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Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question?

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On 7/10/2011 2:22 AM, mike wrote:
> ghelf wrote:
>> The original machine came with XP professional installed. The hard
>> drive crashed and I have no recovery disks. I've got the new HD
>> installed and I'm thinking, instead of buying and installing XP
>> professional, maybe I should just go with Window 7. Is this a bad
>> idea? The laptop is a HP/Compaq 6501b.
>
> If you have a XP COA/key you should be able to reinstall XP for free.
> Finding a CD that works with that key may be an issue. For Dells,
> most any dell cd will install on most any dell computer. No idea if
> that works for Compaqs.
>
> I put 7 on my desktop 'cause it was free at the launch event.
> Can't say that there's anything that it does that I couldn't already
> do with XP.

  Besides use modern hardware.  :)

>
> And there's lots of stuff it CAN'T do that I could do with XP.
> I had major issues with webcams and other legacy hardware that doesn't
> have vista/7 drivers.
>
> Yes, win7 claims to be plug and play with webcams. And if I plug in
> my webcam, I can indeed get a picture. Problem is that it's 320x240.
> There's no way to change that. No way to brighten the image so I can
> actually see it...I guess that's plug and play...GRRRRR!!
> You really do need "real vendor-supplied" drivers for anything that's
> configurable.
> And there's no incentive for the vendor to put resources into a driver
> that will get them zero revenue.

  Did you try simply loading the XP drivers?  I had the same problem 
with my webcam (and my printer) when I first installed Win7, couldn't 
find updated drivers, so I just downloaded and installed the original XP 
drivers.  Worked perfectly after that.

>
> Don't get me started on "security". Took me six months to find
> and disable enough of the "security" features so that I could
> actually use the thing without major hassles.
> Get used to seeing "sorry Charlie, you can't do that" and spending
> hours googling how to work around that inhibition.

  I never run into that...  What were you trying to do that it threw up 
so many warnings?

>
> It's been almost a year, but now that I've got it working much like
> XP, I like Win7 ultimate a lot.
> I recently ran an experiment with win7 starter. They disable many
> of the configuration utilities and it's maddening.
>
> If you like useless "eye-candy", win7 is the ticket. It'll be fun
> for half an hour, then you'll start trying to figure out how to get
> rid of it to get the performance up. I bought a new video card so I
> could enable "aero". Then had to figure out how to disable it.

  XP has a lot of useless eye candy, too.  The first thing I do when I 
come across an XP system is to  turn off all the pretty crap... just 
like I do with Vista and Win7.  All you have to do is go to advanced 
performance settings and set it to "best performance" vs "Let windows 
decide."

> Do I need to say, "invest in a backup program so this doesn't
> happen again?"

  Always good advice!

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Thread

Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? "ghelf" <ghelf@sbcglobalDeathToSpam.net> - 2011-07-09 17:55 -0700
  Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? Pen <nospam@spam.none> - 2011-07-09 22:28 -0400
    Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? Bob Villa <pheeh.zero@gmail.com> - 2011-07-09 21:27 -0700
    Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? BillW50 <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2011-07-10 12:14 -0500
  Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? lmarco@panix.com (Lou Marco) - 2011-07-10 04:44 +0000
    Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? lmarco@panix.com (Lou Marco) - 2011-07-10 04:46 +0000
  Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? "Ryan P." <rdeletepaque@wi.rr.comm> - 2011-07-10 00:43 -0500
  Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-07-10 00:22 -0700
    Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? Bob Villa <pheeh.zero@gmail.com> - 2011-07-10 05:09 -0700
    Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? "Ryan P." <rdeletepaque@wi.rr.comm> - 2011-07-10 17:39 -0500
      Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-07-10 23:15 -0700
        Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? "Ryan P." <rdeleteyannewguy@gremovemail.com> - 2011-07-11 12:45 -0500
          Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-07-11 21:01 -0700
  Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? Tazz <dmswaine@gmail.com> - 2011-07-10 23:57 -0300
  Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? "ghelf" <ghelf@sbcglobalDeathToSpam.net> - 2011-07-10 22:18 -0700
    Re: Installing Window 7 on a 4 year old laptop question? mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-07-10 23:49 -0700

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