Thanks, Donk. I'm getting 8G RAM because I plan to keep this machine for a long time and I do a lot of art and graphics. I'm not doing the touch screen thing. I have two Samsung monitors I've had for a long time and I don't want to go that route. I've avoided the Smart Phone and text thing. I have enough addictions without adding that. Also, I'm one of those old-timey Microsoft haters so the only thing I have is Windows normally. I did some work where I had to do stuff for some other people and got a Word program just for that. So the old Word programs won't work on 8?
I'll take your advice and Google my programs. I have a couple of games I'd really like to keep, a great Bridge one where I can play duplicate with the computer and a real MahJongg one not the matchy thing. I'll try to see if they can be upgraded or something. I work so much in Paint Shop Pro and use Photoshop plugins, most of them free. I'll check with my "community" to see what happens to them. I remember when I had a computer built when I still lived in Georgia I tried the dual boot thing but I actually ended up not using it. So, I'll have to really think about that. With 1 TB I guess I could try it again. By the way, the computer guy said he could set the machine up so I'd have the usual start menu, etc. Guess I'm stubborn but I use a program called Winkey where I have keystrokes to bring up my programs. He said there was a feature like that in Windows 8, Like to have my photographs on my desktop so don't have many icons cluttering up the screen, this touch screen thing would really clutter it up. There's another program I'll probably lose which is called John's Background Switcher than slide shows my photos or whatever I want. Still thinking about it but it'll probably happen pretty soon. Holly On Tue, Jul 23, 2013 at 4:56 PM, Donk <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Holly - > I'd like to tell you the jump from XP to Win7 or Win8 won't affect your > programs or devices... but it wouldn't be true. I recently upgraded one > of my own machines and was surprised how many of my old programs > wouldn't run. It's the switch from XP's 32bit architecture to 64bit > that really causes probs in old software and hardware. Now, LOTS of old > programs "will" run. You can usually find out if you google "is > 'nameofprogram' compatible with windows 8?" Or if you go to the program > makers website FAQ section. Most of the apps that wouldn't run for me > were old, small utilities. But there were a couple biggies that I had > to find replacements for. Thank goodness MS Office XP still runs! > If there are apps you simply can't do without you could set up a dual > boot so you can use either Win8 or XP. If you still have your XP disks > it's not hard to set up the dual boot. Have your guy create a 2nd > partition on the new HD, or use one of your old hard drives. You won't > be able to simply put your current XP drive in the new PC and boot into > it, unfortunately. > But... when I did my upgrade from XP to Win7 I had to replace quite a > bit of software, and had to throw away a scanner and printer which were > old but perfectly fine for me. Grrrr. > > Here's another thought I tell people who are upgrading to Win8. You > know that Win8 is designed for touch. You can certainly use it with > only keyboard and mouse, but it is totally, and excellently created for > touch. I don't know if a monitor is coming with your PC, but if so, be > sure to get a touch capable monitor. Touch is the future, and all the > monitor makers are in the process of converting their factories to build > touch monitors. Soon, I think, you won't be able to buy a non-touch > monitor. Of course, you'll still need a mouse and keyboard, but often > reaching up and touching the screen will become 2nd nature. > > The specs of your new build sound great - core i5, Gigabyte mainboard, 1 > TB HD. For win8 be sure to have at least 4GB RAM. 4GB is ok, but > anything you can add to that would be great. RAM is very cheap right > now, so maybe get another 2GB or 4GB if possible. If you do a LOT of > video or photo editing the extra RAM is more important - as well as a > separate video card (instead of the one included on the mainboard). > > Going from XP to Win8... there is a fairly steep learning curve. It's > quite a bit different - the same stuff is all there but it's in > different places. Lots of people get frustrated and wanna go back. > Don't be that person. Just stick with it a while and you'll soon prefer > it to XP. Would you want to go back from XP to Win98? :-) > > So, yeah, leaving XP is a bit of a challenge and hassle. But it's just > something that's gotta be done eventually - by everybody. I think > you'll love your new PC! Feel free to repost with any questions or > problems after you get it. > > Don > > > > > -- ~ Remember ~ If you forward this, PLEASE REMOVE all email addresses before you send it on and use the BCC area when forwarding to several people at once. 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