New Laptop.

[Guest DaveW]

Remember you can't use an upgrade to go from 32bit to 64bit Windows, you have to do a clean install with the full Windows version concerned which means backing everything up, wiping the hard disk, installing 64bit Windows then putting everything back. A computer programmer friend did my upgrade from 32bit to 64bit for me, putting everything on another hard disk before wiping my hard disk, installing Windows 7 64bit (I has 32bit Vista on before) then reinstalling everything from the other hard disk to mine. You can only use upgrades from 32bit to 32bit and from 64bit to 64bit even if the CD you bought has both upgrades on it I believe and only from the same versions, i.e. Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium, or it's the new full program and clean install I think?

Generally speaking you cannot use an upgrade to go from older versions of Windows to the latest if you have missed out any versions in between. You can usually only use an upgrade to go from the previous version. To go from say XP to Windows 8 you would need to do a clean install, buying the full program not the upgrade, just as with going from XP to Windows 7, since you missed out Vista and Windows 7 in between.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7

DaveW

[Barbara]

Windows 7 Enterprise

[Guest DaveW]

I have been using Specky as my spell checker on Internet Explorer 9 on Windows 7 but it suddenly stopped working and removing and reinstalling did not seem to fix it. Looking on the Web I found that IE 10, though it was designed for Windows 8 can be used on Windows 7, plus has a built in spell checker unlike IE 9 and works on both 32bit and 64bit Windows.

In the past Windows Update has informed me if any new version of IE was available for my computer, so I can only think it is no longer doing so after Microsoft's problems with the EU about pre-installing IE and not publicising other browsers are available. Anyway I Installed IE 10, though it takes a bit of time and the screen goes black for a few minutes whilst first installing after it reboots which can be a bit worrying at the time, but once it is installed the spellchecker now works on the fly with all web pages and you can use the right mouse button if you wish to change the spelling.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/downloads/ie-10/worldwide-languages

Looks as if you now have to keep your eyes open for any new IE versions as they don't inform you anymore.

DaveW