Is it viable to install Windows 8.1 on a laptop from 2021?

SCANNERMAN said:

Okay, I'll byte.. What place do you recommend you get Win 8.1 from? There are many.

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Yeah I would also like to know where.

Notice he's not sharin'

SCANNERMAN said:

Notice he's not sharin'

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I sit correctly. If you look wistful and behave nicely the mage might just share with you. (It also helps if you are a beautiful woman with large mammies.)

If I had permission from "Admin" I'd be willing to share my favorite download site on the forum.
I just don't want to get banned, for breaking a forum rule.

TechnoMage said:

Yeah, I'm more than aware that there are numerous sites where one can download software, including OS's. I've not been sittin' here on my hands for the past 40+ years. But, thank Goodness, I've found one site where all the software is top quality and free of crapware, etc.
Microsoft doesn't own all the good programmers in the world. Eh?

I've downloaded and saved to Flash Drives, every OS from XP to 11.
I've heard many people on here, shudder at the mention of Windows 10 or 11. I can install either or both of them, and in just a little while have them up and running as smooth as silk and as friendly as a furry little kitten. My latest install of Windows 11/Pro/64, for instance, tooks to the user just like a well oiled Windows 7. The new Classic Shell is a Must Have though. That just smoothes out a lot of the rough spots, pot holes, etc. Without the Shell, both 10 or 11 are still POC's.
However, Looks aside, they both come with a very complete Drivers Package.

I prefer Windows 8.1/Pro/64 for my daily OS, but if forced to do so, I could run either Windows 10 or even 11 with no problem.

Happy Holidays, Mates!
TM

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You mean Open Shell?

I know what site he means and can't share here either. lol But he's right. It's a good site and not just for operating systems. I've found some buggy stuff but not sure if it was just on my own end or something other. Never had a virus from them. The lady who runs it is a straight shooter. I've chatted w her a couple times. She really means to help -- especially students and people just gettinginto PC stuff. *nudge-nudge* wink-wink

Open Shell, is just one example of software written by some of the best programmers in the world. I use it every day. I wouldn't set up a PC with Windows, today, without it.

Steve Gibson, is another example of a top notch programmer. He writes his programs in Machine Language! Ones and zeros!!!
I've done a little of that myself so I can really appreciate his work. It ain't easy, but it sure runs good!

I got into the OS on the Commodore 64, years ago, and re-wrote enough of it to really streamline it and make it a much more efficient little computer. I burned my own ROM Chips and sold them at Computer shows, Ham Fests, and CB jamborees, all across the Mid-West.
Sorry, I love to reminisce. At my age, that's all I've got left. lol

I remember those days. I used to QSO on upper side band on a VFO via an 80 foot Moon Raker next to a lake. There were few places I could not shoot skip. We had a few jamborees out that way as well. Some knew me as ESKIMO 8707. Do you remember the Running Bear cards?

Before there were PC's or even the Commodore 64, there was CB Radio. I first got into that in 1967, with a little five channel handheld radio. That propelled me into a very lucrative CB Radio sales and repair business. Then I started putting up Towers, and hanging HUGE antennas up to 250' in the air. I was still young and crazy and height didn't bother me. Still doesn't, but I'm just too old to CLIMB anymore.
I went from CB radio, to HAM Radio, and from there to a very busy Commodore 64 business. As Commodore was approaching bankruptcy, I built my very first IBM PC XT Clone. I had a lot of fun in those days, tweaking the old PC's for max performance, even with only 64 megs of ram, and a 20 MB Seagate HD.
Every time I got a new hobby, it wound up becoming a Business. I hate that!
Now-a-days, I just enjoy my PC hobby without the business aspect of it. It's much more enjoyable now.

AS far as the topic of this thread, why even ask....."why not just try it?" It only takes a few minutes, to know if it will work or not.
I can't begin to tell y'all how many things I've tried after being told "it'll never work" and found out, "it DID work". I won't go into details, but that list gets longer every day. I get a real KICK out of doing things that others tell me Won't Work. "It's what I do!"

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!

TM

I share a kinship with you then. You would know what an SBE COUNSEL II is and you would know what a YAESU is. I loved making things work after being told it isn't possible. Still do. Yup. Turning those ventures into business takes all the fun out of it. Still loving my old Windows 7 online and my 20 year old PCs functioning in spite of it all. If I charged money for my services the government would walk on my pension so now I just do favours for favours. Meh. We are from another time and time marches on. I will say this though (to echo the words of my grandfather) . . . They don't make stuff like they used to.

You mentioned "YAESU".... the first time I ever even saw one was when a friend of mine bought one to use it on the CB (11 meter) band.
He wasn't a very good operator and kept blowing the finals out of it. So, guess who got to fix it for him?

