XP Xpired

[Maryak]

Hi Guys,

I am moving between bouts of mourning through bouts of elation to bouts of learning.

Mourning

My old clunker running WindowsXP died on the weekend. This was a machine I built myself from carefully selected components, (the cheapest I could find), back in 2002. It ran almost non-stop downloading and producing Russian DVD's. What to do ??? because SWMDBO would go into morbid decline at the though of no new DVD's.

Elation

I was having my weekly telcon with my daughter and I happened to mention the sad demise of "BobXP" as part of our chat. The next day she invited us to dinner. On arrival and after suitable libation, hubby came out with a decent sized box and said, "This is for you."
Opening said box revealed a brand new HP mini tower complete with a 20" LCD 16:9 monitor and Windows 7.

Learning

I am not only the proud owner of a new computer but I am also the proud owner of a new USB KVM switch, (used to switch between what was my main CAD and Office computer and the new one), and the book "Windows 7 for Dummies."

So far I have managed to sort out how to change my password and have transferred enough data to write this post.

My son-in-law is a good guy who is in a position to say, "Don't piss about get a new one." Which is just what they did for us and we are Oh so grateful.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[lazylathe]

Congrats on BobWin7V2.0!!!

Personally i do not like Windows 7.
I am an XP Pro kind of guy when i have to use that type of computer.
It sits next to my Mac Pro which i love!!!

Andrew

 

[rake60]

There is a plus you are missing there Bob.

You skipped the Windows VISTA nightmare!

I have Windows7 on the wife's photography computer and my laptop.

Having worked on everything from Windows NT to the current 7, I think
7 has been their best operating system to date.
It isn't quite as easy to network as XP was.

I do still have one Vista machine. It's in my granddaughter's playroom.

Rick

 

[Mainer]

I too am quite happy with 64-bit Windows 7. About the only of my old programs that refuse to run are a couple of truly ancient 16-bit ones. All my 32-bit apps either Just Worked, or worked with a little bit of coaxing, whether they were "Windows 7 certified" or not.

The biggest difference I find is that W7 more strictly enforces a User Space concept. It's not absolute, as one can still put files just about anyplace, but life is simpler if one uses the defined user libraries "My Documents," "My Pictures," etc.

Networking seems more reliable.

 

[Maryak]

You skipped the Windows VISTA nightmare!

Not quite - Galina's laptop has Vista and I hate it when she has problems. Mind you it sure has improved my Russian :

Having worked on everything from Windows NT to the current 7, I think
7 has been their best operating system to date.
It isn't quite as easy to network as XP was.

Rick

I hope to be able to agree with you but that's a couple of weeks away

The biggest difference I find is that W7 more strictly enforces a User Space concept. It's not absolute, as one can still put files just about anyplace, but life is simpler if one uses the defined user libraries "My Documents," "My Pictures," etc.

Networking seems more reliable.

So far all my programs and data that I have transferred have worked. The so called File and Transfer settings Wizard must have dropped his wand and I ended up manually transferring as needed.

No problems with my LAN but this homegroup thingy has me a bit confused, still that's not an unusual state of affairs.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[clivel]

Personally i do not like Windows 7.
I am an XP Pro kind of guy when i have to use that type of computer.

I hated Windows 7 until I discovered http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/features.html which is freeware and the single biggest improvement to Win7 usability.
Amongst other things it provides a clone of the classic start menu that was previously included in all versions of Windows from Win95 to Vista.
Clive

 

[Blogwitch]

Bob,

I converted over Windows 7 Ult. late last year from XP prof, and struggled endlessly with all the 'cartoony' features on it, like XP used to be only much worse, until I switched everything to classic view, and now it is almost the same as my XP was, but running smooth as a baby's bum and rock solid, and much faster with more features.

To fix almost anything, AVG Internet Security (not the free one) coupled with AVG PC Tuneup operating in the background takes care of my security and operating system perfectly.

The biggest boost to the system was when I fitted an SSD (which XP has trouble accessing, but W7 loves them for booting off) for storing the operating system and programs on, and all the data that they process, use and produce is on a separate internal hard drive. The prices on those are dropping dramatically now, and well worth getting. 20 secs from initial post to being able to use the computer.

Just persevere and all will come good.


John

 

[Maryak]

John,

Thanks for the tip about classic view. :bow:

What's an SSD ??? The only single sided disk I can come up with is a 5 1/4 floppy and I'm pretty sure you don't mean that :

Best Regards
Bob

 

[mocaquita]

I too was a XP hold out, but made the switch to Win 7 about 4 months ago. I've found it a fast solid performer, but takes a bit to get used to.
Has lots of gimmicky stuff you can get rid of. My biggest complaint is the UAC, which I have disabled. Overall, I am happy with it.
Built the computer myself and used this solid state drive (SSD)

http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-agility-3-sata-iii-2-5-ssd.html

for the operating system and software load. These things scream! Also have a conventional hard drive for storage.

Dave

 

[Blogwitch]

Sorry Bob,

As Dave above has shown, it is a solid state hard drive, full of fast solid state chips, usually the same size as a drive in a laptop, 2.5".

When I bought mine six months ago, a 120gb one was 120 UK pounds, receiving an advert this morning, they are now down to 70 pounds. So in another few months, they should be getting towards the price of standard hard drives.

