Partition Magic question

[casey.o]

I agree, casey, but this simple truth is, what we want won't make MS a
single dime. And they need to make money to stay in business.

While MS cant make any more money from XP, they COULD develop an OS made
specifically for Seniors. Products designed and marketed for seniors
can be profitable. Just those simple grabber things made to reach
behind furniture and pick up items are mostly marketted to seniors.
Anyone can use one of them, but most are sold to seniors. While I'm
"legally" a senior, I got my start in computers long ago, so they are
understandable to me, but I know several seniors who would like to use
the internet, but simply can not figure out how to use a computer. They
even sell keyboards with large print on the keys, made mostly for
seniors, and they do sell. If MS had any smarts, they would develop a
Senior Operating System, then continue to creat their bloated crap for
the younger crowd.

You can still find simple software, but it won't be from MS, Adobe, or
any of the "name brands". All you can do is look for the simplest
software out there, and hope you don't need to have to have some kind of
interaction with the name brand file formats.

Most of the best software I use these days is Free or Shareware. They
are not driven by dollars to keep upgrading, in order to sell more
product. Which in most cases reaches a plateau, where there is nothing
more to add to the software, so all they can do is add worthless bloated
crap. I've also run across what they call "Abandonware". It's old
software (both free/shareware and commercial), which has been abandoned.
Some is Dos, some is for older Windows, but it all works. Most of it is
fairly simple.

And think about it, it's no different than if you had a 15 year old TV,
where do you get that fixed? Or, in my case, a 19 year old car, 1995.
I went to AutoZone to get them to plug into it to see why the engine
service light was on. It turns out they changed the computer diagnostic
system in 1996, and AutoZone did not have a tester for it. So I have to
buy my own tester.

No matter the product, old stuff eventually has no support except from
specialty places.

I have a 1947 Farm Tractor, and amazingly there is still a lot of
support. A lot of guys restore them for antique value, and there is a
following, and lately quite a few websites for this. It's easier to get
parts for that 47 tractor than for my 91 Chevy truck. It's all based on
demand. I dont own that tractor for it's antique value, I use it on my
farm. I'm not one of these new farmers who own a thousand or more
acres. I just have some land and run a small farm like they used to do
in the 20th century. New tractors cost $100,000 and up. They guzzle
fuel, and have lots of unneeded gadgets. Some even run on a GPS signal,
which steers them, while the farmer sits inside watching a DVD movie
while the air conditioner keeps him cool. That might sound great, but
not when you have to go to the bank to make payments on it. My old
tractor is paid for, and while I may roast in the sun on hot days, or
freeze my ass off in winter trying to plow the snow off the roadway, I
still llike the simpler times.

 

[casey.o]

It's not only the equipment that's changed. It's the people, too.

Yea, there's something wrong with the young generation. Have you heard
any of the crap they listen to, and call it "music"? I've heard more
pleasant sounds coming from a hog farm.

And when they sit in a bar or restaurant and use their cellphones to
communicate with the person sitting right next to them, there has got to
be brain damage. Apparently it's because of the marijuana their parents
smoked. (Reefer Madness revealed 30 years later).

And what's with all those pins and rings pierced into their bodies?
Anyone who would endure that pain to make themselves look stupid, is
lacking some gray matter.

Aparently their education went all wrong too, because they never learned
that the brim of a baseball cap is supposed to go to the FRONT!

All of them need to be taken to the woodshed, laid across a saw buck,
and given a good old fashioned SPANKING. (That's after their
smartphones are chopped up with an axe, and put in the wood burner to
cook dinner).

It's pretty sad when their smartphone is smarter than they are........

