Recently, I've been suffering from some dizziness while working on the computer. I learned that I had problems with my neck, which resulted from using a laptop too much. In order to build an ergonomic solution, I decided that I should move to a desktop system. The positioning of the keyboard and monitor would help fix most of my problems.

After going online to HP and Teranet to verify compatibility with my existing hardware and software, I decided to take the plunge. I purchased an Intel dual-core system with 4 GB of RAM, 500 GB HD, 22" wide screen LCD and lightscribe DVD writer. It also came with Windows Vista SP1, which, as it turns out, was the underlying problem.

After receiving and setting up the system, I attempted to get printing working with my HP printer on my network. That didn't work right away. I forgot that HP stops supporting older hardware once a new operating system comes out. Their solution was to downgrade the driver being used on the network to a now non-existent version, which I somehow managed to find.

While waiting for the older drivers to download, I decided to install Teraview, the property registration and search software for Ontario. On installation, it kept reporting an error and would promptly uninstall itself. A call into technical support found that while the software was supposedly Vista compatible, it did not support 64-bit iterations of the operating system. I told them it was ridiculous that they do not provide support for 64-bit versions since it is almost impossible to buy a new computer that does not rely on a 64-bit version of Vista, especially when it has been out for almost 2 years now.

I came up with two work-arounds. The first involved downgrading the entire operating system to Windows XP, but some people on the Internet reported that they were unable to find the proper drivers to get the hardware working fully under Windows XP, including the network card, which was mandatory for me. I would also need to buy a licence for Windows XP, which was almost the same price as the desktop computer itself.

The second method involved installing Virtual PC 2007 and running Windows XP in a virtual memory space concurrent with Vista. Besides also having to purchase the licence for Windows XP, the software only allows XP to run using one processing core, meaning that I lose about half my computing power.

Real estate lawyers are forced to continue to work in the stone age. I cannot easily purchase a new computer without severe limitations. In addition to having to use Windows XP, many of us are forced to continue to use floppy disk drives, which are no longer available on most computers. There is no reason other than laziness why software vendors cannot either ensure backwards compatibility or update their software. Microsoft did a reasonably good job when moving from Windows 3.1 (16-bit) to Windows 95 (32-bit) and Windows 98/ME to Windows XP (has a feature to emulate running in older versions of Windows), so why suddenly stop?

So thanks to these guys, I've now got a new computer sitting around doing nothing. If anybody is interested, they can take it off my hands for $650.

        

 

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