Even at the MSRP, this is a great deal compared to purchasing individual licenses as it pays for itself after 2 upgrades. Just something to keep in mind.

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Upgrade Several Computers To Windows 7 For A Low(er) Price

While Virtual PC does not support hardware acceleration, you can see that it runs the FPS Quake 2 quite well using software rendering. That said, true legacy games should run fine in a virtual machine with little performance hit. You should, however disable Integrated Mode if you are using Windows XP Mode in Windows 7.

Does anyone currently play games in a virtual machine? If so, how is the performance?

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Gaming On A Virtual PC

I do not yet have Windows 7 so I cannot test them, however I can see the quick closing of programs from the dock window and new folder creation shortcut being very useful.

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Useful (Brief) List Of Windows 7 Shortcuts

START /D “path_to_program” program_name

For example, to open both Firefox and IE, the batch file would look like this:

START /D “C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer” iexplore.exe
START /D “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox” firefox.exe

Just save the above text into a batch file named Browsers.bat and then run it. You will see both Firefox and IE are launched. This is just a simple example, so you would want to configure the programs to be what you need.

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Batch Script To Open Multiple Programs At Once

The documentation is pretty easy to follow, but for example suppose you want to extend the size of your E drive with some empty space on the end:

1. Make sure you have your data backed up (just in case)
2. Open a command prompt as the Administrator
3. Type ‘diskpart’
4. Type ‘list disk’ to get the disk number of the drive
5. Type ’select disk=[disk#]‘
6. Type ‘list partition’ to get the partition number of the partition to extend
7. Type ’select partition=[partition#]‘
8. Type ‘extend’
9. Once the command completes, your E drive is now resized to include the additional empty space

Note: You cannot use this to resize the active system drive (usually C), so if you do need to resize your C drive, you would need to remove the hard drive from the computer and plug it into another computer where it is not the C drive. Once you do this you can then resize it.

This also works in virtual machines, so you can use this in combination with the VHD Resizer tool to completely manage your VHD files.

While there are certainly more user friendly and feature-rich products available, this tool does the job quickly and easily.

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Builtin Microsoft Tool To Easily Extend A Partition Size

If you want a really good example of where a box like this would be needed, look no further than your local church. Traditional churches by nature are all non-profit organizations that operate on a very tight shoestring budget. Whatever technology is brought into the church must have good longevity to it because there’s simply no other purchase options. They can’t lease computer boxes. Whatever they get, they own, and it has to last a long time.

You could, if so desired, opt not to build but rather go with a brand name like Dell as they have new desktop PCs starting at $269. But maybe you’re in the situation where you have to deal with existing PCs because the budget simply won’t allow for the purchase of new computers. In this instance you have to refit them with new parts that will stand the test of time. That’s what this how-to covers.

The icons seen below are from Icon Archive. Be sure to check that place out for some truly good looking icons for Windows, Mac or Linux.

  Motherboard and CPU

It used to be that AMD was cheaper than Intel, but this is no longer the case. Were you to compare AMD vs. Intel in both motherboard and CPU prices, you’ll find they’re almost identical on the lower end of the cost spectrum.

When it comes to long-haul computing, the prevention of heat is a major consideration. Fortunately this is easy to take care of, because all you have to do is employ the use of a low-watt CPU. AMD has 45-watt offerings and Intel has 35-watt. Either is a good choice.

  RAM

With desktop memory the goal is to use the "slowest" possible sticks you can buy. Once again this is done to avoid heat. Use the bare minimum clock speed that the RAM banks will support, and put the maximum amount of RAM in the box it can support.

Also try, if possible, to use same-brand RAM. This will avoid any unforeseen issues with old RAM, as in some instances old sticks do not "play nice" with new ones. It is rare when this happens, but not out of the realm of possibility and you probably don’t have a RAM tester. (If you do have one however, use it.)

  Hard Drive

This step is simple, stick with 7200rpm hard disk drives. Were it a few years ago I would have recommended to use a 5400rpm (again, for less heat), but those offerings are now all but gone for standard 3.5-inch drives, and you’ll spend too much on a 5400rpm due to its rarity. The tried-and-true 7200rpm SATA of any media storage size works fine.

