Win XP Win 7 Win 10

You can have my machete/Windows7machine/schondstedt/firearms when you pry them from my cold dead hands.

I would get a new computer format the drive and install windows 7.

SURVEYLTD, post: 375247, member: 319 wrote: Everything works on the XP machines, but sooner or later there won't be any antivirus support.

XP will be fine if you just keep those machines off the Internet. No email, no browser, just unplug the network cable and keep them as CAD-only workstations.

Windows 10 is designed to operate on lower spec hardware. I have seen speed improvements from XP boxes.

Your Printer supports Win10 and so does Autocad 2010.

Windows 10 is also free today,

When you have a computer that is operational and taking care of your surveying needs, why upgrade.
I am still preparing backup XPs for when others go down.
Right now it is possible to purchase a brand new XP Pro system for $150 or less that once cost 4 times that.
1. Take your XPs offline
2. you don't need virus protection for offline computers (how many virus infected files does your own systems produce, NONE)
3. set you XPs on their own data swapping wifi network
4. upgrade to Win7 or Win10 for all your online needs
5. when you download files to your Win7 or Win10 they are scrubbed for for virus and such infections
6. log off the internet wifi and log onto data wifi to transfer files to other computers and to print our use a thumb drive (either is less than $50)
0.02

I just can't see how any surveying business could progress by retaining xp as their main cad station. The way surveying technology and deliverables are changing here my business would be gone within 5 years if I was stuck on xp.

Those old XP boxes will fail eventually. If you wait for that to happen then your business will be dead in the water until you upgrade both your hardware and software. Make the transition now, when you have time and money to cover the cost of doing this - and while you still have the old systems as a backup.

Totalsurv, post: 375283, member: 8202 wrote: The way surveying technology and deliverables are changing here my business would be gone within 5 years if I was stuck on xp.

Not every business works like that. I'm chugging along happily without any Autodesk products on my new workstation, yet my clients are happy and throwing work at me faster than I can absorb it.

That said, I moved from XP to Win7 years ago, and am now using Win10. I don't want to have to keep my CAD station disconnected from the 'net, because my typical workday involves a lot more than CAD. I was only suggesting a safe alternative to upgrading. And I concur about the hardware refresh. Sticking with XP can work, but only if the hardware running it doesn't fail.

Had luck with Windows 7, but Windows 10, not so much, doesn't play well with LDD 2004 (yeah I know it's old).

On a somewhat unrelated note, I'm contemplating biting the bullet on a new Windows 10 higher end laptop with Carlson Civil Suite 2016.

SURVEYLTD, post: 375247, member: 319 wrote: Like everyone I'm not sure of what to do. I have a bunch of XP machines that I need to update, but after reading of all the problems with Win 10 I'm wondering why not get some Win 7 trade ins ? I also have a Designjet 800, and Autocad 2010 that I really don't want to spend a lot of money to upgrade. Everything works on the XP machines, but sooner or later there won't be any antivirus support.

I can get used Dell 790's - circa 2011, about 3.1 speed processor, 32-bit, loaded and Windows 7 professional, full load of memory, 250 gig hard drive & cd r/w for about $250-350. Then I wouldn't have to get 3 seats of autocad and update the plotter and a lot of other 32 bit sofware.

Is this a bad idea ? Any thoughts ? Thanks

Excellent idea. But, disconnect them from the internet (to avoid forced update to WIN10) or download the software called never10 (highly recommended) which will prevent the forced upgrade, without obstructing the security updates all windows users need. MAKE SURE you get never10 software from the orignal source (look for links to it in blogs about the windows10 problem and solutions to it.

One thing that you can do to get rid of the Win. 10 update nag is:
click start, then the order of clicks is: control panel - programs & features - view installed updates (on left) - rt. click KB3035583 & select remove.
To keep it from coming back, go back to start, click Win. update or if that doesn't work, go to control panel & select Win. update, click available updates, rt. click KB3035583 & select hide update.
O.K. I admit it, I am a dinosaur, but I have been working with computers since long before there was an internet. Back then computers were designed as work stations and about the only folks that had them were bankers, engineers & surveyors. The problem with computers today is they are designed to be a social networking machine. Remember the old adage, "anything that does everything doesn't do anything very well". I don't know much about Autocad as I never used it. I am still using an old cad program I bought back in the 90's which does everything I need & I use ProCogo for calculations. My memory is a little fuzzy but either BLM or the Corps of Engineers uses ProCogo. I have also worked with the 2014 version of Carlson's full civil suite, running with intellicad. It would do almost anything except drive the truck but I found it to be overkill for surveying, the learning curve to be difficult & in general, hard to use. Maybe that was because it was designed as engineering software & I am not familiar with Autocad. (Intellicad seems to be more or less a Autocad clone). It was running on a Win. 7 machine. One thing I will have to admit is apparently Carlson works very well if you master it as many surveyors love it. I think it has a lot to do with what you are accustomed to using.
Well, time is running out for my old XP machines & my CAD is obsolete. My XP machine is a "off the net" workstation. I am looking real hard at a dual boot machine running Windows & Linux. I also like the looks of "Briscad".
I will take this to a different discussion forum where it is already being addressed but I hear microsoft is no longer going to support it's software that runs on data collectors. I don't recall the details but I believe they want you to use smart phones. We may have other options sooner that we think.

