New Laptop - which flavour of Windows? (and other issues)
in [Laptops]
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From: Barry Watzman on 12 Mar 2010 19:17 Re: "But why? My attitude is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"!" Because it is broken, only the cracks are not on the surface. There is NO support by Intuit for anything over about 3 years old. There are security issues. And once you get more than about 6 years old, you may not be ABLE to migrate from the old version to a current version. What I did was do multiple migrations at about 3-year intervals. The problem is, you have waited so long that you may not be able to find the necessary intermediate versions. But, more to the point, if you continue to wait, doing so will get increasingly more difficult. You will get to a point where you won't be able to migrate and will lose everything. To make a bootable CD from a bootable floppy, you need a program such as "Roxio" or "Nero". They have the ability to make a bootable CD using a floppy as the boot image; it's a standard feature of "full feature" burning products. When you boot from the CD, the floppy image will come up as A: and the rest of the CD will come up as some other drive letter, PROVIDING that the OS booted from the image (e.g. the floppy) had generic CD drivers (e.g. a device driver and MSCDEX) [if these are not present, the rest of the CD won't be accessible, which may not be relevant anyway, e.g. if you are flashing a bios or running a memory or disk diagnostic that originally was on a bootable floppy]. Roger Mills wrote: > In an earlier contribution to this discussion, Barry Watzman > <WatzmanNOSPAM(a)neo.rr.com> wrote: >> Some of your applications are REALLY old. Quicken 98? Really, you >> should make upgrading to later versions a bit of a priority. [In my >> case, I upgraded from Quicken 98 to 2000 to 2003 to 2006 to 2010]. One >> problem is that you have waited SO long that you may not be able >> to move from 98 to 2010; you might have to try to find someone who >> actually has installation CDs of at least one or a few intermediate >> versions. Similarly with the other products. >> > > But why? My attitude is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"! Quicken 98 does > everything I want - so why upgrade? [I did get a free millennium-proof > upgrade for it - but it probably wasn't necessary because my wife is still > using an even earlier version quite successfully!] > >> I would recommend that you go with Windows 7 Professional, 32-bit. This >> will give you the most options and backwards compatibility. Most things >> will probably work, but it's absolutely the case that not >> everything will. The reason I suggested Professional instead of Home >> Premium is that with Professional, you have the option, at least, of >> using "XP Mode". I think that Win 7 is better than Vista in just >> about every way. >> Also, be certain that the CPU in whatever laptop you are going to get >> supports "Intel Virtualization Technology". This is required for >> running "XP Mode", and is only supported by about half of current >> CPUs. > > Useful advice - thanks! > > >> You can ALWAYS take a bootable floppy and make a bootable CD that will >> behave EXACTLY like the floppy (although, of course, you won't be able >> to write to it). >> > > Yes, I guessed that that must be possible. Would you care to elaborate as to > how to go about it?
From: Bob Eager on 12 Mar 2010 19:24 On Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:17:22 -0500, Barry Watzman wrote: > Re: "But why? My attitude is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"!" > > Because it is broken, only the cracks are not on the surface. > > There is NO support by Intuit for anything over about 3 years old. There > are security issues. And once you get more than about 6 years old, you > may not be ABLE to migrate from the old version to a current version. > What I did was do multiple migrations at about 3-year intervals. The > problem is, you have waited so long that you may not be able to find the > necessary intermediate versions. But, more to the point, if you > continue to wait, doing so will get increasingly more difficult. You > will get to a point where you won't be able to migrate and will lose > everything. I migrated last year from Quicken 98 (non Millennium version) to MyMoney on FreebSD - no problem! -- Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
From: John Doue on 12 Mar 2010 19:50 On 3/12/2010 2:52 PM, Barry Watzman wrote: > Some of your applications are REALLY old. Quicken 98? Really, you > should make upgrading to later versions a bit of a priority. [In my > case, I upgraded from Quicken 98 to 2000 to 2003 to 2006 to 2010]. One > problem is that you have waited SO long that you may not be able to move > from 98 to 2010; you might have to try to find someone who actually has > installation CDs of at least one or a few intermediate versions. > Similarly with the other products. Quicken 98 was one of the best versions of Quicken. Although upgrading Quicken sometimes brings usefull features (too seldom in my view), the interface becames more clogged year after year. Some things, which were nice in earlier version, have not reappared: I am still missing the ability in much older versions to select icons for an account. The reports remain confusing (you never know which one to use when you need one): no