Another Computer Question

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Bob Kraemer

Bob Kraemer

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Location
Ohio
1) Is anyone using the new OS Windows Vista?
2) Bought a new laptop (my otherone died) and it has Vista well now I can't
use Quick Books 2003 does anyone know of a work around?
3) Tried running it in compatability mode XP/SP 2 still doesn't work
4) Don't want to upgrade to QB 2007, don't have the extra cash.
5) The new laptop has 1 large drive partioned into 2 smaller drives C & D
I was thinking about re-partioning C drive and running a dual boot system
Does anyone have any experience with doing this, I know how to do it,
never done it before, so not sure if it a wise thing to do.

All help, comments and suggestions welcomed.
 
Vista

Vista

We had to upgrade.
I believe there are some patches available from Intuit now.
Personally, if I still had the choice, I would not have bought the new computer with Vista.
We also bought an HP laser printer at the same time and cannot use the scanner as it is not Vista compatible and HP has not issued any patch for it yet.
My experience with Vista up to this point has not been very good.
Many compatibility issues.
 
My son and I bought identical laptop computers, with the exception that he has Vista and I have XP. His battery life is approximately 1/2 of mine. In addition to compatibility problems, it appears that Vista is a power hog.
 
dezwitinc said:
We had to upgrade.
I believe there are some patches available from Intuit now.
Personally, if I still had the choice, I would not have bought the new computer with Vista.
We also bought an HP laser printer at the same time and cannot use the scanner as it is not Vista compatible and HP has not issued any patch for it yet.
My experience with Vista up to this point has not been very good.
Many compatibility issues.
Click to expand...
I agree with you 100%
On my desk top I run XP Pro with no real problems except IE7 SLOWED the hell out of it.
I'll try Intuit's site again, didn't see any patches for it.
Software company's are getting to the point where they don't want to offer patches for there stuff, they want you to buy/upgrade to the latest version.:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
And people ask me why I still use W2K Pro. :rolleyes: I have no interest in even going to XP. :mad:

One of my friends still uses 98SE. He's tweaked it to the max. It boots in about 15 seconds.
 
IMO XP is a great improvement over previous editions. No more "blue screen of death" and able to deal with multiple applications. I don't see any real improvement with VISTA unless perhaps your computer is to be used mostly for media applications. I reluctantly went from Windows 2000 to XP, but I would not want to go back. I am not a real computer geek, I just want it to work. For me XP does the job.
 
haskindm said:
No more "blue screen of death" and able to deal with multiple applications.

I reluctantly went from Windows 2000 to XP, but I would not want to go back.
Click to expand...
The only time I've ever had to retsart W2K is when it froze because of WinTV2000, which is a TV tuner program and card. Otherwise, I can go weeks without a hitch, and I've never seen a BSOD.

I went two months without a restart once, just to see what would happen. Restarting afterward did make a slight internet speed improvement.

How would you describe the functional differences between W2K and XP? To me, W2K is as easy as 98SE. How would upgrading really benefit me?

One thing I have been told about XP is that it will not function beyond 30 days without an internet connection, because of the intrusiveness that it has built in.
 
I love it.. the dinosaurs are not extinct... I too just recently got vista at home and have xp pro at work. I at first thought vista was a dog and was bummed out due to its lack of compatibility with older programs. In the learning process you need to upgrade vista in order for you to get the help necessary. It has taken some time and cash (some but not allot) but it is actually better than xp pro. I understand that Vista has locked out the kernel portion of their programing language. this is part of the older programs problem because they used part of the kernel language to operate correctly..I don't know why so don't ask... But I am happy with the way it is headed and I do believe that it is designed for the home user in mind. I will not be parting with XP pro anytime soon.
 
I'd be thinking of installing XP on the new lap top. What type of lap top. HP is infamous for having special configurations whereby you're forced to use their configuration CDs' - heck, I couldn't even easily add a spare HD on the last HP I messed around with (I've personally sworn never to own another, as they're packaging as a closed system as far as I'm concerned). I've had Dell's, and have done this on them with no issue - that's installing a fresh OS. I'm assuming you still have a legitimate license from the machine that went up in smoke. It would be your cheapest way out - and like others have said - the large companies won't even chance swapping over to Vista for up to two years. They want to be sure all the bugs are worked out.

