[Dxbase] DXBase Survives Upgrade from XP to Windows 7

Mon Feb 11 09:47:55 EST 2013

I've dreaded the inevitable upgrade form XP to Win 7 (and is despise 
the user interface on Win 8). XP is stable, does what I want and is a 
known quantity -- I've gotten passably good at dealing with it over 
the years. I've learned how to repair XP installations in-place 
using what I've heard called "the hat trick," and so I've been happy. 
I don't like upgrading the OS: it's always dicey. Years ago, I 
started out running NT and used the option Microsoft offered that 
allowed in-place upgrades. I went from NT to 2000 and then to XP, all 
in place. I've always had backups and cloned disks available, just 
in case anything went badly, but I was always careful and it always 
went well. I've had everything set up just like I wanted it for years 
and so keeping it that way is a big time-saver. Besides, I have some 
applications I like but for which the media was long ago lost -- like 
the Eudora 7.1 mail client that I'm using now.
Alas, all good things come to an end and so it is with XP. WHen 
support and hot fixes end, the system will slowly become vulnerable 
and, sooner or later, any new applications won't run under it. But, I 
really didn't want to reinstall everything, especially since I can't 
because I no longer have the media (or a floppy drive :). So, I 
decided to try a program one of the IT guys told me about at work 
called PCMover.
I've always kept my application installations on a separate partition 
(in the old days, it was a separate disk), so I figured I'm set up to 
avoid some of the gotchas in Win 7. With some of my IT friend's help, 
I had successfully migrated form XP to Win 7 (64) at work, so I 
figured there was a good chance I could do this at home. Becuase my 
system has a traceable history back to NT, there were some subtleties 
to handle (the system was partially in C:\WINNT not completely in C:\Windows).
The process consists mainly of manipulating registry entries and goes 
pretty fast (I used the "PCMover Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant"). I 
even recovered (mostly) my desktop configuration! The test was to see 
if DXBase made it and I'm happy to say it did! It had lost all prior 
references to my data base, but I copied those form my still-extant 
XP system (booted from a separate disk) and, sure enough, DXBase is 
fine (I'm running 2007 v1.09).
But some other non-DXBase necessities needed attention. For example, 
all of the USB-to-RS232 devices needed driver updates, including a 
PCIe to high speed serial card I have. Once the new drivers were 
installed I re-set all of my COM port numbers and speeds for my 
various ham-related programs and devices and I was done. Of course, I 
also reinstalled various other drivers for my graphics card and 
motherboard, and I have yet to reinstall my Silex wireless printer 
server on this system, but everything else seems to work fine.
I have no interest of any kind in PCMover or LapLink; I'm simply a 
satisfied customer. It's not perfect and it's not seamless, but it 
did what I wanted, both here at home and at work. I wouldn't 
recommend it if you're not comfortable digging about your operating 
system. If you're conversant with XP, WIn 7 isn't all that different 
and if you ant to retain your current installed programs, I recommend 
you give it a try. Of course, keep a clone (not merely a backup) of 
your current system so you can immediately go back to what works if 
anything goes wrong or need time for extended fiddling with the new OS.
73,
N5OP