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Windows 10 available July 29th


Knuckles

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If your vintage software runs on WINE under Linux, then you have no reason to bother with Windows. Just make sure you know what you're getting in to.

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That hardly explains why just installing a different copy of Win7 fixed all the problems though does it? And considering the recent aricles warning about the unsecure "backdoors" built into Lenovos, are you really sure you should advise biuying one?

 

I am looking at a rebuilt laptop now, and considering whether I want it using Linux rather than Windows. I had a good look at Win8.1 and found it to be pretty much a waste of time since almost all of the "improvements" are in areas I am never going to use. I browse the internet, and I play games, period. I avoid Facebook, Twitter and all social networking like the plague, so what does Win8 etc offer me apart from incompatability with almost all my old and cherished software, nearly all of which it appears will run under Wine?

 

Sure it does. The hard drive could be going bad. A fresh format MAY solve the problem temporarily, but will eventually fail again and they'll be back to square one.

 

Any "back doors" that may be installed into a Lenovo will be software based - I.e. apps. And you can uninstall those without any issues. Most of those are kinda useless except maybe the one that runs the web cam - and the facial recognition thing.

 

As far as issues with old favorites go - not sure which apps you'd be having a problem with. I think I already mentioned this but I'm running a copy of Paint Shop Pro 7 - which came out in 2001. Also got Warcraft III and the sequel Frozen Throne running on here without issue.

 

The only program I did have a problem with was installing Office 2010 Starter. It wasn't originally supposed to work with Win 8.x but they later issued a patch. I had it installed until I got 2013.

 

What cherished software do you mean?

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After I built my new Windows 8.1 system, I found trhat oine of the games that I really NEEDED to run wouldn't, not even in legacy mode. Since I've never used DOSbox to run any games I've installed, I'm not familiar with how to set it up. I took the lazy way out and bought a Windows 7 machine that looked like it would work OK.

 

It was painfully slow! So slow that, even though I paid good money for it, it sites next to my custom machine and collects dust. :(

 

I have also added my name to the pot to get a free upgrade to Windows 10. If it doesn't work the way I hope, I still have the OEM install disk for Windows 8.1 ... which, after a few wrestling matches, now works just fine.

Edited by Spock
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So how do you do with the infamous 64bit system can't install 32 bit games due to them having 16bit installers? I had allsorts of problems when I was trying a Win7 64bit machine. Got some to work by installing onto my WinXP laptop then copied across via flashdrive, not perfect but worked sort of, although a lot of my stuff just refused point blank to work under Win7. Had hopes Win8 might work better, but after seeing that it was a Metro system I abandoned any thoughts of bothering with it.

Edited by podgie_bear
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I have found that if I put the install program on the computer and set it to a Legacy mode before trying to install the game it usually installs.

 

Unfortunately, the game I really needed to install was an old DOS game that worked quite well under Windows XP, SP3 but absolutely refused to install under Windows 8.1. :(

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So how do you do with the infamous 64bit system can't install 32 bit games due to them having 16bit installers? I had allsorts of problems when I was trying a Win7 64bit machine. Got some to work by installing onto my WinXP laptop then copied across via flashdrive, not perfect but worked sort of, although a lot of my stuff just refused point blank to work under Win7. Had hopes Win8 might work better, but after seeing that it was a Metro system I abandoned any thoughts of bothering with it.

Have you ever tried using Virtual XP Mode? I have numerous older communications programs that simply will not work on Win 7. I was creating dual boots for all our laptops, but that became a hassle switching between the two constantly while at work.

 

Once I loaded up Virtual XP all my older XP programs work with no issues

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So how do you do with the infamous 64bit system can't install 32 bit games due to them having 16bit installers? I had allsorts of problems when I was trying a Win7 64bit machine. Got some to work by installing onto my WinXP laptop then copied across via flashdrive, not perfect but worked sort of, although a lot of my stuff just refused point blank to work under Win7. Had hopes Win8 might work better, but after seeing that it was a Metro system I abandoned any thoughts of bothering with it.

Have you ever tried using Virtual XP Mode? I have numerous older communications programs that simply will not work on Win 7. I was creating dual boots for all our laptops, but that became a hassle switching between the two constantly while at work.

 

Once I loaded up Virtual XP all my older XP programs work with no issues

Nope it's not much use because almost all programs worked once on the Win7 computer in compatability mode, it was just the install programs (which seem to be 16bit despite programs being 32bit) that wouldn't even work in compatability mode. But I have just picked up a 'new' 2nd hand laptop with Win7 64bit and was thinking how to run my stuff on it. So far my only option seems to be the old tried and trusted XP laptop and copy across using flashdrive.

Edited by podgie_bear
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Unfortunately the game I want to run just refuses to run unless it's run under DosBox. :(

 

I bought a version from Gog that runs but it is version 4.x which was never an official release and many of the game options do not work. I have all the game files saved from after an install, so I copied those over to the new GoG install folder but the game will only run through once. If I try to start a new game, it doesn't run.

 

With DOS games, there were no registry entries, so my installed file option should work fine but it doesn't.

 

The game is Masters of Orion II. Anyone have any suggestions? For some reason I'm addicted to this game.

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