Bought a New Windows 7 laptop.
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My old faithful 4yrs+ Lenovo G780 17.3" left hinge is messed up. It’s going to fall apart soon I surmise. And I didn’t want W10 & since M$ beats the piss out of manufacturers I can’t install W7 on the newest 7th & 8th gen Intel CPU afaik.
So I was getting panicky. I did the best I could for my needs & budget.
HP ProBook 470 G3 Notebook i5-6200U 8GB RAM 500GB HDD 17.3" Win7 W0S57UT#ABL
I didn’t do too much research because there is less & less available stock per my requirements. I swore I’d wouldn’t buy a new HP. Well mister high & mighty just bought an HP. At least it’s HP ProBook Series which are miles better than the HP consumer line. Well for hardly any new 17" W7 laptops out there I think I did pretty good at $727 otd. F M$ btw if you couldn’t tell.
Hope this W7 laptop lasts as my desktop replacement until Big Brother is toppled, Pandora’s box is closed or until the Apocalypse does whatever.
0As a USA citizen I have the right to criticize my government. My thanks for this is endless in magnitude.
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I still have no idea why people are so worked up about W10. I hate the interface as much as anyone. It’s terrible. A 30 second download of Classic Start makes it look, feel and act exactly like 7 with all of the security and speed benefits of 10 under the hood. Interface aside, 10 has significant benefits over 7 in many areas and in a few years MS is going to drop support for 7. Based on recent actions and statements they are likely to accelerate that move compared to the support they provided for previous legacy OS’s.
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Some chose, some were forced. At this point everyone should know the issues.
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W10 does not have WMC (Windows Media Center) something I use everyday and would impact my quality of life if I lost it. It came with W7. In W8 you had to pay extra to get it. It is not officially available in W10 but there is a way to add a hacked version of WMC into W10. I have a W7 laptop in my entertainment center that it’s main purpose is to run WMC. It also acts as a repository for common data that the other computers in our family accesses. Other W7 things like working with restore points are becoming less obvious to use and I’m afraid will be dropped in future versions of Windows.
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I wish there was a version of linux that was as powerful as Win 7 and installed with absolutely no driver issues or command line needed, If I wanted buttons or touchscreen or nickel and dimed for apps or upgrades I’d get a smart phone.
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@FrugalFreak Linux that all banking & government sites worked on. And a seamless office suite that worked with M$ Office. There’s always some stupid website that I desperately need to use that Linux won’t work on. And it’s NOT Linuxes fault it’s the stupid FN website.
Those are the issues keeping me from full time Linux. Hardware compatibility is no longer an issue ime unless you have bleeding edge or ancient tech.
If I have an unknown laptop I want Linux on. Usually by the 3rd Distro everything works. Distrowatch.org is a great resource.
Some things won’t work like switchable graphics.
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well I tried some back in the day and i had issues, the help online mentioned comand line this, etc I said screw it, havent been back or tried, can I install on a PC just like windows with no input by ME?
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like my asus I have now, can i format my hard drive and install just like windows by popping in the disc? it has UEFI bios
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Suggest going to Distrowatch downloading & burning some LiveCD. You don’t have to format, just play in the live environment. It’s all real easy to google these days.
I remember the 1st time I booted to a LiveCD in a Desktop that I’d removed the hard drive 1st. I laughed & laughed because I was using it without a HDD.
I suggest Mint & Ubuntu to start.
2As a USA citizen I have the right to criticize my government. My thanks for this is endless in magnitude.
1 Reply
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@zapjb said in Bought a New Windows 7 laptop.:
Suggest going to Distrowatch downloading & burning some LiveCD. You don’t have to format, just play in the live environment. It’s all real easy to google these days.
I remember the 1st time I booted to a LiveCD in a Desktop that I’d removed the hard drive 1st. I laughed & laughed because I was using it without a HDD.
I suggest Mint & Ubuntu to start.
I don’t want live, i want it just like windows.
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LOL. It’s learning not instant coffee.
suggested LiveCD cause it doesn’t destroy your current OS. Like try before you buy. Course it’s free.
3As a USA citizen I have the right to criticize my government. My thanks for this is endless in magnitude.