  Sound Card

Any. Doesn’t matter what you use as long as it works. You’ll most likely use the on-board sound from the motherboard anyway.

  Video Card

If the motherboard has a built-in video port, use it. Heat is avoided by doing this. If there isn’t any on-board video, what to use for a video card depends on the operating system. I’ll cover that in a moment.

  Optical drive

As long as the customer reviews for the optical drive you’re shopping for are favorable and it can play, read and burn CDs and DVDs, that’s all that matters.

  Case fans

This is the only part of the build where you absolutely cannot go low-cost. The case fans you use must be of premium grade, have good bearings and be as quiet as possible. Their only job in life is to cool, so don’t go cheap with these.

Here’s an example of a premium case fan. Yes, it’s almost $25 per fan. But it’s one of the best you can buy and totally worth the money.

I’m not saying you have to buy $25 case fans, but don’t go with the two-dollar cheap stuff. Do so and the PC’s life will end earlier.

  Operating System

If the box has a legal licensed copy of Windows XP or Vista, you’re all set. Continue to use it, continue to automatically download auto-updates as they are provided.

XP runs happily with 1GB of RAM and a 64MB video card. You can’t game on it, but you can do just about everything else.

The system requirements for Vista state it can get by on 1GB RAM, but as everybody knows it needs at least 2GB. The minimums also state that 128MB video is needed, but in reality 512MB suits it much better.

If the box has an illegal copy of XP or Vista, you need to either purchase a license of Windows 7 or switch to Linux – especially if the box you’re building is going to be used by somebody else. Why? Because somewhere along the line Windows will break without its needed updates eventually. And if you’re the one building a box for someone else, guess who gets the first phone call when somehow the end user magically turns on auto-updates and WGA disables Windows? That’s right, you do. Do you honestly want to deal with that?

The purchase of 7 is out of the question for most people because it blows the budget. You’d have to buy a full license of Windows 7 Home Premium, which costs just under $110. The "Starter" Edition of Windows 7 is only available to OEMs and not the general public unfortunately.

Linux’s strongest point is that it’s free. The flavor that’s the most suitable choice is the very recently released Ubuntu 9.10.

If you happen to be building/refitting a box for someone else, and that person only requires the basics of computing, you may want to consider Ubuntu Netbook Remix instead. It’s designed for netbooks, but has superior performance on low-end computer boxes. It also helps that the 9.10 UNR interface is super-friendly to use.

One of the few things that may prove to be a roadblock with UNR is printing. This is not Ubuntu’s fault, but rather the fact that most printers only come provided with proprietary Windows and Mac control software.

Check printer compatibility here for Ubuntu. It’s well worth the time to take a few minutes to read that over for your specific printer. Yours should be there as the lists are extensive. You know you’re in good shape if your printer is listed as both supported and working.

  Mouse

At least mid-grade quality, not wireless and manufactured by Microsoft or Logitech.

  Keyboard

Same requirements as the mouse.

  Monitor

You’ll most likely be using the existing monitor. If buying another, don’t buy used. Buy new.

The price for a new low-cost LCD monitor off the shelf will be between $125 and $175.

If you opt to buy online, specifically seek out the ones with free shipping, else you’ll pay the same price as you would off the shelf for the same thing.

As for the size, don’t buy anything under 18 inches. It’s simply not worth it.

  Software

In a basic sense, your computer must be able to:

• Browse the web
• Have the ability to use instant messaging easily
• Compose documents and spreadsheets and be able to share those documents easily
• Be able to import images from a digital camera easily
• Be able to edit images on a basic level easily
• Print
• Be able to burn CDs and DVDs
• Play DVD video
• Have sufficient protection against spyware, malware and viruses

Here’s each point covered one by one. I’m listing very specific choices that don’t require any additional software unless absolutely necessary. The less software installed, the better off the overall installation is.