9

One thing that you can do to get rid of the Win. 10 update nag is:
click start, then the order of clicks is: control panel - programs & features - view installed updates (on left) - rt. click KB3035583 & select remove.
To keep it from coming back, go back to start, click Win. update or if that doesn't work, go to control panel & select Win. update, click available updates, rt. click KB3035583 & select hide update.
O.K. I admit it, I am a dinosaur, but I have been working with computers since long before there was an internet. Back then computers were designed as work stations and about the only folks that had them were bankers, engineers & surveyors. The problem with computers today is they are designed to be a social networking machine. Remember the old adage, "anything that does everything doesn't do anything very well". I don't know much about Autocad as I never used it. I am still using an old cad program I bought back in the 90's which does everything I need & I use ProCogo for calculations. My memory is a little fuzzy but either BLM or the Corps of Engineers uses ProCogo. I have also worked with the 2014 version of Carlson's full civil suite, running with intellicad. It would do almost anything except drive the truck but I found it to be overkill for surveying, the learning curve to be difficult & in general, hard to use. Maybe that was because it was designed as engineering software & I am not familiar with Autocad. (Intellicad seems to be more or less a Autocad clone). It was running on a Win. 7 machine. One thing I will have to admit is apparently Carlson works very well if you master it as many surveyors love it. I think it has a lot to do with what you are accustomed to using.
Well, time is running out for my old XP machines & my CAD is obsolete. My XP machine is a "off the net" workstation. I am looking real hard at a dual boot machine running Windows & Linux. I also like the looks of "Briscad".
I will take this to a different discussion forum where it is already being addressed but I hear microsoft is no longer going to support it's software that runs on data collectors. I don't recall the details but I believe they want you to use smart phones. We may have other options sooner that we think.

9

One thing that you can do to get rid of the Win. 10 update nag is:
click start, then the order of clicks is: control panel - programs & features - view installed updates (on left) - rt. click KB3035583 & select remove.
To keep it from coming back, go back to start, click Win. update or if that doesn't work, go to control panel & select Win. update, click available updates, rt. click KB3035583 & select hide update.
O.K. I admit it, I am a dinosaur, but I have been working with computers since long before there was an internet. Back then computers were designed as work stations and about the only folks that had them were bankers, engineers & surveyors. The problem with computers today is they are designed to be a social networking machine. Remember the old adage, "anything that does everything doesn't do anything very well". I don't know much about Autocad as I never used it. I am still using an old cad program I bought back in the 90's which does everything I need & I use ProCogo for calculations. My memory is a little fuzzy but either BLM or the Corps of Engineers uses ProCogo. I have also worked with the 2014 version of Carlson's full civil suite, running with intellicad. It would do almost anything except drive the truck but I found it to be overkill for surveying, the learning curve to be difficult & in general, hard to use. Maybe that was because it was designed as engineering software & I am not familiar with Autocad. (Intellicad seems to be more or less a Autocad clone). It was running on a Win. 7 machine. One thing I will have to admit is apparently Carlson works very well if you master it as many surveyors love it. I think it has a lot to do with what you are accustomed to using.
Well, time is running out for my old XP machines & my CAD is obsolete. My XP machine is a "off the net" workstation. I am looking real hard at a dual boot machine running Windows & Linux. I also like the looks of "Briscad".
I will take this to a different discussion forum where it is already being addressed but I hear microsoft is no longer going to support it's software that runs on data collectors. I don't recall the details but I believe they want you to use smart phones. We may have other options sooner that we think.

9

I upgraded my Windows 7 to 10 this past weekend. Figured it was now or never since the upgrade is free until the end of the month and Microsoft plans to discontinue support for 7 soon after. The secret to the upgrade is turn off the anti-virus, what should have taken 2 hours took twelve in two tries.

After all that, it works fine. I had installed LDD 3 on Win 7 with Longbow and that still works fine in 10. I had Carlson XML running in a Virtual Machine on the Windows 7 install, but Win10 wipes out the virtual machine. So this morning I called Carlson and explained what happened. They said try an install and if it works we'll give you a verification code (although they said it was a gamble) With only a couple of small hiccups related to the installation progress bar freezing, it went well. It's running fast and smooth without having to use Windows 10 XP compatability mode (which I had expected I would need, but eventually did not.) Even with this old a program the Carlson folks were extremely helpful, so another big thank you to them.

Windows 10 seems to be a pretty good OS upgrade. I'm happy with it so far, but I'm still typing this on my old XP rig, so I still have both.

I also keep an old Windows 2000 laptop around for really old programs, but it's a heavy old beast and rarely sees the daylight anymore.

I converted the XP machine that runs all the so-called legacy software into a VMware virtual machine.
I converted the Win7 machine, and the Win8.1 machine.
All of it runs on a iBook (Mac), under VMware fusion.
Recently I moved the XP virtual machine to a laptop running VMware under Ubuntu, so as to be able to run all the XP legacy stuff
alongside TraversePC in the win8.1 virtual machine on the Mac (so they can share files over the LAN.) With enough cores in a desktop mac I could probably do all that inside one powerful machine, however the iBook bogs down when running more than one VM at a time.

I figure I'll get another year out of the legacy software and then switch to the HP35 and hand drawn maps. Or sub out the drafting to someone who loves that stuff.

Jim Frame, post: 375306, member: 10 wrote: Not every business works like that. I'm chugging along happily without any Autodesk products on my new workstation, yet my clients are happy and throwing work at me faster than I can absorb it.

That said, I moved from XP to Win7 years ago, and am now using Win10. I don't want to have to keep my CAD station disconnected from the 'net, because my typical workday involves a lot more than CAD. I was only suggesting a safe alternative to upgrading. And I concur about the hardware refresh. Sticking with XP can work, but only if the hardware running it doesn't fail.

I agree Jim. Thank You for putting your ideas out there, some I have used. I have my AutoCAD, Word, Adobe & Quickbooks on an XP machine and almost never enable the web. If the computer goes down I'll move the hard drives to another machine. If the hard drives go down, I'll replace with a Ghosted drive and keep going. It is networked to my Win7 internet machine. I know the youngens will say that's stupid, but preparing survey drawings has NEVER ran smoother. The older I become the farther from convention I get.