Long time Mac user who just bought a Windows PC

Ok... so I finally got sick & tired of Mac incompatibilities on just about every website I use, so I bit the bullet and got myself a Compaq Presario 2400 2.0ghz, 256MB, 120GB with Windows XP.

I'm totally lost on this thing.

1) I've got a ton of old CD's and games hanging around that I figured I'd eventually use on a Windows PC. They all say that you need Windows 95. But none of them work on this computer. So... are all these old games like Riven 2 and screen savers like After Dark useless or am I doing something wrong?

2) If I put a disk into a Mac computer, it appears on the desktop. I can double click it and it opens and I can see what's there and install it or whatever.
With this Windows thing, I insert a CD, and nothing happens. Nothing shows on the screen to let me know there's even a CD in there. There's no menu bar on the screen except for this dumb looking green thing on the bottom that says 'start'. To find anything I'm having to navigate through tons of folders and then have no way to go back to a previous folder so I hit start again..... arghhh... I've spent an hour going around in circles and still can't get anything working.

3) To get a CD out of my Mac I hit CMD-Y and it pops out. With this thing I have to hit the CD button to manually eject it?? I haven't had to manually eject CD's in 15 years.

...how do you guys stand using these things??

I've got a ton of old CD's and games hanging around that I figured I'd eventually use on a Windows PC. They all say that you need Windows 95. But none of them work on this computer. So... are all these old games like Riven 2 and screen savers like After Dark useless or am I doing something wrong?

What exactly is the problem? A few old games just can't run on any recently made computer (for example, Alpha Centauri), but most others can be made to run with little effort.

The first thing to try is right click on the program and select 'properties'. Click the 'Compatibility' tab and turn on compatibility mode for win95.

2) If I put a disk into a Mac computer, it appears on the desktop. I can double click it and it opens and I can see what's there and install it or whatever.

Just put a shortcut to the D drive on your desktop.

With this Windows thing, I insert a CD, and nothing happens. Nothing shows on the screen to let me know there's even a CD in there. There's no menu bar on the screen except for this dumb looking green thing on the bottom that says 'start'.

Most game cds run a small autoplay program when inserted. If the cd doesn't autorun I can't think of what you would want the computer to do.

Open 'My Computer' from the start menu or from the icon on your desktop (if there is one). To browse the cd's contents double click on the d: icon.

To find anything I'm having to navigate through tons of folders and then have no way to go back to a previous folder so I hit start again.

Do you see those buttons at the top of the folder window? The third one from right (the one with the green arrow) goes back to the previous folder. Or, if for some reason you don't see those convenient navigation buttons, you can go through the menu bar. It's View->Go To->Up One Folder.

3) To get a CD out of my Mac I hit CMD-Y and it pops out. With this thing I have to hit the CD button to manually eject it?? I haven't had to manually eject CD's in 15 years.

Honestly, either get used to it or code up a little keypress event to open it for you. The idea of opening the cd drive from the keyboard is completely rediculous to lifelong windows users. Just press the button by the cd drive that opens it.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Schmange has joined the dark side !!!!!




best of luck !!!!

None of my 95 or 98 stuff worked on XP.

Not much of my XP stuff worked on XP.

The only nice thing I have to say about PCs is SONAR which is a lovley program.

Yeah, seldom does anything from 95 work with xp and by seldom I mean I haven't heard of anything that does work with xp. I take it this is your first windows computer. It'll take some getting used to but Windows is generally a real pain in the ass...

I'm sure there's a way to play those old games of yours as people somewhat frequently remake/update/whatever games so they can still be operational as there are a lot of classics out there from the stone age and it'd be stupid to cut them off because they're old.

Of course I don't really have any of the problems you speak of namely because I built my computer and keep an eye on what's going on. Every so often I'll land a virus but I've always been good about taking them out before they can really piss me off. So I'm really not afraid of viruses. Spyware however, you really want to watch out for. Any of you remember my "if you have the internet, don't tell your friends" thread? Well, I spent three days scanning through my computer before I got that **** to stop. Just be careful where you go and you'll be fine.

You said it...I feel like I'm in bizarro world or something. :cool:
I go to do something that I've been doing for 15 years and it doesn't work and I'm sitting here going 'what the ...'
I know I'm new to the Windows thing but my first impression is that the operating system is really clunky and outdated.

> "The first thing to try is right click on the program and select
> 'properties'. Click the 'Compatibility' tab and turn on compatibility
> mode for win95."

How the heck was I supposed to know that? It's supposed to be an advanced operating system. Can't it figure that out for itself? :rolleyes:

Ok.... an hour later and I've finally figured out how to do that... now I get "The instruction "0x77f5102" referenced memory at 0x0067006e"
The memory could not be written.
Click ok to terminate the program"

What next?

I'm not sure why you'd switch from a Mac to a pc. I've been a loooooong time pc user (since 1983 :eek: ). My next major pooter upgrade is going to be up to a Mac G5. :D

Just compatibility with everybody else I know who, for some unknown reason, uses Windows computers.
Plus the numerous times I've tried using a web page only to find out it isn't Mac compatible. Or the numerous times I've had somebody tell me about a great application only to find out that it's Windows only.
I'm upgrading to a G6 as soon as somebody invents it, but I got the Windoze PC for now so I can actually walk into a software store for a change and actually find something that works on my computer.

