Microsoft is going to stick it to us again

[Hawkmoon]

What about peripherals?  Printers, monitors, "office documents" (Word & Excel), media players, etc.?  Where do we find those drivers and programs, esp. for older hardware?

Documents are documents. Libre Office, Apache Open Office, Softmaker Office, and probably a number of ther office suites for Linux will read and write Microsoft office files.

[bedlamite]

Printers, HP, Canon, and Brother have good support, Epson not so much. Monitors have never been an issue. Get a copy of Libre office for Windows, it's pretty much the same as fro Linux. No clue on media players, I use my MP3s on my Android phone.

[lee n. field]

What about peripherals?  Printers, monitors, "office documents" (Word & Excel), media players, etc.?  Where do we find those drivers and programs, esp. for older hardware?

Mostly no problem.  But, do research your printers before buying it.

[WLJ]

Official announcement on W10 II/WinX(W11?) suppose to be tomorrow. It's still in beta but if the "leaked" version is any guide it will be mostly interface changes. Slightly worrisome for users of older computers is a rumored UEFI and DRM 2.0 requirement which will lock out many computers ~10 years or older. But these requirements may be modified or even not make it to the final ver

[lee n. field]

Not going to worry about it until the real thing ships.  Stuff always changes, from beta to release version.   I pretty much always ignore the MS betas. MS always changes plans (I remember hearing how MS had plans to embed DOS 5 in everything.  Doesn't look like that happened.)

[WLJ]

Not going to worry about it until the real thing ships.  Stuff always changes, from beta to release version.   I pretty much always ignore the MS betas. MS always changes plans (I remember hearing how MS had plans to embed DOS 5 in everything.  Doesn't look like that happened.)

Remember WinFS?

[lee n. field]

Looked over MS' Win11 page (here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11?ocid=eml_sv_cons_wip_awr_announce)

I'm sure there'll be gotchas, but a big "Meh".

"Windows 8 Strikes Back", the sequel to "Windows, A New Hope"

Launcher thingee in the middle.  Meh.

Wonder if you can set up local accounts out of the box in Home.  Or at all.

"Where's muh Control Panel!"

Minimum 4GB RAM, which means it will suck!! be close to unusable on 4GB RAM.

Watch what they do with the licensing.  I'm going to bet they close off the free upgrade from Win7 thing.  If you computer still has 7, it's high time to get a new computer.

[WLJ]

Videos out showing people changing the interface "back"? to W10 style. Hopefully MS won't disable that.

IMHO 4gb is the minimum useful ram with 10. Yes you can run it with 2 or even 1 in some cases but it's like dragging a rusty anchor behind you IMHO.

[Ben]

Wonder if you can set up local accounts out of the box in Home.  Or at all.

On the machine I got in DEC, while not straightforward, it didn't take too much fussing to bypass MS and create only a local account on that machine. I still do not have a Microsoft account, nor do I want one.

Hopefully there will still be a local account workaround. Otherwise, in all likelihood, I'll just be using 10 until end of life.

 So 11 will not be cloud only? You can install a physical version on a machine and it will be fully functional even without an interwebz connection?

[zxcvbob]

Looks like they are killing the 32-bit version.  (I like 32-bit for machines with 4GB of RAM)

[Phantom Warrior]

"Where's muh Control Panel!"

That's not funny!   

[Hawkmoon]

Looks like they are killing the 32-bit version.  (I like 32-bit for machines with 4GB of RAM)

I have an older Dell desktop that I finally "upgraded" to Windows 10. I keep it as a backup computer, in case my newer, primary machine goes down. I installed Windows 10 as a 64-bit system, and I really wish I had chosen 32-bit. The computer has 4 GB of RAM and it's ... really ... slooooowwww. I'll double the RAM, but I don't know how much difference it will make.

[WLJ]

I have an older Dell desktop that I finally "upgraded" to Windows 10. I keep it as a backup computer, in case my newer, primary machine goes down. I installed Windows 10 as a 64-bit system, and I really wish I had chosen 32-bit. The computer has 4 GB of RAM and it's ... really ... slooooowwww. I'll double the RAM, but I don't know how much difference it will make.

Install an SSD, can make a HUGE difference

[Bogie]

Hell, I don't even know what I'm running right now, except that it is Mint, and has been for a few years now. I have a Windows 10 machine in the living room, which I have been considering turning into a media machine, and it is faster than what is essentially my office terminal (the Mint box), but I haven't fired it up in a few months. 42" living room screen, but... Mostly I'm either in the reading chair or the office.

