Windows 7

[pureinsanity]

Mr limit.

That is a required system file. If you delete it then it will be automatically recreated after each restart or logout/login.

The file is set to 'Hidden'. If you do not want to see it on Desktop then you will have to go into the "Folder Options" and change it to not display 'Hidden files and folders' and to 'Hide protected operating system files'.

That should take care of your .ini file on the desktop

[pureinsanity]

Hey LMT, what did you pay for it if i may ask? And where?

I was going to order on line today for $99, but if i can buy it for that locally i would do it so I can install this weekend.

Maybe he will borrow you the cd and you can find a key

[LMITOUT]

Hey LMT, what did you pay for it if i may ask? And where?

I was going to order on line today for $99, but if i can buy it for that locally i would do it so I can install this weekend.

I bought it at the local BB, happily paid my sales tax and went on my way. You'll get it cheaper if you buy online I'm sure.

BTW, I'm glad I checked their prices online first because it was marked $20 higher in the store! Crooks. I asked them about the price difference and they marked it down to their online price but it seemed real shady.

[LMITOUT]

That is a required system file. If you delete it then it will be automatically recreated after each restart or logout/login.

The file is set to 'Hidden'. If you do not want to see it on Desktop then you will have to go into the "Folder Options" and change it to not display 'Hidden files and folders' and to 'Hide protected operating system files'.

That should take care of your .ini file on the desktop

Yes, it started appearing when I changed my folder options to display all hidden files and folders. I change that on every computer I use, but Win7 decides to annoy you by plopping that file/icon on the desktop. A few keystrokes later it's gone and won't be back...and my folder options remained the way I like'm!

[Matt C]

Why 'fix' what aint broken. My XP Pro does the trick just fine. .......However, I will admit, MS does make 7 Ultimate look sexy.

[upnorth]

My Fav OS is still XP, but Windows 7 is pretty cool too. Biggest issue so far not all business apps work with "7" and they aren't working on fixing it yet.

[LMITOUT]

Why 'fix' what aint broken.

My laptop came with Vista.

[Matt C]

My laptop came with Vista.

Yep...that needs fixin then

[pureinsanity]

So load XP and use a different code.

I will forever use XP as long as I can.

[spearchucker]

So load XP and use a different code.

I will forever use XP as long as I can.

For home use, I can't see where XP is better than Windows 7? Windows 7 seems to run much better on modern hardware than XP does. The only way I wouldn't want Windows 7 is if I was on really old hardware.

[pureinsanity]

For home use, I can't see where XP is better than Windows 7? Windows 7 seems to run much better on modern hardware than XP does. The only way I wouldn't want Windows 7 is if I was on really old hardware.

I haven't had much use with 7, but the times ive fixed peoples computers you always have to run as this run as that, permission for this permission for that.

[spearchucker]

There are configuration options to turn off all that stuff. Windows 7 seems faster to me and everything just works better.

[pureinsanity]

There are configuration options to turn off all that stuff. Windows 7 seems faster to me and everything just works better.

I am not against giving it a shot. but I am just familiar with XP and know how to fix a majority of things. that is the only reason I really perfer it.

[Shack]

To go from Home Pre to Ultimate, I enter a key and it does the rest with a reboot to start it off. Been a month since the last wipe and clean install. I use the recover disks I made (huge thing you should do if you did not get them with your PC) and just enter my upgrade key and install/unlock then reboot and restore what I would like. I should make a new set of recovery disks and I assume I will be able to drop the upgrade steps. Since MS is dropping support this summer with XP my work is finally taking on 7. Just so much easier than using 5 3rd party things to get to point B with compatablity. What drove the change the other week was part of a presentation for a job our customer is having us build was in Mpeg4. They showed up and were not impressed with the 3 hour wait trying to get it to display and getting a copied burned for use. I got involved after they left and bing bam boom with in minutes my Win 7 laptop displayed & burned a copy. The upgrade was placed that day for all three of our locations.

[Shack]

PI that perms issues can be lowered (Raised in auth actually) for that user. Or you can run as an IT user or admin. The XP compatablity options can be set to XP or even Win 95 or just put on auto run for older versions of Windows. All you may notice is the display change. I have not done this but I would bet you could run Win 7 in XP mode, change the display to XP but get the quickness of 7.

[spearchucker]

To go from Home Pre to Ultimate, I enter a key and it does the rest with a reboot to start it off. Been a month since the last wipe and clean install. I use the recover disks I made (huge thing you should do if you did not get them with your PC) and just enter my upgrade key and install/unlock then reboot and restore what I would like. I should make a new set of recovery disks and I assume I will be able to drop the upgrade steps. Since MS is dropping support this summer with XP my work is finally taking on 7. Just so much easier than using 5 3rd party things to get to point B with compatablity. What drove the change the other week was part of a presentation for a job our customer is having us build was in Mpeg4. They showed up and were not impressed with the 3 hour wait trying to get it to display and getting a copied burned for use. I got involved after they left and bing bam boom with in minutes my Win 7 laptop displayed & burned a copy. The upgrade was placed that day for all three of our locations.

Windows XP SP3 support doesn't end until 2014 or something.

[upnorth]

We have been trying to role out Windows 7 here where we work, but considering back dating to XP as there are too many issues with the software we use and Windows 7. 7 may be a good OS overall, but many software vendors are not updating their apps to support it or tell us we are on are own if we go to it. Not pleasant.

Home use, it is great, not a businesses are going to be making the switch ASAP.

[MuleShack]

Well I just finished installing the last of my programs and tweaking the display on my laptop.