 

[Mayayana]

| > You have at least 3 disk management/disk imaging
| > programs? Why do you need all those? Won't any
| > one of them do what you want?
|
| An interesting question. They were acquired at different times. And I
| appreciate some of the differences (just like I do with Audio Editing and
| Restoration programs - there just is no one "perfect" program there).
|
| Here is one example relating to the disk management stuff.
|
| If I want to delete all partitions on another drive, without having it
| initally connected in Windows, I will often choose to boot up on a
BootItNG
| floppy, and simply run the quick delete partition option (at its pseudo
DOS
| menu).
|
| And if I also want to clone my source drive to that drive, I can use ATI
to
| make the clone in Windows to a completely blank disk (after booting up
into
| Windows) so there are no weird drive letter reassignments to mess with.
|
| As for my two XP laptops, I've used the free Easeus Partition Manager to
| resize partitions, since I think it's a safer and simpler bet dealing with
| these newer 2" drives than Partition Magic or my old ATI. However I do
use
| the newer ATI 2010 to make image backups, periodically.
|

It sounds like you need to get the latest version
of one program. All of those actions are simple
and dependable with BootIt. I assume that ATI
can also handle them.

Disk work is one area where I'm happy to pay for
software and want something dependable. It can't
afford to have bugs when you're doing things like
resizing partitions or making disk images. Having one
program that I know I can trust, I can't imagine ever
wanting to try out anything else. ... Are you by any
chance one of those guys who goes to a new
contractor or auto mechanic for every job, no matter
how good the last one was?

 

[Ken Springer]

While MS cant make any more money from XP, they COULD develop an OS made
specifically for Seniors. Products designed and marketed for seniors
can be profitable. Just those simple grabber things made to reach
behind furniture and pick up items are mostly marketted to seniors.
Anyone can use one of them, but most are sold to seniors. While I'm
"legally" a senior, I got my start in computers long ago, so they are
understandable to me, but I know several seniors who would like to use
the internet, but simply can not figure out how to use a computer. They
even sell keyboards with large print on the keys, made mostly for
seniors, and they do sell. If MS had any smarts, they would develop a
Senior Operating System, then continue to creat their bloated crap for
the younger crowd.

I don't think you need a separate OS. What you need is a simple GUI
interface. And those computers are out there, but are not cheap. I
found 3 different ones, although I'm not sure the 3rd on includes hardware.

http://aplusseniorcomputer.com/index.html
http://www.mywowcomputer.com/
http://bigscreenlive.com/
http://www.simplicitycomputers.co.uk/

I'm not endorsing any of these, just pointing out what you want MS to do
has been done. I do believe it's all Linux, as XP support is gone.

What is missing is education, manuals, etc. There doesn't seem to be
any magazines, books, etc. that starts at the kindergarten level of
computers. :-( Believe it or not, Windows 7 had a decent computer
basics help section, but it was dropped in Win 8, I've not been able to
find it.

But You Tube is really your friend much more than Google. Check this
video:

There's a wealth of training and info on You Tube.

I think seniors are no different, some figure them out, others do not.

Oh, and a senior here too.

Most of the best software I use these days is Free or Shareware. They
are not driven by dollars to keep upgrading, in order to sell more
product. Which in most cases reaches a plateau, where there is nothing
more to add to the software, so all they can do is add worthless bloated
crap. I've also run across what they call "Abandonware". It's old
software (both free/shareware and commercial), which has been abandoned.
Some is Dos, some is for older Windows, but it all works. Most of it is
fairly simple.

Since you are using old OSes, the old programs will run. But getting
them to run on a newer OS is often iffy, IMO. One downside of freeware,
etc., is bugs often are not fixed. :-( And why I'm not as fond of them
anymore.

I have a 1947 Farm Tractor, and amazingly there is still a lot of
support. A lot of guys restore them for antique value, and there is a
following, and lately quite a few websites for this. It's easier to get
parts for that 47 tractor than for my 91 Chevy truck. It's all based on
demand. I dont own that tractor for it's antique value, I use it on my
farm. I'm not one of these new farmers who own a thousand or more
acres. I just have some land and run a small farm like they used to do
in the 20th century. New tractors cost $100,000 and up. They guzzle
fuel, and have lots of unneeded gadgets. Some even run on a GPS signal,
which steers them, while the farmer sits inside watching a DVD movie
while the air conditioner keeps him cool. That might sound great, but
not when you have to go to the bank to make payments on it. My old
tractor is paid for, and while I may roast in the sun on hot days, or
freeze my ass off in winter trying to plow the snow off the roadway, I
still llike the simpler times.

