What others think of your Laptop? :: Vista laptop coming


	Vista laptop coming - do I fdisk? My group is all getting Dell E1405s next week, each with 2GB RAM, a 120GB hard drive, and Vista Home Premium. Integrated Bluetooth will interact with some company hardware, and a high-res video output should be a splendid sales tool. Questions: Despite the negative comments, Vista is hear to stay. Does it make sense to use it? Will our existing XP MS Office apps work on Vista? Should I try to dual-boot (big hard drive!)? If so, can the data files be made common to both partitions? Is there any reason to triple-boot, adding one of the Linux derivatives? If so, which? Thanks, gurus... Data files (note ... DATA FILES, not programs) can be made common to both XP and Vista, but it takes some effort (I have installed many dual boot systems with 98 and XP and have done that). What is usually best in a scenario like this would be to put XP on C:, Vista on D: and "My Documents" (literally the documents folder recognized by the OS) on a 3rd partition (E:). Getting your various installed programs to recognize the E:\My Documents file locations by default (or sometimes at all) takes some work, but I have yet to find a case in which it was not possible. It's even possible to get E-Mail and Web browsers to do it (as long as they are compatible versions), but, again, it takes some work and sometimes some research). I would not do ANYTHING until I made an image backup of the hard drive as close as possible to how you receive it. Almost all existing Office type applications (including Office 2003 itself) should work under Vista. - Hide quoted text - nunamus wrote: > My group is all getting Dell E1405s next week, each with 2GB RAM, a > 120GB hard drive, and Vista Home Premium. Integrated Bluetooth will > interact with some company hardware, and a high-res video output should > be a splendid sales tool. > Questions: > Despite the negative comments, Vista is hear to stay. Does it make sense > to use it? > Will our existing XP MS Office apps work on Vista? > Should I try to dual-boot (big hard drive!)? If so, can the data files > be made common to both partitions? > Is there any reason to triple-boot, adding one of the Linux derivatives? > If so, which? > Thanks, gurus... Office for the most part will work fine, but Outlook won't under Vista. As Outlook depends on some files from Outlook Express which Vista doesn't have. Someone figured out what files you need and have made them available, but I can't find it right now. -- Bill "Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOS@neo.rr.com> wrote in message news:463a27a5$0$4689$4c368faf@roadrunner.com - Hide quoted text - > Data files (note ... DATA FILES, not programs) can be made common to > both XP and Vista, but it takes some effort (I have installed many > dual boot systems with 98 and XP and have done that). What is > usually best in a scenario like this would be to put XP on C:, Vista > on D: and "My Documents" (literally the documents folder recognized > by the OS) on a 3rd partition (E:). Getting your various installed > programs to recognize the E:\My Documents file locations by default > (or sometimes at all) takes some work, but I have yet to find a case > in which it was not possible. It's even possible to get E-Mail and > Web browsers to do it (as long as they are compatible versions), but, > again, it takes some work and sometimes some research). > I would not do ANYTHING until I made an image backup of the hard drive > as close as possible to how you receive it. > Almost all existing Office type applications (including Office 2003 > itself) should work under Vista. > nunamus wrote: >> My group is all getting Dell E1405s next week, each with 2GB RAM, a >> 120GB hard drive, and Vista Home Premium. Integrated Bluetooth will >> interact with some company hardware, and a high-res video output >> should be a splendid sales tool. >> Questions: >> Despite the negative comments, Vista is hear to stay. Does it make >> sense to use it? >> Will our existing XP MS Office apps work on Vista? >> Should I try to dual-boot (big hard drive!)? If so, can the data >> files be made common to both partitions? >> Is there any reason to triple-boot, adding one of the Linux >> derivatives? If so, which? >> Thanks, gurus... This is a near-perfect answer, and I thank you. The local Linux community has a periodic "install-fest", full of gurus still young enough to know everything. With your encouraging news, Barry, I may take one of the new units there with a pizza and 6-pack - and see what happens. - Hide quoted text - Barry Watzman wrote: > Data files (note ... DATA FILES, not programs) can be made common to > both XP and Vista, but it takes some effort (I have installed many dual > boot systems with 98 and XP and have done that). What is usually best > in a scenario like this would be to put XP on C:, Vista on D: and "My > Documents" (literally the documents folder recognized by the OS) on a > 3rd partition (E:). Getting your various installed programs to > recognize the E:\My Documents file locations by default (or sometimes at > all) takes some work, but I have yet to find a case in which it was not > possible. It's even possible to get E-Mail and Web browsers to do it > (as long as they are compatible versions), but, again, it takes some > work and sometimes some research). > I would not do ANYTHING until I made an image backup of the hard drive > as close as possible to how you receive it. > Almost all existing Office type applications (including Office 2003 > itself) should work under Vista. > nunamus wrote: >> My group is all getting Dell E1405s next week, each with 2GB RAM, a >> 120GB hard drive, and Vista Home Premium. Integrated Bluetooth will >> interact with some company hardware, and a high-res video output >> should be a splendid sales tool. >> Questions: >> Despite the negative comments, Vista is hear to stay. Does it make >> sense to use it? >> Will our existing XP MS Office apps work on Vista? >> Should I try to dual-boot (big hard drive!)? If so, can the data files >> be made common to both partitions? >> Is there any reason to triple-boot, adding one of the Linux >> derivatives? If so, which? >> Thanks, gurus... nunamus <nuna@online.us> writes: >My group is all getting Dell E1405s next week, each with 2GB >RAM, a 120GB hard drive, and Vista Home Premium. Integrated >Bluetooth will interact with some company hardware, and a >high-res video output should be a splendid sales tool. >Questions: >Is there any reason to triple-boot, adding one of the Linux >derivatives? If so, which? FYI, I installed Ubuntu Edgy [one version old, Fiesty is out now] on my Vista-laden laptop. I used whatever comes on Edgy to partition my disk. About a month later, when I first tried starting Vista after the partition, it refused. I found the fix as simple as running ntfsfix from www.linux-ntfs.org fixed the problem & Vista started [with a little complaining], now works fine. -- <> Robert Geer & Donna Tomky \| \|\|\|\| We sure \|\|\|\| <> <> b@xmission.com \| == == find it == == <> <> dto@xmission.com \| == == enchanting == == <> <> Albuquerque, NM USA \| \|\|\|\| here! \|\|\|\| <> -----------------------------------------------Reply----------------------------------------------- That simply is not true, at least not for Office 2003 (it might be true for 97 or 2000, or even Outlook XP). I've done clean installs of just Vista followed immediately by a clean install of just Office 2003 with no other software present, and Outlook works fine with no futzing or tweaking required. I have not tried any versions of Outlook prior to 2003. - Hide quoted text - BillW50 wrote: > Office for the most part will work fine, but Outlook won't under Vista. > As Outlook depends on some files from Outlook Express which Vista > doesn't have. Someone figured out what files you need and have made them > available, but I can't find it right now. If I recall Outlook does not include a newsgroup reader and uses the OE one ( in version 2000 anyway). This could be the issue. Terry "Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOS@neo.rr.com> wrote in message news:463ab6ab$0$9901$4c368faf@roadrunner.com... - Hide quoted text - > That simply is not true, at least not for Office 2003 (it might be true > for 97 or 2000, or even Outlook XP). I've done clean installs of just > Vista followed immediately by a clean install of just Office 2003 with no > other software present, and Outlook works fine with no futzing or tweaking > required. I have not tried any versions of Outlook prior to 2003. > BillW50 wrote: >> Office for the most part will work fine, but Outlook won't under Vista. >> As Outlook depends on some files from Outlook Express which Vista >> doesn't have. Someone figured out what files you need and have made them >> available, but I can't find it right now. That's correct, but it's no different under Vista than XP; Outlook (full Outlook) has no newsgroup reader. In XP you can use Outlook Express (a very different program), in Vista I think you can use Vista's mail program. In fact, I use Outlook for E-Mail and Thunderbird for newsgroups (in XP). - Hide quoted text - tc wrote: > If I recall Outlook does not include a newsgroup reader and uses the OE one > ( in version 2000 anyway). This could be the issue. > Terry > "Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOS@neo.rr.com> wrote in message > news:463ab6ab$0$9901$4c368faf@roadrunner.com... >> That simply is not true, at least not for Office 2003 (it might be true >> for 97 or 2000, or even Outlook XP). I've done clean installs of just >> Vista followed immediately by a clean install of just Office 2003 with no >> other software present, and Outlook works fine with no futzing or tweaking >> required. I have not tried any versions of Outlook prior to 2003. >> BillW50 wrote: >>> Office for the most part will work fine, but Outlook won't under Vista. >>> As Outlook depends on some files from Outlook Express which Vista >>> doesn't have. Someone figured out what files you need and have made them >>> available, but I can't find it right now.

What others think of your Laptop?

Vista laptop coming - do I fdisk?