WINDOWS XP

Think I already helped Ma with this.

Thanks Rae ... children come in so handy:)

I'm good. I can't help it.

The apple don't fall far from the tree.

I'm very close to getting a new computer set up, going from 98 to XP. I have things on floppies I'm going to transfer over, so where does the stuff go anyway? Are there any other tips you could give me to make the transition a little smoother?

I would be eternally grateful!

You people are leaving stuff out that precludes a direct answer. Are you using the restore functions or simply tranferring files. If you are tranferring files it should prompt for a location.

XP works differently than 98 with user accounts BTW.

I've done that all about one months ago ... at my computer shop. (Which means, the technicans there installed XP and I just copied my personal "Walter file".)(I had to install ALL my software [=still finding something, what is missing], and since my old system broke down, it last some more months, until I'll got back most of my booked favourites.)

Misti, anytime you change Operating Systems, you may expect to be surprised by things that went other than you had expected them to. Not sure exactly what problem you you experienced there. There are commercial "Migration" programs which will transfer files, folders, and settings from one machine to another with minimal hassle, making the job almost painless. I have found it better to burn files I want to transfer to optical disc rather than floppy, and to manually configure Operating System Settings, Options, and Preferences on the new system.

XP has lots of drivers built in, but if you have older peripherals, its likely they will need to have their drivers either updated or loaded from the peripheral's original disc and flagged to run in Windows 98 mode under XP (a handy feature). I'm no Bill Gates Booster, but XP is the best Windows yet - kinda like all the strenghth and reliability of Windows 2000, but with a Fisher-Price interface. I've been playing with it since it was "Whistler", and have more or less watched it grow up. I can assure you it had a difficult childhood and a stormy adolescence, but has become a respectable adult. I recommend it for anyone with a PC.

All that said, it is Windows, and comes with a Blue Screen of Death (the same chatty one you get with NT or 2000). Pulling the plug is a useful configuration tool. When installing non-XP-Specific software, its best to do it one application at a time, check both Windows Update and the software vendor's website for updates or patches, and to test and verify the function of the application before adding another. Also, step one with a new XP machine should be to visit Windows Update and download the latest patches and updates before doing anything else ... you'll save yourself some hassle that way.


Congratulations on your new 'puter, by the way.



timber

Thanks, everyone. And sorry that we weren't more specific with the problem.....Mom posted the question and THEN came and got me to help her.

In our defense.....

Mom got a great deal on this computer, but, but, but.....it didn't come with literature for any programs and oddly enough, no disks. She was told by an HP rep that if her system ever crashed, technical support would walk her through a restore. (From a DOS screen? How is that possible?)

Neither one of us are familiar with XP, so if there was an easier way to transfer all of her files, we didn't know where to look for it, and just went with the 'old' way.

Windows updates.....first item on the agenda today!

Thanks again.

Chatoyant, I just have this new computer since yesterday and already I'm loving Windows XP.

I'm not knowledgeable enough about XP yet to advise anyone, but I left my old computer plugged in just in case I needed information for the new one. I copied all my pictures and such onto floppies, then transfered them that way.

I had a problem because as Rae pointed out, I wasn't doing it right, duh!

Craven, I haven't a clue what you mean. As I said above, I've only been using XP for 1 day, and loving it!

I'm sure I'm going to run into things I don't understand, but until one asks the question, one never will find out.

That's one of the things I love about your forum, I've learned so much and hope to continue doing so.

Thanks for your help.

Walter, don't you just love XP?

Timber:

Yes, you're right, which is why I was reluctant to start using XP, but since I have no choice, I've been pleasantly surprised.

Sounds like you're very familiar with XP, now I know who to haunt, he he!

I have it set up to alert me with updates Tim, and thanks for all your information, you're a wealth of knowledge:)

Thanks for the info, everyone. I haven't got my new computer set up yet. I chickened out on doing it myself. My son should be coming over anytime to set it up for me. I'm encouraged by this thread. I've heard good and bad about XP, but recently more good than bad. When it first came out it seems like it had problems, but evidently those have been fixed.

If I have a problem transferring from my floppy discs, I'll come back and ask about it ok Misti?

No problem Chatoyant, anytime, maybe I'll be more informed by then:)

I have the computer going, I watched the tutorial, but I still can't figure out how to transfer files from the floppy disc into a folder on my C drive. Can Misti or anyone help me? Other than that, XP seems great to me!

I think I know what you are trying to do chatoyant. If I understand the issue correctly, what you need to do is create a folder on the XP machine, then Right Click on the icon for the floppy drive on that machine, which has the floppy with the desired stuff. Select "Explore" from the right-click menu, and the contents of the floppy should appear as a folder on the floppy (Assuming you created a folder on the floppy to save them to), and you can simply drag that folder from the floppy into the newly created folder on the XP machine and drop it there. If the material on the floppy is not in a folder, you can do pretty much the same thing by using "Edit">"Select All">"Copy", then pasting into the new folder. You should also be able to highlight any file on the floppy, right-click, and select "Save as ... " and specify the folder to which you wish to save it. I'm a terrible teacher, so if I misunderstood your question or if my answer doesn't make sense to you, let me know.



timber

Thank you so much timber, it's working! There is one disc that doesn't show anything when I click on "explore". I must not have copied correctly from the other computer

Live and learn!

Thanks again!

Glad I could help. Sounds like that one disc was not properly written. If the data is still on the other machine, you can always re-write it. Its usually a good idea to check the contents of any backup or transfer as soon as you've made it, just to be sure it really is there. Its also a great idea to immediately label any floppy or cd you've made, otherwise your desk will be like mine, full of all sorts of "Mystery Discs".



timber

timber,

I too love this incarnation of Windows. I even put up with the loss of compatibility of all my perifrials and my graphics card (no open GL driver for XP) because I loved it soo much. Incidentalkly I have not seen the blue screen once with XP (I used to see it every day with ME) because XP's 2000esque kernel compartmentalizes the use of memory better than previous versions. Programs could cause errors but I'd never have to reboot. Just close that particular program.

I LOVE XP!