I've taken the plunge XP to Windows 8.1

Discussion in 'Computer Corner' started by Dave W, May 5, 2014.

  1. shiney

    shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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    I was quite happy with my ZX Spectrum :old: :loll:

    I only have a desktop and have had this one for many years. It was given to us in 2000, secondhand but unused, by a company that said we could have it because of all the charity work we did. It was loaded with Windows 98.

    We have had it revamped and upgraded a number of times. A new motherboard, new hard drive (old one used for backup), new fan and larger memory. Each time it has been revamped our 'man' (the son of friend who is self-employed in computer work) has advised us on whether we should have a change of OS.

    He has changed it from 98 to XP to W7. All the others he has said are rubbish. He's coming tomorrow to put in a bigger hard drive (not sure whether it's 500GB or 1TB) as the current one is only 148GB and nearly full. He said he would not dream of changing W7 as we don't do gaming or connecting to phones, iPads etc. He says that W10 looks as though it may be OK but he shall still be keeping all his clients on W7. Most of them that had W8 with their new machines have now been changed to W7.

    Total cost over all these years has been £350.

    I'll let you know how much he charges for the new hard drive and mirroring the old one across to it. :)
     
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    • pete

      pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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      Cant help thinking @shiney.
      Sounds a bit like Trigger's broom.:snork:
       
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      • shiney

        shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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        Quite likely :heehee:, although there are still plenty of the old parts in there. 15 years and only £350 is pretty good for having a computer that gives virtually no trouble. :blue thumb:

        The current hard drive has only 3GB of space left so I've got to increase the size. Otherwise I work on the basis if 'if it ain't broke don't mend it'.
         
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        • Dave W

          Dave W Total Gardener

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          I avoided updating from XP for as long as possible but had to bite the bullet in the end and upgraded to Windows 8x. The Win 8 OS is in itself a vast step forward but the user interface is aimed at touch screen and portable devices and as far as I'm concerned a pain in the rear unless you want to play games and are not bothered about getting a real grip on your PC.
          As I've posted before on this thread "Classic Shell" - a download, enables you to reap the benefits of Win 8 but lets you 'see' and control your PC as you would (and possibly better) than the bog standard XP GUI. You can switch between the two GUIs with the tap of a key but I've seldom had the need to switch to the Win 8 screen. I've been using Win 8 and "Classic Shell" for about 18 months now with no problems at all.
          Under the surface Win 8's OS is very good and reliable and a major step forward from XP but for many, including myself the user interface is horrible. But that's just the view of a geriatric!
           
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          • wiseowl

            wiseowl FRIENDLY ADMIN Staff Member

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            With Windows 8.1 my pc control's me and does exactly what it wants to:lunapic 130165696578242 5:
             
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            • Kandy

              Kandy Will be glad to see the sun again soon.....

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              I have a husband that does exactly the same thing to me Woo:snork:
               
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              • Scrungee

                Scrungee Well known for it

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                [​IMG]
                 
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                • shiney

                  shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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                  Scrungee, how did you manage to get a photo of my current computer? :scratch:

                  This was my previous one

                  [​IMG]
                   
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                  • ARMANDII

                    ARMANDII Low Flying Administrator Staff Member

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                    A[​IMG]nd this was your previous one
                     
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                    • shiney

                      shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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                      Naw!! That's an abacus and mine was much simpler as it was a suanpan.
                       
                    • shiney

                      shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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                      Well, I've had the new drive put into my computer. He came and collected the computer (I let him unplug everything), put in the new hard drive (750GB), copied the old hard drive across to it, brought the computer back and plugged everything back in and made sure it was up and running.

                      The old drive (150GB) is now stored away with all the programmes and data on it, as a further back-up.

                      Total cost £60. :blue thumb: :hapydancsmil:

                      Good value for money :love30: :)
                       
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                      • ARMANDII

                        ARMANDII Low Flying Administrator Staff Member

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                        I bet Mr Kandy thinks just the opposite!!!:hate-shocked::heehee:
                         
                      • jjordie

                        jjordie ex-mod

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                        =================

                        Well how are you getting on with Windows 7 Shiney?

                        I'm just getting fed up using XP when it keeps telling me ' we do support your system'
                        (or words to that effect) so thinking like you maybe I should change. My IT man says
                        he uses windows 7 as all the rest are rubbish.






                        .
                         
                      • HarryS

                        HarryS Eternally Optimistic Gardener

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                        I need to upgrade soon ( around Xmas ) as well . I am running the superb XP on a Dell . Windows 10 was launched this week , any reports on it good or bad ?
                        Update - just found the thread on Windows 10, I'll keep my eye on that. :blue thumb:
                         
                        Last edited: Aug 1, 2015
                      • shiney

                        shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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                        Hi @jjordie We're getting on OK, thanks. :blue thumb:

                        No problems with the operating system at all but we sometimes have an occasional hiccup with other things. Typical things are, mainly, getting slow or, very occasionally, freezing. The slow bit is usually after not having turned the computer off for a couple of weeks and it needs to do its updates. With freezing, I just turn the computer off, manually, give it 20 minutes to get over its sulking and then switch it back on. No problem :dbgrtmb:
                         
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