Activating Microsoft Office XP in 2019

Can Microsoft Office XP be activated in 2019? The answer is, Yes! I have a genuine Office XP Small Business Edition CDROM (US English, x86) with original product key. Installed it on my Surface Pro 4 Tablet running Windows 10 Home x64. No problems in installation or running Office and activation is straightforward with online activation which works perfectly. Phone activation was not necessary. I’m from India and don’t  have in-depth knowledge of the working of Microsoft licensing and activation, so your results might vary from location or localization. No harm in trying if you have a genuine product key and installer of Office XP lying around in 2019. And you feel the features of Office XP are sufficient for your use, even today. In fact, Archive.org even has the Office XP ISO though I haven’t used it myself. It was a pleasant surprise to have the software activated and working 17 years after its release in 2001 and 8 years after support for it was officially ended.

It’s not touchscreen friendly and the menus and icons are really tiny on Surface tablet, but I’d still prefer using a legitimate Office XP rather than a pirated Office 2019. And I don’t need a heavy duty wordprocessor on tablet as I prefer to do that on my laptop.

Horizontal Lines Like MS Office Word 2010 in MS Office Word 2016/2019

Short TLDR: Here’s a link to a Word file containing horizontal lines from Word 2010. These lines can be copied from this file and used in later versions of Word 2016 and 2019.

Complete Post:

It was nice to have the horizontal lines that Microsoft Office Word 2010 had – the ones which could be inserted from the Horizontal Line option in the Borders and Shading menu. I used it as a ‘divider’ under the subject line in my work correspondence. And I was extremely annoyed at Microsoft removing it from subsequent editions of Word. Looking around, I could see people suggesting it was removed as nobody wanted them. Is that really so? I don’t know. What I do know is, I used it and I wanted it.

The alternative suggested was using pictures from Word > Insert > Online Pictures. ‘Decorative horizontal line’ was the popular search term. But that search phrase and various variations of it didn’t lead me to anything that came even close to the ‘old’ horizontal lines – one with the two ‘blobs’at each end and the other with a tiny vertical bar at the beginning to the horizontal line. I guess that description would only make sense to someone who actually liked that as much as I do. So here’s a screenshot:

The ones which I found in Word > Insert > Online Pictures just did not fit the bill.

So what I did was install MS Office 2010 from my old discs (just for the horizontal line; yeah, that’s how much I missed it). I’ve copied the two horizontal lines to a Word file and now use that file as a kind of template. After reinstalling Office 2019, I just copy the horizontal lines from this ‘template’ to my new Word files typed in Word 2019. Thanks a ton Microsoft, that’s how much easier you made my life with new editions of MS  Office!

Here, I’ve uploaded a Word file made with Word 2010 containing the good old Horizontal Lines; free feel to download and use it for your fair use. The lines can be copied from this file and used in later versions of Word.

Burst the Google Search Bubble

Has it ever happened that you’ve found the same keywords give different results on different computers? Or that your search throws up results not exactly relevant to what you were3 searching but has some relation to what you were searching earlier? Welcome to the Filter Bubble. I like to call it the Google Bubble, but then I’m no elite tech author. I’m a lawyer and a law researcher with some good search skills.

And I found it very annoying when Google decided for me what I was trying to search or which search results would be best for me, based on my previous online activity. I mean, leave me alone, I know how to handle search. Don’t tailor search for me. Often I found results I was really looking for being buried under results based on my previous searches.

Like I said. I’m not expert in technology and if you want to read more, Wikipedia has a perfect page on it for an ordinary man, Filter Bubble and Panoptclick.

I’m writing this post on how I’m trying my best to burst this search bubble. Earlier, I tried configuring Chrome to deny third party cookies and to keep data only till I close the browser. I ran CCleaner before every fresh search, to clear browser cache and cookies. But it didn’t appear to do the trick completely. And using Ultrasurf to hide my IP led to problems accessing some sites.

So now what I’m doing is CCleaner before every fresh search, deny third party cookies and to keep data only till I close the browser and Firefox with Random Agent Spoofer extension. I reboot the router every now and then. Seems to be working for now. Sounds rather extreme lengths I have to go, to use the internet the way I’d like to rather than the way as Google would have me use it.

Cerience Repligo Viewer

Download Setup file for Cerience Repligo 2.1 Viewer (it’s compressed as .7z). This download is as-is-where-is. UPDATE 2022: Since access to Google Drive link was causing problems for some people, I’ve uploaded the Repligo Viewer to http://www.oldversion.com. You can search on OldVersion, if the upload is accepted and permitted to remain there.

Background: In a galaxy far far away, I had a Nokia 6681 once and used to read a lot on it. The format of my choice was Repligo .rgo. And I converted a lot of PDF and webpages to .rgo using the Repligo Printer (or was it Repligo Maker … whatever its name was). Nokia and Repligo faded away but the other day, I dug out some files in .rgo format from an old DVD and no way to read it. No Repligo Reader to be found on the web. Another dusty DVD and ultimately I found the Reader.  It works on Windows 10 x86 for me, so in case anyone is in the same predicament, feel free to try.

Details of Old Driving License in Delhi

If you are a holder of an old driving license issued by Transport Department, Delhi, one which is called as old plastic card license  DL No. starts with “P” or “C”  and/or ends with a ‘D’, chances are, most online Transport Department driving license services will not recognize this number; they will throw an error and ask you to enter a valid driving licence number.

The only official Delhi Government webpage which recognizes this old number format and retrieves the correct license details is https://dlpay.dimts.in/dldetail/default.aspx

It still does not lead to any online services but at least, your license details may be checked here.