Re: Anyone Installed Windows 7?

On Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:41:02 -0600, Nestor <nestor@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

El Castor wrote:
On Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:16:57 -0600, Nestor <nestor@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rita wrote:
On Tue, 3 Nov 2009 15:41:10 -0800 (PST), freeisbest
<demeter547opine@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Nov 3, 1:37 pm, El Castor <No_...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Five or six months ago Microsoft briefly had a deal on Amazon -- buy
the Windows 7 upgrade for $50, and wait for it to be shipped. It was a
pretty good deal, so I bit. I could have installed the beta at that
point, but anti-virus programs were having a problem with it so I
decided to hold off for the finished product. Anyhow, a few days ago
it arrived. Since I was using Vista, the upgrade consisted of sticking
a CD in the drive and clicking a couple of things. Four hours (!)
later it finished.

I'd like to report that it's amazing and wonderful -- the greatest
thing since swiss cheese, but at least on the surface it's just a
slicker version of Vista. It boots faster -- on a dual processor cpu
it's about 30 seconds to the login prompt, and from there to the
desktop another 12 seconds. The desktop is similar to Vista, but from
the tool bar to virtually every mouse click it's all slightly better
thought out. Clearly, a lot of people racked their brains tweaking the
interface. My software and data was where I left it, and it still
worked, and in some cases, possibly a hair faster. All in all, very
slick, but if you've got Vista, is it worth the $119 price to upgrade?
At $50, I would do it again, but for $119, probably not. -snip-
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for the report. Vista works quickly enough on my computer
that I don't want to upgrade until, as you say, it gives us a real
improvement and is reasonably cheap.
I'm definitely not interested in upgrading for the sake of having
the latest operating system; I still pine for the grand old days when
we used Windows 98 for more than 8 years, with never a problem.
I hope I don't need to upgrade from XP until my computer gives out.
I don't use my computer for anything these days except browsing,
Email and newsgroups. Now that I seem to have my mouse problem
solved the computer works perfectly with XP.

Still I may buy a second computer, a laptop, to have an extra
around, and I've seen some, pretty basic, that run versions of
Linux and are not expensive.
The problem I have with Windows 7 is that it does not support (no
driver, no parallel port support) HP Laserjet 4 Plus. HP doesn't support
it either, but 3rd party drivers are available for XP (not for Windows 7).

Yet, my 4 Plus is in fine condition and has been for 13 years. There is
no reason to replace it.

I have some problems with my XP that someday I will have to fix. One of
these days after an update it is not going to start up. I think then I
will go to Linux for good. Gnucash works for personal finance, though it
is a pain to learn.

A friend recommends Ubuntu as an easier Linux system to learn, and with
more support. I've been using Fedora.

As for safety, my opinion is that Linux's only safety is that few people
use it. There are Linux rootkits and they do infect machines.

There are usb to parallel port cables (less than 10 bucks on Amazon).
Here's a link to a forum in which a similar HP driver problem is
discussed, and a solution found. Something similar might work for you,
I don't know.
http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/4122-hp-laserjet-driver.html

The professional and ultimate versions of Windows 7 support a free XP
emulator that runs in a virtual machine. But, Linux or a VM just to
save a thirteen year old printer? Whew. Lots of good sub $100 laser
printers around. (-8

I checked the usb-parallel support already. It doesn't work unless the
printer driver is installed. Drivers for 4 Plus are no longer provided
in 7.

That was my first idea. Sadly, it won't work.

Hmmm. Don't jump to conclusions. HP doesn't supply a driver, but
Microsoft does. It's just not included in a standard Windows 7
install. You have to download it from Microsoft.

When I Google: "Windows 7" Laserjet 4 driver

I get 90,000+ hits, including:
http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/6192-hp-laserjet-4-driver.html

"I had trouble finding how to get my HP Laserjet 4 printer to work in
Windows 7.
My research indicates it would run in Vista using built in drivers,
but I didn't have or use Vista. I also tried driversguide, and HP site
just says "supported"
When I used one of the available earleir drivers I always get the
error message:
"W2 INVALID PERS"
OK Solved it now. Lots of drivers in a package for HP laserjets. Go to
the Windows Update page and download the package; here:
http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=%22windows%207%20laserjet%204%22

I went to the Microsoft site myself (you have to use IE6 or above),
and opened the driver catalog. Guess what the very first driver was --
Laserjet 4 Plus. (-8

.

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