New laptop

[raybo]

Well, I finally bit the bullet and bought a new laptop. This one is a quad-core 64 bit with Windows 8.1. (Acer 15.6", Intel processor , 4 GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, DVD)

I know it will take a while to get used to 8.1, but I can handle that. My question is, since it is 64 bit, can I install and run Office XP (2002) on this system? I have had an Office XP distributors disc forever and would like to install it on this new laptop, for free.

[Robert Goren]

I never got that version of Excel to work on my windows 7 64 bit system. I broke down and got office 2010. I plan on trying to install office 2010 on my new 8.1 PC latter. Got my fingers crossed. Office 365 is getting pretty cheap, so I figure a new office suite can not be too far behind.

[raybo]

I never got that version of Excel to work on my windows 7 64 bit system. I broke down and got office 2010. I plan on trying to install office 2010 on my new 8.1 PC latter. Got my fingers crossed. Office 365 is getting pretty cheap, so I figure a new office suite can not be too far behind.

I have Excel 2002 and 2010 on my desktop PC but I borrowed an install of Office 2010 from a friend, so I don't have a disc for it. Excel 2002 is all I need on the new laptop, so that's why I posed the question about it running on a 64 bit system.

I really like the speed of pre-2007 versions of Excel versus the much slower post-2003 versions. My Excel handicapping workbooks contain about 30 MBs of data, formulas, formatting, and macros and take about 3 times as long to run on those newer versions compared to my Excel 2002 version.

[raybo]

Looks like the 64 bit thing won't be a problem, but you must have the Professional version of Office 2002 in order to run on Win 8 and 8.1. I don't think my disc is the Pro version, so I may be out of luck. Office 2002 is not compatible with Win 7 at all.

[raybo]

I gave up on running Excel 2002 on the Win 8.1 system, and got Office 2013 (for free online - shhhhh). It's not nearly as fast as 2002 but I'll just have to do all my time intensive track testing on the desktop and just use the laptop for daily play when away from home. I will also use it at home as an additional monitor, and as a backup for my track workbooks and files, in case the desktop crashes. It'll be nice to take it to my regular coffee shop (with free WIFI) at night and mess with my program (I'm turning into a big coffee shop guy as I get older, no set hours so sometimes I'll be sitting there til 1 or 2 in the morning, something to do, and get out of the house for a while :cool: ). McAfee came on the laptop and that is a real pain, constantly updating, with popups saying to reboot for the installs. Thinking about uninstalling it and getting AVG free, anybody recommend a better antivirus?

[DeltaLover]

I gave up on running Excel 2002 on the Win 8.1 system, and got Office 2013 (for free online - shhhhh). It's not nearly as fast as 2002 but I'll just have to do all my time intensive track testing on the desktop and just use the laptop for daily play when away from home. I will also use it at home as an additional monitor, and as a backup for my track workbooks and files, in case the desktop crashes. It'll be nice to take it to my regular coffee shop (with free WIFI) at night and mess with my program (I'm turning into a big coffee shop guy as I get older, no set hours so sometimes I'll be sitting there til 1 or 2 in the morning, something to do, and get out of the house for a while :cool: ). McAfee came on the laptop and that is a real pain, constantly updating, with popups saying to reboot for the installs. Thinking about uninstalling it and getting AVG free, anybody recommend a better antivirus?

4Gig is kind of small for a 64-bit OS.. You should consider upgrading to at least 8 or more, so you can see a lot of benefit in the behaviour of your box..

[FocusWiz]

The biggest issue I have with Excel 2013 is that, by default when it opens Excel, it opens it within any currently open instance rather than building a new instance.

Since I often have 4 to 8 instances open simultaneously (so that the macros in one spreadsheet won't interfere with another), this is a royal pain.

The way around this (if you don't like the default behavior) is to hold down the [Alt] key when clicking on the Excel icon. It will ask you if you want to open a new instance. In order to actually open a new instance, you must keep that [Alt] key depressed and click on "Yes" and still keep that [Alt] key depressed until this new Excel instance opens.

If you don't typically run multiple Excel instances, you are not likely to even notice this paradigm change.

YMMV

[raybo]

4Gig is kind of small for a 64-bit OS.. You should consider upgrading to at least 8 or more, so you can see a lot of benefit in the behaviour of your box..

Yeah, that was a concession I made for the low price (plus there is no CD ROM drive either). Adding 2 to 4 more gigs of RAM shouldn't be too tough to do, or too expensive. I've ordered a wireless mouse for it too, I hate those dang touch pads!

Win 8.1 is not nearly as weird as I first thought, I just use the desktop view for everything I do, so it's very similar to Vista in XP classic mode. Need to learn how to add and remove programs from my start menu though. Box Sync needs to run automatically on bootup. Right now I am using a shortcut to that app from the desktop. Came with IE also, thought I'd give it a chance again (quit using that years ago), but after a very short while I got Chrome and am happy again. IE pretty much sucks.

[raybo]

The biggest issue I have with Excel 2013 is that, by default when it opens Excel, it opens it within any currently open instance rather than building a new instance.

Since I often have 4 to 8 instances open simultaneously (so that the macros in one spreadsheet won't interfere with another), this is a royal pain.

The way around this (if you don't like the default behavior) is to hold down the [Alt] key when clicking on the Excel icon. It will ask you if you want to open a new instance. In order to actually open a new instance, you must keep that [Alt] key depressed and click on "Yes" and still keep that [Alt] key depressed until this new Excel instance opens.

If you don't typically run multiple Excel instances, you are not likely to even notice this paradigm change.

YMMV

Thanks! I haven't tried it yet but I run multiple track workbooks all the time in daily play mode, so this is good to know! :ThmbUp: :ThmbUp:

[FocusWiz]

Actually, please note that I should have said that you need to Right-Click while holding the [Alt] key to get the prompt to open a new instance.

Have fun with the new machine!

[Dave Schwartz]

Raybo,

About getting used to Win 8.1.

Get your start menu and desktop back for $5! (http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/)

[raybo]

Raybo,

About getting used to Win 8.1.

Get your start menu and desktop back for $5! (http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/)

Thanks Dave! I may try the 30 day trial and see what I think.

I've got basically a Win Vista desktop now, just have to right click the Windows icon in the bottom left corner and a pretty standard popup happens, with many of the same options that Vista has.