Solved Tried and Tested / Solid and Stable

[SCANNERMAN]

Still the most stable, reliable, and solid of all my personal builds. Good old Win 7 Ultimate. Still working, still fully functional. This picture was taken only minutes ago.

I don't have the heart to remove it. I'm typing this on what you see below. They just don't make stuff like they used to. This is the last REAL operating system Microsoft ever made.

 

[Teeotsa]

Still the most stable, reliable, and solid of all my personal builds. Good old Win 7 Ultimate. Still working, still fully functional. This picture was taken only minutes ago.

I don't have the heart to remove it. I'm typing this on what you see below. They just don't make stuff like they used to. This is the last REAL operating system Microsoft ever made.


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Nice system I should say... What about Windows 8 ? Isn't 8 stable and reliable for you ?

 

[SCANNERMAN]

IMO Windows 8.1 was always sub-standard. It only went from bad to worse with 10 and it's looking like 11 isn't much better. I can give windows 8.1 this much — you can install it on practically anything. I've put it on PC's over 20 years old. Windows 8 was made for portable devices like tablets and laptops. It was so horrible that it was quickly upgraded to 8.1 which is an entirely different O/S. Some have said that the difference between Win 8 and Win 8.1 is as extensive as the difference between Vista and Windows 7. Having been a user of all these systems I'm inclined to agree. As for Win 8.1 which is technically @ EOL, it's still generating stability issues and likely always will.

 

[TechnoMage]

Au Contraire Mon Fraire!

Win 8.1 is no different than any MS OS since 98. It requires proper installation, then some tweaking and tuning, just like any newly assembled car engine. The MS programmers still build in a bunch of so called "Safe Defaults" that need to be dealt with. Like that 30 second startup delay. (see, MSCONFIG) [change it to just 3 seconds, for a faster start]

Then MS updates need to be Disabled, so MS can't bugger up the OS when it's near its EOS date. They are actually famous for doing that.

I'm running Win-8.1/Pro/64 here on several PCs, all well tweaked and tuned, and with MS Updates turned OFF. I've never had a more stable OS, since DOS 6.22.

Actually, the OS here on my SFF desktop, that I use in my bedroom, is a CLONE of the OS on my Main PC in the living room.
I've never had any MS OS before that would do that.

It's not just what you do, setting up your OS, but how you do it.

Good Luck, Mate,
TM

 

[TechnoMage]

I've never seen any MS OS that is ready for Prime Time, right out of the box. They all come with "Training Wheels" and need to be tweaked and tuned for top performance. That's been my speciality, since my first experience with the little Commodore 64.
(I hated that OS, with all its SAFE Deafaults. So I re-wrote it for better performance.)

In my last days running Windows 7, it was getting flaky! I don't know, if it were just getting old and tired, or if MS Updates were messing with it. But, constantly recovering from the problems was getting tiresome.
So I tried Windows 8.1/Pro/64 (NOT 8.0) and found it refreshingly user friendly. I'm still running it today on at least 10 of my 12 PC's.
(two are happily running Windows 11, all tweaked and tuned to be user friendly) ALL MS Updates are turned OFF, on all of my PC's.*

* I'm just afraid, that people running Windows 10 are now, or will soon, start experiencing problems with MS's fix, 'Upgrade to Windows 11'.

Windows 7 was truly "Tried-and-tested-solid-and-stable" for many years, till it wasn't. With different persons, running different computers and different software, their experiences will surely differ.

I'm truly happy for anyone who is still running Windows 7 without problems. It was a great OS that had a great run. But at least for me, that run is over.