That is not the type of support I'm talking about, I'm talking about
manufacturer support. What if your tractor is an Oliver? Any
manufacturer support there?


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 25.0
Thunderbird 24.3.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

 

[casey.o]

I don't think you need a separate OS. What you need is a simple GUI
interface. And those computers are out there, but are not cheap. I
found 3 different ones, although I'm not sure the 3rd on includes hardware.

http://aplusseniorcomputer.com/index.html
http://www.mywowcomputer.com/
http://bigscreenlive.com/
http://www.simplicitycomputers.co.uk/

I'm just looking at these webs. Interesting!!!
The Aplussenior......
It says "The A Plus computer is Powered by Windows Classic Pro!

That part puzzles me. Is that a varient of Windows 7 or 8 or is it
still XP, or ????? What is it?
The software programs seem pretty well suited.

There's a wealth of training and info on You Tube.

I find some of that stuff useful, but others are horrid. Recently I was
doing some car repair, got a video for my needs, and watched some kid
spend 15 min. showing how. But of those 15 min, he spent 5 min. getting
out his tools, 3 min jacking up the car, two more min. sawing a foot off
one foot from a 2x4 to block the wheels. He finally got under the car,
and all you could see was his face because the lighting was too poor to
see what he was doing. That sure was a waste of time....

I think seniors are no different, some figure them out, others do not.

True, but many wont even try. To them, a computer is a scary thing that
they believe they will never be able to use. When my mother was still
alive, she was fighting with an old typewriter. I took an old unused
computer, put a copy of Dos Professional Write on it. (this was in the
early 90s). I set it up so all she had to do was turn on the power
switch. Autoecec.bat opened the word processor. Then I showed her how
to turn on the computer, and when the prog. opened, to begin typing her
letter. I showed her how to SAVE the completed letter, and told her
that I'd do the priniting when she's done. She never got ti. Just
could not understand it, and said kept saying "I'm too old to use a
computer". If I had called it a typewriter, she might have tried
more..... She just kept using that old 1940's era typewriter, and
complaining the keys were sticking....

Oh, and a senior here too.

I think those of us who are called "baby boomers" are a little more
geared to technology that OUR parents were....

Since you are using old OSes, the old programs will run. But getting
them to run on a newer OS is often iffy, IMO. One downside of freeware,
etc., is bugs often are not fixed. :-( And why I'm not as fond of them
anymore.

I have found that soem of the Win 3.x programs wont run on Win98,and
even found one Dos program that would not run on the Dos from Win98.

That is not the type of support I'm talking about, I'm talking about
manufacturer support. What if your tractor is an Oliver? Any
manufacturer support there?

Oliver is probably one of the brands that are the hardest to get parts
for. But I've never worked on one of them. The most common are the old
John Deere and the International Farmall. I have a Farmall Super M.
Parts are readily available as well as support, but not support from the
manufacturer. My 1947 is a Case VAC. That's a little more rare, but I
can still get parts, and online support. There are a few tractor "junk
yards" that have lots of used parts for all brands. There are some
machine shops that can make any part needed, although that can be
costly. The good think about those old tractors is that most parts were
simple. Easily made from steel stock, such as common angle iron or flat
stock. And the original stuff was made very strong and well. I've made
bushings for worn pivot points from scrap copper tubing, and that works
fine. This is off topic, but it's relative. I have found on ebay, that
there are now some computer "junk yards". They are called recyclers,
and they have parts for old computers. I kinda like that!

 

[Ken Springer]

I'm just looking at these webs. Interesting!!!
The Aplussenior......
It says "The A Plus computer is Powered by Windows Classic Pro!

That part puzzles me. Is that a varient of Windows 7 or 8 or is it
still XP, or ????? What is it?

