Restoring earlier version

[Billy Pilgrim]

I've been using PaintDotNet for almost as long as it's been out, most recently on an XP desktop filled with dozens of plugins.  My go-to program for graphic design, incredibly easy to use, much better than Photoshop (whose developers, I'm convinced, are aliens.)  Unfortunately the hard disk crashed about a month ago. I have copies of all the files in every directory, but have been unable to reinstall PaintDotNet, and surprise, the XP version can no longer be downloaded.  Well, it can, from weird obscure sites, but the version I managed to download -2.5 - is really stripped down, much earlier than what I had, with the Tools icons all in the wrong places - eg Shapes is up in the top menu - see attached image - and basically unusable beyond the most simple stuff.   The reason I reinstalled XP, despite its obsolesence, was precisely so I could keep using my old programs.  Is there no hope?  I actually like XP, and I dread the learning curve to get up to speed with later corporately-dumbed-down and intrusive versions of WIndows.  

If there's any way I can upgrade my 2.5 version with updates, patches, to get at least to where I used to be, please point me to it The "Updates" item in the File menu. "Check Now," returns a 404 code.  

What was the last version that ran with XP, if there's one later than 2.5, and where can I get it?

Thanks

 

[Pixey]

Hi @Billie and Welcome .

 

We really encourage people to use the latest version and, as you may know we no longer give support for the older versions/XP:

 

http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/2932-read-first-the-rules-yes-you-read-this-2013-12-21/#7

 

However you can still find some older versions on File Hippo BUT please be cautious and be very careful not to download any viruses.

 

http://filehippo.com/download_paint.net/history/3/

 

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

Filehippo says that all versions up to and including 4.0 work with XP.  At least XP is the first item in the versions list below the download link. Correct?

[Pixey]

31 minutes ago, Billy Pilgrim said:

Filehippo says that all versions up to and including 4.0 work with XP.  At least XP is the first item in the versions list below the download link. Correct?

 

Looks good to go!  Good luck.

[Red ochre]

Version 4.0+ won't work on XP?.

Version 3.5.11 should do (but XP is obsolete really).

[Rick Brewster]

You've been using 2.5? WOW that is old. November 26th, 2005, in fact ( http://www.getpaint.net/roadmap.html ) 

 

4.0 does not work on XP. If FileHippo says that, then FileHippo is wrong.

 

XP is dead. Dead dead dead dead dead. Please do not use it. You will get viruses, and I'd be surprised if your system isn't already compromised by them somehow. Windows 7 and 10 are really not that much different, I promise. It'll take a few weeks to get used to the visual differences, but it's really no big deal and it's worth it. Avoid Windows 8 and 8.1.

 

Old versions of Paint.NET are not provided, and not supported in any way.

 

Quote

If there's any way I can upgrade my 2.5 version with updates, patches, to get at least to where I used to be

 

The patch you want for 2.5 is called 4.0.13, aka "the latest version". It really is that simple! It may take some time to find all the plugins you want, but it's worth it.