I have Office Pro 2010 and it is absolutely fine.
Windows XP.... anyone going to keep on using it?
- Thread starter MontyVeda
- Start date
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Fine for you perhaps. Very good. Amongst my friends and colleagues the news isn't QUITE so good however. sadface dot jaypeg.
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
I don't think my mum plans to update her laptop, its running XP, so she'll be continuing to use it.
JoeyB
Go on, tilt your head!
- Location
- Fareham, Hampshire
our office is currently upgrading and as usual loads of problems with compatability are emerging. If history repeats itself they will probably only just have sorted the problems by the time windows 97 comes out
I assume they didn't do a pilot first??
Well I'm typing this on my net-book running Linux Puppy from a USB stick that I downloaded the "iso" to, having found a suitable program to burn it to the USB stick!
Its "talking" to my iPhone for the wireless connection but I have so far failed to get it to connect via my USB 3g dongle.
When I get home I shall download the Linux Mint suggested above and give it all a go.
If my memory serves me correct I think that I have got this far before......time will tell if I get any further with Mint!!
Its "talking" to my iPhone for the wireless connection but I have so far failed to get it to connect via my USB 3g dongle.
When I get home I shall download the Linux Mint suggested above and give it all a go.
If my memory serves me correct I think that I have got this far before......time will tell if I get any further with Mint!!
marknotgeorge
Hol den Vorschlaghammer!
- Location
- Derby.
The three laptops and one netbook at home all run either windows 7 or 8.1. I've found that the latest revision of the Samsung NC10 netbook BIOS has embedded code to run the OEM version of Windows 7, so it got upgraded.
Ian A
Über Member
- Location
- Leicester/Keighley
You'd be best off making sure every usb device you intend on using is plugged into the computer when you install the new version of Linux. Tends to be the easiest way for things to be installed if they're supported.
I'm sure IS were diligent in their feasibility and design stage!! LOL
Davidc
Guru
- Location
- Somerset UK
I have several bits of hardware (printers and scanners and bits of video and audio kit) for which there are no vista/W7/W8 drivers so my old laptop will go on with XP as long as I have them.
I'll be setting the machine not to run automatic updates to avoid any unwanted messages from MS appearing, and will also be setting he firewall (Private Firewall not the MS one) to bar internet access and restrict it to the LAN only.
Ultimately, if I have to I'll run Ubuntu Linux, which is on dual boot on that machine, but I don't expect to have any problems just going on using XP.
Quite why anyone uses MS Office any longer when the much superior Libre Office is available I don't understand, but they do and I wonder how many updates to MSO will pass before it no longer works on XP
I'll be setting the machine not to run automatic updates to avoid any unwanted messages from MS appearing, and will also be setting he firewall (Private Firewall not the MS one) to bar internet access and restrict it to the LAN only.
Ultimately, if I have to I'll run Ubuntu Linux, which is on dual boot on that machine, but I don't expect to have any problems just going on using XP.
Quite why anyone uses MS Office any longer when the much superior Libre Office is available I don't understand, but they do and I wonder how many updates to MSO will pass before it no longer works on XP
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Chris Norton
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Boston, Lincs
Kingsoft do a nice free set of office programs that do everything I need to do on a office package. Lets face it, just how many people use all the bells and whistles of Microsoft office? Not many I bet.
jonesy
Guru
Oh dear. Inspired by this thread I thought I'd try dual booting my aging XP desktop with Linux (PCLinuxOS- I did originally try Mint, but it needed to boot from DVD, which my PC can't). The instructions seemed straightforward enough, and the Linux bit works (I'm posting from it) however half my hard drive seems to have disappeared following the partitioning required to install it... 
