Windows 7

[analog]

I got volunteered by a well meaning friend to help our pastor get his new computer going.

I told him i could do a few simple things but am no expert.... He said he just wanted to copy and move his old sermons and email address book. That sounded innocuous enough.

Well Windows 7 came up smoothly, detected the DSL modem and connected to internet. We set our ISP for homepage.
So far so good.

Well there was no hint of an Email program, nothing called mail or outlook and no familiar icons.
A call to helpdesk suggested download Windows Live Mail from Microsofft.
Okay - it downloaded over five hundred megs in forty minutes , then picked out from that half-gig a fifty six meg email program that took under two minutes to install..
Email installer program requested login info and then some port protocol stuff that i don't know what is.
Clicking on the "How do i find port protocol parameters" opened a Windows help page of indecipherable gibberish.
Since Windows was already talking to ISP over Modem we reasoned Windows HAD to know port protocol - it was already communicating fine with ISP over the port, we left that field blank...
Windows did not complain about that and installed Live Mail successfully.
Starting Live Mail only resulted in connection time out.
I guess Windows' adjacent hands knoweth not what one another do.

So we gave up on Windows Email, i showed him how to get directly into his mail through ISP's homepage link..
--------------------------------------------------------------

Now to move those sermons....

On old computer (Windows XP) I "sent" about 400 sermons to a new CD disk in the CD read-write drive, clicked "Write ". It hummed for about three minutes, XP reported finished and I verified they were there.
So far so good.
Put newly written disk in new computer's CD drive, opened it, saw them all, selected all , clicked and dragged into a new desktop folder.
Well! It started moving files over at a A SMOKING 12Kb/second. It reported four, then five, then six hours to go.....
Speed dropped to 3.1 then 2.3 Kb/sec.. then it gave up estimating time left...
Every third or fourth sermon would generate an error message that seemed strange - "invalid MS-DOS sequence" i think it was.. and would not appear in destination folder.

I told Pastor i was in over my head. Windows has beaten me to my kneees,, again..............most of his sermons will be moved by midnight but some are being rejected by new Windows....

So the question is:
Does anybody know how to move Microsoft Works files from XP to 7 using their respective Read/Write DVD CD thingies ?
Does anyone know if Outlook will run on Shutters Seven?


Pardon me a brief vent ---------------
I can only conclude that Bill Gates is SATAN ...
he has taught an entire generation to embrace mediocrity and worship machines that produce nothing but frustration and entropy.
He has changed industry from producing locomotives and shoes to Powerpoint presentations.
If you don't think this is end times you're not paying attention............................

There's only seven seals and seven trumpets in Revelations - I hope seven is Windows' last toot.
[ In Revelations seventh trumpet triggers a great earthquake...]
Buy a MAC. Donate to Linux.
I kept my slide rule and my square Underwood..
End vent.------------------------

Sorry for rant guys but i do feel better.

a.

[Shapley]

Did you sacrifice a chicken prior to starting the new computer? I've found that works as good as anything...

[analog]

no chicken, and couldn't cuss at it either.....

[Shapley]

no chicken, and couldn't cuss at it either.....

Well, there's your problem...

[dai bread]

Bill Gates has a Foundation to support. He is in the business of making money for himself. Therefore you have to buy a whole new suite of everything when you upgrade your Windows software.

I haven't forgiven him for Vista, (now running reasonably well) and I'm in no hurry to "upgrade" to 7 or any other Windows product, especially at the price he's asking. I'll wait until this machine dies (which is likely to be some time off) and buy a Mac.

[analog]

Like Edison, a mediocre scientist and a tyrant. But an effective manager.

a.

[Trumpetmaster]

I feel for you....

Gates SUX.... He built an empire.... and puts out incomplete garbage systems that makes you waste time/money on trying to get things to work....

Vista ARGH>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The support for Vista bites the big one... Poorly written... now they want to upgrade to 7..
the upgrades to Service Pack 2 has helped but not what was expected.

they can go stuff it where the sun doesn't shine.....

I am looking at MACs for the next computer...

[analog]

Thanks TM.

I too look longingly at Macs.
Will either do that or put Linux on this one. Son did that and selects at startup whether to run Windows or Linux...


Did Microsoft abuse its monopoly? Or is it just consumer grade software can't be good and affordable at same time ?
I don't know ...

thinking on it the early stuff they sold our utility company was lousy. It's not just their consumer software that sucks.

