XP Pro or XP Home full edition, not OEM?

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beanzontoast
numbnuts said:
This stinks Microsoft have bought out windows 7 and it is "not fit for purpose" as it can’t use old software, if that’s the case there should be a warning saying so on the box/computer:angry:

I quite like Windows 7 in some ways, but this business about software that doesn't run on it is certainly an issue. In this case it's 'only' a few games that I'm trying to get running, but to the person concerned, those games are important.

What else stinks is the trouble I'm having trying to find a copy of XP to use as a workaround! :biggrin:
 
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beanzontoast
mr Mag00 said:
ooops apologies so it was sorry

No problem - thanks for taking the time to make a suggestion in the first place! :biggrin:
 
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beanzontoast
phil_hg_uk said:
It is very unlikley you will find a retail XP it has not been on retail sale for a long time. As XP is an obsolete OS just use the OEM it's not like anyones going to care anyway.

Thing is -and I know I'm trying to future-proof here - if they want to be able to continue playing the game for longer than the life of the machine I'm putting together (quite possible - I have a flying game that's 10 years old and which is still very heavily suported on the internet), they will need a full version of XP in order to be able to install XP on whatever the next machine is. So, though OEM would be a quick fix, as the computer is going to be a gift, a full version of XP would be a better thing for me to be able to give them.
 

rh100

Well-Known Member
numbnuts said:
This stinks Microsoft have bought out windows 7 and it is "not fit for purpose" as it can’t use old software, if that’s the case there should be a warning saying so on the box/computer:angry:

It's a different beast to XP, seven or eight years or so is a long time in IT and things change. How far back should compatibility go? NT4? ME? 98 or 95? It's down to the software to keep up with the OS, and most well supported games and packages will issue a patch or update to be compatible, but in this case The Sims 2 is old, and has already been superseded by Sims 3, so less likely to get patched. It was sold as XP compatible and remains so.
 

rh100

Well-Known Member
beanzontoast said:
Thing is -and I know I'm trying to future-proof here - if they want to be able to continue playing the game for longer than the life of the machine I'm putting together (quite possible - I have a flying game that's 10 years old and which is still very heavily suported on the internet), they will need a full version of XP in order to be able to install XP on whatever the next machine is. So, though OEM would be a quick fix, as the computer is going to be a gift, a full version of XP would be a better thing for me to be able to give them.

The OEM disk will do the same - you still get the license sticker. The activation times out after a while and will allow you to reactivate XP on other hardware.
 

phil_hg_uk

I am not a member, I am a free man !!!!!!
beanzontoast said:
Thing is -and I know I'm trying to future-proof here - if they want to be able to continue playing the game for longer than the life of the machine I'm putting together (quite possible - I have a flying game that's 10 years old and which is still very heavily suported on the internet), they will need a full version of XP in order to be able to install XP on whatever the next machine is. So, though OEM would be a quick fix, as the computer is going to be a gift, a full version of XP would be a better thing for me to be able to give them.

It makes no difference as far as future activation goes you can still reactivate the OEM when needed, if you couldnt then when a PC needs a new motherboard under warranty you wouldnt be able reactivate it when it has been fixed.
 
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beanzontoast
rh100 said:
It's a different beast to XP, seven or eight years or so is a long time in IT and things change. How far back should compatibility go? NT4? ME? 98 or 95? It's down to the software to keep up with the OS, and most well supported games and packages will issue a patch or update to be compatible, but in this case The Sims 2 is old, and has already been superseded by Sims 3, so less likely to get patched. It was sold as XP compatible and remains so.

I agree that running it in XP is most obvious - if I can get my hands on a copy of full XP, that is what I will set the system up to do.

