Re: What software will be able to use my ME OS user files?
On Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:00:06 -0700, gfogg
>My computer is dying.
Details?
>Its old and pretty grumpy.
Them ain't details ;-)
>I want to buy a lap top with a more up-to-date OS but I have years
>of personal files saved in ME word processing. Can Vista or some
>other OS open, modify and close these old files
You've been dumbed down too much by the Windows UI
Vista is an OS, acting as floorboards for your furnature
(applications). It is applications that "open" word processing and
other files. So what you need to know is:
- will your existing applications install and work on Vista?
- do you have the disks, product keys etc. to install these apps?
You also need to do an inventory of:
- all your data files; where they are, etc.
- all the apps needed to use these files
- your installation disks etc. for these apps
Some apps are so tightly bound to thier data, that prising the data
out of them is a difficult business. Consider:
- favorites, bookmarks, address books, other "embedded" data
- accounting packages
- Outlook
Some apps chain your data to them, so that nothing else can "open" the
files. Further, some apps chain data to a specific version of
themselves, e.g. an old vresion of Outlook may not be able to read
data from a newer version of Outlook.
It gets worse; some apps are themselves chained to other application
packages (e.g. Outlook is chained to MS Office) or the OS (e.g.
Outlook Express XP is chained to XP, won't work in Vista).
Usually, a newer version of an app can convert data from an old
version of itself (e.g. Outlook Express 5 converting mail stores from
Outlook Express 4) but this is almost always a one-way process (e.g.
Outlook Express 4 cannot read Outlook Express 5 mail stores).
Usually, apps can import data from other apps as long as these are
older (e.g. Vista Mail may import mail stores from Outlook Express,
but you cannot go back). Sometimes they can convert data to an open
standard, at the cost of some lost "frills" (e.g. Word Perfect could
save its documents as Rich Text Format, which MS Word can read).
So it's a bit of a minefield, and until you tell us what apps you use,
we can't really be more specific. When choosing an app, it is this
behind-the-scenes detail that may be most important, rather than "can
I use emoticons in 'rich' messages" etc.
I've applied that logic to my own choice of apps, which is why I have
never used MS email apps for anything I need to see again.
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To one who only has a hammer,
everything looks like a nail
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