JorgeA

How about the instructions given in post #7 from this thread? They sound especially relevant because I'd be doing precisely what he says -- copying to the same disk with the same unchanged partitions. --JorgeA

Yup, that's exactly the order in which they were installed. The only (possible) difference from your description is that XP was factory-installed. The computer came with both XP and Vista disks. There is also a pre-installed D: recovery drive based on XP. --JorgeA

The "dd" method sounds conceptually simpler, thanks. Although I will still implement jaclaz's idea as a precaution, as a CD is "forever" (can't be erased by mistake). An initial Web search for information on the Linux "dd" method led me to TestDisk, which apparently can be used to fix the MBR. Wonder if I could do the XP reinstallation with no preliminary steps, and then use TestDisk as needed. --JorgeA

Thank you very much, jaclaz, this is a great help. The XP partition (C: drive) and the Vista partition (F: drive) each have their own BOOTMGR file. Same size (326 KB) but different dates. Which one should I put on the boot CD that I'd be creating? (I'm guessing the one from the XP partition.) --JorgeA

I need to reinstall or repair-install XP Pro on a multibooting PC that also has Vista Business (32-bit) and Netrunner 12.12 (x64) on it. The booting process appears to be controlled by a version of GRUB that came into existence on my computer when I installed Netrunner (the third OS on the machine). If I reinstall or repair-install XP, will it screw up the MBR such that I'll lose the option to boot into Vista or Netrunner, or can I expect the MBR to be left alone by the XP reinstallation process? Thanks! --JorgeA

Yes, there's that word "Choice", a truly alien concept to both Microsoft and all the sycophantic NeoKids. Good explanation by HP. The only news there to me is that they only have five models with Windows 7. That's not the way they should do it. It should be a selection in a drop-down option box if you ask me. Ed Bott has a table showing the number of Win7 vs. Win8 PC models offered by H-P and Dell on their business sites. No shortage of Win7 choices there, and on the H-P side Windows 7 is king. The catch is that you kind of have to know where to look. --JorgeA

In Microsoft spin news: Chromebooks Take Other Mobile PCs to School So, what was the big news at Microsoft in 2012-2013? Why, the launch of Windows 8 and Surface/Surface RT of course. Unless one's prepared to argue that it would have been even worse without Win8, I don't see how this aspect of their business can be seen as anything but a disaster for Microsoft. [emphasis added] "Momentum," eh? Well, yes -- an airplane that's run out of fuel will fall toward the, um, surface of the planet at an accelerating rate. You could say that's a kind of momentum. --JorgeA EDIT: typo

In privacy news: Microsoft Backs Out of Sponsoring ‘Anti-RSA’ Conference Well, then why not back out of sponsoring the NSA RSA conference? I'm sure if there were a will, there'd be a lawyer to make it happen. Another interesting tidbit from the article: The Holes in Microsoft’s Data Protection Pledge This is going to hit U.S. cloud providers badly. For once, I'm rooting for the corporate lobbyists to win on an issue. Schmidt Says Encryption Will Help Google Penetrate China Only if they come up with strong, easy-to-use end-to-end encryption in combination with a Tor-like network that hasn't been contaminated by spy nodes. --JorgeA

Makes a lot of sense to me. Talk about "nudging" like that guy Limer was talking about. I always did find it "interesting" that MSFT quit support for Gadgets just as they were gearing up to release Win8. In my view it was an attempt to highlight the contrast between what would now be an increasingly "static" Win7 Desktop, and the "dynamic" (epileptic seizure-inducing) Metro Tiles with stuff constantly scrolling and blinking. --JorgeA

Considering that it's a retreat from the tile model they've been pusing, I think we can argue that it means they're admitting that it's at least a half-failure... --JorgeA

