From: Alan Adams <alan.adams@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: davidpilling@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2006 12:13:48 GMT
In message <cc0632ff4d.chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> you wrote:
> In message <005201c63abd$c6d5fb20$90da69d5@xp>
> "Arthur Lacey" <tedell@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>=20
> >=20
> > From: "Tim Powys-Lybbe" <tim@xxxxxxxxx>
> > wrote:
> >> But think of the expense here in (a) buying full versions of XP and
> >> then (b) buying manuals to tell me what on earth it was doing. Not =
to
> >> mention the wasted time on this group answering questions about "how=
do
> >> you do this?".
> >=20
> > My advice would be to wait for the 64 bit version of Windows due for =
release
> > later in the year. Of course you might need to get a new PC as well.=
:-)
>=20
> 64bit version of XP is already out and has been for several months! I=20
> assume you mean Vista which is still in beta and well behind schedule=20
> at the moment. Rumour has it a lot of software could require an update =
> to work on vista.....
>=20
>=20
With any new version of Windows it is a good idea to wait until Service P=
ack
1 is issued. (Which in one recent case was about the same tme as the main=
launch). There will be bugs, and SP1 addresses the more obvious/easily fo=
und
ones.
XP is good, stable, reasonably user-friendly. If you change the user
interface to "classic", it looks and works a lot as you would expect. I
agree about the expense though - I think the upgrade version is about =A3=
75,
and you do seriously need to check the hardware requirements - 128M memor=
y
minimum, 256M strongly recommended, plenty of disk space - it will instal=
l
into 2GB but by the time Office is in there as well, you have run out. I
would suggest minumum processor speed about 1G - it will work with less, =
but
you might not want to.
The good news is that every item of hardware you might consider is
supported, and most will just plug in and go - only things released in ab=
out
the last two years need drivers, and they can all be downloaded.
You do need to make sure you install SP2, a good firewall (I'd recommend =
the
free Zone Alarm), anti-virus (AVG free edition from free.grisoft.com) and=
anti-spyware (microsoft beta is good).
--=20
Alan Adams, from Northamptonshire
alan.adams@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.nckc.org.uk/
