Computer choice

PC or laptop?

Desktop.

LOL I am not a good person to ask as I am running three XP machines.

I just bought a used vista machine.

after a lengthy discussion with my computer guy.

XP is dying.

and 7 is essentially a renamed vista.

a mom and pop guy might save you something over wally's. dunno.

there is a ton of used stuff floating around...

Well Microsoft is trying like hell to kill it however at the moment XP market share is around 32 percent one hell of a lot more then window 8 at around 5 percent and Vista is 3.5 percent with only Window 7 having a bigger market share of 47 percents.

For laugh the Mac last OS is at 2.5 percents or so.

My thanks to all, and the decision has been made. The price combined with the ability to use existing software is worth something like five hundred bucks which is not my definition of small change.

The reason for the upgrade is a failure of the on/off power switch on the old vista machine, by the way. It's an Acer which does not use a common button as the button is part of the "front bezel" only availabe at 39.99 from some guy in Canada. Add cost of installation and we're up to about 100.00 for a 6 year old machine.

I'm off to WallyWeb.

Again, thanks

Since it isn't new, I went for the 3 yr guarantee and the price went to 334. I feel ill at the expenditure and overjoyed at the savings over the new cost.

oh well. . . .

just for conjecture...

in that three year period, if something fails, how is it handled?

in the fine print.

more importantly, where is it handled...

I might be interested in your old machine, if you don't have to do a trade in.

Feel good that it's a Windows 7 machine. It's the quickest most restable Widows OS I've experienced. Windows 8 is only fully utilizable with a touch screen so if you don't have one then don't bother. Me? I'd worry about the refurbished nature of the computer and if the company one buys the tech guarantee would give you a hassle regarding any warranty repairs. Anywho... good luck with your new setup and may it last several productive and stres free years sans repairs.

I'll keep that in mind, Rocky. I do want to be absolutely the new one is doing what I want and has all data transferred before I part with it. Keep that failed switch in mind, though. To have a shot at restarting it, I have to log out and then shut off the power strip.

if it is the machine I think it is, I have a parts box.

no hurry...

I sometimes put old machines together for poor friends. as I find them...

I’ve always had a PC but recently we bought new Mac desktops and laptops. With the desktops there’s no tower, everything is built in the monitor. I don’t think I could ever go back to a PC again, with these Mac’s you can open ten programs at the same time without delay. With my PC it took three minutes just to open photoshop.

Win7 Pro is what you want. Win7 by itself isn't bad especially for home use.

Mac's are much better of course but if you really have to have a Windows machine, the Win7 is fine.

Yes, well there's good and bad. I've kept my PCs running for 10 years by having access to a tower where I could vacuum out dust, replace power supplies, cooling fans, cd readers and even add memory so that I could have 8 programs open at once.
Macs are a very good product but the days of fixing 'puters are over for me.

It takes a lot of memory to run 10 programs...new computers have it...old ones don't.

Buy a switch and then take a drill and mount it somewhere on the side of the machine soldering the wires to it from the old switch and or the circuit board with the old switch.

Problem solve.

My current desk top is a Frankenstein monster of parts from three computers along with some parts from e-bay.

That might be an option. I'm pretty sure that switch does nothing but short out a pair of contacts. Nevertheless, it's old and there will soon be very little in the way of software upgrades available.

New machine ordered.

Problem solve!

My demands are not huge, ros. I run Peachtree accounting and MS Student Office. The rest of the useage is communication by email and mousing around on the internet - to include shopping. I'm fairly sure the old and clunky ME OS would handle my needs except it doesn't support current software.