leaving the C: drive, which originally had about 50GB in it, now about 50MB, and Windows, not surprisingly, unable to start. I attempted to re-install Windows, which couldn't fit into C (and didn't detect any previous installation either), so the installer set up a new partition and Windows is now limping along in a new drive H, with no updates, lots of missing drivers, and unable to install up to date browsers. And no sign of the files that were originally there. Fortunately we backed up all the documents on the hard drive on an external drive, so can restore them in theory, but really need to have a properly working version of Windows and the missing space accessible to copy them into. Windows is showing about the right amount of disk space as 'empty space' alongside the partitions, but I don't know if it will be possible to restore this. I have seen references to utilities for fixing partition problems like this, but looks like it will be difficult even downloading them properly with Windows, and I'm reluctant to mess around further with partitions from Linux. I suspect the most likely outcome is that I'm going to have to do a clean re-install of Windows, re-formatting the whole hard drive, re-installing the important software and then copying back from the backup, but if anyone has any bright ideas to avoid this, I'd be very grateful! And will it still be possible to download already released XP updates once Microsoft stop supporting it, or will they take even those off their website?
leaving the C: drive, which originally had about 50GB in it, now about 50MB, and Windows, not surprisingly, unable to start. I attempted to re-install Windows, which couldn't fit into C (and didn't detect any previous installation either), so the installer set up a new partition and Windows is now limping along in a new drive H, with no updates, lots of missing drivers, and unable to install up to date browsers. And no sign of the files that were originally there. Fortunately we backed up all the documents on the hard drive on an external drive, so can restore them in theory, but really need to have a properly working version of Windows and the missing space accessible to copy them into. Windows is showing about the right amount of disk space as 'empty space' alongside the partitions, but I don't know if it will be possible to restore this. I have seen references to utilities for fixing partition problems like this, but looks like it will be difficult even downloading them properly with Windows, and I'm reluctant to mess around further with partitions from Linux. I suspect the most likely outcome is that I'm going to have to do a clean re-install of Windows, re-formatting the whole hard drive, re-installing the important software and then copying back from the backup, but if anyone has any bright ideas to avoid this, I'd be very grateful! And will it still be possible to download already released XP updates once Microsoft stop supporting it, or will they take even those off their website?
Wobblers
Euthermic
- Location
- Minkowski Space
It does sound like the Linux installation has damaged the partition table. Possibly (Hopefully) it just resized your C: drive too small, so you won't have lost any data or overwritten any files. You could try to access the C: drive from the Windows installation you've got from "My Computer", if it's there. If not, try a Dos box (to get one, go to the start menu, click on "Run Program" and type in "cmd".) That way you can at least check to see if your data is still intact. You should be able to run one of the partitioning utilities on your working Windows installation - it's a long time since I've had to use one in anger, so I can't give you any recommendations, I'm afraid.
The Linux installation will have set up at least part of your system disk as a Linux file system disk. The Windows installation disk doesn't recognise that, so it will report it as unallocated space. A Disk partitioning utility will report the Linux partitions as "ext4" or (less likely) "ext3". If you delete those Linux partitions and increase the size of the Windows C: partition (it will most likely be the first partition reported on the partitioning utility), hopefully you should be able to start Windows normally - provided none of the data or files has been lost! Good luck, there should be someone along to give you better advice shortly. Let us know how you get on, or if you've got any questions, someone should be able to give you a few tips.
The Linux installation will have set up at least part of your system disk as a Linux file system disk. The Windows installation disk doesn't recognise that, so it will report it as unallocated space. A Disk partitioning utility will report the Linux partitions as "ext4" or (less likely) "ext3". If you delete those Linux partitions and increase the size of the Windows C: partition (it will most likely be the first partition reported on the partitioning utility), hopefully you should be able to start Windows normally - provided none of the data or files has been lost! Good luck, there should be someone along to give you better advice shortly. Let us know how you get on, or if you've got any questions, someone should be able to give you a few tips.
I installed Mint on this machine, not in tandem with Windows but to replace windows altogether. When I needed to reinstall Windows the Windows disk wouldn't boot and I couldn't install it. In the end I booted into linux from a USB stick and ran it off the stick. That enabled me to use Gparted to clear all the partitions and format the drive which allowed me to reinstall windows. I was wondering if something like that would help @jonesy to make it easy to examine/reset his partitions.
