I want to choose between Win7 and XP. Specs for new computer?

Norma

Member
EasyBCD sounds like the solution to my anticipated problem, but I'm unclear on some particulars. I always thought a boot loader was a vehicle that made deliveries to shoe stores, so be patient with me.

I am currently using an eight year old computer with an 80G hard drive (there is also a 1T external drive, acquired more recently) and Windows XP. I want to keep XP -- I am a WordPerfect 5.1 diehard. Not sure if I have installation disks for XP.

It is, however, time for a new machine, using (most likely), Windows 7. I want to be able to boot into Win7 or XP. Not sure how I will go about migrating XP in the process of setting up.

Here's my most critical question right now: other than meeting system requirements, how do my plans affect my specs for the new computer? Will software preloads affect my ability to install EasyBCD?
 
If your old PC came with XP pre-installed you won't be able to move it to a new PC.
The manufacturer will have installed it under an OEM licence which ties it to the hardware it was supplied with.
If you built the PC and bought a retail copy of XP to install on it, then you will be able to dual-boot your new PC, but you'll need the installation CD for XP.
You won't be able to simply transfer the old copy of XP across. It won't recognize where it is, and chances are the old PC HDD is IDE and the new one will be SATA, so XP won't have the drivers even to find itself. It will probably be easiest (and best) to install XP afresh, but if that's not possible (because of apps you cannot reinstall for example), then at the least you'll need to do a "repair install" (or upgrade in place) of XP, which will also need the installation CD.

EasyBCD isn't a boot manager, it's an app which will make maintenance and control of the Vista/7/8 boot manager much easier for you.
You can install it on any Windows OS regardless of what else is there. Whether it serves any purpose is another question.
It's not needed unless you have a second OS to add to the first.
 
Thanks, Terry. Very helpful. Tell me if the following sequence will work:

I set up new computer and transfer files from old C drive just as a person with no multiboot plans would do.

I install EasyBCD.

I install a newly-purchased copy of Windows XP.
 
I have WordPerfect X4 and Word 2010. However, WP 5.1 is a native language to me. I will give it up when Lucifer is hospitalized for hypothermia.

The best Windows OS for running it is XP. There is an XP mode in Windows 7, but I am reliably informed (http://wpdos.org) that it does not do well with WPDOS.

It does appear from Googling that XP is still available.
 
I'm sort of in your situation, in having an antique copy of "Starship Titanic", not available in any later updated version owing to the lamentably early death of its creator, the great Douglas Adams.
That can be hacked to work in something as modern as ME, but really needs W95 to run natively. My solution though is to keep the equally antique W95 IBM Aptiva to run it on, rather than mess about with my XP/Vista/7/8 Multi-boot PC.
If you can find a dark corner of the attic to secrete your old XP machine in working order, that would avoid the need to buy another copy of XP just to run one app. (and having a second working PC to fall back to in extremis, is always handy)
 
What are you gonna do when you get to the point where you install XP on this new machine and there is no hardware driver support for it anymore? Much like you are going to experience right now. Companies stopped making XP Drivers for a couple years now. So while XP will install, it will not be fully functional. So making your whole argument about "Not giving it up till Luficer gets hypothermia" happen a lot faster when you cant even use XP.

There is no modern PC today that has all support for XP. Microsoft isn't going to help you as they do not make the drivers much like the device manufacturer's are not going to help you when they do not support the OS to begin with.

So the natural thought is to do what Terry said. Leave the current setup so you can run the cave man program that you want since there is no way to get what you want on current setups. Aside from XP not being for sale anywhere other than the worlds flea market, ebay. Which you don't even know if your going to get a legit version or not. The lack of hardware support on top of that and the fact that people who support XP are fewer and fewer only makes the adventure not worth the cost. Cause in the end you will not be happy when you don't even have a fully functional PC cause there is no drivers for your Video Card to get proper resolution.
 
EasyBCD will do what you want with no problems.
I'm only suggesting that your problems might lie with the future support of XP.
Mak is amplifying that to point out that XP won't be able to support future hardware as you upgrade your PC, being effectively dead already with no development.
It will continue to work perfectly on your old hardware however, since that was what it was designed for, so I just thought that a better strategy for your insistence on using your faithful old app would be to keep it running where it is, and keep the new PC clean.
I appreciate your position, being a longterm Lotus 123 user. I am still using a program built for W95 on W8, but luckily it just keeps on working despite all warnings that it might not.
One day that luck is going to run out and somewhere around W9 or 10 I'm going to have to get to grips with a newer, less efficiently coded alternative.
Since you are stuck with both an old app, and an old OS to go with it, your problems are going to loom far sooner since the OS is a lot more h/w dependent than the app.
I didn't want to give up W95 for 98/ME - it did everything I needed at that time, but I was forced to upgrade the OS because 95 just didn't support the h/w on my new PC.
Mak's just suggesting that you might find the same problem trying to get XP onto your newer h/w.
 
