Replacing a ~15 year old PC.
Posted by Martipar@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 61 comments
The last time i used my aunt's PC it had Windows 8 on it and it clearly needed some maintenance. I bought her a newer PC at Christmas (an ex office PC with a 7th gen i5 and 8GB RAM). I installed a new SSD, CMOS battery and Windows 11 on it which went smoothly.
Due to a few scheduling conflicts though I didn't visit until this week. Her PC had been updated to Windows 10 which refreshed the PC quite a bit and it was a lot smoother and i almost felt guilty removing it as it has clearly gone from painful to use to slow but manageable. It's still a big upgrade from a 1st gen i3 with a HDD top a 7th gen i5 with an SSD though.
Anyway i set about finding where cables went and realised the PC has cables plugged into it that went nowhere and the mains sockets also had things plugged in that went nowhere. We managed to remove an 4 way extension lead and just use the wall sockets too. Her monitor was better than i recalled and while the new one is slightly larger and slightly clearer the difference is negligible but she was happy to have a new one.
I transferred over her data we found some video transfers she did in 2012 too which we watched.
She was still using Office 2003 for her daily correspondence (she is in her 70s but she has her own business). I was surprised to see Windows 11 took it and it installed with no fuss or issues. She uses Picasa for photo editing and restoration and that went on fine even though it's been defunct for about 5 years and even the software for her capture card (which was surprisingly good, as I'm sure you're aware there are a lot of crap USB capture devices around).
In short it was a breeze to install Windows 11 on an older PC and transfer software that's over 20 years old to it that Windows Update will happily update and manage.
She's got more floor space under the desk, more desk space and she will be transferring more tapes over soon. Sorry it's not funny but we had a laugh realising that a lot of the cabling mess under the desk was unnecessary.
georgiomoorlord@reddit
Windows 11 isn't well liked compared to 10, but at least the client's happy
widowhanzo@reddit
And W10 wasn't liked compared to 7 and 7 wasn't liked compared to XP....
W11 is just fine it's barely any different to 10...
nondescriptzombie@reddit
You've got it wrong. 95 and 98 were good. ME was shit. No one wanted it. Windows2000 became the base for Windows XP and it was good. Then we got Longhorn/Vista which was shit again and a complete paradigm shift from XP. They fixed most of the QoL problems with 7, then gave us another massive paradigm shift with 8 and then 8.1, which are separate OS's, which no one wanted to touch until we got the QoL updates in Win10.
Win11 is another burn version. No one wants it. Too many changes for no reason. Baking ads and telemetry into the OS. Time to go to Mint.
widowhanzo@reddit
Ads and telemetry have been added to W10 as well.
There really aren't that many differences between the versions though. 11 should be 10.1 or 10 SP1.
I agree on the Linux part.
Strazdas1@reddit
no ads on W10.
syntaxerror53@reddit
good ones
95, 98se, 2K, XP(activation aside), 7, 10,
11(jury still out)
rest were horrible
Xeni966@reddit
It's always been like every other version of windows that people seem to like
musthavesoundeffects@reddit
Lol 95 was dogshit and everyone knew it, it was just a necessary step.
DaSchnuff@reddit
Sorry to break the chain, but 7 was very well liked. People were happy to dump Vista.
Niewinnny@reddit
and 10 was also decently liked compared to 8, and when 7 went to EoL people were actually fine with it.
11 is still a mess and 10 is about to go EoL
DaSchnuff@reddit
Well, I never was fine with 10 or 11 on my private computer. Leave my system alone (except for security updates), don‘t force (or trick) me into using an MS account for just using a f…ing OS and don‘t spy on me.
Strazdas1@reddit
randomly finding out your computer restarted "for updates" when the updates is "we saw you log into hotmail email on browser so we just connected that account to your computer now"
lioncat55@reddit
The biggest issue with vista is Microsoft let oems install it on hardware way to weak for it. I ran vista on a system with a q6600, 8GB of ram and a gtx 560. I had no issues with vista.
ColdStorage256@reddit
Yeah I never had an issue with vista, but then again I was on a gaming rig for the time.
MikeSchwab63@reddit
I bought two computers with with Vista that thought they were TVs (media player auto start could not disable). Uncorrectable so installed XP on both.
Martipar@reddit (OP)
Not at the start, plenty of people stated they'd stick with XP and never use Windows 7 as it was a pointless expense.
Xaphios@reddit
People did, but people always moan about these things. I'm often one of them!
I ran 7 from the pre-release public preview and even then it was more stable and just worked in a way that XP never did. Even the install was just so much better on new hardware - no floppy disk required for raid drivers (or bog standard sata chips). Instantly recognised and used 90% of the hardware in the system.
I came into IT as we moved from 98se to XP for most home systems. In that time there's not been another upgrade as clear-cut for me as moving to win7 - to be fair I installed it on my new i7 as an alternative to vista 64-bit so the hardware I started using it with probably played a part, but I also upgraded a bunch of family machines from XP to 7 and had universally good feedback from them too.
