My ISP phoned me this AM to inform me that my FREE Netgear 600 series wireless router has been approved and that a technician will come Friday morning to install it and go on line.
Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Router | Staples®
However, he won't touch the other two computers and I have to buy my own USB plug and play wireless network adapters. *( Best Buy $29.99 each ). I'll pick those up today. Thereafter I can use the CD that comes with. And phone the ISP for more help.
I have three options:
#1. Just leave the HP Pavilion desk top with Windows 7 alone. And leave the HP Pavilion Slim line with Windows Vista alone too.
#2. Partition the C drive and dual install Windows 8 along side Windows 7. And Windows 8 alongside Vista.
#3. Upgrade Windows 7 and Windows Vista to Windows 8. Both computers do have adequate system requirements hard drive space *( 500 GB and 250 GB, adequate speed GHz, and ram as well as memory).
I suppose that the terminology "clean install" could refer to a new hard drive that was empty and/or installing onto a HD that didn't have anything else on it. That opposed to buying a CD Windows 8 complete. Costco sells Windows 8 pro in both the complete new first time version and an upgrade version. Each $69.99. That opposed to downloading an upgrade from the internet. I have seen offers $29.99 and a Microsoft offer download $39.99. In the past I found that when I ran into trouble later, if I had a download from the internet, I did not have a CD which contains elements that "fix" problems. So I really do not care for downloads.
From what I can gather Microsoft has three ( 3 ) versions of Windows 8: #1 Windows 8 regular up around $139. #2. Windows 8 pro *( either a full version or an upgrade on disc ( both $69.99 ). #3. A commercial version for large corporate networks, not sold to home users. Best Buy says the they don't even stock the Windows 8 regular. The W8 pro is better in any event. They can't explain it.
It seems that the situation gets a little bit complicated as it has been said that the Windows 8 pro isn't conducive to install over a pre-existing previous version of Windows, however Windows 8 regular is ???? Further if I try to print from Vista or W7 computers to my printer set for Windows 8 I am inviting a crash.
When the ISP tech rep comes Friday I will talk to him about this. However, any input from the forum is most welcome. I don't have a deadline. One step at a time. After I get the network up and running I will address the options. But it seems to me that the best will be to have Windows 8 on all three.
Other issues are older software. For example I have Microsoft Works on both old computers but NOT in the new one. I have Microsoft Word on all three. I've saved many word processing files in Works. When I open them on the new computer in Word some are garbled symbols of computer programming language, Java, Fortran or some such. Completely unintelligible. So it seem that if I want these files I will need some old Microsoft Works capability. Or forget the files. That may not be much of a problem. It's a value decision. So far I haven't encountered any issues with photos or outside software such as Norton, Turbo Tax, Quicken, Google Earth, Microsoft Streets and Trips and others.