Most seemed to go off with out a hitch. I have a finger swipe on the laptop and the old software didn't work with W7, but after i spent 2 hours trying to figure out what was wrong and upgrading the software and checking drivers I decided to just delete that software. Upon reboot windows had installed another vendors software for it and it was ready to go...funny how that works.

The only other issue is with Thunderbird. I did the windows easy transfer so everything from my laptop went on to a portable hard drive and then transferred back with the same software. However with Thunderbird, I cant seem to locate the mail file to re import the data back into the program. Has anyone experience with thunderbird to know what the extension is for their data files? I cant seem to locate them even in the windows.old files.

Other than that, I love the new W7.

[Shack]

Did you reinstall Thunderbird MuleShack? If not I believe Easy Transfer can not transfer programs. Try copying your Tbird folder over to 7 and open a command window or better yet "run" and access them by typing thunderbird.exe -P then head to where you put the files. Yes, when in doubt with Win 7, reboot it out.

Up North, "ASAP" is approaching almost two years now since the first beta release was on the scene. It has been a year & a half since I posted this thread: Click Here

Running a RC beta version.

One of our sister companies is a Com solutions firm that has been around since the late 80's. The IT department manger had the pricing for the bulk licences waiting in the wings for this moment. He said it best when he said "An IT staff fearing an OS upgrade/change throughout all departments is like a chef fearing his next order. We can handle this and look forward to the changeover.". It is starting to become a weak option to just deny the inevitable. They just finished last fall a change over to 2008. Opposite everyone who is just stuck back in 2003 it all worked out just like the Windows 7 change over will. I am taking full responsibility for our Minnesota location terminals (about 10).

It will be a welcome change because for the last 3 weeks or so I have been using my early and late teens DOS experience to its max and picking up new where I left off when I caved and embraced Windows 95. Getting a couple machines conversational that use DOS 6.22.

[MuleShack]

Yea, i figured it out later last night.

The files were in the App data folder under my user in windows.old. I was copying the whole profiles folder over where each one is coded with an ID, when eventually I simply copied the contents of the profile folder and then everything magically appeared...it was a happy moment

Now the only thing I have not found yet is the security certificate to my works VPN client, but I can down load a new one for that next week at work.

[MuleShack]

So today I start prepping my XP machine to do the Windows 7 upgrade and copy all my files to an external device etc.

I put in the DVD to start the upgrade and it doesn't do anything...to find out that i only have a CD drive on this unit

I call dell to see if they still make an internal DVD drive for this unit (Dimension 8250 from 2003) and they said they dont. I could try an external DVD, so I said great give me a suggested unit. She said they all need USB 2.0, I said I have USB 2.0 on the machine now so she checks and said that this unit came with USB 1.0 so if I formatted and tried reinstalling the DVD drive wouldn't work.

I guess it is time for a new computer.

Does anyone know if i could copy the windows 7 DVD to a flash drive and install off of that? I'm not sure the PC would boot from a flash drive? It still wouldn't help I guess because some of the new programs I want to put on there also are on DVD.

Maybe just run it until it dies

[Shack]

Your can boot from from a flash drive, but I think you still need 2.0.

Quote:

Recently, I have come across this little cool portable application that is able to do all the things covered in the previous tutorial in a breeze and without the command prompt.

The application that I am talking about is WinToFlash. This is a small application (only 2.1MB) that allows you to convert your Windows installer CD/DVD to a bootable USB drive. Not only is it easy to use (nearly [PoorWordUsage]-proof and does not require you to have any technical knowledge), it is also fully portable – No installation is required and you can bring it wherever you are.

Preparation

Before you start, here are some stuffs that you need to take note of:

1) You need to have a USB drive of at least 3GB space in order to create a Windows 7 bootable USB drive.

2) The process will format and wipe off all your files in the USB drive. Remember to backup before you proceed.

3) You need to have a Windows 7 installer DVD and an optical drive to read the DVD. If you have only the ISO file (downloaded directly from Microsoft), you can use Virtual Clone Drive to mount the ISO in your computer.

Installation

Download WinToFlash

Put in your Windows 7 installer DVD and plug in your USB drive.

Unzip the folder to your desktop and run the WinToFlash.exe file

Some of you might see the “WinToFlash DLP_NotFound” error message. You can safely ignore this error message.

On the main screen, click on the Window Setup Transfer Wizard. This will bring you to the wizard mode where it automates (almost) the whole process for you.

On the next screen, there is an option for you to go into the Advanced mode and tweak some of the settings. You can ignore that (if you are not into tweaking) and click Next to proceed.

Point the Windows file path to the Windows Installer DVD directory.

Point the USB drive to the USB directory.

Click Next.

Accept the agreement.

Preparing your USB drive. Make sure you have backup all the important files before you proceed. This will erase all your data.

Transferring in progress. This might take a while. Go for your coffee break.

Once you see the following message, the whole process is done. You can now boot Windows 7 from the USB drive.

Some computers require you to change the bootup setting in the BIOS before you can boot from USB. Look into your motherboard/computer manual for more instruction.

[spearchucker]

(Dimension 8250 from 2003) ....

I guess it is time for a new computer.

Maybe just run it until it dies

I wouldn't bother upgrading to 7 on a machine this old. You need a new machine.

[upnorth]

If it is from 2003 I wouldn't put a dime into is, you could buy a low end PC for under $400 bucks that could run circles around that thing and has Windows 7 already installed.

[delcecchi]

Can't you buy an internal dvd drive for like 20 bucks?