And Grandfather was right, they certainly don't make things like they used to. Things that used to be made out of steel, are now made out of plastic and don't last very long at all. It's discouraging!

There are certain benefits of being 79 years old, and having spent many summers on my grandparents farm. I actually enjoyed taking care of the cows, horses, pigs and chickens. I did things that no kids will ever do today, like churning butter, or going on a Thrashing Run with a big CASE steam engine driving the thrashing machine. I'd help grandfather hitch up the two work horses to the freight wagon, to go into town for feed, building materials, etc. I'd walk around the little town, to check out the Blacksmith shop, the Cabinet Makers shop, the old style drug store and the Variety store. It was loads of fun for a ten year old boy, raised in the City.

In those days, we didn't have computers, cell phones, or even electronic games. It wasn't even in my wildest dreams that someday I'd be a Computer tech, building and maintaining personal computers. And now, finally, that's all in the past. But, I gots my memories!
Here's a phone, similar to the one I had to use when spending time on my grandparents farm.

That was loads of fun!

Happy Holidays!
TM

My aunt had a phone like that out on the farm and it worked. Of course, back in those days it was a party line so one had to be careful as to how one used it. Mind, that was back in '67 but it served well in the event of an emergency (and if I remember correctly there were a few of those). I lived on both sides of the fence. I got my formal education in the big city and spent most of my weekends in the country. (I also missed a lot of Fridays and Mondays at school.) I know the life you are referring to and I have churned butter. I have to say it was the tastiest butter ever. I also stoked the stove, emptied the slop pail, and bucked up wood by hand (chainsaws are for wussies). When my chores were done I could go to the lake I mentioned in my previous communication and cast a line for walleye, pike, or perch. Mom would cook these vittles on the old wood burning stove under a Coleman lamp if need be and we would all eat well. That lake provided a mighty fine ground plane for signal but once we got the Moon Raker I don't think it mattered much. I think the tower at the cabin was 80 foot and the one in the city was only 70 ft but running a set of 1K boots with a VFO made QSO in the country exciting. I can talk about this now right? I should be D.O.C. free by now lol. Those were the good old days, shooting skip while listening to the wood fire crackling in the next room, talking to people in Norway, Hawaii, and pretty much all around the world on upper and lower side band. That was the "social media" of that time IMO. I never knew I'd be servicing people's PCs in the future either and now my beloved guvmint has informed me that I can't even make pocket money doing that without having my pension dinged dollar for dollar!

I had a lot of fun, with my CB radios, until people around me found out that I could also FIX them. Then I wound up in the CB Radio business, which was never my intention. And I was still working a full time job then too.
I had Big Rigs pull up in front of my house with some big burly truck driver knocking on my door at all hours, wanting me to fix his radio, or re-tune his antenna array.
At the height of my life with CB Radio, I was running a quad similar to a Moonraker up about 60' and talking to just about anyplace I wanted to talk to. I picked up a Heathkit DX-100 transmitter at a yard sale for $10, and converted it to one heck of a CB Transmitter.
I used an Allied AX-190 Communications Receiver, bought at Radio Shack, as my CB Receiver and I built a relay box to switch from receive to transmit, triggered by my D104 (amplified) microphone. That rig would PING like a Browning Eagle when I'd key the mic.
I could be talking to a local, and be broken in on by someone half way around the world.
In those days, there were NO personal computers or cell phones. It was a different time.
CB got de-regulated in the 70's and really went all to hades. That's when I sold the above mentioned station and went to Amateur Radio.
I still hold a HAM Radio license today, but I'm not active. I keep a small 2-Meter radio at my home, for Emergencies.
I was working the Hamfests circuit, when I first heard about the Commodore 64 computer. A friend of mine won one as a door prize at our local Hamfest, and didn't want it so sold it to me, real cheap.
Voila, I wound up in the C-64 repair business. But when the Commodore company went bankrupt, I migrated to the IBM PC.
The rest, as they say, is history.

Make all the money you want....just don't tell anyone about it. Cash only, from their hand to your pocket. Best way to do business.
There's always Barter too.

Happy Holidays,
TM

You make me laugh. I so relate to your stories about what happens when people discover you can fix things. Admittedly, I've never had to solder finals in a CB radio but I watched my Dad do it. Lot's of fun there. I also watched him solder crystals into SBE units that provided more "private" channels for operators that were keen on that sort of thing. The man was a rebel at heart. He's gone now so DOC can eat their heart out. He never got caught. Dad was a hammer too but he wasn't stuck up about it. He'd just as soon talk to a trucker on the 11 meter band as QSO with some hammer in Ireland. Yeah, those were the days. I'm so glad he let me shoot skip. Later on I got to introduce him to social networking on Windows. Not sure if i should have done that, to be honest. I think I created a monster. The old guy had a LOT of girl friends and he traveled a lot after that. He always renewed his license though and to this day I think he left this world with an active XML. You would have liked him, I'm sure.

