LiveMusic Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 For a child's computer to play games and learning software and stuff... is a computer that has XP Pro on it okay? I mean, getting software for it, is this a problem at all? Is Pro some kind of a odd OS or not at all? Software that works for XP will work with it? Other Win versions? > > > [ Live! ] < < < Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sp3nc3r Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 The only difference between XP and XP Pro, is the more office friendly code of Pro. Games run just fine on Pro. If a program works on regular XP, chances are 99-1 that it'll work on XP Pro. Cheers! Spencer "I prefer to beat my opponents the old-fashioned way....BRUTALLY!!!!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanmass Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 I'd run 98 instead. Many of the childrens games have display settings of 256 colors. If the PC is already loaded, they will work, but you will probably have to tweak the video mode settings, etc. At the school here, we had a lot of issues when migrating up to XP especially with the stuff liek Reader Rabbit/Winnie the Pooh, Jumpstart, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russrags Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 Hey Live, I just upgraded tp XP-Pro as I bought myself a Christmas present ... Pro Tools So far so good, but I've only got a few programs loaded on that machine, PT, Sound Forge, Roxio. Good to see you back ... where've you been since the Huricaine??? Have a great holiday my friend, Russ http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-russragsdale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiveMusic Posted December 17, 2004 Author Share Posted December 17, 2004 Originally posted by deanmass: I'd run 98 instead. Many of the childrens games have display settings of 256 colors. If the PC is already loaded, they will work, but you will probably have to tweak the video mode settings, etc. At the school here, we had a lot of issues when migrating up to XP especially with the stuff liek Reader Rabbit/Winnie the Pooh, Jumpstart, etc.I don't want to tweak anything. Will the games work but look a bit strange? This would be installing the programs on the machine with the WinXP Pro on there but the programs, we'd buy or get something free off the net to copy to a CDROm and then install. > > > [ Live! ] < < < Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gator Wing Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 I have XP Pro and several video games that my son plays on the PC. In the last 18 months or so we haven't had any problems. There are two theories about arguing with a woman. Neither one works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanmass Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 It depends on the game, but most will error and say 'you must reset you monitor to 256 color mode' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rim Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 You can just set XP itself to 256 color mode so games won't complain about it. OTOH, there may be some games that require a higher color mode so you may have to switch anyway. Depends on the games you have. I have XP Pro at work and it has a compatibility mode where you can set a program's shortcut to run in 256 colors (you can also set it to run in 640x480 resolution - another possible requirement for a kids games). Do this by right-clicking on the shortcut to the program and selecting Properties. Then click on the Compatibility tab and you should see those options (check boxes) in the Display settings area. So you can run XP in whatever mode you like and then just set those properties in the game's shortcut once. Keep in mind these settings are for the shortcut itself - if you had more than one for the same game (say one on the desktop and another in the Start menu) do it on all of them or just have the kids use just the one you have set up. I would be surprised if regular XP doesn't have this feature also - I just don't have access to XP right now to say for sure. In the same Compatibility tab, there is also a drop down box called Compatibility mode so it can try running like Windows 95, for example, so if the Display settings doesn't help, you can also try that. Check the system requirements of the game (usually on the box) to see what OS it should run on. aka riffing Double Post music: Strip Down http://rimspeed.com http://loadedtheband.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 Here is a detailed list of the differences between XP Home and Pro. FWIW, most applications will run the same on both platforms. The major differences are that XP Pro supports multiple processors, domains, and remote desktop where Home does not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanmass Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 The things missing out of home won't effect a game/home pc. The compatability mode is exactly what I was talking about, but in our case, it has not been that simple. We have had to just trial and error each program. Since we have about 35 of them, it was a pain, but we are over it now......I'd say run it if ya got it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theblue1 Posted December 18, 2004 Share Posted December 18, 2004 Originally posted by LiveMusic: Originally posted by deanmass: I'd run 98 instead. Many of the childrens games have display settings of 256 colors. If the PC is already loaded, they will work, but you will probably have to tweak the video mode settings, etc. At the school here, we had a lot of issues when migrating up to XP especially with the stuff liek Reader Rabbit/Winnie the Pooh, Jumpstart, etc.I don't want to tweak anything. Will the games work but look a bit strange? This would be installing the programs on the machine with the WinXP Pro on there but the programs, we'd buy or get something free off the net to copy to a CDROm and then install.If they're really old programs, you might have some issues. But 256 color mode has been deprecated since around the time the last couple of dinosaurs were keeling over. I can't imagine any games that have come out in the last 5 years not being able to deal gracefully with today's computers. (And if they have, shame on the publisher for putting it out and shame on the consumer for not reading the min. requirements -- although most of us are more used to checking to see if our aging machine has enough horsepower -- not that it's 'too advanced.') I recognize we all have our old favorites. But if your otherwise healthy 15 year old has to have a copy of a 1993 version of Reader Rabbit, maybe he's in need of some counselling software... bookmark these: news.google.com | m-w dictionary | wikipedia encyclopedia | Columbia Encyclopedia TK Major / one blue nine | myspace.com/onebluenine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanmass Posted December 18, 2004 Share Posted December 18, 2004 I was referring to the 35+ programs we have in the 4@30 station labs at the elementary schools I work for. Many of them are exactly the same as the ones boxed from 10 + years ago, and do not support higher pallettes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AudioMaverick Posted December 18, 2004 Share Posted December 18, 2004 For what it's worth... Microsoft is enforcing its EULA (End User License Agreement) and dropping support for everything 5 years and older. That encludes Windows 2000, NT4, and all Win9x OSes. Basically, XP-Home & XP-Pro & Server 2003 are the Microsoft OSes that will include security updates in 2005. As for compatibility, XP is relatively easy to set up to run most older applications. It will prompt you on popular programs. On the others, right-click on the application short cut and go through the properties. You'll see this... http://www.audiomaverick.com/image/wxpcompat.jpg "It's all about the... um-m-m, uh-h-h..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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