New Laptop - which flavour of Windows? (and other issues)
in [Laptops]
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From: Roger Mills on 12 Mar 2010 09:52 I'm in the market for a new laptop computer. I need to have access to the same software and data files at two different locations, and have decided that a single laptop is preferable to maintaining two lots of hardware and trying to keep them in synch. Much as I would like to get away from the clutches of Microsoft, I *need* Windows because I've got lots of software which won't run on anything else. My current - rather elderly - laptop is running Win XP Home Sp3 and lots of essential applications - many of which came free with various PC magazines, and would cost a fortune to replace or upgrade - so my 'new' laptop needs to be able to run all of these. I've also got a number of USB devices - printers, scanners, MIDI interfaces, etc. - which need to work with the new laptop. Most new laptops seem to come with Windows 7 - and I'm hearing comments suggesting that elderly software applications (e.g. Quicken 98, Design CAD 3000, etc.) which work perfectly well under XP may refuse to work under 7. Is this likely? Is there a solution? Would I also need new drivers for all my USB-based devices? Would I be any better off with Vista (which I've so far managed to avoid!) or would I face the same issues as with 7? [One or two half-way-decent-looking 'refurb' laptops are seemingly still available with Vista]. How easy is it to 'downgrade' a Vista or Win7 PC to XP - and would that solve my problems? [I have a valid XP-Home licence from a PC which I scrapped - and some original (may just be SP1) media - but not the latest version.] Other Issues: How the heck do you backup and restore systems which no longer have floppy drives? In my current setup, I have Norton Ghost 2003 which needs to boot into DOS from a floppy - and can then clone a drive or partition to another internal or external (or network) drive. It doesn't provide the option of creating a bootable CD. Come to think of it, I'm not at all sure that it would recognise SATA disks! I get the impression that later versions of Ghost can backup the system disk while Windows is actually running. Is this correct? Also, they seem to come with a bootable 'recovery' CD from which to boot in order to restore a backup. Does this work ok? Is so, it looks like I'm going to have to invest in the latest version of Ghost! Your comments - particularly regarding the best choice of OS for my particular circumstances - will be greatly appreciated. -- Cheers, Roger _______ Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom checked.
From: D.M.Chapman on 12 Mar 2010 10:12 In article <7vv2rbFst9U1(a)mid.individual.net>, Roger Mills <watt.tyler(a)googlemail.com> wrote: >My current - rather elderly - laptop is running Win XP Home Sp3 and lots of >essential applications - many of which came free with various PC magazines, >and would cost a fortune to replace or upgrade - so my 'new' laptop needs to >be able to run all of these. I've also got a number of USB devices - >printers, scanners, MIDI interfaces, etc. - which need to work with the new >laptop. > >Most new laptops seem to come with Windows 7 - and I'm hearing comments >suggesting that elderly software applications (e.g. Quicken 98, Design CAD >3000, etc.) which work perfectly well under XP may refuse to work under 7. >Is this likely? It's possible, yes. Some might work under the compatibility options in Win 7. Some may just never work. > Is there a solution? Would I also need new drivers for all my USB-based > devices? Depends. Some will just work under Win 7 (probably). Some might have new drivers available. Some won't. It's all a bit hit and miss. >Would I be any better off with Vista (which I've so far managed to avoid!) No, no one is *ever* better off with Vista IMO. >or would I face the same issues as with 7? Yes, but with less chance of being able to fix them. Win 7 is largely Vista but fixed. It's far from perfect but a whole lot better than Vista. >How easy is it to 'downgrade' a Vista or Win7 PC to XP - and would that >solve my problems? [I have a valid XP-Home licence from a PC which I >scrapped - and some original (may just be SP1) media - but not the latest >version.] Getting harder and harder particuarly for laptops. We have plenty of laptops here that just won't run properly with XP as there are no drivers available for the hardware. >Other Issues: >How the heck do you backup and restore systems which no longer have floppy >drives? In my current setup, I have Norton Ghost 2003 which needs to boot >into DOS from a floppy - and can then clone a drive or partition to another >internal or external (or network) drive. It doesn't provide the option of >creating a bootable CD. Come to think of it, I'm not at all sure that it >would recognise SATA disks! I get the impression that later versions of >Ghost can backup the system disk while Windows is actually running. Is this >correct? Also, they