Should get new computer?

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Giasou!

I get old computer from friend with XP free. Tech say will be good with Win 7. Here specs he give me

Intel duo
XP 32bit
RAM 4Gb
GForce 9800
500GB HD

He do upgrade 89 euros ($100 US). Use for myself.

Y/N?

efcharistó
Gregorion

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A copy of Windows costs more than that, so he may be installing a copy that isn’t genuine.
I suggest you buy a copy of Windows 7 x64 OEM online and install it yourself, then upgrade to 10 if possible. It’s always better to do it yourself.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/seven-perfectly-legal-ways-to-get-windows-7-cheap-or-even-free/

cheers, Paul

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It is legitimate copy from microsoft with key. I know windows 7 and no intrest to win 10. Just need to know if computer with working is worth 89 euros. It has Microsoft office 2003 on computer with disk. Can I install disk on win 7?

Gregorion

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I thought you said it was free? I would take the PC and see if it works OK. If it does you can do all the upgrade work yourself and learn some things – and save 89 euros.

If you have the Office disk and key you can install it on Windows 7 (or 10).

Assuming it works I would upgrade to Windows 10, if the hardware supports it. W10 is good and free at the moment.

cheers, Paul

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I thought you said it was free? I would take the PC and see if it works OK. If it does you can do all the upgrade work yourself and learn some things – and save 89 euros.

If you have the Office disk and key you can install it on Windows 7 (or 10).

Assuming it works I would upgrade to Windows 10, if the hardware supports it. W10 is good and free at the moment.

I think the E89 is for W7. As such, if he is on XP now, W10 is not free. I am running W10 happily on a 10-year old Athlon 64X2-3800 with only 2GB of ram (its far better than W7 was on the same hardware). I would suggest trying to sign up for the MS insider program , and test W10 out for free on his hardware, and only then buy W7 as a route to W10. He should of course run the upgrade adviser first (there are some CPU requirements that are critical).

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Good ideas. I will try this insider program. Where do I get upgrade adviser first program? So, if Win 7 good to go then Win 10 good to go? excel good to go?

efcharistó
Gregorion

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Good ideas. I will try this insider program. Where do I get upgrade adviser first program? So, if Win 7 good to go then Win 10 good to go? excel good to go?

Well, my first thought was ‘why doesn’t he google it?’, for which I must apologise: it seems MS have removed all access to the upgrade advisor (for both W10 and 8) if one is currently running XP. I know I had a program on my PC nearly two years ago (when the W10 insider programme started), but of course I saw no need to keep it. Rather than googling in what may be a fruitless search, if you are able to, I suggest the following:

1. Back up the XP installation (using Macrium Reflect or similar)
2. Try to install W10 from the insider iso file – you can just skip past the activation steps, I believe – and see if it all works. If it does:
3a. Buy W7, then install W10 using the W7 licence, or:
3b. Buy W10.

You should have no trouble installing a legitimate Office 2003 on W7 or W10 (I have tried Office 2000 on W10 successfully).

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Currently you appear to be able to buy an OEM W7 for about E20 online.

cheers, Paul

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Currently you appear to be able to buy an OEM W7 for about E20 online

I wondered how that was possible, esp as I found a company selling W7 Home Premium on Amaz@n for £170 (now who would pay that?) – and from what I can see, they are selling you a CoA removed from an old box, and will (in due course) send you instructions on where to download the install s/w, presumably from MS. I wonder what MS make of that?

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I believe that Germany took MS to court over the licensing of Windows there, resulting in a modification where certain versions sold in Germany can be resold (if unused or removed from the original PC). Often described as “MAR” refurbished (MAR, though the DE court issue and MAR may be unrelated).

44913-MS_MAR

Examples from Amazon UK (DE may be cheaper?):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00858ZQWQ/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Windows-Professional-Version-Hologramm-English/dp/B00S1A37Q0/ref=pd_rhf_eeolp_s_cp_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51nxgisABgL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_SL500_SR135%2C135_&psc=1&refRID=QXX1X10XKN79FD7873VK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Windows-Professional-Bit-Refurbished-English/dp/B00ICNQXEO/ref=pd_rhf_eeolp_s_cp_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=41W14bFJQ0L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_SL500_SR135%2C135_&psc=1&refRID=QXX1X10XKN79FD7873VK

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Thanks – and well done Germany! Seems a perfectly reasonable solution to me. I still wonder how people running XP are supposed to find out if their hardware is compatible.

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My Friend, he installed win 7 and working. Office 2003 installed and working. I run bakery shop using excel to run bissness. All is working now

Είμαι ένας ευτυχισμένος άνθρωπος
Gregorion

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Is this for real?

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Exactly what I was wondering. (“My friend, he installed win 7….” sounds like something you’d hear, with an accent of course, but not read. Maybe we should ask RetiredGeek what he thinks. He hasn’t chimed in yet.

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It’s “Retired GREEK” and he runs a Bakery Shop.

I’m just glad he found someone who would get him fixed up with what he needed.
I thought that’s what these forums were all about, Helping, not trying to put someone Down.

The only problem with Office 2003 is that it won’t read or save any file with an .docx suffix.
However the FREE Office Clone, “Open Office” will do that, and did I mention that it’s FREE?
In this day and age, I’d never install Office 2003 for anyone, unless I also installed Open Office for them.
I have one customer of my own, who has both installed on her PC, because MS Office 2003 can’t do some of the things she needs to do. Like, read .docx files that she receives via email.

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor

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…The only problem with Office 2003 is that it won’t read or save any file with an .docx suffix…

See “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats” at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=3

From the “Details” section on the above download page:
“…By installing the Compatibility Pack in addition to Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able to open, edit, and save files using the file formats in newer versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint . The Compatibility Pack can also be used in conjunction with the Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files saved in these new formats…”.

I have installed the Compatibility Pack on many systems that were running pre-Office2007 versions, and can confirm that it does work.

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”…By installing the Compatibility Pack in addition to Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able to open, edit, and save files using the file formats in newer versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint .

At first, I thought ‘That’s not quite right’, as I have found that, for Office 2000, whilst I can save Word docs in the 2007 format, I can’t do the same for Excel or Ppt. So I read the info at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/924074%5B/B%5D%5B/url%5D more carefully – it turns out that for Excel & ppt, one can do a save-as from Explorer (but only from there, not within the programs themselves). Well, you live & learn!

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