Computers

Windows 7 and Dreamweaver MX
Last Christmas (2010) I decided to take advantage of a special rate for a Windows 7 upgrade. I was seriously thinking about replacing my Dell Dimension 5100 which had given good service for nearly 10 years and I thought it was time for a change. It was running Windows XP and it was annoying waiting for updates to the XP operating system nearly every day. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that Microsoft are doing it deliberately so that any remaining XP users get fed up and upgarde to Windows 7! The system was also running annoyingly slowly (maybe due to those updates!).

It was very simple to upgrade from XP to Windows 7. Microsoft provide a compatibility checker that looks at all your software and hardware and tells you what needs updating or new drivers. I just followed the instructions and saved the compatibility list for later use.

The next task was to run the file transfer program supplied by Microsoft. I regularly back up my hard disk anyway so this was a belt and braces task. I only have a 160GB hard drive on the Dell so it didn't take long. I specified a 1TB external hard drive so there was plenty of room!

Next is the big step of upgrading from XP to Windows 7 (scary) but I did it and am very glad that I did. Windows 7 certainly is the best operating system that Microsoft have developed so far - Everyone should do this!!!

All of my old XP programs have re-installed OK on Windows 7 except for my old Dreamweaver MX program. I really didn't want to pay out £1100 for CS! When I tried to install MX studio it installed Fireworks and Freehand OK but just froze when trying to install Dreamweaver. I decided to install the XP mode software on Windows 7. This runs a virtual machine and is also starightforward to set up. Dreamweaver MX would still not install!!

I did some googling but could find no sensible solution. I decided to use th browse feature on the installation disk and found the Dreamweaver install file in the FS folder. I ran it directly form the disk and "voila" it installed and everything is working fine! I had to do the same with Fireworks.

I am very pleased with Windows 7, so far. It even sorted out some incompatibilty with my old Paintshop Pro package automatically.