seem to come with a bootable 'recovery' CD from which to >boot in order to restore a backup. Does this work ok? Is so, it looks like >I'm going to have to invest in the latest version of Ghost! This isn't really my area, but running an image of your old XP machine under a virtual environment is a possible option if your new laptop is powerful enough. VMware (can't remember what the free version is) or the Sun^WOracle Virtualbox might be worth a look. You'd need something that offers the physical to virtual migration tools. Get a laptop with decent amount of RAM and if your existing machine isn't huge it might just work. I have an XP, a Solaris and a Win 7 VM on my macbook and it works fine under VMware for what I need. >Your comments - particularly regarding the best choice of OS for my >particular circumstances - will be greatly appreciated. I'm writing this as a Solaris and MacOS user - but windows 7 is much better than Vista. As for XP on new hardware - it's getting harder and harder. Darren
From: Clive George on 12 Mar 2010 10:35 On 12/03/2010 14:52, Roger Mills wrote: > Other Issues: > How the heck do you backup and restore systems which no longer have floppy > drives? In my current setup, I have Norton Ghost 2003 which needs to boot > into DOS from a floppy - and can then clone a drive or partition to another > internal or external (or network) drive. It doesn't provide the option of > creating a bootable CD. Come to think of it, I'm not at all sure that it > would recognise SATA disks! I get the impression that later versions of > Ghost can backup the system disk while Windows is actually running. Is this > correct? Also, they seem to come with a bootable 'recovery' CD from which to > boot in order to restore a backup. Does this work ok? Is so, it looks like > I'm going to have to invest in the latest version of Ghost! Macrium reflect? The free one does what I need it to do, and runs from a CD for recovery.
From: Bernard Peek on 12 Mar 2010 10:39 On 12/03/10 14:52, Roger Mills wrote: > My current - rather elderly - laptop is running Win XP Home Sp3 and lots of > essential applications - many of which came free with various PC magazines, > and would cost a fortune to replace or upgrade - so my 'new' laptop needs to > be able to run all of these. I've also got a number of USB devices - > printers, scanners, MIDI interfaces, etc. - which need to work with the new > laptop. Most applications will run under the 32-bit version of Windows 7. Some older programs won't install under the 6-bit version. If you are going to have 4Gb or more of memory then the 64-bit version is definitely recommended. If you buy a machine with an OEM license you have to choose 32 or 64 bit at the time of purchase. Take a look at the Microsoft site to compare the different versions and licenses. > > Most new laptops seem to come with Windows 7 - and I'm hearing comments > suggesting that elderly software applications (e.g. Quicken 98, Design CAD > 3000, etc.) which work perfectly well under XP may refuse to work under 7. > Is this likely? Is there a solution? Would I also need new drivers for all > my USB-based devices? That depends a lot on the devices. Common types of devices from major manufacturers will probably be OK. Obscure devices from obscure (and possibly long-gone) manufacturers may have problems. Those will be worse with the 64-bit version. > > Would I be any better off with Vista (which I've so far managed to avoid!) > or would I face the same issues as with 7? [One or two > half-way-decent-looking 'refurb' laptops are seemingly still available with > Vista]. There is nothing that Vista gives you that isn't done as well or better by W7. > > How easy is it to 'downgrade' a Vista or Win7 PC to XP - and would that > solve my problems? [I have a valid XP-Home licence from a PC which I > scrapped - and some original (may just be SP1) media - but not the latest > version.] XP or W2K should install on modern hardware, but you may have trouble finding drivers for very new devices. > > Other Issues: > How the heck do you backup and restore systems which no longer have floppy > drives? Thumb drive or possibly built-in memory-card slots. External USB hard-drives or DVD. In my current setup, I have Norton Ghost 2003 which needs to boot > into DOS from a floppy - and can then clone a drive or partition to another > internal or external (or network) drive. It doesn't provide the option of > creating a bootable CD. Come to think of it, I'm not at all sure that it > would recognise SATA disks! I get the impression that later versions of > Ghost can backup the system disk while Windows is actually running. Is this > correct? Also, they seem to come with a bootable 'recovery' CD from which to > boot in order to restore a backup. Does this work ok? Is so, it looks like > I'm going to have to invest in the latest version of Ghost! The machine is likely to come with a bootable recovery disk that will restore the disk to its ex-factory state. Personally I would get a humungous external disk-drive or two and back up an image to that, probably using Linux. I might even configure it with a minimal host OS and do all of my work on virtual machines that can be cloned at will. > > Your comments - particularly regarding the best choice of OS for my > particular circumstances - will be greatly appreciated. If I was buying a new Windows machine today I would go for 64-bit Windows 7. -- Bernard Peek bap(a)shrdlu.com
