|
I am managing purchasing for an organization of 200 people. We want to buy 70 new computers. Our old computers are on Windows XP with Office 2003, but staff wants Windows 7 with Office 2010.
My IT guy tells me it can't be done because he does not have an image for Windows 7 and he is not sure it will be compatible with the network. So he wants to order 70 computers with Windows XP and Office 2003.
This would cause huge political problems with staff.
I need someone who knows what they are talking about to help me make this decision. What kind of technical problem would I face with Windows 7? What could I do to make everyone happy?
Thanks for your help!
|
|
|
|
|
If you ordered the 70 PCs with Windows 7 and Office 2010 already installed, you would likely not have any issues deploying them on your network. However recognize that users who start using Office 2010 will be producing documents that users who are still on Office 2003 may have problems with. I'm assuming here that not all 70 PCs will be replaced at the same time.
What you really need is for a plan that documents how the replacement operation will take place. All manner of issues such as how will user's documents be backed up, should documents be converted to newer formats. Besides Office, how about other software that is currently in use. Is it compatible with Windows 7? Are upgrades needed. There are a lot of issues that need to be considered and a plan for how to tackle them is important.
Good Luck with this. I work in an large organization, +10,000 people, and our Windows 7 migration has just been pushed out until Q3 of 2012. 
Chris Meech
I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar]
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra]
posting about Crystal Reports here is like discussing gay marriage on a catholic church’s website.[Nishant Sivakumar]
|
|
|
|
|
Chris Meech wrote: nd our Windows 7 8 migration has just been pushed out until Q3 of 2012.
FTFY
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tell your IT Guy (how did he get the job?) to look at this[^]. Also there is absolutely no reason why you cannot mix Windows XP machines, and Windows 7 machines, and MACs, and UNIX and Linux machines, on the same network.
|
|
|
|
|
quinet wrote: he does not have an image for Windows 7
So buy him a copy of Win7Pro and let him play with it until he feels comfortable with it. Easy!
He is right, though, there will be some issues. He's leery because if he lets this go through, it's going to be his ass in the sling when problems come up, and he probably already misses a lot of sleep as it is. As has already been mentioned, Office 2003 can't open Office 2010 documents, unless they are deliberately saved in the older format. This is certainly possible, but that eliminates some of the reasons to upgrade to the newer version.
You can mix and match OSs on the network to your heart's content - the network doesn't care, and there are workarounds to overcome the minor problems that might come up. The best case, but rarely affordable, is to replace all machines and software at one time. That ain't gonna happen...
Next best is to buy the new machines and software, and get a few extra licenses for Office 2010 for those who must frequently share documents but are stuck with the old machines. That could be a gotcha, though, as Office 2010 might not run on XP - I've never checked.
Other "legacy" software could have issues, but Win7Pro has an XP-compatible mode that will allow most obsolete older applications to run. IF you have stuff that only runs on 95/98, now's the time to dump it. WinXP would let you make it work most of the time, but no future OS will.
I'd get on with it now, though, before Win7 is obsolete, too.
Will Rogers never met me.
|
|
|
|
|
Publisher '10 works on XP SP3 on mums PC with no problems
-tim
|
|
|
|
|
Where I work we have mixed various setups
1 Win7
3 Vista
46 XP
As others have stated the problem is compatibility between the different users i.e. Word 2010 to Word 2003. But we got around that by setting the default version that they save in, Our office 2007 users save in .doc rather than .docx
Plus as we have found getting hold of Windows XP now is a near impossibility in the UK.
Lobster Thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce, served in a Provençale manner with shallots and aubergines, garnished with truffle pate, brandy and a fried egg on top and Spam - Monty Python Spam Sketch
|
|
|
|
|
Hey thanks everyone for this great help!
|
|
|
|
|
Wow. Considering Windows XP has already been end-of-lifed, good luck getting someone to sell you LEGITIMATE licenses for it.
Tell your IT guy he's an idiot.
|
|
|
|
|
Well, Sysprep would work in conjunction with an imaging software like Norton Ghost, or if you have a Windows 2008 server license available -- you could use the Windows Deployment Services Role.
