Windows 7

[RedRaven]

Would be no surprise if Microsoft started trying to sell you "official" wallpapers !
I'm still running on XP, for me its the most stable OS they ever put out. Did have a laptop with Vista on it at one point and first thing I did was change all the front-end interface settings from vista to windows classic.
Can remember loads of people complaining about how much RAM vista used, when I set mine to use the classic interface instead of silly soft edges and shaded colours it near enough halved the RAM it needed, it ran reasonably well too.

I'm sure earlier this year I read or heard something about a serious rival to Microsoft / Windows OS was emerging and could even surpass it. May of been a Chinese, Korean or Japanese company. My memory is terrible at the moment!

Apple never really came close to beating microsoft when it came to home users, instead they dominated in high end professional level Audio/Visual applications (as well as things like the ipod which is basically the digital evolution of the original Sony walkmans).
Also systems like Linux and Ubuntu have a very tiny slice of the pie, though I do commend its developers for making and keeping it as free-ware.
Lots of people have a chip on their shoulder about Microsoft / Windows which I dont really understand. In all the years I've been using PC's the worst software incident I've had was back when I got my first tower system running windows 98. And that turned out to be my fault ::) , Like the complete and ignorant idiot newbie I was I had somehow managed to delete the Auto exe.bat and could not understand why it would not boot up anymore :-[ .

Sure Bill Gates makes more money than some counties GDP, but you have to consider how much and how quickly computers have evolved in less than an average lifespan. I'm not jumping to his defence, but I'm also not trying to condemn him for being a successful business man either.

That said I'm off to carry on playing PC games  ;)

[PZ]

Strange that you don't appear to be logging in with full administrative privileges with the default account.  Try logging in with "administrator" as the account and no password to see if you load the default admin account.  I've not experienced what you're getting now, but there must be a way to invoke some kind of admin account else you'll not be able to have full control of the OS.

Good luck with it JRD   :)

EDIT: If nothing else, I've  UNIX solution to reset the administrator password on Windows PCs (not tried it on W7 yet though) - let me know if you're interested (most people think they've a secure PC - they have no idea...) ;)

[fragger]

I'm sure earlier this year I read or heard something about a serious rival to Microsoft / Windows OS was emerging and could even surpass it. May of been a Chinese, Korean or Japanese company. My memory is terrible at the moment!

Wasn't Google, was it? I've heard they were bringing out their own OS in a serious attempt to try and knock MS off it's perch. That was about 6 months ago, I haven't heard anything about it since.

[RedRaven]

Could be, could be Smurf's !
My memory usually forgets to remember things.

[fragger]

 ;D I know the feeling! ;D

I'll keep an eye out for the "little blue guy in white tights and a nightcap" logo.

[Art Blade]

Alright, today I acquired win7 ultimate 32bit, system builder version, in a local shop. Costed me 170€ instead of around 350€ retail version (no difference, except the nice packing is missing). Going to install a dual-boot system soon, and will keep my original XP 32bit on the same machine. I'm a little nervous now  ;D

[PZ]

Good luck with it Art - coincidentally my IT guy picked up my slate today and is installing W7 - he assured me that Windows Journal will be on it - we'll see!  ;D

[Art Blade]

thanks, PZ, you too :)

Erm, what is "windows journal"?

[RedRaven]

This may be a totally dumb question but - are games for XP / Vista going to w@&k ok with windows7 ?
Is it backward-compatible ?

Like I said, dumb question but thought would ask anyhow :)

[Art Blade]

There are only dumb answers, no dumb questions  :)

XP: win7, like vista, has an XP compatibility mode, but there are issues that demand different solutions such as a virtual PC (if called XP mode then it means "works with win7 professional and ultimate" but is for download only).

The version number of win7 is actually 6.xx, on purpose, so it should be compatible with previous windows versions.

As always, we'll have to find out :)

One game I know of, the reason why I bought win7, won't run with XP any more: Just Cause 2.

[RedRaven]

Cheers, it is due to the fact that Just Cause 2 is not XP compatible that I've started thinking an upgrade may be in order in the not too distant future.
JC2 is surely to be only the first in an ever expanding list of new games that will not run on XP.