From: Rod on 12 Mar 2010 10:49
On 12/03/2010 15:12, D.M.Chapman wrote: > In article<7vv2rbFst9U1(a)mid.individual.net>, > Roger Mills<watt.tyler(a)googlemail.com> wrote: > >> My current - rather elderly - laptop is running Win XP Home Sp3 and lots of >> essential applications - many of which came free with various PC magazines, >> and would cost a fortune to replace or upgrade - so my 'new' laptop needs to >> be able to run all of these. I've also got a number of USB devices - >> printers, scanners, MIDI interfaces, etc. - which need to work with the new >> laptop. >> >> Most new laptops seem to come with Windows 7 - and I'm hearing comments >> suggesting that elderly software applications (e.g. Quicken 98, Design CAD >> 3000, etc.) which work perfectly well under XP may refuse to work under 7. >> Is this likely? > > It's possible, yes. Some might work under the compatibility options in > Win 7. Some may just never work. > >> Is there a solution? Would I also need new drivers for all my USB-based >> devices? > > Depends. Some will just work under Win 7 (probably). Some might have new > drivers available. Some won't. It's all a bit hit and miss. > >> Would I be any better off with Vista (which I've so far managed to avoid!) > > No, no one is *ever* better off with Vista IMO. > >> or would I face the same issues as with 7? > > Yes, but with less chance of being able to fix them. Win 7 is largely Vista > but fixed. It's far from perfect but a whole lot better than Vista. > >> How easy is it to 'downgrade' a Vista or Win7 PC to XP - and would that >> solve my problems? [I have a valid XP-Home licence from a PC which I >> scrapped - and some original (may just be SP1) media - but not the latest >> version.] > > Getting harder and harder particuarly for laptops. We have plenty of laptops > here that just won't run properly with XP as there are no drivers available > for the hardware. > >> Other Issues: >> How the heck do you backup and restore systems which no longer have floppy >> drives? In my current setup, I have Norton Ghost 2003 which needs to boot >> into DOS from a floppy - and can then clone a drive or partition to another >> internal or external (or network) drive. It doesn't provide the option of >> creating a bootable CD. Come to think of it, I'm not at all sure that it >> would recognise SATA disks! I get the impression that later versions of >> Ghost can backup the system disk while Windows is actually running. Is this >> correct? Also, they seem to come with a bootable 'recovery' CD from which to >> boot in order to restore a backup. Does this work ok? Is so, it looks like >> I'm going to have to invest in the latest version of Ghost! > > This isn't really my area, but running an image of your old XP machine under > a virtual environment is a possible option if your new laptop is powerful > enough. VMware (can't remember what the free version is) or the Sun^WOracle > Virtualbox might be worth a look. You'd need something that offers the > physical to virtual migration tools. Get a laptop with decent amount of RAM > and if your existing machine isn't huge it might just work. > > I have an XP, a Solaris and a Win 7 VM on my macbook and it works fine > under VMware for what I need. > >> Your comments - particularly regarding the best choice of OS for my >> particular circumstances - will be greatly appreciated. > > I'm writing this as a Solaris and MacOS user - but windows 7 is much better > than Vista. As for XP on new hardware - it's getting harder and harder. > > Darren > Generally agree with you Darren. For compatibility, you might need to stick to the 32-bit version of W7. Do remember that with W7 Pro you get a full copy of XP as a virtual machine in with W7 itself. (You might have to download it, but you are immediately licensed for that virtual copy of XP.) Make sure you have plenty of memory and processor power if you wish to use virtual machines. Another option might be to leave your main computer (of whatever sort) at one location and use another to remotely access it - whether using LogMeIn, RDP, VNC or something else to do so. It could leave you free to get a lightweight (physically and in terms of performance) laptop to take with you. And no need to sync as everything is really on the main computer. WIth Wake-on-LAN facilities the remote machine doesn't even have to be running all the time. Might be totally useless to you, but a thought. Indeed, if you have some things that won't run any other way, you could remote access your current computer. -- Rod |