OniExpress@reddit
I finally grudgingly upgraded to Win 7 from Win 2k. XP and Vista were major downgrades
Z4-Driver@reddit
Win2k was a great os. I didn't like XP at first, but with SP2 it was fine.
I didn't use Pissta, only worked once in a rollout when it was new and they upgraded to Pissta.
Win7 was good. Especially as 64bit.
Win8 and 8.1 were bad like Pissta.
wrincewind@reddit
Well liked compared to vista, but less so compared to xp. The transfer was very grudging in some cases.
Strazdas1@reddit
Its true, windows peaked at 7 and has been going downhill since.
AzuleEyes@reddit
Enshittification. Win 11 is "fine" now. Get back to me in 3 years.
widowhanzo@reddit
In 3 years: "Windows 12 sucks I'm sticking with 11!"
AzuleEyes@reddit
Fuck that noise. Once 10 is unsupported I'm moving to Linux based.
jkarovskaya@reddit
Win 10 LTSC 21H2 is supported throught 2032.
Aside from a few Linux distros, I'm using it exclusively til the bitter end
AzuleEyes@reddit
That's the version I chose to reinstall after "upgrading" to 11. It'll outlast my current PC.
widowhanzo@reddit
Cool. I fully support that.
But people said the same thing for Windows 7 as well.
AzuleEyes@reddit
Having used both windows 7 and 11, I prefer 7. I get it. Windows 11 isn't ME or 8. That doesn't make it good. Honestly I could've lived with it but the level of embedded advertisements were unacceptable
ALazy_Cat@reddit
And the main differences can be disabled
IuseArchbtw97543@reddit
You dont have much of a choice. Win10 runs out of support in a few months
deeseearr@reddit
Except when it doesn't.
nonamejohnsonmore@reddit
I would love to know how her PC magically got updated to Windows 10 when Microsoft stopped the free upgrade back in 2023.
RamblingReflections@reddit
I wanna know how he bypassed the TPM 2.0 requirements. Pretty sure most Gen 7s aren’t Windows 11 compatible. It was Gen 8 and later that had the change to mobos for TPM 2.0. Maybe because it was an old enterprise PC it was one of the few i5s that officially meet requirements, or he Rufus’d it?
ThatUsrnameIsAlready@reddit
Probably Rufus.
Martipar@reddit (OP)
Definitely Rufus.
Ezmiller_2@reddit
I'm shocked at how many people that use Linux that came from Windows have never heard of Rufus. It makes installing 11 so much quicker due to bypassing all the useless junk that Windows has now.
Martipar@reddit (OP)
I don't consider it junk, i only bypassed the hardware requirements. I finally installed Windows 11 on my own laptop the other day and i used my Microsoft account as it makes things much easier. As with any OS, including Linux, there were the usual interface tweaks to carry out and apart from that the installation questions were not far removed from those asked by Windows 10.
I do find it amusing that a lot of people complaining about the security features (TPM 2.0, Kernel DMA protection on the CPU) are the very same Linux users that have for years complained Windows is insecure.
I've no affinity to any particular OS or distro but i do use Windows for daily used because of works. I have up on Microsoft piracy over a decade ago and that solved multiple problems but i also don't have to look for a compatible program to the one i want to use, i can use what i want.
Take Winamp, no other media player handles my music collection like it does including the two Linux ones that support Winamp skins, i tried those, Linux is all about compromises like this. I will happily use Linux on my Pi and my RG35XX SP and i have a gparted disc for times when i need to format a disc on a PC without an OS.
As a daily OS though i end up frustrated with all Linux distros, I've tried many over the years, it's a shame as i love the idea of FOSS software and in many cases FOSS does work the way it's intended to.
It's just too stuck within the mentality that Windows is bad and doing it the Microsoft way is therefore bad and their doing it any other way is preferable. Socialist software is great but don't be afraid to learn from the masters. If Microsoft do things a better way then do it that way.
Ezmiller_2@reddit
Linux isn't socialist software, and the only thing I can't stand about Windows is the telemetry. I could care less about paying for software, unless they went solubscription only. If Windows becomes a subscription, then I will not use it ever again.
And also, no one forces you to "choose one or the other." There are elitists on here that believe that, but in my 20 years of using both, I've never been comfortable with either for very long.
Martipar@reddit (OP)
Of course FOSS is socialist. It's created, for free, for the benefit of people as a whole. The developers work as a collective and features very added or removed based on the communities preferences. That's the essence of socialism. Maybe you just don't understand what socialism is?
Strazdas1@reddit
Linux is not FOSS. It has binary blobs in it which violate FOSS principles. The price of having working drivers.
Ezmiller_2@reddit
When I think of socialism, which eventually becomes communism, I think of Richard Wurmbrand and all that he went through.
