Advice please for new PC

FunTime

Heedtheadvice wrote: »

Over budget!! £299 all inclusive

Three year warranty?

esuhl

Heedtheadvice wrote: »

That way I can keep old machine as a standby and run any incompatible software (if any)...

Do you have the installation files for the XP software you use and a retail XP product key? If so, you could run them in a virtual machine inside Windows 10. Or dual-boot the PC with XP and 10.

VirtualBox is a great way to run virtual machines:
https://www.virtualbox.org/

Heedtheadvice

1 year warranty I note.

Thanks Esuhl. Lack of lateral thinking by me!

Now, could I do an old c drive to virtual machine clone? I have Macrium reflect.....


Any more thoughts on that machine. Reading between the questions Funtime maybe not all that keen? ....but I have not come up with a better option yet......

esuhl

Heedtheadvice wrote: »

Now, could I do an old c drive to virtual machine clone? I have Macrium reflect.....

Macrium won't help with that. And ideally it would be a good idea to create a clean installation of XP in a new virtual machine. But if you really want to convert your existing drive to a VM, it sounds like it might be possible:

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows

More stuff on google: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=convert+hard+drive+to+virtualbox+image

FunTime

Heedtheadvice wrote: »

1 year warranty I note.

Thanks Esuhl. Lack of lateral thinking by me!

Now, could I do an old c drive to virtual machine clone? I have Macrium reflect.....


Any more thoughts on that machine. Reading between the questions Funtime maybe not all that keen? ....but I have not come up with a better option yet......

Don't take any notice of me. I'm just especially prudent when it comes to these things.

Heedtheadvice

Oh I like prudence! Fond memories of her.....;)

Heedtheadvice

OK gone for that Dell return eventually with more memory and bigger drive and an ssd to add in in a month's time or so.

What advice do you have for win 10 tweaks and 'backup' options are and post tweaks. It comes with pro 64bit preinstalled recover/tools partition and COA. Thinking particularly about ability to recover from disasters at stages as I get up to speed with migration/tweaks rather than routine backups.
Will go for virtual machine for old xp of rather than dual boot.

Any advice again much appreciated.

esuhl

Cool! Hope you enjoy your new computer.

Heedtheadvice wrote: »

What advice do you have for win 10 tweaks and 'backup' options are and post tweaks. It comes with pro 64bit preinstalled recover/tools partition and COA. Thinking particularly about ability to recover from disasters at stages as I get up to speed with migration/tweaks rather than routine backups.

I don't run Win10, so I can't suggest any particular tweaks. Although I think Microsoft have got much better at optimising their operating systems for the hardware they're running on, so tweaks should be unnecessary. I think the most important thing is to disable the privacy-violating features, or at least customise them to your preferences.

As for backups, it makes sense (to me) to keep your data and personal files on a separate partition to the operating system. That way, you can easily use disk imaging software (such as Macrium Reflect Free) to backup, or batch copying software (such as FreeFileSync) to copy files to a backup drive.

Heedtheadvice

Thanks esul that seems a good idea to put data on a separate partition. I have always created a folder direct from the root for that purpose but I like the idea of the partition too. Only down side I see is selecting size! Also a fan of Macrium reflect.

Can anyone advise best way to customise the privacy side?