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Depends on the hardware. I have a Canon scanner that does not work on 64 bit. No Windows 7 or 8 drivers. Some printers won’t work either. It pays to check your vendor for 64 bit drivers before jumping to 64 bit if you have older periperals.

Jerry

What floored me is, I have Windows7 64 bit on this laptop and bought a new printer in anticipation of my very very old HP deskjet 930C not working on it. I mean OLD!!!!! And, recently I needed to print a form in a hurry and did not want to send it over to the old (2003) 32 bit Windows XP computer that the printer works with. So, I grabbed a printer cord from the new printer, stuck it on the 930C (USB cord) and attached it to the 64 bit Windows 7 computer, and voila – it worked perfectly! Awesome! So now I feel silly and annoyed that I bought the new printer.

I rarely print anything and could care less about the old printer’s slow speed. It actually prints fine on “draft” setting for most things and is faster that way, anyway, if I want to print, say, 20 pages of a manual. But, that’s like once a year or so that I would want to do such a thing anyway. At normal speed it prints perfectly on el cheapo regular or HP bright white paper.

Moral is, don’t count your old printer down and out til you actually hook it up to the new computer and see if it works!!! I had forgotten that this old printer could use anything but a parallel port cord:D — but when I looked, there was the little hole for the USB cord right next to it, Obviously I don’t pay a lot of attention to printer cords, so, I don’t know if the USB cord for a printer is any different from any other USB cord, but, am guessing it is and if so, easy enough to pick one up somewhere if the owner can’t find theirs.

I’m 47 and I need glasses to work on my computer. LOL
You may be able to adjust your browser’s “zoom” setting too.
For IE, it’s at the bottom right, I have mine set at 150%.

If you have a small monitor it’ll be harder to do though.

I am using a laptop with 17 inch screen, and I can zoom up the browser. But it occurs to me if they make the default font here larger, the size of “3” on the font size picker they have on the toolbar above where I am typing right now, it might be a real plus for most of the people who come here.

I have adjusted mine as well (Ctrl + Mouse Wheel) to an easier font to view. The comment made by 1Ted starts much earlier than 80. I am starting to see the affects at 60.

I just click the font size on the toolbar of the message box – that makes it bigger for everyone who reads the thread. I think the default font is kinda too small, actually. I was having trouble with near vision when I turned 43, seemed like a lot of my friends were having problems around the same time, so I would assume there are a lot of people who have to put on the glasses to see the default font here as easily as they’d like.

I might very well acquire a Surface Pro or similar Tablet when they become available. When I do that, do you think I’m giving up my laptop. . . NO WAY! I like the large screen with a very nice resolution on my laptop. I do have to admit my desktop is not used much anymore, but then I am not what I would consider a power user or gamer. It’s just more convenient using our laptops in front of the TV (As you might have guessed I don’t work at my profession on my PC).

Whatever tablet I consider will have to have a H/W keyboard and ability to use my USB mouse. I can see occasionally using the tablet W/O a keyboard, but not regularly. I guess I will be trying to turn the tablet into a small laptop. Perhaps I’ll look at an ultrabook type PC, with a touch screen (I assume those will be available). I’ll just have to decide at that time.

I guess the point is conventional PC’s will be in my life and many others lives for many years.

Medico – I agree with your perception of this – we’ll all have our PCs – and MS, Apple, and crew does not have to push it on us, so they are free to devote all their advertising and promotion dollars to trying to talk us into tablets, smartphones, and whatever comes next, including the mini-tablets which they hope people will buy to span the gap between phone and larger tablet. OTOH, the Galaxy S IV, when it comes out next year, is going to have a 5 inch screen, and it will be interesting to see how that competes with the mini-iPad that “they” say is coming “soon.” I found that the Galaxy S III with its 4.8 inch screen is hard for me to hold onto, can’t reach with the thumb across the screen, and doesn’t fit well into some pockets.

PS the small font that is default on this board is driving my eyes crazy so I switched to one I can see. LOL!

