leaving windows 7

[frodi]

I would like to thank everyone for the great advice and support I have received over the years. Sadly my ancient trusty computer finally died and my new machine has windows 10 on it, bringing it's own problems. So off to Win10 Help!
Frodi.

 

[SIW2]

Sadly my ancient trusty computer finally died

What is wrong with it?

my new machine has windows 10 on it, bringing it's own problems

ha ha.

you could probably run win7 on the new machine - assuming you have a win7 license. Or dual boot.

What is the new machine?

 

[frodi]

Hi SIW2,

Device name DESKTOP-04JRI71
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor 3.59 GHz
Installed RAM 16.0 GB
Device ID 32AF9390-8C0C-4EC0-A82F-BB0D8AA71409
Product ID 00325-82043-38206-AAOEM
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Think I'll stick to 10, as there is laptop with 10 and the person using it has great problems, so I'll have to help him a bit. Still got a laptop with 7 though.

 

[RolandJS]

frodi, keep your membership in here active because many Windows 7 and 10 problems can happen to either/both versions.

 

[frodi]

Hi Roland,
That is good advice, I'll not leave!

 

[TechnoMage2016]

Frodi,
When forced, through no fault of yours, to give up 7 and run Windows 10, the best thing you can do, for your own sanity is install the new "Classic Shell". You can set that up so your PC will look and mostly act like Win-7.


I had two PC's here with Win-10 on them and had almost NO problems with them, except Win-10 won't run several older programs that I rely on. So, I just blew off 10 and went back to Win 8.1/Pro/64.
Windows 8.1 will run all my older programs, and with the Classic Shell installed, it too looks and acts just like Win-7.


As we like to say, here in the South, "Y'all come back now, Y'hear?"

 

[frodi]

Hi TechniMage2016,

thanks for that info, the present shell is not too bad. The worst thing about 10 is that I have lost some very important programs that I had purchased for 7. I am replacing those to new ones which are as close as I can get.

The 7 on the laptop is for business only, so that is a different kettle of fish.

I have still got the old machine, it is only half dead, it does startup but won't connect to the monitor, so I bought a new monitor, thinking that that caused the problem. It was,'t!
It may need a new processor, it all depends on whether it is worth it. I had it built in 2012 so it has served me well.

 

[TechnoMage2016]

Frodi,
You sound like someone, I met years ago, who lived in an apartment in London.
I was able to help him, somewhat, but the miles between us was definitely a problem.


There is just so much we can do over the internet (Forums) and then .......


I'd love to help you, if we weren't half a world apart.


I did have one guy, years ago, ship me his PC from the western US, to me here in Florida, for an upgrade.
That worked out well. I upgraded his HD, RAM and OS and shipped his PC back to him.
Believe it or not, We're still good friends today.


I do wish you all the best with your PC.


Cheers mate!
TechnoMage

 

[Bree]

I have still got the old machine, it is only half dead, it does startup but won't connect to the monitor, so I bought a new monitor, thinking that that caused the problem. It was,'t!
It may need a new processor, it all depends on whether it is worth it. I had it built in 2012 so it has served me well.

While you can, try to make a system image of the HDD with whatever imaging software you prefer (Macrium Reflect Free, Aomei Backupper, etc.) - take it out and put it in a USB caddy if necessary.


That way you'd be able to restore the image to another working machine, either physical hardware or a virtual machine.

 

[frodi]

Thanks Bree,
I have the system image on an external drive. However, am getting comfortable with 10 and still have 7 on a laptop.
To my surprise I have been able to get an old favorite painting program which I have had since 1998, installed on 10! Replaced photoshop with Gimp.

 

[Bree]

To my surprise I have been able to get an old favorite painting program which I have had since 1998, installed on 10! Replaced photoshop with Gimp.

I'm not surprised, there are a lot of old programs that will still run. I have the XP version of Solitaire and PaintShop Pro 7.04 (from 2000) running happily on mine. I think my oldest working app is Microsoft GIF Animator from 1996.

You may want to update your Gimp though, there's a much newer version than your 1998 one...

The current stable release of GIMP is 2.10.22 (2020-10-04).

GIMP - Downloads

 

[frodi]

I didn't make that very clear, I have the latest Gimp, did not reinstall Photoshop. The old painting program is Painter Classic (Corel). It is small but very useful. I am not reinstalling Microsoft Publisher after Microsoft removed all my work from it. Never found out why they did that! I did contact them, but got the strangest answer, couldn't understand it. So downloaded Open Office. Have not decided which Painting Program yet

 

[townsbg]