All being well should be able to get the windows7 version of choice when I go for my next tower. Been drooling ever so slightly at some quad-core water cooled set ups with massive RAM and top end GPU. Reckon if I'm going to fork out for something like that should be able to shop around and find a store that will include the OS for free :)

[PZ]

My IT guy swears that W7 will run even better than Vista, performance-wise.  However, he did mention that HP has decided not to update their older printer drivers so the potential exists for having to purchase a new printer, or try one of the printer hacks.  Interestingly, one of my colleagues with W7 on a laptop has no problems with his printer, but my wife can't get her printer to w@&k - slightly different printer model - 1022 versus 1015

[Art Blade]

PZ: In that case, try vista drivers. I've heard a couple of times that those did w@&k with win7 :)

Red: If you get your rig to be custom built, ask for either professional or ultimate (those are the "real" win7 versions with full functionality, apart from win7 enterprise which is for companies only) The system builder versions cost about half the price of retail versions. OEM versions might be littered with junk programs.

[Art Blade]

Windows Journal

Sorry to ask again, what is that?

[PZ]

Thanks for the info on the printer - just might w@&k - Just got my PC back and it is amazingly fast compared to what it was - had Vista home on it before and now have W7 Enterprise - very happy so far!

Journal is an application that is typically only useful for users that have slate or tablet PCs - the kind that you use an electronic pen to write on the screen.

[Art Blade]

Ahhh, thanks for the info PZ. No wonder I didn't know about it ;D

[mandru]

An HP printer? I've got an HP Officejet 6310 all-in-one with an amusing background story.

A couple years ago we bought a fairly loaded HP Pavilion laptop to serve as our business computer and for my wife's personal usage. Was supposed to be a real firecracker and admittedly it runs great for her, no problems, except for one thing.

Wanting to get the the best compatibility between the computer running our spreadsheets for inventory and business letters we thought "Oh! An HP computer should be perfectly complimented with an HP printer."

:D

The computer either because of all the bloatware I've not been able to ferret out with a cutting torch and hammer (my primitive level of tech skills  ;)) or a flaw in the vista software, completely refuses to remember that the setup software for it to be able to communicate with the printer is installed.

Every time we want to print from the laptop we have to spend 8 minutes reinstalling the printer setup.  It's become routine.  I know the problem does not reside in the printer because I can USB link to it with my professionally built from scratch computer and run print jobs with absolutely no setup having ever been loaded.

Now I will often get to my computer and find a thumb drive my wife has left setting on my keyboard and I know that it will contain a brief text document with a print request and all the document files she needs printed.

When it comes to computers I guess you can't judge compatibility by brand.

[Art Blade]

mandru, oh GOSH, horrid!  :o Argh!

The first thing I do when I get a new PC (except once) is: format disk, and install a fresh OS  ;D I've got only one PC that is still running as my 2nd unit, the one with the TV card, it is the one with Vista home premium edition. It was perfectly installed, no bloatware and that kind of crap, and it is around three years old. Never needed to change a thing.

The recent one also came with Vista home premium, but I bought it so I had a proper XP gaming rig... I switched it on, said "hasta la Vista, baby" by way of saying goodbye to the OS, and rebooted... XP disc already in its drive  ;D

Now I'm about to give my gaming rig a second life, win7 disk at the ready (keeping XP on it, dual boot) :)

[PZ]

That is an awful routine, mandru - I know this is probably the case, but you have installed the drivers using an account with full administrative rights, correct (not just run as administrator)?

[mandru]

When we bought the HP laptop it was from a store that offered a service that any software we purchased and selected to load on it at the point of sale would also be installed and set up at no extra charge.  Not being very tech savvy it sounded like a great deal and probably would have been if not for the fact that there is an HP resident user suite that wants to live directly between us and Vista. If we want to talk to Vista we have to go through HP's bloatware to get to it.

Killing the HP resident suite would require reformatting then reinstalling Vista and loosing all of that software installation w@&k we'd paid extra for to receive free (yeah, I still don't quite get that part either so don't ask  ::)) and would possibly foul up the computer's ability to quick access the media player function.  That whole process is a few steps beyond my capabilities (I'm good with a cutting torch and hammer  ;D) and I don't dare undertake it.