Happy Thanksgiving!
TM

 

[SCANNERMAN]

Once the Windoze Screw-it-up dates stopped my problems with the OS stopped. I can game on it, watch videos, make my Word docs, and even check my emails. Of course I won't use it for online banking or making purchases but outside of this I'm having zero issues with it. You make a very valid point regarding Win 10. I was having some issues with audio drivers and finally gave up and opted for the Win 11 nag screen they kept pushing on me, telling me my PC could be upgraded to their latest. I reasoned at least I would be free of the Windoze key logger and all the rest of the b.s. call home telemetry. *BIG MISTAKE* Nobody @ Microsoft could help me. I had to opt for a drive image I made six months earlier to get back my OS. Yup yup. Same old upgrade issues with Windows not supplying adequate driver support, hanging, freezing, BSODs etc. It was a bad idea. I imagine Win 11 is fine for folks who want a simple OS with a SIMP-le approach to getting online on an over-SIMPlified excuse for an operating system. Win 11 runs fine on my laptop. I'll not risk it on my work station and it all but destroyed my gaming rig. No worries. My Linux is still holding ground. Then again, so is my Win Seven Ultimate.

 

[TechnoMage]

I have an old eMachine, with two drive bays in it. One bay has an old SATA 1 HD with Windows 7/Ultimate/x86 on it. I plug it in and fire it up every month, so I can update a few of the programs on it. I just keep it going for nostalgia sake.

The second drive bay has a 2TB Seagate HD with Windows 8.1/Pro/x86 on it. It also gets fired up once a month or so, to get updates for several programs, like Firefox, Super Anti Spyware, Windows Defender, etc.

Now I also have a very old (20 yrs) IDE drive (Samsung, 60GB, IDE spinner) sitting on the bench next to the PC, connected to one of the IDE ports on the motherboard. And it's running Windows 8.1/Pro/x86 , , , just for fun! Yes, it's slow and noisy as a freight train, but it still works. That sort of thing happens, when an old, bored, retired, computer tech, has nothing better to do.

Oh, I almost forgot, I also have another IDE drive with Windows XP/Professional on it. It still runs great, on my old eMachine.

:ROFLMAO:

 

[SCANNERMAN]

Remember when owning a 20 GB hard drive was considered extravagant? That was just at the turn of the millennium. In 1999 I had a 40 GB SAMSUNG (IDE of course) in my posh Sony VAIO complimenting a lavish 256 MB of RAM. That drive still works today but it no longer has an OS on it, further validating what I stated earlier about them not making stuff like they used to. I really don't miss the windoze Mistake Edition but admittedly, it did make for a great introduction in learning how to fix issues associated with Microsoft. Ye Olde Samsung klunk drive continues to klunk away on an IDE compliant expansion card on a Dell 530 INSPIRON today as a storage drive. It's as slow as molasses in a snow storm. Like a Rolls Royce, at times it may fail to proceed but it NEVER stops running. I also have 4 X 600 GB WD Velociraptor (10000 RPM SATA) mechanical drives running in RAID 10 on a break out cable. Outside of standard maintenance (good ole LSI) this array has saved the day many times over and it has served me well. Today, I wouldn't advise anyone to purchase a brand new Western Digital hard drive —— even if it were their only available buying option. The argument for using mechanical drives is running thin. It isn't practical in servers, domestic end user machines, or even in a NAS. The only defense I can offer them today is that they work in a pinch and even that's pushing it because both Seagate and Western Digital don't make them as reliable as they used to be IMO. We are witnessing the end of an era and methinks that old spinning rust will be going the way of the CD/DVD, FLOPPY, IDE, mechanical dinosaur technology.

 

[TechnoMage]

I built my first PC (clone) back somewhere around 1980. If memory serves, It had an 8088 cpu, two Full Height 5.25" Floppy Drives and a Seagate ST-255, 20MB, MFM Hard Drive. And a whopping 64 meg's of ram. The motherboard was an IBM XT Clone. It ran great on MS DOS 2.0. Sometime later, I got a Real IBM Blue Lightning motherboard. I was so proud of that!