Same "puzzlement" for me too. I thinking they customized XP for their
uses. Ergo, the warning about XP support ending. Even though common
belief is you could not modify XP, there may be some way to do it. But
the people who modify the OS are now 100% responsible for support, no
support from MS is mandated.

There's a number of XP hacks out there that make XP look like something
else. XP Black is common, but the versions I saw were riddled with
programs that were malware. One hack supposedly made XP look like OS X
10.5 Leopard, but I never installed it.

The software programs seem pretty well suited.



I find some of that stuff useful, but others are horrid. Recently I was
doing some car repair, got a video for my needs, and watched some kid
spend 15 min. showing how. But of those 15 min, he spent 5 min. getting
out his tools, 3 min jacking up the car, two more min. sawing a foot off
one foot from a 2x4 to block the wheels. He finally got under the car,
and all you could see was his face because the lighting was too poor to
see what he was doing. That sure was a waste of time....

You do have to sort through them to find the ones that fit your
situation. But that's no different that selecting books in a book
store, finding the right hand or power tool, kitchen appliance, TV, and
on and on. Even the right computer.

True, but many wont even try. To them, a computer is a scary thing that
they believe they will never be able to use. When my mother was still
alive, she was fighting with an old typewriter. I took an old unused
computer, put a copy of Dos Professional Write on it. (this was in the
early 90s). I set it up so all she had to do was turn on the power
switch. Autoecec.bat opened the word processor. Then I showed her how
to turn on the computer, and when the prog. opened, to begin typing her
letter. I showed her how to SAVE the completed letter, and told her
that I'd do the priniting when she's done. She never got ti. Just
could not understand it, and said kept saying "I'm too old to use a
computer". If I had called it a typewriter, she might have tried
more..... She just kept using that old 1940's era typewriter, and
complaining the keys were sticking....

You have the "I won't even try" among today's users too. And there are
some, that no matter how hard you try, just will never get it until a
computer is as easy to use as asking a question, as on the Starship
Enterprise.

I think those of us who are called "baby boomers" are a little more
geared to technology that OUR parents were....

I don't think more geared towards technology, more inquisitive about
technology.

I have found that soem of the Win 3.x programs wont run on Win98,and
even found one Dos program that would not run on the Dos from Win98.

Each newer OS changes a few things, and if the older program relies on
what was changed, it's going to have problems.

Oliver is probably one of the brands that are the hardest to get parts
for. But I've never worked on one of them. The most common are the old
John Deere and the International Farmall. I have a Farmall Super M.
Parts are readily available as well as support, but not support from the
manufacturer. My 1947 is a Case VAC. That's a little more rare, but I
can still get parts, and online support. There are a few tractor "junk
yards" that have lots of used parts for all brands. There are some
machine shops that can make any part needed, although that can be
costly. The good think about those old tractors is that most parts were
simple. Easily made from steel stock, such as common angle iron or flat
stock. And the original stuff was made very strong and well. I've made
bushings for worn pivot points from scrap copper tubing, and that works
fine. This is off topic, but it's relative. I have found on ebay, that
there are now some computer "junk yards". They are called recyclers,
and they have parts for old computers. I kinda like that!

--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 25.0
Thunderbird 24.3.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

 

[BillW50]

On 4/9/14 12:24 PM, (e-mail address removed) wrote: [...]
Same "puzzlement" for me too. I thinking they customized XP for their
uses. Ergo, the warning about XP support ending. Even though common
belief is you could not modify XP, there may be some way to do it.
But the people who modify the OS are now 100% responsible for support,
no support from MS is mandated.

There's a number of XP hacks out there that make XP look like
something else. XP Black is common, but the versions I saw were
riddled with programs that were malware. One hack supposedly made XP
look like OS X 10.5 Leopard, but I never installed it.

