Windows 7

Yes, they got rid of Windows Explorer, but the same basic thing is right at the bottom - just click the folder icon over on the left side - at least that's where it is on mine.

It does take some getting used to. There are some things I miss from XP, but there are a lot of good things as well.

The worst part about 7 is that so much old software will not work and a lot of older printer / plotter drivers will not work.

Dave, You mean like hooking up my HP 450C?

looks like there's some trouble there. I installed a serial port and was able to get the HP450C to do a test page, but I'm not sure I can get a driver.

Using the HP430 driver would probebly be okay for me. My color cartridges dried up years ago,.

Luckily, my XP computer is still running, though only on 2 cylinders.

Right click on the windows thingy on the bottom left.

Or right-click the Start button to find explorer,

Start Button/ My Computer or Window/ E on the keyboard.

Dave, You mean like hooking up my HP 450C?

The way I found to use my HP500's on Win7 is to run through an XP machine. Just set up your 450 as "shared" in your XP and then your Win7 (assuming your XP & Win7 are networked) can run it through the XP machine. It will find it and work just fine.

One problem I had with my 500's is that even though I could find drivers for the 500 for Win7, they would not work with the firmware on the 500's. I talked to my "geek" about updating the firmware and he said it might work, but if you goof up it will likely render the plotter useless. So I didn't try. Was also worried that if I updated the firmware for a Win7 machine the old XP's might then have problems.

Why all of this Windows 7 talk? Don't you know that Windows 8 is out now and we should all be upgrading to it?:-D

Dave, You mean like hooking up my HP 450C?

I had to get WinLine Drivers in order to get my 450C to work with Windows 7. They are a little costly, $199.00, but have drivers for all or most all plotters on the market. Windows 7 as far as I'm concerned is not the operating system that XP is. Granted, Windows 7 does have some good features, but leaves a lot to be desired as far as simplicity of use to perform a lot of everyday tasks compared to the workings of XP. I hate to see support for XP to be phased out in 2014.

I still use XP, I have a dual boot on my laptop so I can switch over to Win 7 for movies and entertainment. I don't do that too often though, mostly always use XP

Win 7 and likely Win 8 are geared toward entertainment, gaming, movies, music, and photos. Seems like they overlooked the working class people who actually use a computer for work and to make a living.

Perry,
Check this thread out. No need to buy drivers to run a 450c under win7. Worked perfect for me. Also a lot of help on which parallel to usb convertors will work.
Jim

http://beerleg.com/index.php?mode=thread&id=152065

Yea I think Micro$oft is thinking that the days of the PC are numbered opting to head towards touch screen land like Apple. I use Windows 7 for pretty much everything and won't be parting with it anytime soon. I also still have a PC and a laptop running XP as well.

I might pick up a copy of 8 just to play around with it but I am not going to go out a buy a touch screen just to use it.

No, they did NOT get rid of windows explorer. As you have always been able to do, right click on the Start button at the lower left of your secreen and there is the explorer function. And as you have always been able to do, you can go to the start button, go to all programs, go to accessories and there is the windows explorer link. Nothing has gone away and the 2 links you have had since early XP are still in the same place they have always been.
Now, if what you are looking for is the folder icon you can put on your desktop, you can still right click for the "create shortcut" option and drag it to your desktop.
I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate and have had no problems to date nor have I noticed any missing features. Maybe it has something to do with what version of Windows 7 you have?

I didn't know about the XP 64-bit driver, so I went the JetDirect route. When I have time I'll try the XP driver and see how it goes. In the mean time, I'm plotting without incident.

Dave, You mean like hooking up my HP 450C?

I could not use a Win 7 driver for my HP 500 but a Vista driver for it did the trick.

Dave, You mean like hooking up my HP 450C?

I'm brand new to Win7, maybe 3 days in.

Explorer is there, like everyone says.

I'm plotting (HP500) no problem.

I'm running old software, no problem. You may have to right click on the desktop icon and mess with some properties.

I miss my tabs, but will probably get used to it.

> Yea I think Micro$oft is thinking that the days of the PC are numbered opting to head towards touch screen land like Apple. I use Windows 7 for pretty much everything and won't be parting with it anytime soon. I also still have a PC and a laptop running XP as well.
>
> I might pick up a copy of 8 just to play around with it but I am not going to go out a buy a touch screen just to use it.

Maybe it's time to switch to Linux.

I don't have any problems running Microstation, AutoCAD or KC on Windows 7 and all of my printers and plotters work just fine. No reason to change to Linus...