I believe the era of the conventional PC is far from over. First, there are so many millions in use and being sold that it is just logical there will be many years of continued use. Second, can you imagine composing a report or long email on a smartphone? As 1Ted has stated, this chore can be hard even on a tablet if a user is using the S/W keyboard when there is an underlying physical problem. Third, look at all the professions that have to work on complex drawings or spreadsheets or data bases, or whatever. Can you imagine opening these things in smart phones or again even on a tablet?

Yes many job functions can be performed on a tablet (especially if it is a powerful tablet), but most professions do need a conventional PC to actually do the work that might be displayed on a tablet.

Smartphones are great for reminding you of something, or texting, or even sending emails (if they are not too complex) if you are physically able to use them. You can even surf and use facebook/twitter on a smartphone, but I defy anyone to work on a spreadsheet on a smart phone.

The conventional PC will be around and used for years to come. The swing from desktops to more portable laptops is well along, but even desktops tend to be liked more by power users.

—–
I think these articles that make such statements as “the era of the PC is dead” are either written to get people to come to the site and read advertising there, as barely disguised promotional pieces by people who get perks or know some company is a heavy advertiser (or would be), or, they are written by people whose use of computers is mostly recreational.

I’ve been seeing articles that “assume everyone knows” the pc is dying. I think this is going to be a concept for years to come as Microsoft, Apple, Google, others do their best to sell tablets and smartphones and they themselves push out the idea that the use of the desktop (and larger laptops) is dead. So every time you see a number indicating that fewer desktops are sold, fewer laptops sold than last quarter, etc. they use it to push their agenda and sway public opinion toward the latest thing they have to sell, or you could say toward the direction where those companies see new profit that wasn’t there before. They count on people refusing to give up the desktop and laptop, figuring they really don’t have to pay any attention to that – people will buy them as needed anyway. They may hold off on a new one, though, and put that money into buying a tablet, and then later on down the road replace the desktop or laptop. So these big corporations get their cake and get to eat it too by pushing these ideas like “the pc is dead.”

Pretty soon, everyone writes forum messages, emails and articles as though “everyone knows” the pc and desktop is dead – why? because they “heard it,” read it, it was repeated often enough for them to believe it so it becomes a sort of self perpetuating idea. Meantime, the corporations laugh all the way to the bank because you are now loaded up with desktop, a couple of laptops in different sizes with different operating systems, tablets from two different companies because no one company has all the features you want, and a smartphone or, as they get cheaper and if plans don’t increase insanely in cost, 2 smartphones with usage depending on what you want to do today.

Here are the results of a much larger survey – 50,000 Win8 users:
http://www.forumswindows8.com/general-discussion/windows-8-survey-half-prefer-windows-7-a-7853.htm

Interesting poll – thanks.

[h=2] Windows 8 survey- half prefer Windows 7 #1[/h][INDENT]HONG KONG, Sep 26, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Forumswindows8.com, the largest Windows 8 help and support forum on the Internet, recently polled Windows 8 users on their feelings regarding Microsoft’s flagship product. Over 50,000 users have voted ……..

…… According to the poll, 56% of users chose this (fast startup and shutdown) feature as their favorite. For those who dislike Windows 8, the price is an important reason. Users can upgrade to Windows 8 at only $39.99, but without promotional pricing the cost rises to $199.99. 35% of the users believe that this price is too high. Meanwhile, the new metro UI does not seem popular among users. Only 22% users chose this feature as their favorite……. (see more at http://www.forumswindows8.com/general-discussion/windows-8-survey-half-prefer-windows-7-a-7853.htm ) This goes on to evaluate many different features so I found it really interesting in its detailed approach.[/INDENT]

The EYE’s and Hands of older people are making it unbeleiveable hard to use the much smaller’
mini phones and other units.
Age 79 years young

I agree with that. AARP magazine has ads for simple cell phones with large buttons, in case that is of interest to you. And some lazy websites (Reuters for instance) now send out their daily emails in tiny eensy weensy type suitable for smartphones but horrible to read on computers. Type in general seems to be smaller not larger. In fact, what I am typing right here is small so I just changed the font size on the toolbar to make it bigger. The chiclet style keyboards on Macs seem to be made for kids’ fingers and I swear it originated from the days in the 80s when they were selling little macs to schools.

