OT: free graphics software / Windows 7 rant

[Roger Mills]

As others have said, have a look at The Gimp. That is very powerful, but may present a steep learning curve. Another free alternative is IrfanView - which also comes with IrfanView Thumbnails, which can display your entire photo library as thumbnails - making it easy to find stuff when all the files have names like DSCFnnnn.JPG

Which version of W7 are you running? Are you *sure* that your Photoshop software won't run? I've got Photoshop 5 LE - which is years old, and came bundled with something or other (camera, scanner - can't remember) and that works ok under W7.

I've got W7 Professional 32-bit, and a hell of a lot of stuff runs on that which isn't officially supposed to - including some very old stuff like Quicken 98. Even old hardware will sometimes work if you experiment with drivers. For example, I've got a USB-based MIDI interface for which there's no W7 driver. It wouldn't work with the XP driver, so I tried the driver for W2000, and bingo! When installing old software, you sometimes get some funny messages appearing. Unless they're fatal, just ignore them, and tell it to carry on!

I've got one or two programmes which work under W7 but do slightly funny things[1] - so I have to run them in a virtual XP machine inside W7 to overcome these quirks.

[1] Quicken 98 works, but can't create invoices. Capella Scan 5 (music OCR software) works but the menus are all in German! Finale 2003 (music notation software) works but when you print multiple copies, you get the *square* of the number you specify - 4, 9, 16 for 2, 3, 4 etc.

[Jonathan Ward]

I just did the dame but I am running Paper port version 8 happily under Windows 7

Jonathan

[Martin Brown]

If memory serves they have removed the 16bit API that some installers rely on. It caused me some grief just after Win7 came out. ISTR some mainline Adobe software was a real PITA to install on Win7 back then.

The fancy installer will not work, but you can transplant the files across and hack the registry and many things will work.

Morgan Computers have various slightly elderly versions of these sorts of things that were once bundled with DOA computers. You might be able to find a bargain there (stamped for sale only with a new PC). ;-)

[grimly4]

Ditto with all of that - W7 and its bundled drivers seems quite good at recognising legacy kit once it gets down to it. The compatibility tester said no to a couple of items, like the old TV card, but it worked fine with DVBViewer and likewise my old Sat card. I've still to install my ancient Epson 2450 (I use it for large format negs), but the updated 'universal' Epson driver promises to cover that as well as the newer ones.

[Bernard Peek]

Picasa from Google.

[John Rumm]

Note that much old software can be run on Win7 inside a virtual machine. Win7 Pro includes this all wrapped up and made relatively transparent so that you don't know you are using it. Failing that you can download Virtual PC etc and do it yourself with that.

Things like old versions of office vary. up to and including Office XP (aka 2002) really need emulation. Office 2003 can work with a couple of issues (you need to run it with admin privileges the first time to let it activate etc), 2007 onward are ok on 7

Drivers for old kit can be a bit harder, although again under a virtual machine, the original drivers ought to run.

Yup with some hunting about and fiddling, you can often get older stuff going again.

[John Rumm]

Boggles... just trying to imagine the programmers logic that got you into that particular little backwater!

[stuart noble]

Good for what it is but hardly a Photoshop replacement

[Old Codger]

I used the 4990 drivers. They work fine, just have to remember that I now have a 4990. :-).

[mick]

Not really in the Photoshop class (much simpler) but PhotoFiltre is a great piece of software for simple editing. No layers though.

[airsmoothed]

Yeah, only the Pro version has the virtual machine, but Home Premium allows programmes to be run in compatibility mode for just about any previous Windows version - stick the programme on the desktop, right click, > properties > compatibility tab. That doesn't help if the programme won't install though. Personally I specifically looked for a

32 bit Win7 machine when i needed new hardware to reduce these compatibility issues, tricky as nearly all mainstream domestic machines are Win & 64 bit now.

[Roger Mills]

I think it is due to the fact that applications can print multiple copies in either of two ways - they can send the file to the printer n times (like Excel) or they can send it once and tell the printer to print n copies (like Word). I assume that, for some unknown reason, Finale is using *both* methods at the same time when it runs under W7. [It was ok under XP!] Once you know what it does, it's quite easy to circumvent. For example, if I want 20 copies, I tell it to print 4 and then 2 - and get 16 + 4 = 20.

[Chris J Dixon]

Isn't it fascinating, the lack of consistency between different MS Office applications?

It took me some time to remember how to force a line feed in a data field - in Access it is , but Excel wants . Go figure.

Currently on Office 2003, but partner's new laptop will be Win 7, and we are wondering about getting Office 2010 Home and Student,

3 Users. It seems that I can still keep my 2003 Access and Publisher (since there is no way I am paying another ~£250 for "Professional".

Comments seem to be polarised, do I like Marmite?

Chris

[Bob Eager]

If you have a student or teacher in the house, it's only £60 for Professional...

[D.M.Chapman]

Go 2010 and get used to it. 2007 was ok, but was the real love hate release.

2010 has ironed out a lot of the issues that people hated with 2007 but it's still very different to 2003.

I hated it but had to use it. Now I like it (although I normally use Office

2011 these days - that's a weird beast!).

You'll have to move to the new interface sometime, do it now with 2010 would be my advice.

or less

38 quid for Office professional. Instant download or DVDs arrive within a couple of days. Recommended.

Darren

[Bob Eager]

Oops, I was thinking of Windows 7 I believe!

[Chris J Dixon]

>Under 38 quid for Office professional. Instant download or DVDs arrive within

I think acquiring a student might cost rather more than I would save, and it is a little too late for retraining and returning to work.

Chris

[Lobster]

Thanks a lot for all the feedback.

Admittedly I haven't tried installing some of my old stuff, because I've read from internet research that specific software/hardware won't work. Though I have tried and failed with the webcam and TV card.

I have been concerned that if I install software which turns out to not to run, that I may bugger up my W7 installation in the process - am i wrong in that? Reason being that the brand new PC, with most of my other software installed now, is not particularly stable (crashes out of IE9 and Windowes Explorer several times a day, and I wondered if that might be the cause?

Looks like I'll try installing my Photoshop Elements 3.0 then, if its safe to do so, and failing that, it's Gimp time...

Thanks David

[Huge]

That's because most of them were either bought in or developed by completely separate teams.

[Lobster]

Office 2003 is one thing I *have* successfully installed on my W7 (it's "officially" compatible).

Can't comment on 2010 but I've absolutely refused to go 2007. I've been existing very nicely on the Compatibility Pack, working with many firms who do use 2010, without problems.

David