3 Questions, Networking, RAM, and OS

[Vinyl Scratch]

I have a couple questions-

1. I'm thinking of upgrading from Windows 7 to Linux. Should I ditch W7 altogether after installing Ubuntu, or would it be better to keep it in case I encounter any compatibility issues? Will I have enough space on my hdd to dual boot? It's 74.5gb, and 15.5gb is available.

My main reasons for wanting to get rid of W7 are as follows:

I hate that Microsoft is alienating their long-term users. In Windows XP, you were allowed to change, delete, customize, or do pretty much anything you wanted to. Now, power-users, are blocked by the ridiculous TrustedInstaller, because apparently we need to be babysitted by a program to make sure we don't mess up our pc's. Another thing, minor to most but major to me- you can only have one set of speakers plugged in at once, the only workaround is a y-splitter. It also seems slower than XP on the same pc even with more RAM.

The ribbon interface. It's almost disgustingly bare of features. I've memorized the hotkeys for everything, but MS removed a lot of them. The last thing I needed was more mouse clicks to get to the same things I could access in 2 seconds. They don't even have the option to use the old menu system. Microsoft has even said they're not going back, despite this poll proving that for every 550 people who like it, there are at least 1091 that don't. A great example of the ribbon destroying an otherwise good program would be MSPaint. Everybody loved MSPaint back in XP, it was a joy to use, and pixel art was 50X easier on it than it was in Photoshop. Then MS came in with the ribbon, trying to turn Paint into Photoshop, while making the interface less power-user friendly and removing/making it harder to access certain features.

This one ties into my second question- It keeps dropping my internet connection, and i have to manually restart the pc to restore a connection.

2. As it keeps dropping my signal, I want to see if it's a problem with the signal strength, my wireless card, or it really is Windows. Does anybody know where I can get a good wireless bridge, or something to extend the range for preferably under $25?

3. I've bought new RAM recently, but it doesn't work. It fits, the motherboard recognizes it, and when I go into the bios, it says it's there too. However, Windows 7 refuses to boot with it in, leaving me with a blue screen of death as soon as it reaches the startup screen. I'll try to take a picture of it soon if somebody would like to take a look at it.


Thanks for your time reading this (admittedly long) post, and I hope you have some answers.

 

[DQuaN]

1, You don't have enough room for dual boot (well you do, but you wouldn't have enough space for anything else!). Have you tried freeing up space on your HDD? Tools like CCleaner and Defragler free up a lot.

As for Win7, I much prefer it to XP. When you say TrustedInstaller do you mean UAC? Because that can be disabled.

2, How far away is your wireless router? Sometimes just reorientating it and adjusting the antenna can make a world of difference. Also positioning the receiver (if possible) on your PC can help.

3, It may fit in the slot but the timings/speed may not be compatible with your motherboard. Can you post the Motherboard model, your existing RAM specs, and your new RAM specs?

 

[CMvan46]

1. You seem to just hate Microsoft because most of your arguments are irrelevant and can be easily worked around by any "power user" or even me who I wouldn't say is a power user... As Dunc said you don't have room for much of anything if you dual boot. Definately need an upgrade in size if you were to do that.

2. I have 3 computers using wireless connections between my girlfriend and myself, all with windows and all without issue connecting to Wifi. No idea what could extend the range but if it's the stock router from your ISP and it's old you can call and ask for an upgrade which is usually free.

3. Again your so quick to blame Windows for everything.... More than likely has absolutely nothing to do with Windows. As Dunc said it's likely not compatible or possibly even faulty ram. I tend to agree with Dunc its probably not compatible with your motherboard.

 

[BobK]

If your RAM is in any way flakey you're going to have more of a problem with linux than with Windows. I'd suggest memtest86 to check it out.

My guess (and I emphasize "guess") would be that Windows has little or nothing to do with your WiFi problem.

My debian installation is using about 9 or 10 gigabytes of disk space not counting the /home directory. It'll take you no time at all to accumulate another 5GB of crap, believe me. So no, you don't really have enough disk space with your existing setup.

 

[tlowr4]

Suggestion: If you just want to fiddle with Linux and aren't going to do anything majorly important on it, see if you can pick up a cheap second hand 80 gig drive, drop it in, and use the entire partition as Linux. Then when you boot up, just force the system to boot from your second drive for Linux or your first drive for Windows.

