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I need a new computer running old "stuff"

B

bczoom

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OK, my daily-use PC (actually, laptop) is about 8 years old.

I'd like to upgrade but only on the hardware side if I had a choice. I may just beef up the memory in this PC but being as old as it is, I'm wondering if I'm throwing money away.

I like Windows XP Pro and MS Office Small Edition 2003

The kids computers have Vista and Office Home 2007. I don't like either.

I was just browsing on Dell's site and it doesn't appear that XP Pro is available. Windows 7 sounds like it has a "Classic" look which I could use. I'm also concerned about drivers being available for peripherals that are older than a few years.

On the Office side, is there a version that has a "Classic" feel? I don't like the toolbars and such in the new version(s).
 
The last computer I bought from Dell was for my office about the middle of 2009. The only way I could get XP Pro was to buy Vista and pay extra for the XP Pro. Now they installed both on the system but even under XP Pro my Access Program written in Office Developer wouldn't run properly. I fixed it by taking the machine completely down doing an FDisk killing the existing partitions and converting it to a single partition. I then installed XP Pro and it worked out fine from that point on. Some of the stuff installed as Vista just didn't get along with XP Pro at all.

I understand that Windows 7 can run the older software just fine but I've held off testing it. I will be replacing my current home computer later this year as it is now close to 6 years old and at that time will go with Win 7 but still have a registered copy of XP Pro in the event it doesn't work. I also have a Office Small Business upgrade but have not used it due to no Access with it which I do need.
 
Brian,

I have windows 7 in my new laptop and I love it. I have not had any problems and love the dual window feature. I keep two windows up all the time.

As for the older drivers I have heard there was some problems but the only problem I ran into was an older printer that I can't get drivers for. Everything else it has been there or available.

As for Office 2007. I hated it compared to 2003. But I did take on the 2010 version beta and love it. It kind of gives you back the 2003 features or icons or should I say a mix of both. But I have found it much easier to navigate.


PS edit: Joe eluded to this with older software. I don't think you can gets Windows 7 with a 32 bit. Mine is the Business one and only is 64 bit and I do have one program that will not run in 64 bit and we were forced to get XP Virtual. It is a free program and not bad to run.

murph
 
Thanks Guys.

thcri said:
As for the older drivers I have heard there was some problems but the only problem I ran into was an older printer that I can't get drivers for.
Click to expand...
That's what I'm afraid of... I have several printers. The Vista machines don't like any of them. Considering these printers probably cost more than the computers (e.g. a Konica Minolta 2300 that can handle my large volume jobs), I don't want to scrap them.
 
bczoom said:
Thanks Guys.


That's what I'm afraid of... I have several printers. The Vista machines don't like any of them. Considering these printers probably cost more than the computers (e.g. a Konica Minolta 2300 that can handle my large volume jobs), I don't want to scrap them.
Click to expand...

Check them out on their web first but we have all Minolta 3 of them to be exact dating back ten years and we were able to get drivers for them. Ours are printers/copiers. Minolta is a good company if you have a good rep for them. I think the oldest one our rep used a driver for a newer machine and it worked.

murph
 
An eight year old computer, I would stop there and get a new one before it dies.
 
thcri beat me to it but check out the driver section at the printer manufacture's site the only one I know that doesn't usually upgrade drivers is HP but it was from Win 98 to XP and then Microsoft made drivers for it which lost a couple of features but did work. It finally just died on me by the way. Oh and I had to replace an HP scanner also due to the same problem but that was a pretty cheap change.
 
It still runs "pretty good". There's not enough memory (512M) and a failed install of SP3 broke part of my Windows Explorer (I get an exception window when I try to start from "My Computer" but it then works fine).

My other PC's are even older :(

I do make regular backups and then backup the backup. The latter is for an off-site backup
 
I just checked the Konica Minolta. They have a driver for Vista but nothing listed yet for Windows 7.

EDIT TO ADD: Yea, it seems like the HP Officejets and MFP's change so frequently they don't seem to support their models very long :(
 
Hey Brian this sounds like the perfect situation for running VMware (virtual mahcines). It's a free download for home use.
I would suggest you get Windows 7. I have never seen it run but from what has been posted and what I've heard it's 10x better than Vista.
Then you load VMware right on it. From there you can load XP pro & the drivers and all for the printers. You could also load some Linux kernels if so desired. :D It is pretty straight forward to run and these newer 64 bit machines can run 5 or more virtual machines at one time without breaking a sweat.
I was looking for the free download but have not located it. Let me know if you are interested and I'll hunt it down for you.
 
Your Ram would need to be upped for sure....min 1 gig but 2 would be better for 7...drivers i have had no issue with when installing 7 and i have done it on a few old PC's now,7 is very good indeed at pulling the drivers for you and some vista drivers do fill in the gaps.(when you install 7 it finds the drivers for you during the install).

Biggest problem i have come across is when the Lan is built into the mother board...would not see it but not a major issue just install a Lan card and they are cheap....think i paid about £6 the last time i had that issue.


It will all be trial and error m8 as i for one would not promise anything on a older unit but anything is possible.

Just be sure to use Avast security as most of the others slow the older systems down on a massive scale.

Good luck.
 
Luddite.

Vmware is the way to go. I have an Intel I7 machine with 12GB of RAM and a hardware RAID. I can run beaucoup VM's at once and all is good.

I actually have my work environment in a VM so I can copy it over to my MacBook when needed and run it on VMWare Fusion.

I use the VMWare Converter and have images of my old laptop that I can fire up for older projects when needed. I have an Active Directory Domain Controller in a VM for testing AD stuff and most of the versions of Windows since XP in VM's. I run Mac OS X Server in VM's on my MacBook.
 
PBinWA said:
Luddite.

Vmware is the way to go. I have an Intel I7 machine with 12GB of RAM and a hardware RAID. I can run beaucoup VM's at once and all is good.

I actually have my work environment in a VM so I can copy it over to my MacBook when needed and run it on VMWare Fusion.

I use the VMWare Converter and have images of my old laptop that I can fire up for older projects when needed. I have an Active Directory Domain Controller in a VM for testing AD stuff and most of the versions of Windows since XP in VM's. I run Mac OS X Server in VM's on my MacBook.
Click to expand...
You sure out geek'd me PB. :yum: :yum: :poke:
 
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