Originally Posted by: schmange"The instruction "0x77f5102" referenced memory at 0x0067006e"
The memory could not be written.
Click ok to terminate the program"

That's an infamously vague error that could have just about any cause from bad memory to bad programming, most often the latter.

I guess I'm lucky in that I've never had any problems running any of my old games on winXP (except from windows 3.1).


Edit- I forgot to mention one possible cause for the error. If the game is graphically intense it's possible the program doesn't like your video card. For example, Half-Life 2 gets that error if you try changing the advanced video settings while using a cheap integrated Intel card.

Guess I'm just really suprised that I've got a game here that's only a few years old called Riven 2. It was still sealed in it's original wrapping, yet it doesn't run on my brand new latest, greatest Windows computer. Neither does Encarta 98, or After Dark which still had the receipt in the bag from November 1998 when it first came out.
Yet all three of em will run fine on my 6 year old Mac running at 266mhz.

I've never been the kinda person who's strictly a Mac guy or whatever, but I can definitely see now why Mac users shake their heads in disbelief at everybody buying Windows computers. I've been on this thing all day and most of it's been spent just trying to get it to work. It's like somebody took all of the best Mac features, and added an extra 2 steps to everything.

Schmange, in all seriousness have you got your antivirus / firewall sorted out ?

This is the first thing you want to do or in 3-6 months you HDD will die being chocked full of Trojans from people using your PC as a zombie etc

Also, although it seems really pointless make sure your user account has a password. There used to be the option of bypassing it and it there is dont !! This stops people taking remote control of your PC ant an administrative level !!

This is not such a big deal if you are only on dial up however if you are on broard band, people wont use any lube when they shaft you !

Originally Posted by: schmangeGuess I'm just really suprised that I've got a game here that's only a few years old called Riven 2. It was still sealed in it's original wrapping, yet it doesn't run on my brand new latest, greatest Windows computer. Neither does Encarta 98, or After Dark which still had the receipt in the bag from November 1998 when it first came out.[/QUOTE]

The reason those games don't work is because with XP windows changed from the ol' DOS standard FAT32 file system to NTFS file system. I was very pissed too when I went to play some old game and XP just took a dump and stared back at me.


[QUOTE=Hammurabi]
I guess I'm lucky in that I've never had any problems running any of my old games on winXP (except from windows 3.1).

Last summer I was bored and started digging through my "way back" collection of old video games, and I stumbled upon some old DOS games that I used to play on my 386 back in like 1992. If XP hates WIN95/98 games, it really hates DOS games. Then I had the idea of restarting with an old DOS 5.0 bootdisk that I've had forever. Bam! Problem solved. Give it a shot sometime.

Last summer I was bored and started digging through my "way back" collection of old video games, and I stumbled upon some old DOS games that I used to play on my 386 back in like 1992. If XP hates WIN95/98 games, it really hates DOS games.

I just use DosBox.

Here's some more information on running old games.

Originally Posted by: Dr_simonSchmange, in all seriousness have you got your antivirus / firewall sorted out ?

I'm ok for now. The Windoze computer's not hooked up to the net yet. The cable in our area is so bad that it can't handle 3 tv's and 2 internet connections going at the same time. So I've gotta wait for them to come dig up our street and lay down new lines...hopefully in the next few weeks. (although I've been on their cases about it since I went digital in 2001...hence the reason I have a huge "ROGERS SUCKS!" banner on my website)

Originally Posted by: LeedoggThe reason those games don't work is because with XP windows changed from the ol' DOS standard FAT32 file system to NTFS file system. I was very pissed too when I went to play some old game and XP just took a dump and stared back at me.

I get the feeling that I'll have to reformat the hard drive into 2 partitions and have Windoze 95 on one and XP on the other... if it can even be done.
heh..I've got a whole box full of old dos applications that I kept around figuring one day I'd be able to use them. Guess I waited too long.

re-partition using 95 (load this one first after an HDD reformat) and you should be OK. If you stick XP on first it wont let you reload 95 or 98.

Originally Posted by: schmangeheh..I've got a whole box full of old dos applications that I kept around figuring one day I'd be able to use them. Guess I waited too long.

You shouldn't have too much trouble using them. I have the original civilization, master of magic, master of orion, X-COM: Enemy Unknown and TFTD on my computer (among others).

Originally Posted by: Dr_simonThis is the first thing you want to do or in 3-6 months you HDD will die being chocked full of Trojans from people using your PC as a zombie etc

ZOMBIES!? SWEET!

MUHAHAHAAHAHAH....you cut your own throat did u!

Originally Posted by: HammurabiYou shouldn't have too much trouble using them. I have the original civilization, master of magic, master of orion, X-COM: Enemy Unknown and TFTD on my computer (among others).

ha! I installed Banner Maker v1.0 and tried to use the mouse and it wouldn't work.
Then I realized the mouse hadn't been invented yet. :p

Man, these programs are so old it's like reading Egyptian hieroglyphics.
I've got Key Calendar, Money Monitor and CAD...and The Joy of Cybersex for some reason... and half of these are covered in mouse droppings (a real mouse) so I guess I shouldn't have stored them in the garage.

Ok, what the heck is this? :rolleyes:

The computer won't go into standby mode anymore and keeps giving me this error message...

blah blah... bunch of insignificant numbers...you may have to update your driver.>

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