At the beginning of the month my 10 yr old primary computer kind of died-I would have to pay 75-300$ for a used graphics card to fix it-so I got a freebie replacement from my Uncle that's also 10 yrs old. I hope it lasts me for a few more years. It had 10 home on it but I need pro so I put 8.1 on it. I could have slapped 7 back on it but I didn't want to have to deal with the WU issues combined with no more updates, plus this computer has a USB 3.0 card and I didn't want to hunt down the drivers. Also I've been using 2012 r2 on my server for the last year so I'm used to it and I was planning on trying to upgrade to 8.1 anyway. With open shell I can stand 8.1 but I'll admit I am missing 7 because of it's look and feel. I'll eventually have to go with 10 because I'm not a linux person but I'll continue using 8.1 for as long as possible. When this computer dies I'll probably end up replacing it with a new computer that will have 10 on it. So now I'm completely off of 7. I'm not even using it on a virtual machine because I don't have a reason to do so. This computer was mid to high end in it's day so it is still very good and sufficient for my needs. Plus it was free.
​

 

[frodi]

It is sad when a computer sort of dies. I was not happy, however after using 10 for a week or so, it is not too hard to get used to. (needs must!) I am considering putting publisher back, so I can convert a few things to docx.

 

[Bree]

...So now I'm completely off of 7. I'm not even using it on a virtual machine because I don't have a reason to do so....

Sad day, I'm sorry to hear that

It's no secret that W10 is my OS of choice, but I'm no 'W10 evangelist'. I respect others' preferences for a different OS and am happy to use any OS myself. Indeed, the W7 machine in my specs here is in daily use to this day as the machine I keep all my financial spreadsheets on. In fact, with all the swapping between different vintages of Windows I hardly notice the surface differences between the GUIs any more, rather that under the bonnet they are much the same.

Besides that laptop in my specs, I do have VMs of XP, W7, W8.1 and W10. My main use for them is for supporting questions on Seven/Eight/Ten Forums about mixed networking (I even have a Win95 laptop I can add to my network when required).

....It had 10 home on it but I need pro so I put 8.1 on it.

You may not be aware, but 10 Home can be upgraded to 10 Pro just by changing the installed key to a valid Pro key - and a W7/W8/W8.1 Pro key should work too, as they are still entitled to the free upgrade to 10.

 

[frodi]

You have a stable of OS's! I only need a kennel, just having 2.

 

[townsbg]

I use a vista VM almost daily. I have a old game on there I like to play. It barely runs on Vista 32-bit so I don't think it'll run on 8.1 64-bit. Really I prefer the Vista gui over 7. I use 10 on a work laptop and I don't like it. One thing I don't like about 8.1 or 10 is a completely different set of menus outside of control panel. On Vista and 7 I knew where everything was. Not 8.1 or 10. I have to search for it or google it. Maybe this will force me to get ready for the inevitable switch but I'm not looking forward to it. There are other issues with 10 I have that I consider extremely serious that I won't get into here. They are all over the forum and I've already shared my point of view on it ad nauseam. Really I wish I could just convert to Linux but my experimentation with it failed. Plus I would have to go with something else for virtualization because staying on VMWare would be impossible financially.

As far as 8 my initial reaction when it came out was one of horror about the metro UI so I was glad upon learning during the early 10 development that they where going to make that hideous start menu optional. Then I got a (legal) key and learned about classic shell so I set up a virtual machine to experiment with and went on from there. When I broke the desktop I was using as a server the replacement had the option of using 2012 so that's what I chose. So as I stated I've been using 2012 on there for a year now without many issues. Granted I didn't log in on a daily basis but I'm familiar enough with it that the transition wasn't too bad. I don't regret not returning to 7 with this new desktop even though since it originally came with 7 I easily could have.

 

[frodi]

You have to use what you like best.

 

[Bree]

You have a stable of OS's! I only need a kennel, just having 2.

:roflmao:that's the advantage of using VMs, they can all fit into the one kennel.


It even accommodated Vista briefly, as one step in the upgrade path from XP to W10, keeping all installed apps. Nice GUI, pity about the lack of driver support.

 

[TechnoMage2016]

I'm so old school, that I'm reading things here that I just don't really relate to. VM? Not in my house!
One OS per HD is my Golden Rule.

I thought the whole world had kicked Windows 8.0 to the curb and moved on. Back in its day, I was a moderator on the Windows 8.0 forum. It was a real P.O.C. and almost Nobody liked it.

Then like "The Second Coming", Widows 8.1 happened. Why MS, in their infinite wisdom, named it 8.1 instead of Windows 9.0, is something I've never Understood. Because it's a totally different OS.

I'm running 8.1/Pro/64 right now, with the Classic Shell installed. To just look at my desktop, you'd not even know that I'm not running Windows 7/Pro/64. But I know it, and I love the difference.
When I installed it here on my 8 yr old, home made, PC, the installer found and installed all the drivers for the onboard LAN and Sound, and my new AMD Radeon HD 5450 video card. I never could find the correct drivers for Win-7, for that card. Thus the main reason for my upgrade to 8.1.

Win 8.1 runs my Windows Mail program and my Windows 7 Games. Win-10 will NOT!

So, why am I still on the Win-7 forum? Because four of my ten computers, still run Windows 7.
Heck, I still have a Netbook that runs Windows XP.

Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear?
TM