Browse the web

Windows: Internet Explorer
Ubuntu: Firefox

Instant messaging

Windows: Windows Live Messenger
Ubuntu: Pidgin

Documents and Spreadsheets

Windows: OpenOffice
Ubuntu: OpenOffice

Digital Camera image import / Basic photo editing

Windows: Windows Live Photo Gallery
Ubuntu: F-Spot

Printing

Windows: Use provided printer control software CD or download from printer OEM’s web site
Ubuntu: Depends if the printer is supported or not by the OS (see above)

Burning CDs and DVDs

Windows, Data/Backup: Built-in to the OS natively, drag/drop
Windows, Music: Windows Media Player

Ubuntu, Data/Backup: Built-in to the OS natively, drag/drop
Ubuntu, Music: Brasero (included with OS)

Play DVD Video

Windows XP: Not included with DVD video codecs on fresh XP install. Codec must be provided by purchased player software such as WinDVD or CyberDVD.

Windows Vista/7: Codecs included, uses Windows Media Player to play DVDs.

Ubuntu: Codecs included, uses Totem to play DVDs.

Virus, spyware and malware protection

Windows: Microsoft Security Essentials or any other number of free protection suites.

Ubuntu: Generally speaking, not required because of the way Linux is designed. But if you feel you need it, there’s documentation aplenty on it.

  Placement

If you have the option, place the PC on the desk and not on the floor. As you know, computers are dirt magnets. This not only makes the computer box easier to clean but also keeps it away from dust and dirt that collects on the floor that the case fans would otherwise suck inside the box.

  Performance notes and other tips

The only time you’ll experience true slowdowns is on web pages with heavy Flash use. Then again, Flash will bring any web browser to its knees if you throw enough of that content at it even on the fastest of computers.

It is better if the PC has wired instead of wireless networking as it will speed things up quite a bit concerning internet usage. It’s not that wireless won’t work, but you want to give any speed advantage you can, so if you have the option, use wired internet connectivity.

Automate everything you possibly can. For example, if using a Windows OS you could use Defraggler to schedule drive defragmenting easily.

If you can, clone the drive once everything is installed, so if something busts on a major level, you’ve got a "vanilla" copy ready to be imaged back if the need arises.

Try (or instruct whoever is getting the PC) to get in the habit of "living in the browser." Keep installed apps to a minimum. The less apps there are, the less likely something will break on the software side and in many cases the speedier the OS will run, regardless of what OS it is. The best way to do this is to stay in the browser as much as possible.

For every app you download and install, save that to USB stick or CD/DVD. It’s also smart to perform a software inventory periodically just in case you have to reinstall the OS for whatever reason.

For any hardware you installed that has a warranty, put all the paperwork in an envelope and physically tape it to the side or top of the case. It’s not pretty, but you’ll never lose the info, should you need it.

Final notes

The best way to treat an older computer is to configure it like a kiosk would be. A kiosk by nature is set up to be simple and efficient. If you use Ubuntu Netbook Remix, this is very much how your computer will act, and that’s not a bad thing. You can do the same with Windows by hiding the taskbar, avoiding the Start menu when possible and placing the icons for the apps you regularly use on the desktop.

If you approach computing this way with an older refitted PC box and build it as outlined above, it should easily last 5 or more years.

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Long Haul Low-Cost PC "Refit" How-To

While you can do this on any machine, due to the obvious security implications here, I would only suggest you do this on desktop machines where you trust everyone who has access to the machine. Yes, physical hardware access does trump any software security you have any place, but still you should be careful with using this.

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Configuring Windows 7 For Automatic Login

VhdResize will resize Microsoft’s VHD files and will also convert between Fixed and Dynamic file types. This is a sector by sector copy operation from one size/type to the other and the source file remains unaltered.

Simple and easy. All you do is just select the VHD file to resize and then specify a new size and file name and off it goes. The result is a new VHD file which has grown by the amount you specified. The next time you boot the VM, it will have the additional space available in Disk Management for you to assign as needed.

This is definitely a must for heavy users of Microsoft Virtual PC.

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Resizing A Virtual PC Hard Drive

I personally find it quite enjoyable to be running a brand new fresh-and-modern operating system. Everything looks better, runs better and so on. And there are many features that make 7 totally worth the upgrade.

So why am I writing an article about not upgrading to 7?

It’s because there are growing numbers of people that simply do not care about the OS anymore, citing the reason to the tune of, "All I want to do is turn my computer on and have it do what I want. As long as it can do that, I don’t care what runs it."

This is heresy to a fervent computer geek, because how dare anybody run something that isn’t modern, and why on Earth would you consciously choose to use something old?

