windows7

[allan gould]

Just bought a new Toshiba notebook with windoze 7 on it. I tried to reverse it to XP because when you try to install eqmod, guidemaster and a whole host of other programs no go. Says it is locked from going to the "lower" os. Anyone got any ideas on how to delete windows 7 and install XP?
Allan

[h0ughy]

cant you run the programmes under the admin as win XP SP3? why do you need to go back?

[allan gould]

When trying to install, a lot of the programs will not fully install without some sort of conflict. I they do install then will not run even if ask it to run it in XP mode.
Even EQMOD, my main program, stuffs up and also cant run the install for the Logitech game pad.

[AstroJunk]

I have just instaled Ascom and EQAscom to my windows 7 machine with no problems whatsoever. Infact, every bit of software I've installed has had no issues.

Must be a Toshiba thing...

[33South]

I agree have been running the beta release since it first came out, only one issue with virus scanner - new release from TrendMicro fixed that.
ASCOM, EQMod, Registax, GStar3, CartesDuCiel etc all load and run fine without resorting to XP compatibility mode.
Maybe a problem with older versions of the software ?

Also a while back I bought an ASUS laptop with Vista and decided to rollback to XP it was a real pain to get the XP version for all the drivers. In fact I never did get all the onboard devices working, luckily they were ones I could do without.

Even though I dislike some things about W7 it does seem stable and I wouldnt attempt to revert to XP.

[allan gould]

Are you running the full version of w7 as my laptop came with the home edition. That maybe the difference

[jakob]

I was told only the pro version has XP compatibility. ($$$$)

[TrevorW]

Another Microsoft con

[kustard]

Yeah, only Win7 Pro and above have the XP Compatibility feature.

Personally, unless you were installing Win7 on a kids PC or for someone with minimal PC usage I'd never get the Home edition, I don't know why they sell it on good to top end computers as it's gimped in so many ways.

Unfortunately they don't have a Home to Profession upgrade path that I can see, but you might be able to get the Professional Upgrade (from Xp/Vista) to upgrade from Home to Pro.

[MrB]

!!!

I'll be sticking with Vista for a while then.
You are right Trevor... it is a con!
Even Vista Home Basic has XP compatability.

[Octane]

I just built a new computer yesterday and got Windows 7 Home Premium, as, this will only ever be used for image processing. I don't play games, etc. And, also, primarily run Solaris.

I was able to install Starry Night Pro Plus in compatibility mode. I just right-clicked the install file, and found the setting in properties. Is this what you guys are referring to?

For some reason, the All Sky Image feature is not working, but, other than that, Windows 7 seems good.

This is a massive jump for me. From a 4 year old notebook. :)

Regards,
Humayun

[PeterM]

I had Win7 Pro installed on my 18 month Compaq laptop (Celeron 1.86). Trying to go backwards to XP was researched and soon seen to be a waste of time as many who had tried could not find all the drivers for their laptops.
All Software Bisque programmes run extremely well (after the guys on IIS helped overcome the issue I had with Orchestrate - see post under general chat "Computer Guru, Expert, Enthusiasts Knowldege needed"). Everything else runs great. In fact the only other issue that came up (Starlight Xpress camera) was resolved by turning off User Access Control (there are several modes that Vista didn't have) it's up to you if you want to try this.
The thing I also found to be aware of is that when Win 7 Pro was installed it has a link to Microsoft to download the 500 meg XP version (not available in Win7 Home) that apparently runs seemlessly in the background of Win7 making all your older programmes with XP work (this is different to the compatability mode that comes on all Win7 issues). There is a catch though, you first have to run a sort of MS wizard first that looks at your PCs hardware to see if your processor will run virtualisation - takes about a second on mine to report my machine is not compatible, so it appears only fairly recent high speced processors will be able to run this XP background version.
But all in all Win7 has double the speed over what Vista home was, I like it.

PeterM.

[Dooghan]

I think you might be confusing XP Compatibility with XP Mode. It is my understanding they are to different things. XP Compatibility is on all version of Win7 the same as Vista, etc. XP Mode is a version of XP that runs in a seamless VM. You can only get the XP Mode in Pro and a above. I'm told the XP mode is another 600MB download. I will be finding out myself soon as I have a student copy of Win7 Pro to install on a desktop I have here.