One of the things he really hated was cross channeling and he always complained about people using "cheap and dirty" Radio Shack radios that bled into other frequencies. I think that's what got him started on sliders and Ham. This was all back in the 70's. I had a friend who built his own Radio Shack Realistic unit and I was really impressed that he could do that but Dad insisted that those things were total junk and forbade me to do the same. Instead, I got to use his expensive stuff so it was a good trade off all around.

Yup. Looks like I'm going to have to go back to ye olde barter system. In fact I did a recent quick repair for a sack of potatoes! Never did get into IBM computers. I probably should have but time marches on and the old eyes just aren't what they used to be. I'm just happy to be of service to my community however I can. Thanks for the stroll down memory lane. That was swell.


Cheers!

My HAM Radio license is up to date, and I do keep one (two actually) for emergencies, but every day its always the same old guys with the same old chatter. Back in the day, I was on my radio 24x7 and after several years of that, I really just got tired of hearing the 'Noise'. In my old age, I enjoy peace and quiet.

My #2 interest is cars. I do watch a lot of the car shows on "Motor Trend" TV. Even the 'Repeats' are still interesting. Occasionally, I'll see them overhauling and customizing a make and model that I once owned, like the 57 Chevy convertible. That really gets my interest UP!

Did we ever solve the problem that the OP started this thread with?

TM

TechnoMage said:

Did we ever solve the problem that the OP started this thread with?

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The OP found another solution back in August at post #16 and hasn't returned since.

chuser said:

In the end, I bought a Dell Vostro laptop and had the seller install Windows 10 Pro on it.

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I still remember my old XML number but haven't bothered to renew it. I've given up those things to the sands of time. I've only rebuilt two engines in my lifetime. One was a big ole Dodge 360 and for a laugh I put in a raised cam. The other was a 231 V6. The fastest vehicle I ever owned was an ex cop car imported from the states with a 327 four bolt main. I actually got pulled over by a mountie in that unit as I was doing well over 120 mph and the pedal still wasn't to the metal. I didn't get a ticket but he definitely wanted to see what was under the hood.

Dawgone. An ole Dell Vostro! I have a couple of those with Win 10 on them lol They work just fine. I'm going to have to find homes for them.

I just checked on ebay, and those Laptops are still selling for over $1200.00
Yikes, that must be Gold Plated!

The Dell Vostros I own are Vostro system boards which I purchased on E Bay to replace burned out Dell Inspiron system boards. They fit in the Inspiron 530 case perfectly because there's really not much difference between the boards but they do tend to have a more reliable chipset. I'm not much of a laptop guy but I certainly remember those old Vostro Mini Towers. Back in the day I could make a quick 50 bucks just switching out boards in those Dell Inspirons and an xtra 50 bucks if my client wanted me to upgrade the operating system. I would later try to bring some functionality back to the Inspiron boards and if I succeeded I'd use them in PCs that I would donate to children (with parental permission, of course) who didn't own a PC. The kids in town here know me as "the computer guy". lol

TechnoMage said:

On the topic, I just have to ask "Why Not". I swear, Windows 8.1 would install on a refrigerator, if you could find the USB port!
I can't even remember or list all the PC's that I've installed Windows 8.1 on. (both x86 and 64 bit)
It's just Never failed to install drivers that are able to get the PC up and running. It may even update some of those drivers on subsequent boots.

Today I swapped SSD's between two PC of different brands, and both PC's are running great right now. I'm on one of those PC's right now.
Everything is working great. On first boot, Win-8.1 took a couple of minutes to install new drivers, then took off and ran like it had always been there.

Don't just sit here and guess about it,,,,,TRY IT!

For the greatest compatibility, I got the very latest, New & Improved, Windows 8.1/Pro/64 from "Generation 2".
It has improved security and an improved Driver Pack.
View attachment 72152
You can install this version, with or without an MS Lic. key. Your choice.

Cheers Mates!

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"I've found one site where all the software is top quality and free of crapware," please can you give me that info.
I can't seem to find generation 2
I have a HP Envy that is fading due to age (like me lol) with 8.1 I put in it years ago. I bought a new HP from Currys and was amazed at how slow it was. I set up an identical video render on my old and new laptops with same software and same source files. I set them both up on the counter and ran them both at the same time. The 8.1 Envy finished 30% sooner. The currys techs were amazed and needless to say I got my money back. My plan now is to buy an old HP with Windows 10 home and replace that with 8.1