This response suggests that EasyBCD does not do what it says it does.

Show me how? It does what it says. But you fail to realize that older Operating System's especially those that are only in extended support like XP is today, are not being catered to by today's manufacturers. So go ahead and buy a new machine and try to install XP on it. Then go into the Device Manager only to see your devices such as Network Drivers, Graphic Drivers and much more have nothing for them and they are not listed on the website of the manufacturer cause they have all stopped making drivers for XP not long after Vista was released.

Leaving you in a worse position than you are now. Having a machine that cant even run XP let alone the 1 program you want to run and got for this purpose. I suggest you go to HP, Dell, Samsung, Gateway or any other manufacturer's site right now and search their drivers page. Find a model that is listed with Windows 8 right now and then search that same model for XP drivers. What will you find? Nothing. They do not make them and there is no way to get them.

My suggestion has nothing to do with EasyBCD but the fact that you will not be happy with what your trying to accomplish and comeback here saying your having issues with XP expecting us to be able to provide you with a solution when I have already warned you. No modern machine has XP support. That is F A C T. Like it or not that is how it is. No company supports a 12 year old OS to date. It s not even made anymore nor sold by any reputable company. Microsoft will not even give support for it unless you ay top dollar now.

I am trying to give you fair warning that this is not going to end well and that you will be right back screaming about how it isn't working how you thought it would. With the only response we will be having is the quoting of my posts that give you said warning about how it will not work or end well for you. Maybe you will be one of the lucky ones that doesn't have any issues. But it is highly unlikely that an OS made 12 years ago will have any drivers for hardware made last year.

Go ahead and Google, Bing or look at the Microsoft Community to see that I speak the truth. You will find more and more people have to give up XP case it just isn't supporting new hardware. Nothing can be done about that.
 
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No. My creditability is just fine cause I know for a fact that XP doesn't have driver for new machines. I am not the only one who knows this on the site. I am backed up by people all over the internet with my remarks. You just don't want to believe that your precious XP is D E A D as well as your Lotus 123. So be it. I have no issues with my remarks and I know for a fact you will not get XP running on a new system and will resort to what has been suggested by not just me but Terry as well. To run an older system with XP for your also dead program.

So my creditability will be just fine. Cause your not the first person that has undertaken trying to get XP running on a new machine. You will also not be the first to fail at it. So don't feel bad when you try to install XP but cant for various reasons, starting with no SATA Drivers built into the installer.
 
It is one thing for you to express an opinion as to what will happen when I try to accomplish my objective, but another to purport to know how I will react if it goes badly.

Not sure why your rant extends to Lotus 1-2-3 -- I've never used it.
 
Thanks, CG.

No questions at the moment -- for budgetary reasons, the new machine is at least a couple of months off. Windows 7 will be pre-installed. Once I am up and running, I plan to print out the material at the link Terry posted above and study it very carefully. I will be doing the same thing with material from another site that discusses a variety of possible solutions to the underlying problem, some but not all of which involve a fresh copy of XP. I may or may not purchase EasyBCD. Only after I decide what approach I am taking will I unwrap the XP box that is now on its way to me. (I got outbid on eBay, but lucked out on Amazon.)

Will report on results.
 
And EasyBCD is free for home use Norma.
I'm the 123 user Alex, and it's alive and kicking - for the moment. My accounts (over 500,000 active cells) load in 3 seconds. I can't find an alternative that doesn't take an order of magnitude longer thanks to the bloat of modern coding. There's something to be said for code that was written when CPU cycles and RAM were scarce resources, HDDs were < 1Gb and programmers squeezed function into efficient logic.
 
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For the moment is only a way to hide the truth knowing that it is dying. I am not talking about how programs were made back in the day or anything like that. I wish I could get some of my old programs back. But times change and so must we as PC users and people who support others who use modern day things.
 
My use of EasyBCD will be commercial. If I decide the program will be helpful to me, it will be worth $24.95 to get a manual.
 
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