Ready for Windows 8? We're just starting on Win 7, says...

Hi there
I know some businesses where computers are STILL running Windows 2000 -- they might install a few XP boxes later THIS year !!!.

These businesses are still very profitable -- IT doesn't figure a lot into their equations -- the computers they have just do the job required (very small payroll,basic financial AR and AP system basic office suite, a very simple and basic purchasing and inventory system and some engineering processes and they use some sort of email system that goes to the outside via some Linux serve provided by an external company).

If people want Internet they bring their own laptops / tablets and logon to a company provided wireless system. Saves the company a lot of money, no IT dept needed and the company just functions fine with possibly one or two people who seem to act as the "un official" trouble shooters.

I think on these Forums we sometimes get over involved in thinking that the latest and greatest in I.T is essential for any business and we forget really that to quite a few businesses it's just a basic "add on convenience".

Cheers
jimbo

We still have XP at work.

I don't think anyone in the organisation uses any special hardware or anything that would require XP or Windows 2000 or whatever. Although there is some bespoke software about, most people spend their time in MS Office and intranet-style apps over a browser and remote desktop links to servers.

But given XP goes out of support in less than 11 months, I'd assume they're planning to upgrade us - and I bet it's to 7 not 8.

For all the organisations like us who still have XP, they need to start planning and testing everything now which means the decision on which OS to use has probably already been taken. I suspect Windows 8 would stand more chance with such organisations if XP had been due to last a bit longer, so there was more time for 8 to prove itself (and have some of the UI issues ironed out) before they had to decide.

I'd fall into clinical depression if I had to use XP again.

Not that it doesn't do the job, but it would be depressing.

Usually when a business uses XP, it comes in a locked box which has some kind of shell software that does the functions that need to be done, like those Smog machines and Front End Alignment machines, Windows XP is merely the underlying OS - Ya don't really ever SEE it, and ya can't usually get to it, cos the workstations use an Administrator account and the password is not supplied to the "end user" which in this case are the Auto Shops who bought the Lifts. The interface controls everything from the lifts themselves to the Alignment Adjustments.

This locked down Admin can become a problem when you have to install the DRIVERS for the lifts! Like I had to do last time I worked on one.

Our XP setup isn't for any technical reason as far as I know.

It's just that upgrading from XP (and Office 2003) will be a big project, with associated disruption and training needs which for whatever reason the IT folks haven't got round to.

The step from Office 2003 is quite a big one, but by leaving the Office upgrade for a few years it's probably made it a bit easier as many will have got used to Office 2007 or later at home by now.

DavidY said:

Our XP setup isn't for any technical reason as far as I know.

It's just that upgrading from XP (and Office 2003) will be a big project, with associated disruption and training needs which for whatever reason the IT folks haven't got round to.

The step from Office 2003 is quite a big one, but by leaving the Office upgrade for a few years it's probably made it a bit easier as many will have got used to Office 2007 or later at home by now.

Click to expand...

Hi there
Probably a big part of the project might be to organise all your OLD shared office documents so they are all consistent with the SAME office version -- a lot of your Office 2003 documents can simply be saved in the new format (docx).

While these later versions of Office can READ older formats it's probably better to upgrade the documents -- a rotten boring horrible job but worth it in the end - especially it can give you time to get rid of old redundant documentation.

Be careful though if you have some Power EXCEL users -- some of the macros in 2003 don't exist any more or some VBA code might be horrible as it had to be hand coded for Office 2003 but Office 2007 / 2010 /2013 might have that functionality built in.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
Probably a big part of the project might be to organise all your OLD shared office documents so they are all consistent with the SAME office version -- a lot of your Office 2003 documents can simply be saved in the new format (docx).

While these later versions of Office can READ older formats it's probably better to upgrade the documents -- a rotten boring horrible job but worth it in the end - especially it can give you time to get rid of old redundant documentation.

