 2017 3:23 am what do you mean, like this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dmrm9tzlfzzsi ... 4.vsd?dl=0

if anyone wants the visio of my AC30/4 it's right there :)

~Phil
All I know is my Public folder ain't public anymore and there is no right-click Copy Public Link.
I did right click and share if I recall. Not in public folder, but just the file itself

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk
Hmm, okay. I guess I was confused because I thought sharing had been changed to just sending someone a link via an email or something. I didn't know (or know how) to just plop a link a post, like it used to be before March, when they changed the Public folder to not being public. Thanks, I'll give that a shot. I'm gettin' old, I guess. I hear they've got internet on computers now.
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Re: Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by JazzGuitarGimp »

Dave, here are some suggestions:
https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Sharing ... d-p/132623

Good luck!
Lou
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Re: Legacy install of Dropbox on XP?

Post by Colossal »

JazzGuitarGimp wrote: Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:26 am Dave, here are some suggestions:
https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Sharing ... d-p/132623

Good luck!
Lou
Thanks Lou, I'll give it a read.
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