You’re right, I’m not the OP, and I do not LOVE WLM (at least v 2011); it just decided not to let me see my contacts.
I didn’t even know there was a 2012, nor did I know about Windows Mail.
I will try them both.
Thank you for the suggestions.

Dave S.

I am sorry you had trouble with WLM 2011. It absolutely stinks (for my useage, can’t speak for anyone else). I hated the multiple inboxes, and hated that if I moved the outbox UP to a spot above all the inboxes, it jumped right back to the bottom when I reopened the program. It would not let me resize photos to smaller files before I could attach and send, and it kept demanding that I sign in and use Skydrive (I did turn it off but it kept coming back), which is SO unprofessional when you are sending photos to someone for business purposes and you are asking them to sign into a stupid internet service to see what you sent, as though you were sending pix to a family member and put them up on Flickr or something. I hated the gigantic exploded menus I had to search through to use something. I hated everything about it.

Now as I said, Medico and others did say that WLM 2012 is much better, so, if you want a new program, you could definitely check that out. But if your contacts are somehow disconnected from live mail right now, I don’t know if installing the new program, oh, I mean “client”:rolleyes:, is going to automatically reconnect them. If you can find your contacts (for me they were NOT listed under the start orb’s selections like they seemed to be for others), it would be good to export them to a CSV file so that you have them safely stored on an external drive in a format that can be imported into some other mail program. There’s an export button on the contacts toolbar.

I found mine under c:/Users/[user name]/Contacts in Windows Explorer

If you were an Outlook Express fan, though, then Windows Mail is your program, and you can go with it without fearing that it won’t work on Windows 7 or that it will be unstable or anything else you might hear or think. It works like a champ. As I said, don’t allow a zillion messages to pile up in one folder – that’s just plain old good housekeeping – and don’t forget to back up your mail files. All that works just as it did in OE. You will find that there is an “Imported Messages” heading with multiple file folders beneath it when you first import your mail stores (which is done exactly as it was in OE), but all you have to do is move each of them up beneath Local Folders and then delete the now empty Imported Messages folder.

I believe Medico said you can also do that with WLM 2012, btw. (see, Medico, I paid attention to what you said).

You will find you can no longer compact a single folder, unfortunately, which is what I did a lot to get rid of empty space caused by moving and deleting messages, so now you have to compact all folders (as far as I know — no one’s told me anything different). And there is a new junk mail folder. I have been unable to purge the Blocked Senders list – it now resides under Junk Mail – you reach that with a right click on any message – but there is a convoluted way to fix that problem. I just haven’t tackled it.

Other than that, Windows Mail works exactly like OE and in truth, IS OE with a different name and those few different features I just mentioned.

Microsoft has instructions on how to export and import your message store, rules, signatures, and accounts for OE on its website. Use those for Windows Mail – they are the same. You can export your messages out of WLM and then import into WM. I have both running on this computer, no problem, and they do not conflict with each other. I no longer use WLM but on rare occasions I have opened it for one reason or another. I checked off Make WM default Mail program in Options. Any new WM message box that I plan to type into is a totally blank window for about 1 to 1.5 seconds probably due to some background scrambling around, though. But NBD, I could care less about that.

Use this link: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5481-windows-mail.html

Just ignore all that stuff with the pink background. Seems to be some bit of political correctness they needed to get in there. The older tutorial, that I used, is on page 123 of that thread. For Windows 8, see Endeavor’s post #1247 on page 125 of the thread. It will refer you to the windows 8 forum. Here’s his post in EightForums: http://www.eightforums.com/browsers-mail/3698-how-use-winmail-windows-8-a.html#post91690

I guess you have to ask yourself how useful is your solution.

If one doesn’t use WLM, and Thunderbird in said to be at end of life, which email client do you suggest?

Dave S.