Long ago in a galaxy far away... I was directed to put together a slideshow presentation for a visiting contingent of our VP's. I worked on it for about a week.
Our IT folks took great offense when, in the morning management meeting I explained i had no presentation for them: "Following yesterday evening's upgrade to Windows my slideshow presentation for this morning is ' Gone with the E-wind' and along with it everything else i have ever done on the computer.... "

[ text deleted - it reflected repressed anger and unhealthy behavior.. humbly apologize - a. ]


BTW i did get the presentation for them following week. Took the raw material over to our graphics department where kindly Nancy made overheads for me,,,,, with her MAC.



And I don't lay it ALL at Microsoft's feet. IBM was complicit - who'd have thought that the flagship of corporate America would have tolerated, let alone promoted such mediocre software. Certainly was contrary to their projected image.


a.

[dai bread]

BTW i did get the presentation for them following week. Took the raw material over to our graphics department where kindly Nancy made overheads for me,,,,, with her MAC.

Every graphics person I have ever known used Mac. Seems the tradition went back further than I thought.

As for IBM, they were stuck on mainframes for years and didn't see PCs coming. They went into them without thinking, just because they thought they should. Unfortunately their international reputation at the time ensured that Asian PCs were cloned IBMs, and with the cloning went Microsoft's software. IBM are only a shadow of their former selves.

Another big company that bit the dust was Burroughs. Once upon a mechanical time, almost every accounting machine in the country was Burroughs. Situations Vacant ads called for Burroughs machinists, as the operators were known. Now the company has vanished, merged out of existence in something called Unisys.

[Shapley]

More than once I've bought a new computer, tried it right out of the box, everything worked fine - until I had to load software on it. As soon as AutoCAD was loaded, most of the memory-intensive features stopped working. This is not Microsofts fault - these 'Windows compatible' softwares only guarantee that their product will run on windows, not that anything else will once its installed.

Physicians have a similar problem. They can usually tell you how this medicine will interact with that one, but throw a third medicine into the mix and all bets are off. Microsoft is only responsible for ensuring that their software will do what it is supposed to do with the functions they provide. They expect Corel or Autodesk or whoever to ensure that theirs will do likewise. Each of these companies assumes that theirs is the only software you'll be running, so they don't guarantee that you can run WordPerfect and AutoCAD and World of Warcraft on the same machine, let alone simultaneously.

For all of its limitations, DOS never pretended to multi-task.

Mac gets around this by simply not allowing all these other companies to make software for their machine.

[piqaboo]

/have the pastor email the sermons to himself, one at a time, as attachments.
Works best to title each email as in s#1, s#2 etc to make sure they all get thru

[analog]

thanks Ms Boo may resort to that..

will also see if can figure out how to establish "local network" over USb cable between machines...

a.

[Giant Communist Robot]

Physicians have a similar problem.

I know this is not what you meant, but I've noticed that my doctors use Windows CE on their computers. CE is an OS for cell phones.

[Giant Communist Robot]

Unfortunately their international reputation at the time ensured that Asian PCs were cloned IBMs

What allowed this to happen was their choice to go the open architecture route instead of proprietary. This allowed them flexibility and shifted development onto the open market. Had they locked up with patents you wouldn't be seeing any clones, just like you don't see any Apple or Mac clones. The result for the consumer would likely have meant higher prices, slower progress in computer design, and significantly fewer computers. With hindsight it looks like they made some careless decisions, but 80% of the PC market has benefited from them.

[Trumpetmaster]

We are dumping our computer with Vista and getting a new laptop with Windows 7.

I do not want Dell or HP and have been looking at Toshiba.

Does anyone have any comments about Toshiba or other laptop suggestions / specs?

thanks!

[BigJon]

My wife's Toshiba laptop has been rock solid on Win 7.

[Trumpetmaster]

My wife's Toshiba laptop has been rock solid on Win 7.

BigJon.

I would like to get on with at least 4mg memory
a fast processor and 64kb, not 32.

Is that what your wife has?

Thanks!
TM

[Giant Communist Robot]

We are dumping our computer with Vista

Has Microsoft released a bigger turkey than Vista? Maybe ME, but that even Microsoft skipped that one.

[BigJon]

My wife's Toshiba laptop has been rock solid on Win 7.

BigJon.

I would like to get on with at least 4mg memory
a fast processor and 64kb, not 32.

Is that what your wife has?

Thanks!
TM

Yes 64 bit OS and 4 GB of ram. I wouldn't even consider a 32-bit Windows 7. It will run poorly since Win 7 is such a resource hog.

[Giant Communist Robot]

For anyone using Windows 7 my personal preference for antivirus/spyware/rootkit protection is Microsoft Security Essentials. Older releases didn't do the job, but the new one does. Bootup and shut down times are longer, but otherwise I don't notice it. Free, and a more satisfactory experience than some commercially available software.