[kustard]

Yeah, I meant XP Mode... my bad.

[acropolite]

Allan, Win7pro was available as a free download from microsoft as a release copy, able to be used for several months. If you can find someone with an unused RC download copy & keys you could load that. The free RC versions expire in June 2010 with nobbling (periodic shutdowns) after March 2010. Failing that you should be able to find an OEM copy of Pro for around $200.

[Octane]

I reinstalled Starry Night Pro Plus 7, along with the updates from the web site, and now everything is working perfectly.

Awesome. :)

Regards,
Humayun

[allan gould]

Yeah understand this if you can...... Brand new Laptop, tried the Win7pro upgrade path ($200) only to find that this new machine is NOT COMPATIBLE with the virtual XP mode. Bugger it Ive wasted the whole weekend on this and specifically said the H Norman that I wanted to run in XP mode or be able to role it back to XP. Cant do either - so Im left with a very nice Toshiba brick that I cant get mey DSI or QHY8 recognised.
Im reallyP...ed off.

[MrB]

Brand new Toshiba and it can't do Virtualization?
What CPU is it running?
Even my 3 year old $300 Acer can do it.
Granted I did swap it's brains out, Core2Duo T7500 for $120

[PeterM]

Allan,
Try installing / running the programmes with User Acccess Control turned off. Then if they work try turning back on to see if they still work. In Orchestrate with UAC turned on I get a registry error message, with UAC turned off it disppears and all is fine. Same happend with the Starlight Xpress camera. I know you shouldn't have to turn stuff like this off but as I said earlier there are now several levels of UAC available to you, worth a try if you haven't already.

Simon, Do you know if my 18 month old Compaq laptop Celeron 1.86 can have its CPU changed to a dual core?

PeterM.

[gary]

Hi Peter,

Not all Intel and AMD processors have hardware virtualization support,
including some recent 2GHz Core 2 Duo, so it would be prudent to check particular
part numbers on the Intel web site here - http://processorfinder.intel.com/

Hardware support for virtualization, or more specifically the lack thereof,
was an historical legacy of the Intel x86 (IA-32) architecture from its initial instruction
set design. Around 2005, both Intel and AMD made changes to the
instruction set and architecture to provide fundamental support for it.
However, even very recent AMD and Intel CPU part numbers do not
have the hooks for hardware virtualization.

[allan gould]

To all of you , thanks heaps - and I mean it. I finally solved the problems by taking the laptop back to H Norman and getting a full refund on the whole deal as I said I needed XP to run everything. No problems and I couldnt fault their helpfullness and understanding - appears a problem with their touch screen models. In the end I sourced a Toshiba running Vista pro with XP3 discs with a $20 option to upgrade to Windows7Pro - can't loose. So in the end I get 3 operating systems to choose from.
Anyway thanks to H Nprman and you guys I think Ive come out of it OK - now if you can just pacify the wife who now thinks Im a complete retard.

[MrB]

Hi Peter, sorry for the late reply I'm only able get online once a week these days.
It's hard to say whether you can upgrade to a C2D processor.
Arm yourself with the model number and do a search on the Notebookreview (http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1002) forums (under the HP, Compaq and Voodoo PC sub forum) to see what others have done.
If your Lappie has a socket P or socket M there is a reasonable chance you can move up to a C2D (mine originaly had a CeleronM), you will likely need to do an upgrade of the BIOS too, but thats no biggie.
If you haven't maxed out the RAM, do it now. Cheapest performance upgrade there is. I noticed more performance from the RAM upgrade than the CPU upgrade.
I got my CPU from Ebay, had to wait a while for a good price but worth the wait.
Stay away from any CPU's labelled as 'ES' (it is etched onto the chip with a laser), they are Engineering Samples... they are handed out free to developers and media(for reviews) and are essentially rejects that are crippled or defective in some way. There are people out there(mainly in China) that are selling these ES processors.
Some people claim they've never had a problem with their ES chips, but I'd rather not pay big $ for something that was handed out free.

Here is a list of Virtualization compatible processors:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_VT#Intel_Virtualization_Techn ology_for_x86_.28Intel_VT-x.29