I am using Windows Mail in Windows 7 and am very very happy with it. To find out how to do this, just google for SevenForums Windows Mail tutorial. In that thread, I think page 125 of it, I read that it will also wok in Windows 8 and it isn’t hard to accomplish that either. There is a successor to SevenForums called EightForums, (saying this without looking it up again), and in there are the instructions for Windows 8. As you probably know, Windows Mail is the upgraded Outlook Express that worked with Vista. The two are nearly identical. The thing to remember is to keep your message folders to about 5000 msgs each and when one exceeds that just create a new folder and put the older messages in it. And: back up!

I have also posted the links for all this in previous messages here in this group (not in this thread).

Note that Medico (above) and others say that WLM 2012 works a lot better than the two versions I struggled with – 2011 and 2009 …. to me, both were truly crappy dysfunctional email programs (clients).

You might consider giving 2012 a shot before going to Windows Mail, or, just throw live mail overboard and go right to Windows Mail. No more being hooked to The Cloud, no more “reminders” no more sign in prompts, you can forward picture-filled emails, you can reduce sizes of images you wish to email without resorting to workaround tricks. Works like a mail program ought to work, and doesn’t have crazy exploded menus, just nice neat normal ones and a nice neat toolbar with only what you want and need on it. Hooray!

On the other hand, you are not the OP in this thread and maybe you LOVE WLM and in that case, I am glad for you. I hated it.

I think ALL form factors have their place. …..,.

How this plays into the current discussion- at home, I can hook in all my peripherals to the dock, and it acts like a desktop computer. When I travel, I now have an easy-to-carry device that does everything my home computer can because it IS my home computer- even haqve a near-no-weight portable USB-poered scanner for scanning in receipts, documents, etc.. Thus, when I’m away for more than an overnight, I have all my computer power and a reasonable screen real estate, can do anything I can at home, and have no need to sync multiple devices.

IF the job picture in this country ever recovers, and more youth move into the workplace, it’ll be the smartphone/laptop market that stagnates, and the laptop/desktop market that expands.

Comedian, I hope you have also invested in a good locking system so that your computer which IS your home computer can’t be stolen if you look in the wrong direction. The kind that’ll track its location might be useful to you.

I disagree that those who use smartphones and tablets are not working. I had the old-style phone and loved it for a lot of reasons and did not want a new one but the carrier forced me to get a new one by announcing it would no longer carry signals for the type phone I had. I do have to go out to do some of my work and it was tough to type on that old phone, so I bought a new used smartphone on ebay. After I learned to use it, I realized that I no longer was tied to the office and if I had to go out when an important message might be pending, I could now do so without worrying, and could reply with fairly lengthy emails that took less time than the old-style typing on the older phone. I could look up things quickly on the built in browser too. So it expanded my “office” and made it easier for me to work. I now have an iPad, too, just got it a few weeks ago, and that has made it even easier for me.

I have 3 laptops of various ages and sizes, and the one I am typing on has a 17 inch screen, needed because all that screen space helps me work better and faster. Sure I can carry it around but do not like to. I don’t sync all my computers. I could, but don’t.

My work is done completely on my computer so unlike other jobs, I need to have some device available 24/7 no matter where I am. The combination I have now works for me, and yeah, I do *work.* I think that working business people do find that these devices are helping them work faster, better, and wherever they are. I don’t think age has much to do with it, I think it’s more a case of when did a person start using computers, how much did they learn, and what part do these computers and other devices play in their lives. I know people who are 20 years younger than I am who are “duh” when it comes to electronic devices because they never needed to know. Whatever they use one for now is more in the entertainment and playing arena than the work arena, unless they do use a company computer at work.

I see, in real life, a big split between those who use computers and electronics as toys and entertainment devices, and those who use them for business. It is hard to generalize because of that. I also see that the young folks who use computers and devices for fun, homework and social centers (skyping while doing homework, or watching movies or tv shows, etc.) will grow up and be collaborating for work via their electronics, not writing social notes and gossiping. So whatever they are doing now with them will be useful to them 20 years down the road, but they (IMO) will need far more than tablets and phones for their work.

My solution is to get rid of Windows Live Mail!!!

The post PC era is a soundbyte that so many would be hip bloggers and tech journalists push around senselessly. Actually, seeing someone pull a catchphrase like that, makes me think they are not worth my time. .

Totally agree with that. I think it’s a really stupid thing for them to say.