[To digress slightly and follow your other point - But at best, a game can only be marketed as compatible with whatever the current OS is: this doesn't (or at least, shouldn't) have to mean that all games from a previous OS will not run in whatever comes next and thus have to be junked. I hoped that MS had evolved beyond that and that in Win 7 the retro-compatibility issues lessons of Vista had been learned]
 
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beanzontoast
phil_hg_uk said:
It makes no difference as far as future activation goes you can still reactivate the OEM when needed, if you couldnt then when a PC needs a new motherboard under warranty you wouldnt be able reactivate it when it has been fixed.

Phil (and rh100) - I'm a bit nervous of saddling them with anything that requires them to be overly tech-savvy in the future, and I don't pretend to know all there is to know. If they were to get an entirely new pc in a few years time, they would need the full version of XP to use on it wouldn't they?
 

rh100

Well-Known Member
It will install on a new machine as easily as this one. OEM and retail disks are the same, just the packaging and licensing is different. (as said earlier, so long as the disk is not machine specific image disk, but from an online retailer it wont be, just be carefull of ebay).

At worst, it may refuse to activate online because it's already been activated already. I think the retail version may be more tolerant of this. However, as Phil says there has to be a way around this, incase of major hardware failure. If the activation fails, you get a UK phone number and a code on screen, you phone the automated service and follow the instructions, and in fact there is an option to say the motherboard has been replaced, it then gives you a reply code to type in and activates XP.

It used to go through to an operator, but is fully automated the last few times I did it. However, if it's longer than about 6 months (IME) it just activates with no need of the phone call - I assume they must clear the logs.

there is nothing dodgy in it IMO, you build the PC so are entitled to OEM software. MS have recognized this issue for home builders and I believe they have relaxed the rules a bit for Win 7.

The rules are there to stop shops just reusing the same licence all the time.
 

rh100

Well-Known Member
beanzontoast said:
I agree that running it in XP is most obvious - if I can get my hands on a copy of full XP, that is what I will set the system up to do.

[To digress slightly and follow your other point - But at best, a game can only be marketed as compatible with whatever the current OS is: this doesn't (or at least, shouldn't) have to mean that all games from a previous OS will not run in whatever comes next and thus have to be junked. I hoped that MS had evolved beyond that and that in Win 7 the retro-compatibility issues lessons of Vista had been learned]

It's always a gamble isn't it. Trouble is if everything had to stay compatible, we'd be stuck with DOS still :biggrin: (IRQ settings anybody? :smile: )

They do have upgrade compatibility checking software for Vista and 7, it's supposed to advise you if your current setup could take the upgrade or not. For me, I have Vista as my downstairs general use PC, Vista for the media center PC under the telly - remarkably stable in this role.

But for gaming, especially the flight sim stuff, it's still XP. I just don't think it's worth the trade off of losing access to add ons that I paid for. I don't blame MS for not allowing the old stuff to work on Vista or 7, and I won't pay for new add ons, XP works fine so will keep it.
 
Regarding Dual booting, don't bother unless running a virtual machine has already been tried..

Get a copy of Virtual Box (free) and run that directly from within Windows. That way you can run a proper copy of Windows XPMeNT9895Dos etc. from an icon on your desktop, either full screen or inside a window.

You will of course still need a proper copy of whatever operating system you want to use and it will not mess about with bootloaders and therefore reduce the chance of breaking the existing OS.
 
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beanzontoast
rh100 said:
It's always a gamble isn't it. Trouble is if everything had to stay compatible, we'd be stuck with DOS still :biggrin: (IRQ settings anybody? :smile: )

They do have upgrade compatibility checking software for Vista and 7, it's supposed to advise you if your current setup could take the upgrade or not. For me, I have Vista as my downstairs general use PC, Vista for the media center PC under the telly - remarkably stable in this role.

But for gaming, especially the flight sim stuff, it's still XP. I just don't think it's worth the trade off of losing access to add ons that I paid for. I don't blame MS for not allowing the old stuff to work on Vista or 7, and I won't pay for new add ons, XP works fine so will keep it.

Personally, I have to agree. If my flight sim packed in (about the only game I have on pc), I'd be gutted!
 
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