Operating system is less of an issue, whereas mixing x86 and x64 bit versions can reek havoc on print servers and such.
If your applications support both OS's it shouldn't be an issue, but keep in mind that Win 7 can be run in XP Mode to emulate legacy software needs.
What kind of deployment strategy are they currently using may I ask? Your "IT" guy better rethink his position in the company, or go back to working at KFC. 
Cheers,
|
|
|
|
|
If this is has been discussed sorry but my search skills on CP are not very good.
I am looking for a backup solution for a small shop. One Exchange server and about ten Windows servers. We have been using ARCserve, but would like to see if there is something better.
With the current solution we are backing up to a hard drive and to an external hard drive which rotates every other week. Currently we copy the ARCserve files from the server hard drive to an external hard drive by using a Windows Task.
We are also looking for a new solution for our permanent backups. Our current one is so bad I am not going to describe it. What we need is a incremental/differential backup where we archive the data and send it offsite once a week.
I found a package called NovaBACKUP by Novastor and am currently evaluating it.
Thanks for any pointers.
|
|
|
|
|
Hi, djj55! How do you do ?
I use Acronis True Image Home, and I like it a lot.
It makes a good work. I don't know if the Business Version is too much expansive for you ($853.00 per license).
Take a chance for it, and let me know if you like this.
Below I added the Overview from Acronis site (http://www.acronis.com/backup-recovery/server-windows/)
Best Regards,
João Luiz
Overview
Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Server for Windows provides disk-based backup and disaster recovery of individual Windows servers and is designed to meet the needs of small businesses, where remote and centralized management are not required.
Make disaster recovery a reality
Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 creates disk image backup that contains full operating system, applications and data, and combined with intuitive interface, this makes backup recovery of the entire system as simple as a few clicks, eliminating possible mistakes and freeing administrator for other work.
Recover quickly
Once required, the image containing operating system, applications and data, can be fully recovered in minutes, instead of hours or days. Or recover just individual file or folder accidently deleted or lost.
Recover or migrate to dissimilar hardware
With optional Acronis® Universal Restore™, administrators can quickly recover a server to dissimilar hardware or a virtual machine to maximize recovery flexibility while minimizing business disruption.
Increase reliability with off-site storage
Automatically save backups at several locations to increase reliability. And get automated reliable offsite backups with Acronis Backup & Recover Online.
Expecting to grow? No problem! When you are ready to upgrade, there is a simple direct upgrade path towards our advanced products bringing additional functionality you may need over time.
If you're looking for remote or centralized management, integrated data protection for files and application, virtual machines backup or tape support – take a look at our Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 unified solution.
Nothing is Impossible, but sometimes it's hard to do
|
|
|
|
|
Hi all,
this is a bit a of a humdinger of an issue. A friend of mine (and I kid you not) decided to punish his son for something he did by blocking his computer use using an application from Piranha Designs called Timemonitor (which in itself is stupid considering that Windows 7 could manage this directly via the parental control). After a day he discovered that his son had an account with administrative priviledges, which he told his wife.
His wife then, during lunchtime today, logged in, created an account of her own giving her admin priviledges and removing them from the sons account. In comes the Timemonitor software that effectively locked her out from logging in. BUT the son, the person that SHOULDN'T be able to use the comp, can do so, but without admin priviledges. 
So, to make a long story short, how the heck can I help my friend to gain access to his computer again. The machine is running Windows 7 Home Premium and I suppose (although I haven't been able to confirm) that the timemonitor messes with the user logins on Windows and limits their logintime with something like NET USER /TIME etc etc.
I guess it would be possible to help him using DaRT or something similar, the issue is, however, that he's 500 km away and all I'm stuck with is Netviewer or Teamviewer to give him some remote assistance. As soon as I try to do something useful, the UAC steps in and demands that he provides the admin credentials, giving his wives credentials it refuses to elevate priviledges since that account isn't allowed to login at this time.