Be careful though if you have some Power EXCEL users -- some of the macros in 2003 don't exist any more or some VBA code might be horrible as it had to be hand coded for Office 2003 but Office 2007 / 2010 /2013 might have that functionality built in.

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

Thanks for that.

Luckily it isn't my role/problem to sort all this out.

Good point on Excel though. Although I don't use Excel so much, I already know that one task that works fine in MS Access 2003 fail in MS Access 2007, because Microsoft "improved" things and made them worse.

DavidY said:

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
Probably a big part of the project might be to organise all your OLD shared office documents so they are all consistent with the SAME office version -- a lot of your Office 2003 documents can simply be saved in the new format (docx).

While these later versions of Office can READ older formats it's probably better to upgrade the documents -- a rotten boring horrible job but worth it in the end - especially it can give you time to get rid of old redundant documentation.

Be careful though if you have some Power EXCEL users -- some of the macros in 2003 don't exist any more or some VBA code might be horrible as it had to be hand coded for Office 2003 but Office 2007 / 2010 /2013 might have that functionality built in.

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

Thanks for that.

Luckily it isn't my role/problem to sort all this out.

Good point on Excel though. Although I don't use Excel so much, I already know that one task that works fine in MS Access 2003 fail in MS Access 2007, because Microsoft "improved" things and made them worse.

Click to expand...

Hi there
Actually EXCEL 2007 and onwards is far better under the hood -- although some people had horrendous issues with the New Ribbon feature.

Not sure about ACCESS -- as a database system it's not very robust --things like MySQL IMO are a lot better but that's another issue.
Things like VISIO / PROJECT etc also need a few changes --so Good Luck with it.

Note also if you use EXCEL for retrieving and updating data directly from the web -- especially in real time -- there are a lot of (for once BETTER and REALLY IMPROVED) features that have changed significantly -- a lot of the old web queries (EXCEL XP / EXCEL 2003 -- the .IQY files-- ) won't work for EXCEL 2007 and onwards.

"Been there -- seen it done it ..." as the old Tourist sayings go.

I'll offer to fix some of these for you as a "Free Lance project" -- but these days as I've "Semi-retired" my rates aren't cheap -- payment in USD or EUR please. !!!!! (No GBP as the tax people are really having a look at poor individuals like me -- they pay BILLIONS to banks and then go bonkers over a few independent free lancers who aren't even liable to a lot of UK tax in the first place. !!) sure it's the same elsewhere where Banks have been bailed out with Billions. !!

Cheers
jimbo

The organisation I work for will be changing from XP to 7 and Office 2003 to Office 2007 (or 2010, not sure which) this summer. That's some 8000 workstations to convert. Forget Windows 8 and Office 2013 - an IT chap told me that if Windows 9 isn't any better when support for Win7 runs out, it'll be time for Linux.

DavidY said:

Our XP setup isn't for any technical reason as far as I know.

It's just that upgrading from XP (and Office 2003) will be a big project, with associated disruption and training needs which for whatever reason the IT folks haven't got round to.

The step from Office 2003 is quite a big one, but by leaving the Office upgrade for a few years it's probably made it a bit easier as many will have got used to Office 2007 or later at home by now.

Click to expand...

That's amazing, although I like Office 2003, when I finally bit the bullet and Upgraded to office 2007, I just liked it much better - And then to Office 2010 was a breeze. Is it because editing and running XLS and XLT templates is locked down by default? Easily dealt with, you can enable those functions through the security settings. I have a template I use for quickly adding up all of the work I do, it's in an Office 2003 XLS file. If you save the work as XLS and not XLSX, you can keep the functionality. Now, I have to be dragged back to office 2003.

You should just install it on a few workstations, once the users get used to it they won't want to go back. I've got Office networked through all of my machines, the outlooks are all connected and the Onenote. Many of the other extra functions like the old Web Page designing programs are all now incorporated into Word which is way easier, I can edit my site right though Word.