Martipar@reddit (OP)
When i think of capitalism i think of all the workers currently struggling to afford food and rent. Billions of people all strangled and suppressed by a regime they have no direct control over.
I was right, you don't understand socialism and you also don't understand that that sort of persecution it's incompatible with it. However high rents, high priced goods and low wages are very compatible with capitalism.
Many societies mix and match from both sides of the spectrum with the UK being very capitalist but also having the NHS and social housing however nobody has direct control over what is kept and what is not. In the 1980s a large portion of UK assets were sold off reducing the economic strength of the UK.
Maybe you need to read more and understand that socialism is about supporting society as a whole and listening to society as a whole, persecuting individual groups is not compatible with supporting everyone. FOSS is socialist, Romania was not.
Ezmiller_2@reddit
A lot of the folks that are struggling is because of their way of life. They refuse to cook for themselves, and prefer eating out or takeout--I guarentee it. They refuse to make their own coffee and prefer overpriced Starbucks or whatever coffee house. All that adds up.
We vote for our leaders in the States, something you don't do in socialism. How do I know? The Czech Republic had to overgrow the socialist and communist control to vote again. Wurmbrand was just a pastor in Romania and spoke up against socialism, and was imprisoned and tortured for 14 years because of it. We have photos detailing everything.
Martipar@reddit (OP)
>something you don't do in socialism.
Plenty of Socialist leaders were elected, I struggle to think of ones that were not.
>A lot of the folks that are struggling is because of their way of life. They refuse to cook for themselves, and prefer eating out or takeout--I guarentee it. They refuse to make their own coffee and prefer overpriced Starbucks or whatever coffee house. All that adds up.
You are a fantasist.
Strazdas1@reddit
TPM is not a security feature, its a microsoft controlling what can run on your device feature. Win 11 has some wind and some loses over 10.
Some-Challenge8285@reddit
Windows 11 will work with a clean install on 7th gen Intel and 1st gen AMD without bypassing the requirements, so long as the other requirements are met.
Martipar@reddit (OP)
It has TPM 2.0, but installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware is straightforward, as it's bypassing the requirement for a Microsoft account. My mums laptop is of the same era and it also runs Windows 11, both of them are happy with it. I'll be upgrading my own main computer soon. I always seem to be working on other projects though. Right now I'm trying to get Pimiga working on an old laptop but it's not booting. I haven't exhausted all possible fixes though so I've got a few things to try out.
tgrantt@reddit
If you still had the link, the update still worked. How-To Geek had an article about it
Martipar@reddit (OP)
It would've been upgraded sometime before 2023. I don't exactly use her computer very often, it's hers not mine and we don't live close to each other. The last time i used it was to help with some minor problem or other. I don't know, it was certainly before lockdown.
Strazdas1@reddit
windows are really good at backward compatibility, especially with other microsoft products.
Office 2003 though... it does not support modern office formats and the extension to force it to recompile into old format is kinda wonky and wont always work. Expect tech support on that..
Grizknot@reddit
its considered bad practice to plug electronics directly into the wall, you should always plug them into a surge protector.
This applies to appliances too btw, our fridge (no-wifi, or anything fancy, just an ice maker) went on the fritz after the flooring guys came and attached their high-amp sander directly to the breaker box, the appliance guy said he sees this all the time and he highly recommends putting all appliances behind a surge protector
Martipar@reddit (OP)
I live in the UK, we have fused plugs and breakers on every circuit.
Grizknot@reddit
ah got it
RivaTNT2M64@reddit
I am curious though... which capture card is it? The market is flooded with sub-par junk. :(
Martipar@reddit (OP)
It's some ancient USB one. It's not the same model but it seems to have the same guts as this one:
https://youtu.be/98CI6lzvk5M?si=33CKZw_RceQyoZge
she's using for backing up VHS tapes and the quality is perfectly fine for that but i am considering getting an upgrade. I did say she was lucky to get one that wasn't utterly dreadful for £20 in 2012.
Starfury_42@reddit
I built a computer this year replacing a 9 yr old system. I put my old DVD drive into it and installed Office 2008 from the disk. Still works fine on Win 11.
One-Reflection-4826@reddit
the sign of a true hero!
tunaman808@reddit
Why would you be surprised? Microsoft works really hard on backwards-compatibility. I'm not at all surprised that Office 2003 installed on Windows 11. What you normally can't do is the reverse: install Office 2024 on Windows 7.
Martipar@reddit (OP)
Microsoft do work hard on backwards compatibility but sometimes something has to stop working.
Smith6612@reddit
Only thing to watch out for is the yearly feature upgrades for Windows. Microsoft supports a feature version for about two years, afterwards the machine will stop receiving updates.
With Windows 11, I've noticed they haven't been deploying Windows 11 Feature Upgrades on a yearly basis to systems with unsupported hardware. You have to force upgrade the system from the ISO.
Shazam1269@reddit
LOL, I was going to guess Rufus