wizard is here to help you. Upgrading so called older applications is not always a good idea: who prefers Word 07 to Word 03 (which is apparently difficult to install in W7), just to name one. Personally, I am not willing to give up several applications which, while older, serve me well while more recent versions of them end up, beyond the eye candy, being more complex and slower. Still, I recommend evaluating them since refusing to do so would not be exactly smart. > I would recommend that you go with Windows 7 Professional, 32-bit. This > will give you the most options and backwards compatibility. Most things > will probably work, but it's absolutely the case that not everything > will. The reason I suggested Professional instead of Home Premium is > that with Professional, you have the option, at least, of using "XP > Mode". I think that Win 7 is better than Vista in just about every way. > > Also, be certain that the CPU in whatever laptop you are going to get > supports "Intel Virtualization Technology". This is required for running > "XP Mode", and is only supported by about half of current CPUs. > > You can ALWAYS take a bootable floppy and make a bootable CD that will > behave EXACTLY like the floppy (although, of course, you won't be able > to write to it). > One fact also needs to be taken in consideration: W7 needs to be installed in its own flavor of NTFS (which is not necessarily a welcome news for people who like me prefer FAT32; may be theoratically less robust, but so much easier to fix in case of problem). I do not know first hand to which extent W7 perfectly supports FAT 32 for partitions other than the OS partition. My understanding is that MS was reluctant to make W7 comptatible with FAT32. This issue may make the decision even more difficult. At the end of the day, unless the laptops come free, in which case installing or reinstalling XP would make sense, once Vista is totally ruled out, I heartily second your advice of W7-32; your mention of the XP Mode and what it involves is also very wise. -- John Doue
From: John Doue on 12 Mar 2010 19:58 On 3/12/2010 7:17 PM, Barry Watzman wrote: > Re: "But why? My attitude is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"!" > > Because it is broken, only the cracks are not on the surface. > > There is NO support by Intuit for anything over about 3 years old. There > are security issues. And once you get more than about 6 years old, you > may not be ABLE to migrate from the old version to a current version. > What I did was do multiple migrations at about 3-year intervals. The > problem is, you have waited so long that you may not be able to find the > necessary intermediate versions. But, more to the point, if you continue > to wait, doing so will get increasingly more difficult. You will get to > a point where you won't be able to migrate and will lose everything. > > To make a bootable CD from a bootable floppy, you need a program such as > "Roxio" or "Nero". They have the ability to make a bootable CD using a > floppy as the boot image; it's a standard feature of "full feature" > burning products. When you boot from the CD, the floppy image will come > up as A: and the rest of the CD will come up as some other drive letter, > PROVIDING that the OS booted from the image (e.g. the floppy) had > generic CD drivers (e.g. a device driver and MSCDEX) [if these are not > present, the rest of the CD won't be accessible, which may not be > relevant anyway, e.g. if you are flashing a bios or running a memory or > disk diagnostic that originally was on a bootable floppy]. > Locating an intermediate version of Quicken would have two advantages: evaluating it (you might love it) and taking care of the issue Barry rightly raises. I might have some in my closet ... Might want to stop the cross-posting, by the way. -- John Doue
From: John Rumm on 12 Mar 2010 20:02
Rod wrote: > The best technologies minimise traffic by caching and all sorts of > clever tricks. For me the best user experience is with RDP over a VPN. > (I just don't like the effect of connecting and disconnecting VPN > connections all day. But if it is all day to one location that is not > much of an issue.) Main reason is that RDP will set itself to use the > size of monitor you are connecting with (quite large in my case) whereas > LogMeIn and VNC use the real monitor size - and some sites I connect to > have postage stamps for monitors. But it is also quite fast and fluid. > > I'd suggest you simply try it. For simplicity set up free LogMeIn on > your computer and try to access it from somewhere else. (That will need > a browser plugin on the computer you connect from. Works fine in IE and > Firefox.) Wandering off topic a bit here, but, are you aware of any free solutions that can work in the manner of VNC-SC (i.e. a small prog a user can DL and run that then "phones home" back to me and gives remote control - nicely sidestepping any NAT and firewall issues on the remote end of the setup). While VNC-SC works well controlling XP machines, its painfully slow on Vista and Win7. -- Cheers, John. /=================================================================\ | Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk | |-----------------------------------------------------------------| | John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk | \=================================================================/ |