Windows 11

[Gadget]

I've just found a thread showing how to convert a GSP file to a Gedcom which you could then transfer to a more recent Tree program and thus not have to stick with Win7:

https://www.fhug.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4864

In the example, they are discussing uploading  to Family Historian, but the Gedcom produced  should work with many of the later FT programs.

It might be worth creating a Gedcom of it every so often just in case your Win7 gives up.

[louisa maud]

Thank  you  gadget, I really  don't  want to  have to  buy a new  programme  to  confuse  me  evermore, to  be  quite  honest  I  should  have  upgraded it  years ago when  I  might ha be  been able to cope with it

LM

[andrewalston]

I have found very few programs which work in Win7 but fail under Win10. The problems seem to be in device drivers, because Win10 has extra demands for the likes of low power modes. Chip makers don't like updating drivers for old hardware; they would rather sell new chips.

You will be running a 32-bit version of Win7, which would be updated to the equivalent 32-bin Win10.

Your old 16-bit software won't run under any 64-bit Windows (including the 64-bit XP). Microsoft allowed only a single "step down", because things get too complicated internally, especially dealing with software security. "Won't work in Windows 10" probably means "Won't work in Windows 10 64-bit" because modern machines almost certainly arrive with the 64-bit version installed.

Win11 does not have the option of a 32-bit version; it will run 32-bit software, but never 16-bit.

That said, I do have one machine where Win7 is the newest possible version, because its processor does not have certain instructions needed by newer versions.

[Redroger]

With older programs I have had success with virtual computers via VM Ware

[Ian999]

With great respect to a 7 star Marquessate, I suggest being very careful about using VMWare. You need to be a computer wiz to use it properly and if you are a wiz then you would know about it already.

I believe that Win7 is the best Microsoft OS since OS/2 and that Win10 is an abomination designed for idiots and to slow down any useful work. YMMV.

Being dragged kicking and screaming into the Win10 world due to program updates that only work there, I installed VMWare Player v15 with Win7 as the Host OS.

If you have enough RAM then this works well but… Transferring files between the Win7 side and the Win10 side was a royal pain. Sharing folders on a network is not a trivial action. But the worst part of it all was trying to find a USB port that actually worked at USB3 levels.

You are sharing hardware resources with USB and other peripherals and the two sides of VM are not consistent in naming the ports. In using software for Zoom meetings I could never find a USB3 port from Win10 and it caused me to be non-visual when trying to run Zoom from a real camera.

And I do know what I am doing. I ran a Win7/Hackintosh system under VMWare for a while just to see if Macs were better!. They are not!

I ended up doing a complete fresh install of Win10 and all my software and am hoping that Win11 is better.

[andrewalston]

The Windows 10 November update (21H2) has now arrived on Microsoft's servers.

[Gadget]

The Windows 10 November update (21H2) has now arrived on Microsoft's servers.

Please let us know if it's an improvement, Andrew 

[Redroger]

Ian999 I have had no problems myself, but take your points on board,

[andrewalston]

I've installed 21H2 on a few machines now (oldest from 2008) and had no problems. Not surprising because it is pretty much the same as a fully patched 21H1.

It didn't even remove Internet Explorer, which has been announcing for some time that it "will be going away".