IBM Blue Lightning: World’s Fastest 386? | OS/2 Museum

www.os2museum.com

A little later, I came up with a source for Seagate ST-4038, full height, 30mb, MFM drives. I wound up with four of them, for FREE.
The price for that drive, in the Computer Shopper was $699.00

That thing was a real Brute!
I thought at the time, "who would ever be able to fill up one of those?" :ROFLMAO:

Today, I have almost 12TB of HD storage capacity in my main PC. How times have changed!
My pride and joy is my 500 GB Crucial SSD.

All the years that I built computers for other people, I built many that were better, faster and more expensive than my own.
The very last computer that I built, for a friend, has an 8 Core cpu in it, and my own best PC only has a six core cpu in it.
I've never been a computer snob, I just like something that works nice.

Happy Holidays!
TM

 

[SCANNERMAN]

I went from a Commodore 64 to a Tandy. One of my pet annoyances is when someone asks me what the best computer is. There's no such thing. It would be more pertinent to ask what the best computer for them might be. If it addresses the end user's needs then it's appropriate. I have to say I'm happy with my two octocores but I'm equally happy with my i3 Acer that I modded for the reading room. My second eldest daughter won't let me pry her X58 platform from her desk because she's happy with it as it is, even though the old i7 Bloomfields are epic history these days. She still renders with it, games with it, codes with it and uses it like any other PC. The thing is ancient by PC standards but I'd be in for a fight if I tried to replace it on her. It's a quad boot PC that never quits. My third eldest followed in her sister's footsteps but has more expensive taste. She too, loves the X58 platform but prefers the Gigabyte Deluxe dual BIOS top of the line mobo. I was only too happy to oblige her. Both units sport the maximum 24 GB of tri-channel RAM but the Gigabyte board is much fussier about what brand of RAM is used (I'm guessing it's because her board is geared for over clocking). The youngest of my four daughters is a performance junkie. She was happy for the longest time with the Intel Anniversary edition Haswell/Pentium/Duo core G3258 which I was able to clock the snot out of until Intel hobbled the chip with micro code delivered compliments of a Windoze screw it up date. I recently acquired a Haswell 4790K for her because she's a hard core gamer. This is a build we will be doing together. Different people have different needs but it's always nice to have something that works well.

 

[TechnoMage]

Back in the C-64's hayday, many Commodore Clubs were formed. I used to go around and speak at the different clubs, demonstrating my Enhancements for the C-64 and the C-1541 disk drive. I got a lot of business that way. People wanted their own C-64 systems to run as fast and quiet as mine.
I learned Commodore Basic, and was able to do some Program Authoring. Sometimes I'd stay up all night, trying to get a program just Right.
When I started working with the IBM Compatible (clones) PC's, I made the decision to NOT learn IBM Basic. The best programs had already been written by those a lot smarter than I, so I just tried to learn how to work with them. I did do some re-programming in DBASE II/III. But, that's a whole different story.
I did write a lot of Ansi-Color menus for my friends and customers.

Like this one I wrote, for my DOS Utilities disk. I still have that 3.5" floppy disk, around here someplace.

Honestly, I had more FUN with my PC in those days than I do now. Windows has stifled my creativity.
Today, I feel more like an "Appliance Operator".

Can you believe, that Amazon workers are out on Strike?

 

[dave67]

I still have an old Hp Windows 7 PC that I used months ago while waiting for a shop to swap out the old GT 720 in my XPS 8700 for a GTX 1650. The UI is nice but the task manger is out of date and not user friendly. I stopped using the HP back in 2017 because I thought some component inside the PC was causing random shutdowns while watching YouTube. This year I diagnosed the problem as a defective GT 520 that was causing the issue by running some GPU stress tests.

 

[TechnoMage]

Some day, I may be writing my own "Tried and Tested" report on Windows 11. So far, after a month or so, it's all good. This work with Win-11 is still in the experimental phase, so I'm not making any commitments, yet.
Most of my old favorite programs have been updated to the latest versions, and are running just great.
Even a few really OLD programs, for which there are no updates, are running great.

Happy Holidays, mates,
TM