Sounds like a shell replacement. There are a few of these that are
legit. Windows Blinds and Aston are two that come to mind. I only know a
lot about Aston and I use it on many of my Windows machines. Some of
them have an Ubuntu, Mac, Windows Vista/7 (on XP), Android, etc looking
desktops.

 

[Ken Springer]

On 4/9/14 12:24 PM, (e-mail address removed) wrote: [...]
Same "puzzlement" for me too. I thinking they customized XP for their
uses. Ergo, the warning about XP support ending. Even though common
belief is you could not modify XP, there may be some way to do it.
But the people who modify the OS are now 100% responsible for support,
no support from MS is mandated.

There's a number of XP hacks out there that make XP look like
something else. XP Black is common, but the versions I saw were
riddled with programs that were malware. One hack supposedly made XP
look like OS X 10.5 Leopard, but I never installed it.

Sounds like a shell replacement. There are a few of these that are
legit. Windows Blinds and Aston are two that come to mind. I only know a
lot about Aston and I use it on many of my Windows machines. Some of
them have an Ubuntu, Mac, Windows Vista/7 (on XP), Android, etc looking
desktops.

I think it's more than a shell replacement. They add new features, like
the Vista gadgets and such. After learning of the malware, I stopped
playing with them.

What do you think of Aston overall? I'd like to tweak my Win7 install
one of these days, and that is on the list of possibilities. Is there
anything truly functionally improved, or is it just a pretty face?


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 25.0
Thunderbird 24.3.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

 

[BillW50]

On 4/9/14 12:24 PM, (e-mail address removed) wrote: [...]
Same "puzzlement" for me too. I thinking they customized XP for
their uses. Ergo, the warning about XP support ending. Even though
common belief is you could not modify XP, there may be some way to
do it. But the people who modify the OS are now 100% responsible for
support, no support from MS is mandated.

There's a number of XP hacks out there that make XP look like
something else. XP Black is common, but the versions I saw were
riddled with programs that were malware. One hack supposedly made XP
look like OS X 10.5 Leopard, but I never installed it.

Sounds like a shell replacement. There are a few of these that are
legit. Windows Blinds and Aston are two that come to mind. I only
know a lot about Aston and I use it on many of my Windows machines.
Some of them have an Ubuntu, Mac, Windows Vista/7 (on XP), Android,
etc looking desktops.

I think it's more than a shell replacement. They add new features,
like the Vista gadgets and such. After learning of the malware, I
stopped playing with them.

Aston also has panels and gadgets (they call widgets). And widgets can
live in a panel (even an auto hiding one) or live on the desktop like
icons can.

What do you think of Aston overall? I'd like to tweak my Win7 install
one of these days, and that is on the list of possibilities. Is there
anything truly functionally improved, or is it just a pretty face?

There is four parts of Aston2.

1) Start Menu (this is also available separately)
2) Panels and widgets
3) Desktop (controls background, icons, etc)
4) Taskbar (it is part of panels really)

Each part can be enabled or disabled individually. For example, Aston's
Taskbar doesn't have Pin to Taskbar, so one may want to keep the Windows
7 one if you want. I sometimes do and sometimes not. And I do use
Windows 7 and 8 gadgets with Aston widgets on the same desktop. Although
on my XP machines, I only have Aston widgets.

And sure I love Aston! Besides the above, I also love the launch bar (it
is also a panel). As I almost never need to use Start -> Programs
anymore or even desktop icons either (my desktop icons are usually
disabled and hidden anyway).

Functionally improved? Sure I think so. I only have five licenses, so I
don't want to buy licenses for my seldom used machines and must deal
with the standard Windows desktop when I am running them. Plus sometimes
I do toggle Aston off just for a change of pace sometimes. But most of
the time I rather it be there than not.

Pretty face? Yeah that is the other part of Aston. There are hundreds of
different themes out there. And switching to another one is like opening
a text file. So you never have to look at your boring desktop
ever again.