Is there ANYTHING I can do? As the schedule looks now, the timemonitor will allow login of the admin account on the comp in three weeks. 
Any help would be lovely
/Jagg
Wexelblats algorithm:
Pick two: 1. Good, 2. Fast, 3. Cheap
|
|
|
|
|
I'd like to add a route from my computer to a VMWare Virtual Machine which runs on a computer in a different office. I can access the host computer (192.168.110.164) where the machine is running on a virtual subnet. The IP address of the virtual computer I'd like to connect to is 192.168.44.4 (I *MUST NOT* change it due to some third party software running on it which would need to be configured again by Third Party when the IP address is changed).
I know that there is a "route add" command, but because I do not know anything about routes and metrics, I fail to understand the examples given on some web pages. I tried a "route ADD 192.168.44.0 MASK 255.255.255.0 192.168.110.164", but that seems not work (I cannot ping it from my computer, only from the host).
How do I add that route? Thanks a lot for your hints.
|
|
|
|
|
Finally I found a simpler solution: since the machine I want to connect to is a Virtual Machine, I could add a second network card, and then the machine had an IP address in the "normal" subnet also.
|
|
|
|
|
Why can i change permissions of a folder even i haven't full control over it on the same PC?
Because i am admin or because i created this folder or another reason?
At the same time i can't change these permissions from another PC over the network although i use the same account
Thanks
sorry for my bad English
|
|
|
|
|
HI friends,
I have a web application written using .Net framework 3.5. The applications runs good when running under visual studio. I have installed it on my local machine. Just to be able to host my many applications I have assigned Host name to my application: www.crm_web.com and then in the hosts file in the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc directory on my local machine I have included
127.0.0.1 www.crm_web.com which tells the system to look into the system itself for the crm_web.com host name. This all is fine.
Now when through my browser on my local machine I write www.crm_web.com and access the website it runs fine. But when I try to do the same thing using www.crm_web.com/default.aspx the applications doesn't runs properly at all. Infact I am even not able to login into the site. (Default.aspx is a login page and the start up page.) For me it is very necessary that I am able to properly access the website through www.crm_web.com/default.aspx also coz I need to add querystring parameters to this URL. e.g www.crm_web.com/default.aspx?name='gaurav'
Looking forward for some help.
Thanks and Regards,
Gaurav
|
|
|
|
|
Hello all,
This is an update from a question I posted one month ago[^]...
Let's see there is a HP server (win 2003 standard) that get's stopped suddenly each day one or two times...
When it gets stopped I can't see any message in the logs that could help me to know what has happened...
The server gets stopped abruptly and it shows me the light INTERNAL ERROR...
The only messages that I see before the shutdown are related to printing operations (some of them 20 minutes or half an hour before the shutdown) and some MRxSmb warnings...
I don't know where to look... any idea from you?
Thank you in advance!
|
|
|
|
|
Joan Murt wrote: shows me the light INTERNAL ERROR...
A hardware problem? Maybe the BIOS maintains some kind of error log, or at least the last reason it turned the error light on.
Cheers,
Peter
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994.
|
|
|
|
|
Found it... it seems that there is a power filter that is not acting good... Thanks God there are some status leds spreaded throug the motherboard that allow to see what is going on...
PS: Thank you for trying! 
|
|
|
|
|
In planning to decommission a test server (Windows Server 2003), a number of files were copied from it to another server (Windows Server 2003).
After the files were copied, we tried to rename a directory - access is denied.
Finally tracked the issue down to a number of Excel spreadsheets in a subdirectory. When trying to open them, we get the message '... is locked for editing' by either 'Crystal Reports' or a user that retired over a year ago!
Crystal Reports is not installed on the new server and the aforementioned user never had access to the server.
Any idea on how we can delete the files?
Thanks,
Tim
modified on Thursday, July 14, 2011 1:59 PM
|
|
|
|
|
boot linux live cd .... mount drive ... delete files with "sudo rm -rf <foldername>" ... reboot into windows
|
|
|
|
|
So true Lauren...
And so easy...
+5
|
|
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