[zxcvbob]

I have an older Dell desktop that I finally "upgraded" to Windows 10. I keep it as a backup computer, in case my newer, primary machine goes down. I installed Windows 10 as a 64-bit system, and I really wish I had chosen 32-bit. The computer has 4 GB of RAM and it's ... really ... slooooowwww. I'll double the RAM, but I don't know how much difference it will make.

So install the 32-bit version while it's still available. 

[lee n. field]

I have an older Dell desktop that I finally "upgraded" to Windows 10. I keep it as a backup computer, in case my newer, primary machine goes down. I installed Windows 10 as a 64-bit system, and I really wish I had chosen 32-bit. The computer has 4 GB of RAM and it's ... really ... slooooowwww. I'll double the RAM, but I don't know how much difference it will make.

That will help.  4GB just isn't enough to run Win 10 well now, even with old HD replaced by SSD.

And, you might not probably won't see the full 4GB with a 32 bit system.  The system will probably see 3.5 GB, possibly less.  A quirk of how 32 bit Windows works.

[zxcvbob]

That will help.  4GB just isn't enough to run Win 10 well now, even with old HD replaced by SSD.

And, you might not probably won't see the full 4GB with a 32 bit system.  The system will probably see 3.5 GB, possibly less.  A quirk of how 32 bit Windows works.

Yes, I think it's 3.5GB available, but it runs pretty well that way.  I never could get the upper page to work in 32-bit Windows with 8GB installed (there's a name for that but I can't remember it)  Each process can only access up to 4GB but it should be able to use the upper memory for another process or for a swap file or something; 32-bit Linux can do that.

[WLJ]

That will help.  4GB just isn't enough to run Win 10 well now, even with old HD replaced by SSD.

And, you might not probably won't see the full 4GB with a 32 bit system.  The system will probably see 3.5 GB, possibly less.  A quirk of how 32 bit Windows works.

Some older PCs will have a setting in BIOS to hide any RAM >2gb or even 4gb from windows since having >2gb of ram could often cause stability issues with XP. It was somewhat but not entirely fixed in the 64bit ver of XP.

[ConstitutionCowboy]

Install an SSD, can make a HUGE difference

Boy, it sure made a difference on my HP that I'm running Windows 7 on. Boot-up time is about 4 times faster than with the original HDD. I can be up and running on the internet in less than a minute. I have a two part program - Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1775 version) - that are around 2 gigs each part, run on Adobe reader 9, and they load in about 5 seconds. SSD is the way to go.

I was able to completely clone the HDD to the SSD (Samsung 870 EVO, 1 TB) using Macrium Reflectand now I have a way to keep a copy of Windows 7 isolated on the old HDD in case I ever need to reload Windows 7. The HDD is disconnected and conveniently 'stored' in its bay in the tower.

Woody

PS: I also have Windows XP loaded onto a VM (Oracle Virtual Box) on my computer and it cloned over to the SSD slicker than greased lightning along with all else on the old HDD.

Woody

[Hawkmoon]

Install an SSD, can make a HUGE difference

Just bought a Western-Digital Blue for it. I'll install that along with the new RAM. I also have a separate graphics card that I'll stuff in it to relieve the motherboard of also playing GPU. Not a high-end graphics card, by any means, but more than adequate for a backup machine. The only game it will ever see is the XP version of Solitaire.

[WLJ]

Official announcement on W10 II/WinX(W11?) suppose to be tomorrow. It's still in beta but if the "leaked" version is any guide it will be mostly interface changes. Slightly worrisome for users of older computers is a rumored UEFI and DRM 2.0 requirement which will lock out many computers ~10 years or older. But these requirements may be modified or even not make it to the final ver

Had DRM on my mind. DRM should TPM 2.0

[WLJ]

Turns out my main desktop which is only a 5 year old build is TPM 1.0 so according to current 11 requirements, TPM 2.0, it can't run 11.
Oh well, they may change that requirement and if they don't I got 4 years to worry about it. Been eye balling a new CPU and motherboard anyway.

[Hawkmoon]

The old Dell I mentioned is a Core 2 Duo CPU. I assume that's a dual-core CPU? Will that work with Windows 11?

My newer desktop is a Core i3, so I guess that makes the cut. My older tablet is, I think, an Atom, and it's 32-bit so that one won't handle Windows 11. Specs for the Microsoft use in the Surface 3 (not Pro) say it's a quad-core Atom x7 CPU, so I guess that's going to be okay?

And I think my notebooks are okay. They're both Core i3 CPUs, albeit slower than the desktop.

[WLJ]

Windows 11 Supported Intel Processors
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-intel-processors

Windows 11 Supported AMD Processors
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-amd-processors

[Hawkmoon]

Wonderful.

NONE of my computers (CPUs) make the list.