 

[sesselpupser]

I'd recommend not wasting money on an 80GB drive and just buy a properly big one to begin with. If your foray into Linux fails then you have a second drive for Windows, if it succeeds then you'll be able to use it as an actual computer and not just a sort of experiment. I made this mistake with Windows 7, I installed it on a 160GB partition, soon installed it again on a 320GB drive, then just scrapped that completely and moved to a 128GB SSD with a 2TB storage drive. I already had the 320GB and 2TB drives, though, but you know. I suppose it's unlikely you'll have a 200 game Steam library on your Linux install though so 320GB would do for some time, I haven't checked the price of smaller hard drives lately but 320GB can't be more than £30, surely?

Then again, 80GB would be really cheap, if you can even find such small drives now. Then again we held an audit of the computers in our lab today and one of them had a 4.3GB drive and the largest was 40GB, so they might still be common...

 

[DQuaN]

Remember that with Ubuntu you can just run it off the CD temporarily. You can test it out and see how it works for you.

 

[tuga703]

I would say you should have at least a 160GB hard drive to dual boot. neema_t is right and you should upgrade to something bigger because the price difference isn't that big. I bought a 500GB hard drive yesterday for just £30.

If you do dual boot may I suggest that you do what I did on my laptop (160gb) and have 3 partitions + swap. I have a partition for windows (NTFS), a shared data partition (EXT3), a partition for Ubuntu (EXT3) and a swap partition double the size of your RAM.
I also set /home to the shared data partition so if I formatted Ubuntu I would still have all my data in the larger shared partition.
Finally you have to install a driver in windows so you can access the shared data and Ubuntu partitions. Alternatively you could format the shared data partition to NTFS which makes sure you will not have any issues with accessing and using the files in windows and just have a larger Ubuntu partition with /home.

I doubt that the problem with your WiFi is to do with Windows but as DQuaN has said you could test using the LiveCD and if you are happy with the results install it.

The RAM problem is most likely down to compatibility with the motherboard, if you are using two different sticks of RAM as dual channel that may also create problems.

 

[Vinyl Scratch]

(I don't hate MS, I hate their actions. They were fine by me when I used XP.)

TrustedInstaller is considered to be its own entity like SYSTEM or Administrators, if you try to go delete something like Internet Explorer it'll pop up saying you need permission from TrustedInstaller, which can't be disabled.

The router's at the other end of the house, (not that far, maybe 40 feet) the main problem is that it's one of those fancy kinds that doesn't have an antenna, so I can't do the coke can trick to aim the signal towards the rest of the house, nor can i replace the antenna with a high gain antenna.

I'll get back with the RAM and motherboard specs, I don't know them right away.

 

[DQuaN]

TrustedInstaller is considered to be its own entity like SYSTEM or Administrators, if you try to go delete something like Internet Explorer it'll pop up saying you need permission from TrustedInstaller, which can't be disabled.

It can't be disabled as a whole but if you take ownership of a folder it will be disabled for everything within that folder.

 

[bergauk]

(I don't hate MS, I hate their actions. They were fine by me when I used XP.)

TrustedInstaller is considered to be its own entity like SYSTEM or Administrators, if you try to go delete something like Internet Explorer it'll pop up saying you need permission from TrustedInstaller, which can't be disabled.

The router's at the other end of the house, (not that far, maybe 40 feet) the main problem is that it's one of those fancy kinds that doesn't have an antenna, so I can't do the coke can trick to aim the signal towards the rest of the house, nor can i replace the antenna with a high gain antenna.

I'll get back with the RAM and motherboard specs, I don't know them right away.

What kind of complete idiot would try to delete internet explorer? It's somewhat essential to the operation of any windows computer..

http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/windows-7-how-to-delete-files-protected-by-trustedinstaller/

Your first gripe no longer matters.

Now onto number two, get a better bridge, or get a better CARD for your computer. Not a dongle. an actual card, with actual antennas. And if you already have a card with antenna's, build one of these.http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template/

Problem solved, onto the last one.

Assuming you have a hand built computer that you made, you should be able to look at the motherboard manufacturers supported ram list and buy one of those. If not, www.Crucial.com should be able to give you the right stuff for a reasonable price, or at least tell you what you should be looking for.