The administrator rights are all set up properly.  That much I have been able to verify.

I don't think I've ever owned anything that doesn't have some idiosyncrasies. I've become adept at working around them when encountered. Which probably explains my laid back attitude when it comes to dealing with game glitches.   :P

[Art Blade]

There is a Swiss army knife kind of tool, though. Good for everything, packed into only one thing which you can handle. It is called "son" or "son-in-law"  ;D

[mandru]

Ah! I have a tech guru that I bribe with home made stromboli and dipping sauce to make house calls.  Unfortunately even he has scratched his head over this one and admitted he doesn't really want to commit to 4 to 5 hours of reinstall time getting Vista, Windows small office, Quickbooks pro and a few other business programs loaded back into her PC that a clean wipe and reinstall would require.

If her computer broke down we'd start over and do it right but for now it's easier for me to run a printing service.  ;D

[fragger]

Ah, mandru... my heart goes out to you, mate :)

Why can't anything to do with computing hardware ever be simple? I mean, really, all the bloody things do is add 1s and 0s together... In an ideal world, you would be able to go out, buy anything, plug it into anything, and have it do anything. But not being an ideal world, there's too many variations, too many manufacturers, too many conflicting "standards", too many middlemen, and sometimes, I think, too many choices.

Sometimes I miss my old Amiga 500 - well, at least the design philosphy behind it. One OS hard-wired on a chip; the people who made the computer also made the chip; and everything you bought was designed to w@&k with the chip. No hardware conflicts of any sort, anything you bought for it just ran on it straight away. They were true "plug and play" machines long before clone PCs got into the act. No drivers required, no software conflicts or compatability issues, and no installing of new hardware required, other than plugging it into the computer.

Slow as hell compared to today's machines, of course (I think they had a 9 Mhz CPU), but pretty much all computers were about the same speed for quite a while back then, until the clones with their Intel chips began to pull ahead. Great graphics and sound, though.

Sorry - got sidetracked down memory lane.

Them were the days, sonny (spits terbacky juice)

[mandru]

Slow as hell compared to today's machines, of course (I think they had a 9 Mhz CPU), but pretty much all computers were about the same speed for quite a while back then, until the clones with their Intel chips began to pull ahead. Great graphics and sound, though.

Sorry - got sidetracked down memory lane.

Them were the days, sonny (spits terbacky juice)

Yeah, "They were the days" all right.

I had an Atari 1200XL, a head full of basic programming and the world by the tail. That Atari was the Igor to my World Domination schemes (insert maniacal laughter). Finally a faithful servant who would unquestioningly do my bidding and handle the numbers for me! (More maniacal laughter breaking off into coughing)

Too bad disc drives were too expensive and the cassette file saver was too wonky to ever get to w@&k.  :P  All of my files were saved hand written on page after page of notebook paper.

I once spent over 45 straight hours coding and bug shooting in Basic, inputting from my hand written code notes to create a graphics rich (OK it was ascii characters but was cool none the less) version of the game Battleship. A player against the computer on a 24 x 24 grid of electric ocean each with an armada two times larger that that chintzy Milton Bradley plastic version.

It was a thing of beauty! The game would hand hold a person who had no idea how to play the game and walk them through with gentle hints. Helping them correctly set their game pieces up for play and once in play it would show both sides moves both hits and misses as well as display current score stats in the upper right corner of the screen. I even had designed bomb drop sound effects with hit, miss, ship destroyed and game won or game lost each having their own unique audible feedback.

I played through two complete games after completing the code input and even trying to bomb the program out I couldn't rattle it. It was solid and bullet proof!

Then exhausted, I turned the computer over to my 9 and 6 year old sons and watched the two of them play through a large part of their first game but I fell asleep on the couch and when I woke up they'd shut the computer off to watch cartoons (what's a monitor? it was hooked to the TV!) erasing all that input w@&k.

Basic fell out of favor and I can't even find a copy of MS Q-Basic anymore. Oh well, at least the world's safer for it.  ;)

[PZ]

My, my, what memories - I recall programming in assembly language decades ago and the elation that I felt when I was able to move a pixel across the screen (green) in a random path.  We've come a long way my friends.  ;)