W7 64 bit

I am running either Vista Ultimate 64 or Win 7 64 on all my systems EXCEPT my test bench that needs to talk with a device programmer connected to a parallel port. I have had only 1 issue and that was with an OLD CUPL compiler that we use to support some old products. I just run it in a VM with XP Pro loaded the few times I have to fire it up. I have been VERY pleased with how stable and compatible both OSes have been. Your biggest issue is going to be if you have software that uses a 16bit installer that isn't a MS product. Some 32 bit software used a

16 bit installer package and if it is a MS 16 bit installer Win 7 will pass the install off onto its' internal 32 bit installer with you being none the wiser. Maybe you can borrow a laptop with Win 7 64 bit on it and see if your goodies all install.

Jim

I've been using Win7 x64 for months and haven't had any problems with it. All my MCU development and CAD software works,

No problems here with Win7 x64. There's a free 'XP Mode' virtual machine for running older software. No serial comms program on Win7 (but Win7 supports fax), but the old XP utilities are there, I assume they work.

Grant.

Does "no serial comms" mean there is not even a feature to do RS232 via a USB adapter? That would kill a ton of apps here at my office.

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Just my wife's 32 bit Window 7. I can't compile on Visual Studio 5 on Samba network storage. It can open files, but won't compile.

My kid's 64 bit Win 7 laptops are off-limit. I can't touch them.

I fall back to XP

te:

hine

7

That works OK. Most of those adapters use the FTDI chips and they have drivers for Win7 x64.

Sorry, I meant no Hyperterminal application, that's why I added the bit about fax software to confirm it does do serial comms technically, 'cos that's serial comms. I assume XPMode's Hyperterminal works fine.

Grant.

Yes, if XP is included then it'll be ok. I absolutely positively will need a terminal program for, oh, the next decades or so.

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--
You assume wrong.
 
If you don't buy W7 Pro or the next tier up, then it'll cost you
about $80 to upgrade to W7 Pro so you can run a "virtual XP" machine
and, on it, supposedly run the software non-pro W7 is designed to
ignore.

After that there are still issues.

e:

ine

Yes, I've had Vista SP1, Vista SP2, Win7 32, Win7 64. I always end up doing XP pro most of the time.

Oh yes?

What do you think XP Mode is? You seem clueless today, again.

Such as?

--- Fuck you, Grant.

If you buy W7 64 home edition, which is what came installed in a PC I bought about 3 months ago, then it won't run most 32 bit applications that run on XP.

I tried it, and got an "incompatible application" or some such message when trying to install it.

AutoCAD, ORCAD, HP3500C, Acrobat 5, almost everything I had on an XP box before it blew up.

So, Microsoft touts: "Give is 80 bucks and we'll turn W7 Home into W7 pro and turn on the virtual XP machine so you can run your old stuff."

Pretty cool... $80 for a downgrade. :-(

So, of course, instead of buying all new software, or a new box to run XP on, or turning my W7 box into an XP box, I went for the $80 deal.

Started out fine, and I even got AutoCAD to run (but not Qbasic; it bitched about not being able to run in full-screen mode and when I said OK, it gave me about half a screen or so with a really ugly aspect ratio to play around in.

Then, I was finished with it and put it into hibernate mode to get back into W7, and there it's stayed ever since.

Try as I might, I can't wake it up, and there are other issues like locked folders and files where "ownership" and "privileges" have to be wrested from the machine in order to get things to work.

Of course it's on me to figure it all out, and I will, eventually, but in the meantime this thing is a huge pain in the ass trying to run a race with all the hurdles Microsoft has so carefully placed on the track.

--- JF

Have you tried VMWare?

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No, but thanks for the clue. :-)

I just went over to their web site and it looks like a solution.

Do you have any experience with it?

That reminds me of the "talk-through" button on the 2nd generation of portable cassette players. Suddenly your classmates could communicate with others again. Wow! What a concept! Of course now the communicating would eat batteries but ...

Anyhow, after what John listed there I think Win7 is as "mega-out" for me as was Vista which I successfully sat out. Who needs a crippled OS that can't easily run existing apps that XP could?

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Somebody who needs to run new applications that XP with it's moronic^H^H^Hhistorical 3.5G limit on RAM can't.

Yes, it seems to work well, but I've not used it that extensively- there was one or two apps that I wanted to run on my Win7 netbook but couldn't get going and it solved that completely (can't recall right now what they were, I only use the netbook on long trips).

Also, in a company with a bunch of engineers it's a way to allow folks to play in their own sandbox (eg. install software and do risky (!) stuff like that) without earning the ire of the IT dudes. A couple of my guys have workstation installed and it seems good. You can also save the virtual machine as a kind of backup for an entire environment, not sure how well that will work far into the future though.

machine

Then yes. But I haven't ever run into that sort of limit. I think we overdo it a bit with SW-bloat these days. In 1990 I was happily running numerous DOS apps concurrently (switched though) in 5MB of RAM. When I bought a laptop with 8MB it felt like stepping into a limo.

My kind of work and the tools aren't all that different from 1990. CAD, word processor, SPICE, spreadsheet, Internet and email. Ok, the simulator uses a bit more RAM and that helps, but not that much RAM.

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machine

Another one is Sun VirtualBox. I run that here, to be able to try out Linux programs. Works well, and even allows mousing back and forth between XP and Ubuntu, as well as copy and paste between the two. IOW you do not have to abandon the programs you normally run while using a guest OS.

John: If you do that jot down the commands to get out of full screen mode. More than once I had the situation where I hadn't used it for a while and forgot how to get back out of full-screen Ubuntu. It's like ..

*THUD" .. whooops, the keys are still in there. Embarrassing, but luckily nobody saw that :-)

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