Guess who's going to work them out? That's right, the little guy like you and I - well it won't be "I" - as I too will be waiting a year or two.

Dual boot may be possible, but I wouldn't doubt if Mr. Bill worked it so that wasn't possible. Last time I had dual boot was 98SE and W2K - as W2K had bunch of issues - one being memory leak where by the memory would get consumed as you kicked off more apps. It never cleanly freed up memory it was no longer needing for shut down applications.

Bob - please let me know how you end up working this.
 
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I use QB 2005 Contractors version and I believe a few months ago the message came down not to use IE7 until a patch was available. I use the automatic update feature. Don't know if that patch is available or I already have it. I bought checks a few weeks ago and the salesperson tried to get me to upgrade informing me that Intuit drops payroll support for software older than 3 years.

Ever notice that sales persons are obvioulsy stateside, but support staff is anything but?
 
Bob before you wipe out vista you need to check your CPU they are designed to run vista. We were having some problems a while back on some desk tops we finally just replaced them with new ones. I was in the shop playing with them one day and was reading the CPU manual. It stated that the processor need to run W2K or newer and we had been using W98SE and it was doing some weird stuff. I scrubbed and reloaded the computers with XP and they are still working fine. So you want to make sure the CPU is rated for XP before you start. And if you have the original operating disks for xp once you get it up and running you can download any additional drivers so do worry about the restore disks that came with the laptop. They send restore disks not the operating system because they buy the operating system and a bulk of license s's. So they load the machine with programs and then license the machine. Than it is ghosted and the disks are sent as restore disks. So if the CPU is rated for XP you can format the hard drive and reload with XP.
 
bjp_ne_elec said:
What type of lap top. HP is infamous for having special configurations whereby you're forced to use their configuration CDs' - heck, I couldn't even easily add a spare HD on the last HP I messed around with (I've personally sworn never to own another, as they're packaging as a closed system as far as I'm concerned). I've had Dell's, and have done this on them with no issue - that's installing a fresh OS.
Click to expand...

FWIW, the only laptops that I've had good success with overall have been IBM (Thinkpad) and Panasonic (Toughbook). Spend the extra $ and get one that's marketed for business use, not home use. The business ones have better support and the mfg doesn't change the hardware config of the model every month.

I'd run from Dell, HP, & Fujitsu. Toshiba was OK.
 
I am in favor of waiting until at least 6 months after the first service pack is released to adopt any new MS O/S.

I think XP pro is the current best choice for typical users. I just don't see that Vista has anything I really need right this second, besides which a lot of software I run does not yet work on Vista.
 
I'm going to try at make my boot drive (C) a dual boot drive and install XP Pro on that drive and trying running QB 2003 that way. I'll post the results in a day or 2 If that don't work might even try reformatting C drive and install XP Pro. But that might not be one of my better ideas.;) :rolleyes: :-?
 
Bob - definitely take cschmid's recommendation about checking to make sure the CPU is compatible with XP. I should have mentioned that as well in my post. Hope you had your files backed up from the lap top that went up in a puff of smoke.

zbang - I work for a Fortune 500 company and we run some very high end, CPU intensive simulation tools, and the Dell Latitudes have handled anything we throw at them. Quickbooks and Electrical Estimating software is child's play, compared to what we run. I will agree that Toshiba and HP are clunkers - no argument there.
 
bjp_ne_elec said:
Bob - definitely take cschmid's recommendation about checking to make sure the CPU is compatible with XP. I should have mentioned that as well in my post. Hope you had your files backed up from the lap top that went up in a puff of smoke.
Click to expand...

My files are always backed up, I never leave the office without my 2gig flash drive.
I have always had 2 computers (desk top & laptop) the hard drive survived, the BIOS, CMOS or motherboard crashed. Pulled the drive out plugged it into my usb drive adapter and everything is there.
I'll have to contact Acer about the CPU working with XP Pro.
I bought an inexpensive laptop, because of traveling out of town to jobs and taking it to the race track with me, not going to trash or have stolen an expensive laptop. So far it is a decent laptop just can't use QB 2003 :mad:
 
If you are using the payroll services with QB '03 or '05, you will need to upgrade by the end of the year, fwiw. It's only $170 to upgrade. I just did it. Seems like the easiest solution aside from the few extra dollars.
 
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