New Laptop/Windows XP/Vista

[NormanRouxel]

Hmmm... Vista may be a short term solution if this Register article Will Microsoft parachute Windows 7 in early? is true.

[Mark H]

Vista slow at copying files

Further to my earlier rant(s), could I ask some advice from those forum members who are clearly more adept at Vista. I am just copying 8,000 odd files (450Mb) from C: (my Actinic site files as it happens) to an external drive. After the usual crazy initial estimate of time remaining (15 hours in this instance), Vista has settled for an estimate of 3hours 25minutes, and is now copying, and it looks like its estimate will be about right.

Is there any reason why it is so appallingly slow - is there something I could switch on/off, hit with a hammer, poke with an unbent paper clip which would help??

[NormanRouxel]

You're doing nothing wrong. That's a well known Vista annoyance. Perhaps Service Pack 1 will fix it but beta testers of SP1 aren't reporting a great speed-up. Large numbers of small files seem to be the worst.

[fergusw]

poke with an unbent paper clip

unbent or bent, a paper clip is a "must have" item in any IT hardware tech support's toolkit

[Darren B]

To be honest i have found the estimates completely wrong, it alwasy takes a while to get itself going, not usre what is doing, maybe a security thing. But onces it gets going it seems to be ok.

I copy ove my network from vista/vista vista/xp and xp is probably a little quicker but not much.

D

[Mark H]

Apple actually supply a paperclip with replacement iPhones, which I thought was a great touch:

http://www.esato.com/board/viewtopic.php?topic=152505

Norman - you are a totally sorted chap if you regard it as a mere annoyance - I salute you. I could download that volume in files from the internet in just 15 minutes, so I find 2-3 hours to copy files from a PC to a physically attached drive "pretty annoying"

[NormanRouxel]

if you regard it as a mere annoyance

Nah! I only have Vista in a VMware system for testing purposes. I wouldn't want it on a production machine. Not till SP2 perhaps.

[kathynewman]

Another Question!

Right - have at last decided on a machine (Acer laptop) it comes with Vista but am going to scrap that and buy and install XP Pro.

One thing not sure about - and seem to read conflicting reports - can I run Office 2000 on XP Pro or do I need to buy Office 2007.

Is there anyone else out there running XP Pro with Office 2000? Hoping so to save myself some money

[TraceyHand]

Office 2000 will be fine on XP Pro, Kathy

[kathynewman]

Oh thanks Tracey - now what can I buy with that money just save - new shoes, new handbag, new dress - shame I hate shopping!!!

[TraceyHand]

Oh thanks Tracey - now what can I buy with that money just save - new shoes, new handbag, new dress - shame I hate shopping!!!

you and me both, Kathy!!
although, the advent of online shopping means that it's marginally less painful in that you can switch it all off when you really can't stand it any more (which, for me, is after about 5 minutes LOL)

[Darren B]

Kathy

why did you not buy a dell with xp pro on it already?

and yep office 2000 is fine, just a second opinion

D

[Cheapprices4u]

theres always dell outlet

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/de...=dfo&l=en&c=uk

[Sean Williams]

Hi Kathy
- my tuppenceworth ...

I've bought nothing but Dells for the past 10 years - never needed help, service or support (not that I'd use it if I did - much quicker to do it myself!)
They aren't the fastest or the cheapest, but they are good workhorses.

Dell now have the new range of bizz machines under the Vostro name - these are basic machines that aren't crammed full of all that useless 'home' gubbins that you have to spend an hour deleting before you can use the thing without some damn popup or another irritating the pants off ....... Sorry

XP Pro - it works and uses a 'lower' configuration to achieve the same thing that would cost more with Vista. No probs with drivers.

We never get blue screens, so perhaps Darren has an 'effect' on his machines ( Darren)

HTH

[TraceyHand]

We never get blue screens, so perhaps Darren has an 'effect' on his machines ( Darren)

*bites tongue*
....mustn't say anything