 

[BillW50]

On 4/9/14 5:23 PM, BillW50 wrote:
On 4/9/14 12:24 PM, (e-mail address removed) wrote:
[...]
Same "puzzlement" for me too. I thinking they customized XP for
their uses. Ergo, the warning about XP support ending. Even though
common belief is you could not modify XP, there may be some way to
do it. But the people who modify the OS are now 100% responsible
for support, no support from MS is mandated.

There's a number of XP hacks out there that make XP look like
something else. XP Black is common, but the versions I saw were
riddled with programs that were malware. One hack supposedly made
XP look like OS X 10.5 Leopard, but I never installed it.

Sounds like a shell replacement. There are a few of these that are
legit. Windows Blinds and Aston are two that come to mind. I only
know a lot about Aston and I use it on many of my Windows machines.
Some of them have an Ubuntu, Mac, Windows Vista/7 (on XP), Android,
etc looking desktops.

I think it's more than a shell replacement. They add new features,
like the Vista gadgets and such. After learning of the malware, I
stopped playing with them.

Aston also has panels and gadgets (they call widgets). And widgets
can live in a panel (even an auto hiding one) or live on the desktop
like icons can.

What do you think of Aston overall? I'd like to tweak my Win7
install one of these days, and that is on the list of possibilities.
Is there anything truly functionally improved, or is it just a
pretty face?

There is four parts of Aston2.

1) Start Menu (this is also available separately)
2) Panels and widgets
3) Desktop (controls background, icons, etc)
4) Taskbar (it is part of panels really)

Each part can be enabled or disabled individually. For example,
Aston's Taskbar doesn't have Pin to Taskbar, so one may want to keep
the Windows 7 one if you want. I sometimes do and sometimes not. And
I do use Windows 7 and 8 gadgets with Aston widgets on the same
desktop. Although on my XP machines, I only have Aston widgets.

And sure I love Aston! Besides the above, I also love the launch bar
(it is also a panel). As I almost never need to use Start -> Programs
anymore or even desktop icons either (my desktop icons are usually
disabled and hidden anyway).

Functionally improved? Sure I think so. I only have five licenses, so
I don't want to buy licenses for my seldom used machines and must
deal with the standard Windows desktop when I am running them. Plus
sometimes I do toggle Aston off just for a change of pace sometimes.
But most of the time I rather it be there than not.

Pretty face? Yeah that is the other part of Aston. There are hundreds
of different themes out there. And switching to another one is like
opening a text file. So you never have to look at your boring desktop
ever again.

Thanks, Bill. Appreciate the info.

Any thoughts on how the Aston Start Menu would interface with other
Win 7 Menu "tweaks"?

Usually they have no effect, since other tweaks doesn't know Aston is
even there. But since there are many different ways to do something, one
can't say never.

Also Aston Start Menu varies depending on the theme you are using. And
Aston Start Menu can even include Aston widgets. Although it is done on
the theme creation level and not on the user level like panels are.

Not a full replacement of the menu, more along the lines of adding
additional features/abilities to the menu. I installed File Menu
Tools from Lopesoft, http://lopesoft.com/en/, and so far I rather like
it, even though I keep forgetting it's installed. LOL

Oh that one looks nice. No that one shouldn't have any effect with Aston
and Aston shouldn't interfere with this one at all.

I don't know if you know this, but there are Aston1 and Aston2. They are
totally different, but the same idea. And they are totally incompatible
with each other. I know both really well and I have been only talking
about Aston2. Since it is the newer one and it is easier for the user to
use. Here is the link for Aston2 themes to cruise through to take a
peek.

http://themes.astonshell.com/aston2/page1.html

 

[DK]

In DK typed:

Well there was:
MS-DOS 6.x and Windows 9x-systems come with a defragmentation
utility called Defrag. The DOS version is a limited version of
Norton SpeedDisk. The version that came with Windows 9x was
licensed from Symantec Corporation...

At that poit Symantec had just aquired Norton and did not yet have
time to totally screw up Norton Utilities. Later on, with Win98, they did
manage to turn a set of great utilities into a virus-like bloat that
messed computers more than it helped.

DK