The “younger generation” that is so busy texting friends and all that is going to grow up and eventually texting won’t be the main thing they use their electronics for. Messing with small portable keyboards, on screen keyboards, etc. gets old fast when the boss is breathing down your neck, you have a huge project, need lots of screen real estate and a keyboard for your adult fingers so you aren’t hitting 2 keys at once. Their needs and interests will change. When they have families and need to support them, and jobs that call for more than tablets and smartphones, these kids of today *will* change.

I have Chrome open right now with *49* tabs – because I just finished a project and needed them all. There were times when I had another five open besides that. Tabs sometimes stay open for weeks. I have loaded up the various “new tab” screens with icons, some with 20 icons in a category so I can get at them fast. I also have 11 emails open but when working, could have as many as 15 or 18 with various pieces of my project on them. But that isn’t all, either. And guess what, no surprise, that isn’t going to fit on a tablet very nicely while I type on a little old portable keyboard or on screen keyboard.

I think this talk of PC is dead is pure rubbish.

Hello,

i have the same problem with IE9 and websites (java.com, ..) on a few PCs of my company.

I noticed that the issue is based on Adobe products:

– install win7 32bit (image with drivers, updates and of course with IE9) on diferent PCs
– open java.com without any problems
– install Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design Standard (version 5, 5.5 and 6 dosnt matter)
– open java.com display just the red banner.

I dont get a support from Adobe because we have just bought 5 Suites and this just includes “enduser support” and no support for domain computers. F*** Adobe.

Have anyone more informations regarding this issue?

Greets
Hemetz

Hemetz,
The best solution I found was to simply not waste any more time on IE 9 and remove it from the computer through Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel (actually I think that is called Programs and Features or something like that on Windows 7) and reboot. It takes a long time to reboot – because Windows has gone out to Microsoft and is bringing back IE 8 and installing it for you. This immediately solves the problems caused by IE 9. There are instructions for doing this online somewhere if you need them. It would be something like “how to roll back to an earlier edition of Internet Explorer”.

Kelliann

Microsoft jump starts the Windows 8 market :rolleyes::
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2205526/microsoft-hands-out-surface-tablets-windows-phone-8-handsets-and-windows-8-pcs-to-workers

Jerry

:rolleyes:

And Google gave the Nexus S to every employee a couple of years ago, before it was even available to the public in the US.

I find the comprehensive view after a product launches much more useful than just one side or the other. I think I foresee a world in which brand loyalty is slipping away, and it’s led by the young people who could really give a darn less whose name is on it as long as it works for them personally. The young ones I know laugh at their elders and shrug, indicating “waste of time, I could be texting my friends,” when they see the “old folks” (older than 30) continuing the debates on “which brand is better; mine’s better than yours, I love my brand you should too,” etc. I know a Mac kid who wants to try out the Surface. Does he care it’s not a Mac? No, not really. He just wants to know if it’ll do what he wants. Does his Mac-dedicated dad care? Count on it! (Yes!).

Maybe I gave a false impression of Pegasus Mail. It can be used in a way which is so portable that the only traces it leaves on the host computer are a few Temporary Files.

However, if you want to save all the PMail data (well beyond just the email messages) on your own devices, you just direct the program to use your own device, and it installs a complete, robust client on your device. (This is not limited to PCs and laptops, as an App protocol is also at least hinted at in Pegasus Mail’s documentation at their site. They have a full User Manual online for details.) There are detailed How-To’s for a variety of installation and use configurations at the Pegasus Mail web site.

Overall, this program seems to be holding up remarkable well, considering how many email clients are non longer being developed or supported. More modern features and improvements on older features are always being developed. And I really like the Pegasus interface — it’s clean but provides a familiar Folders or Mailboxes look.

Backing up what you place on your own device is still as simple as copying the entire PMail Folder to an external location. The whole program and all your messages are then safely archived.

For a robust, full-featured, yet very flexible email client, I’ve found very few programs which compare with Pegasus Mail. And they do not pay me to say this.

Thanks Bob. You’ve got me curious now. I’ll go take a look at their website.

Kelliann