There are several good reasons for this.

Cost

The upgrade price of $119 US for Home Premium Upgrade (which is what most people would use) simply does not resonate well with people in the current economic climate.

There have been arguments aplenty that even though this is a price drop compared to Vista, it’s still too expensive and that it should have been priced between $50 to $75. And it doesn’t help that the $119 price tag comes dangerously close to half the cost of a new nettop or netbook computer.

It doesn’t bring anything new that’s usable

The emphasis here is on the word usable.

If somebody asked me, "What can Windows 7 do that my XP can’t do that would convince me to switch/upgrade?", it’s doubtful I’d come up with anything compelling enough to convince anybody to take the plunge.

The only instance where I could truly convince anybody that 7 is better is for Vista users, because 7 is notably slimmer and faster than the Vista OS even with applied SP2 and all other available updates installed. That makes 7 much more usable and is a compelling reason to upgrade.

But for XP users, I haven’t any compelling reasons such as the above. Everything I’d mention would most likely be dismissed as, "Nice. But that’s not really anything I could use."

The migration process for XP users going to 7 is painful

When upgrading Vista to 7, everything is carried over. But from XP to 7 this is not how it happens. Everything you have is kept, but shoved into a folder called Windows.old. So you’ll have to reinstall all your apps all over again. Many consider this no different than formatting the hard drive and starting from scratch.

This is a situation absolutely nobody wants to deal with.

Now I want to make clear that there is no operating system on the planet that has ever been able to make migrating from one major version a newer one easy – not even Mac OS X. And certainly not Linux or UNIX. Migrating always and without fail just plain sucks. In fact it could be argued that Microsoft operating systems qualify as the "least worst" when it comes to migrating up from old to new. Even so, it still sucks because you will spend a good amount of time reinstalling apps, tweaking settings and so on. It will occur, and there’s no escape from it.

This is a huge, and I mean huge, reason people don’t like upgrading.

If it’s all about the browser, what reason is there to care about the OS?

The primary reason anybody owns a computer today is to do things on the internet. And this means the most important app that you use is your web browser.

Windows XP will run Internet Explorer 8 or any other popular browser offering such as the latest version of Firefox, Opera, Chrome or Safari.

Every browser that 7 can run, XP can run. The only real difference is that 7 has more security to it because of the internal underpinnings of the OS. But XP’s internet security deficiencies can be patched up with a good security suite. Maybe it won’t be as streamlined as 7 is, but you can protect your PC reasonably well with third-party offerings.

If the vast majority of what you do is in the browser, you already know the OS doesn’t matter as long as a modern browser can run in it, and that the network security in place by the OS and optional third-party software is good enough to protect your PC.

XP will continue to hang around for a few years

When Windows XP was introduced in 2001, Windows 98 took roughly about 3 years to wean itself out as what people primarily used. This was a fairly brisk transition. Then again, people and corporations were buying computers left and right back in those days which I’m certain helped that along quite a bit.

Vista was supposed to kill off XP. It didn’t. The market viciously demanded that XP stay right where it is, so Microsoft complied until the launch of 7.

Win 7 will kill off Vista and XP in one fell swoop. Of that I have no doubt.

As for how much longer XP will continue to remain the #1 OS people use, I’m betting that it will be a longer span of time compared to the 98-to-XP transition. Possibly as long as 5 years. This is because the extended support lifecycle for XP will end in 2014.

I’m not saying to stick with XP until 2014 because chances are your computer has little chance of lasting that long, but if you’ve seen what’s new and aren’t too hot on the idea of switching to 7, I can’t blame you.

It’s not that 7 isn’t better than XP, because it is by leaps and bounds. But I do understand why there are so many who refuse to switch.

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Reasons Against Upgrading To Windows 7

Suppose you want to drag some files to an Outlook message you have open to add them as attachments.

1. Select the files in Windows Explorer.
2. Click and drag the files over the message in the task bar.
3. Pause for a second and the message will be restored or brought to the front.
4. Drop your files onto it.

This works with just about anything, so it is not limited to dragging files to Outlook. I often have tons open at once (my task bar is set to hold 3 layers of entries), so this trick definitely saves me time.

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Drag And Drop To Hidden Or Minimized Applications