1 Reply
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@zapjb said in Bought a New Windows 7 laptop.:
LOL. It’s learning not instant coffee.
Then it’s not ready for me. I want it to just work!
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You know Windows is learning also.
1As a USA citizen I have the right to criticize my government. My thanks for this is endless in magnitude.
1 Reply
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@zapjb no I’d done learned that when younger LOL, not sure I have motivation to relearn a whole new system, is there a distro that emulates windows?
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Believe me Linux is not that hard. Little by little on a spare machine or Live Distros. Within a few sessions you’ll feel not out of your depth.
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Best way to try Linux is boot it from a USB stick. It won’t affect your current OS. If you don’t like it, pull it out and restart to your current OS. I suggest Linux Mint to try.
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I bought a netbook that had Linux. Being uneasy I had XPP installed instead. It was too much for the little netbook.
Wanted to go back to Linux. I’m probably one of the most unsavvy computer folks on here.
Guys on the FW Technology Forum talked me through step by step installing Easy Peasy on to a flash drive and then booting off of that.Fast forward a few years. Bought a Surface 3 Pro (clearance at Staples for $199) and it came with Windows 8.
Free update to W10. Tried it and hated it. Went back to W8.
I have very cheap but slow internet. Unable to watch videos with W10 vs. no issues with W8.
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@redmed said in Bought a New Windows 7 laptop.:
W10 does not have WMC (Windows Media Center) something I use everyday and would impact my quality of life if I lost it. It came with W7. In W8 you had to pay extra to get it. It is not officially available in W10 but there is a way to add a hacked version of WMC into W10. I have a W7 laptop in my entertainment center that it’s main purpose is to run WMC. It also acts as a repository for common data that the other computers in our family accesses. Other W7 things like working with restore points are becoming less obvious to use and I’m afraid will be dropped in future versions of Windows.
I also have a WMC Windows 7 machine still running. Can you tell more about the hacked version for Windows 10? I’ve been wondering what the options will be after I’m forced to move to a Windows 10 machine, hopefully many years from now. Thanks!
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Getting started with Linux.
I’m not going to explain much all the info & answers are out there GIYF.Some useful links.
Most helpful suggestion: read, read, read, read, read.
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@hbg1 said in Bought a New Windows 7 laptop.:
@redmed said in Bought a New Windows 7 laptop.:
W10 does not have WMC (Windows Media Center) something I use everyday and would impact my quality of life if I lost it. It came with W7. In W8 you had to pay extra to get it. It is not officially available in W10 but there is a way to add a hacked version of WMC into W10. I have a W7 laptop in my entertainment center that it’s main purpose is to run WMC. It also acts as a repository for common data that the other computers in our family accesses. Other W7 things like working with restore points are becoming less obvious to use and I’m afraid will be dropped in future versions of Windows.
I also have a WMC Windows 7 machine still running. Can you tell more about the hacked version for Windows 10? I’ve been wondering what the options will be after I’m forced to move to a Windows 10 machine, hopefully many years from now. Thanks!
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=97&t=10774
This is a good start on info from TheGreenButton forum.
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@redmed
Thanks for the link - I will definitely check it out!
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@zapjb said in Bought a New Windows 7 laptop.:
And I didn’t want W10 & since M$ beats the piss out of manufacturers I can’t install W7 on the newest 7th & 8th gen Intel CPU afaik.
If you don’t do graphics intensive stuff (like gaming), one way to run Win7 on any new hardware is to run it as a Virtual Machine (i.e. VirtualBox, VirtualPC, VMware, etc.), where Win10 then simply serves as the “host” OS.
I think VirtualBox is freeware. VirtualPC & VMware (Workstation) are both commercial, although VMware Player (which lets you run VM’s) I think is free. You just have to d/l pre-existing VM’s when using VMware Player (but I think you can find pre-built Win7 VM’s supplied by MS). There are plenty of Linux distro VM’s available for D/L (that should work under VMware Player).
If your host PC has enough disk space and RAM, you can easily run multiple VM’s at once (of whatever OS type/version you desire). You can even run a Win10 as a VM under a Win10 (or even a Win7) host OS.
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Thanks but not what I wanted.