You don't need large sized ones, just enough, plus about another 50% ( I have used 50gb of a 120gb drive) to put your operating system and all the programs you use onto them, then when your system or programs generate data, just get them to send it to and read that data from another internal hard drive.
So your programs and operating system are running at lightning speed from solid state chips rather than having to access a standard hard drive. Most small programs, or accessing the internet is only a couple of seconds at most to be up and running, and even big bulky programs only take about 10% - 20% of the normal time to load and process data.
Number and data crunching a full sized AVI engineering film to DVD format used to take around 45 to 50 minutes before fitting the drive, now it is between 10 and 12. So a real significant increase in speed.

I think you will find that now W7 has shown that it works great with this type of drive, laptops and desktop machines will start to be supplied with this type of drive as normal in the future.


John

 

[dsquire]

I too was a XP hold out, but made the switch to Win 7 about 4 months ago. I've found it a fast solid performer, but takes a bit to get used to.
Has lots of gimmicky stuff you can get rid of. My biggest complaint is the UAC, which I have disabled. Overall, I am happy with it.
Built the computer myself and used this solid state drive (SSD)

http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-agility-3-sata-iii-2-5-ssd.html

for the operating system and software load. These things scream! Also have a conventional hard drive for storage.

Dave

It seems like an answer to one question "solid state drive (SSD) " also brings with it a new question.

What is "UAC"?.

Cheers

Don

 

[tattoomike68]

Im running a laptop with windows 7 64 bit,and 4 gigs of DDR3 ram 500 gig hd. it is great.

The only software that wont run is my sony vegas pro 10 video editing software.

 

[Blogwitch]

Don,

UAC = User Account Control.

This is where the operating system tries to help out, but in fact takes over if you are not careful.

I disabled mine by moving the slider to the bottom within a couple of days, as I found it was trying to do things that I didn't want it to. If you have good security on your machine, it shouldn't be needed.

Open Action Centre (mine is a little white flag on the RHS of the taskbar along the bottom), at the top LHS of that window you will see UAC.


Microsoft trying to take control of your machine rather than the operator being in control.


John

 

[Maryak]

Hi John,

Thanks for the info on SSD, I think that's what my son-in-law was trying to tell me about his latest wafer thin laptop, when he said it had an overgrown SD Card as the hard drive.

Also thanks for the UAC info, wondered what that little white flag was. Does it mean I surrender or does the computer surrender. I have already had one or two instances of "ODD" messages and warnings. Ignorance is bliss and so far I've just ignored them

OK back to the "Dummies" book.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[Blogwitch]

Bob,

I am no expert on these things, just lots and lots of experienced using them.

I soon found out what was needed and what wasn't when I ran W7, and there is a lot that really ISN'T needed.

It took me a couple of days to go through almost every item in the control box, to shut down things that weren't relative to what I want to do with my machine. Most of them would have slowed it down dramatically, just like the Aero system does, with all it's fancy graphics. Ok for kids to play with, but no use if you want a fast using machine.

Now I have it running just so, I make sure I use the built in backup system (you can easily find it by clicking on the little white flag) to save a complete system backup to another drive, just in case the SSD fails.
I can usually get 99% of the data off a standard crashed hard drive if I can get it to spin, but I don't know if I can do the same with an SSD, I have yet to have one fail (they are now guaranteeing them for up to 5 years BTW).
I do this backup every week, and it only takes about 15 mins, that way, I should be able to restore the drive to exactly how I am using it now within half an hour of getting a new SSD drive.

Best of luck on your new explorations, you will make mistakes, but you should make good progress if you take things steady.

A bit of advice, only make one change at a time, then if it doesn't work how you expected it to, put the setting back to where it was, and come back a little later when you understand a bit more about it. That's all I have done.

John

 

[dsquire]

John

Thanks for the answer to UAC (User Account Control). I'm still working with XP Pro so I haven't ran into it yet although that solid state drive (SSD) does sound interesting. I'll have to check up on it and see if my computer will support it.

Cheers

Don

 

[Blogwitch]

Don,

XP is supposed to be able to support an SSD drive, but from what I have read surfing the net, a lot of people have had trouble getting XP to recognise and so work with them. I think it might be the motherboard that causes the problems, the bios can't recognise them correctly.

W7 is designed to run with and from them, so all I did was to put back in an old XP backup hard drive I had, and activated it on there by putting the SSD into a spare Sata slot, then swapped the drives over and loaded W7 onto the SSD with no problems at all.

You also need to swap bios around a bit to make sure it is recognised and boot from it, but nothing drastic, just like setting up first boot device.

A good friend of mine, Peter (HS93), is looking at the 480gb range of SSD's and maybe using that as a main hard drive by itself, as they are quoting 5 years guarantee with it. Much longer than a normal disc drive guarantee. If they can take the continual reading, writing and deleting that goes on in a normal machine, it would make the machine lightning fast all the time.

I personally won't take that monetary risk just yet, maybe in the future.


John

 

[dsquire]

John

Thanks for that info. I'll file it away in a corner of my brain for future use. It sure is a long way from where I started with computers 25 years ago. :big: :big:

Cheers

Don

 

[Chriske]

a bit late I know...

XP forever...!
The best ever...

Chris