The old Windows key plus Tab trick. Hold 'em down, and the stuff flies by...And the latest version of Irfanview is now working in Windows 7, unlike its previous version. Irfan didn't think it needed fixing until I talked him into it a while ago. Now it's much better.
Getting used to Win Vista, haha. On my wife´s machine. Well, it just works fine so far. Maybe we´ll upgrade / swap it for Win 7 later.
ReplyDeleteWhat we´re not going to do is changing our OS all the time, we see it just as a tool to keep the machine running smoothly and recognizing all its limps (printer etc), and that´s it. The rest is done by special apps, not necessarily from MS.
I still have a copy of Win ME, why throw it away? Ah yeah well it still supports floppies...wuzzzat?????
Yet Win ME wasn´t that bad.
Enjoy the new week!
Actually, in retrospect, Vasta Vista wasn't as bad as many of us claimed.
ReplyDeleteWe were mostly just turned off by all the advanced hype, followed by the nearly two-year delay finishing it for retail use, and finding out that it wasn't really all that wonderful after all. That really cooked its goose with critics far and wide, including me.
So four months after i got this newest PC with Vista Home Premium on it, out came the beta of Win-7,
and when I saw the reports that it was already so stable a platform that many were using it full-time on their everyday working computers
I got a copy of the beta, and dumped Vista to install it. I can say quite honestly that I've never been sorry. Windows 7 is everything we hoped Vista would be, but wasn't. Solid, reliable, and above all fun to use, with new features that have been well and carefully thought out.
If your wife's Vista machine was just purchased lately, it should qualify for that free upgrade to Windows 7 after October 22nd - and then you'll see what we've all been yapping about in Windows 7.
And speaking of still having a copy of Win-ME, I do too, and also
98SE, and XP Pro. I didn't have a disk of Vista, because it came in the new PC last September - but I don't think that will be a problem.
I can't see myself wanting to put it back on here. :)
And I hear you about the special apps, not necessarily from MS...
I've had a lot of fun collecting dozens of those myself, and there's some good ones out there.
Like Open Office, and Firefox, and
Thunderbird, and Stellarium, and Google Earth, and others too numerous to mention.... some of those freebies are better than some of the stuff we have to pay for. And that includes security programs, too!
Enjoy your day,
-R.
I´ll have a look if I can upgrade in the way you suggested. Thank you for commenting.
ReplyDeleteAfter a while of using the Mac, I think I can now say that OS X is very very stable, solid, etc.
Converting from Windows to Mac is still a bit of a problem for me, though, concerning the applications like Safari (the Mac browser), iPhoto etc.
The organization of the folders is different, at the moment I dare even say that Windows is just a tad more userfriendly. Mac has several userfriendly features, no question, but getting used to them and apply them involves some learning.
Anyway, this opinion comes from a Windows defector and might be (no, it surely is) biased.
Both systems have their advantages, they´re even excellent in some parts, and we should be happy that we can comment on them without the task of having to develop all those programs, haha.
Speaking of developing all those programs, this latest Windows is largely the result of the users feedback while being developed. In the first versions of the beta version, there was a little icon on the desktop marked 'Feedback', and clicking that brought up a form to fill in your comments to Microsoft.
ReplyDeleteMany of us used that almost daily for comments and suggestions, and at Microsoft, they were very busy sorting it all out, and making changes to the program, which were then reflected in new updates they released to those of us testing it.
I thought that was a great idea, and I suggested they keep that little icon for feedback in the finished versions, but they aren't.
It worked out very well though. If nothing else, it gave us the feeling that we were actually part of the process, and we were in a way. Microsoft also collected a lot of ideas for use later on - not least of which is that we do like to be consulted about what we want to use. It went a long way toward getting past that 'us & them' problem. We aren't as likely to be critical of something we feel we're helping to develop. So it was good psychology for MS.
Yes, a good idea of MS to include this R&D button.
ReplyDeleteIt just came to my mind that this button should indeed prove to be very useful for a software firm, why haven´t they installed it earlier? To them it´s a free R&D process, which would cost millions when done the traditional way (within the walls of the company).
It´s what made Linux popular: a common effort to accomplish a task, for the benefit of the community.
My wife is very happy with computers & Co!
Remember up to only two weeks ago she was a total newbee! And now she´s writing her first dairy on the computer, including firing it up, and shutting it down, and dodging all those pop ups! And she / we belong to the target area: Windows for seniors, haha!
She really enjoys it!
We´re thinking of getting a touch type learning programme. I used one in English, I had to convert the keyboard to English, and it was so easy to learn it. When I think back: doing the same exercises on those clattering typewriters was so frustrating that I gave it up.
But now I touch type all my stuff.
She will also install a home financials programme. And do some digital photographing, etc etc.
:-)
My old computer that once had XP Pro
ReplyDeletefinally died today. Not really died, but suddenly just refused to let me access most of it. Maybe the Win-7 was just too much for it and its old Pentium 4 CPU.
I took it down to Dwight's shop, and he wiped the drive clean to clear out whatever it was. Then I asked him why I should have to take it back home again anyway. He said, "I can find you a really good deal on a new one with a quad core CPU, 4 Gigs of RAM, and a 600 Gb Hard Drive, and you can pick it up tomorrow. Just say the word and
it's done." So I said "The word! - see you tomorrow."
Speaking of adding programs, if you want a nice fully-featured office program that does spreadsheets and all that other stuff, have a look at the open-source and free Open Office. You can find it right here and it does everything MS Office does, plus a bit more. Worth a look. And if you don't want the whole nine yards of that, then try AbiWord the free word processor.
Getting back to new PCs, the one that I'm getting will have Vista Home Premium on it, and then I get the free upgrade to Windows 7 when that goes retail on October 22nd -
so then I'll have both rigs on the
same operating system, because I've already got that half-price deal for pre-ordering a copy of Windows 7 for this other one. And with it on both, you can use a feature built into it called HomeGroup, which connects any computers on a home network as long as they each use Windows 7.
It's just a matter of a few clicks
on a page in the program, and then you can share access to files and photos and even streaming video or audio if you like. Another nice feature of Win-7.
I can't help much with a financial program, but there is a section of Open Office that handles things like that, as I recall. Have a look.
For digital photography, there's some free software on Canon's site, such as ZoomBrowser and PhotoStitch
ReplyDeleteand CanoScan Toolbox (for scanners).
ZoomBrowser is a management program,
like for albums, and some very basic
editing. PhotoStitch with combine
several images into a panorama view.
CanoScan Toolbox works with your photo-editing program, (like for example Arcsoft's PhotoStudio 5.5)
for downloading scans into your computer and editing & resizing them, using the features of that other editing program. It operates through the other program, to move the images from the scanner into the computer's editing program, from where you can edit or file them.
Thanks for all the valuable information about programmes Ray.
ReplyDeleteI will check out your suggestions.