I'm even running it on my XP machines.

Umm...obviously.

It doesn't matter that Windows 8 is out, the enterprise will just continue their upgrade path to 7 because they simply haven't planned out ahead for 8. Even Microsoft urged companies to keep with their 7 rollouts.

I know this is a old post but I just had to mention I still see windows xp in use at a few places ive gone too and its 2015 now. I was still on Vista at home till I was able to get a new pc in 2014.

I used XP over five years, 7 over another five years, and now I'm about to receive a new PC with 8.1. XP was great in it time, 7 is still great, but the incoming 8.1 – the reason I joined this forum – horrifies me.

jefboyardee said:

I used XP over five years, 7 over another five years, and now I'm about to receive a new PC with 8.1. XP was great in it time, 7 is still great, but the incoming 8.1 – the reason I joined this forum – horrifies me.

Click to expand...

If you try 8.1 and decide you don't like it, there are plenty of ways to downgrade Windows 8/8.1 to Windows 7. Even on the squeaky shiny clean ultra brand new 2015 machines that have just been released. If you'd like me/us to help you with at you can start a thread over in our Installation and Setup section.

Thanks, but I think I can hang on three months, when hopefully Win10 comes out for free. I've tried its Technical Preview, it's a lot more akin to 7 than 8.1 -- not a surprise.

98 to XP to Vista to 8.1

Each person's experience is usually unique. For me and the rather simple stuff I do at home, I change hardware and systems about every five years. I had good experience sequentially with W98, XP, Vista, and now W8.1 (since December 2013). In each case I bought the then current desktop tower hardware with the operating system incorporated as OE. Each one had useful new features and I never looked back. I will probably upgrade again in 2018 or 2019 with whatever Windows is then current. Deo Volente. And with each cycle I get a 15% larger monitor, double the internal hard drive, & the maximum number of USB ports. Oh, I also get a new printer in the same cycle. When everything is bought as a package it all seems to work so much better together. I realize that not everyone can afford to do this, but this works well for me.

In my later XP days, I bought a Win8.0 PC, hated and returned it. That's what led me to install Win7 on my existing dinosaur. I understand 8.1 isn't a panacea, but behaves a lot better than 8.0 did. So I look forward to at least three months of it peculiarities, but will undoubtedly upgrade to Win10 as fast as I can.

Retexan599 said:

Each person's experience is usually unique. For me and the rather simple stuff I do at home, I change hardware and systems about every five years. I had good experience sequentially with W98, XP, Vista, and now W8.1 (since December 2013). In each case I bought the then current desktop tower hardware with the operating system incorporated as OE. Each one had useful new features and I never looked back. I will probably upgrade again in 2018 or 2019 with whatever Windows is then current. Deo Volente. And with each cycle I get a 15% larger monitor, double the internal hard drive, & the maximum number of USB ports. Oh, I also get a new printer in the same cycle. When everything is bought as a package it all seems to work so much better together. I realize that not everyone can afford to do this, but this works well for me.

Click to expand...

Each time I upgraded my OS I never looked back at the old one, nor found myself wishing I had stuck with the old OS. Of course it helps when you participate in the beta/pre-release programs as this helps you get used to the nuances of the new OS.

For Windows 8 though it was different for me. Having bought into the hype that Windows 8 was the devil, I never really played with it much, even though I had the pre-release.

Anyway when I bought my Asus Ultra-book it had the specs I wanted (including a non-touch screen), but came Windows 8, which I didn't want, so my plan was to dump it in favor of 7. Funny thing is, once I got to messing around with 8, I found I liked it, but I wasn't ready to move it to my desktop yet. When Windows 8.1 was officially released I built my current desktop system around it and never looked back at 7. Don't even miss it.

When Windows 10 is officially released I'll upgrade to it, and it'll probably be the same... never looking back. That's the evolution of OS's, they change, you adapt, and eventually never look back.

My two cents.