Seeing how he hits all the common memes, this author should apply for a job at NeoWin ( if his self-photo is accurate he is about the right age for the NeoKids ). The replies are great as he gets skewered for his accidental or intentional shilling. One of his replies back is: "The issue isn't HP giving the people what they want; it's HP setting the whole thing up in a way that nudges undecideds toward the dying OS instead of the one that's going to survive, whether they've expressed any preference or not.". I find that funny because using the term "dying" is so misplaced. Maybe Windows 7 is on death-row slated for planned execution, in that case it would be a victim of murder. Normally that is "dying" but condemned. "Dying" is usually reserved for something about to die from inevitability, perhaps natural causes like old age, perhaps a self-inflicted wound like suicide. That word seems better applied to Windows 8 if you ask me. Or maybe a better description is stillborn. Regardless, Microsoft Tiles is now about 4 years old since conception during the introduction of the iPad, which ironically was the age of Windows 7 just last year when it finally became clear that Microsoft was obsolescing it prematurely ( no more sales, apparently no more service packs ). Therefore isn't time for change? Shouldn't MetroTards now step aside and embrace the future? This Eric Limer has got his logic backward. "The future" isn't set in stone, otherwise the Thousand-Year Reich in Germany would still be standing and the Proletarian Revolution would still be spreading out of Russia to an ever-growing list of countries. "The future" is the unpredictable outcome of an unimaginably complex set of factors, in the case of Windows involving the push-and-pull, give-and-take of Microsoft, the press, and most importantly their respective customers and readers. One may push for or root for specific outcomes, but to proclaim a particular outcome as "the future" is baseless and idi0tic. For all we know, it'll be Windows 8 that turns out to be the dead end and the future -- like both the past and the present -- really is the Desktop as currently represented by Windows 7, Vista, and XP. Hewlett-Packard did not suddenly decide to paddle upstream by switching its promotions to Windows 7 -- why would they prefer to lose sales by forever ignoring customer preferences? More likely, what happened is that at first they thought that Win8, backed by the vast resources of Microsoft, would meet with widespread enthusiastic approval and so, like all other PC vendors, they offered it; but then as the sales figures came in, they eventually realized that Win8 was a loser and so they opted to switch back to a proven sales performer like Win7. It's Windows 8 that's paddling upstream, not Windows 7. So my take on it is that H-P isn't "fighting against the future" or "clinging to the old guard," as Limer puts it -- rather, they saw the handwriting on the wall and adjusted accordingly. --JorgeA

In privacy news: Some Tor exit nodes attempt to spy on encrypted traffic, researchers find Why Germany Feels Strongly About NSA Surveillance --JorgeA

A trio of reports/rumors/speculation about Windows 9: From the rumor mill: Windows 9 RTM may be ready in October 2014 That would have the newest OS coming out just two years after the previous version -- quite a speedup over the usual 3-year cycle. For a possible reason, check out the next piece: Windows 9 to not fundamentally change OS, be more like Windows 8.1 instead? Still, if the rest of this report is accurate, we may be in for a disappointment. It'll depend largely on what that "Mini Start Menu" actually turns out to be. Meanwhile, one of the improvements said to be coming in Win9 seems to have been moved up: Modern apps can be pinned to taskbar in latest Windows 8.1 Update 1 builds --JorgeA EDIT: Mary Jo Foley reports doubts over that October 2014 date for Windows 9:

Well, I for one found it pretty funny... --JorgeA

Strange -- I went on my main PC to visit this thread (from an e-mail notification, which is working again), and page loading was slow as molasses. Blank browser window, saying "Connecting..." up in the tab. After a while of this I went to another PC and tried to go to MSFN, and I received the dreaded "An error occurred with the SQL server" message with the red background. Then, within a second, MSFN finally finished loading on the first PC. --JorgeA

This news item sent chills up my spine: Ukraine’s Opposition Accuses Government of Provoking Violence [emphasis added!!} Some details: So, what we've been predicting is already starting to happen. The obvious implication is that somehow the government can determine who's participating in the protest. Fortunately, in this case at least -- To those who would dismiss this with talk of tinfoil hats, there's a more appropriate image applicable to them: (source) --JorgeA

FWIW, H-P stock went up a little today (there was no trading yesterday as it was a holiday) in the wake of their return to selling Windows 7 PCs. --JorgeA

From reading around the ReactOS forum, I get the impression that their idea is to use this Thorium Core cloud OS to support (finance) development of the desktop ReactOS. With regard to future plans for ReactOS relative to Thorium, this is the most relevant thread I've found on their forum. Well worth reading for anybody who has the slightest interest in a compatible alternative to Windows. Here's one thread participant whose thinking jibes with mine: I'd be one of those people. I may end up sending a little $$$ their way after all. --JorgeA

That sure is disappointing. If I'd heard that they launched a Kickstarter project for a Windows replacement that works exclusively from my PC, I'd be very tempted to send them money. (I always did hesitate to send it directly to them, not knowing if they'd ever do anything with it, but being on Kickstarter leaves them open to public exposure if they fail to deliver.) --JorgeA

Yeah, he had the right idea! BTW, this is weird, but -- I don't remember at all attaching the map of silly state laws to my post. --JorgeA

For those who think they "haven't done anything wrong" and so they have nothing to worry about when it comes to official surveillance: You May Think You Have Nothing to Hide … But You Are Still Breaking Laws Which Government Spying Could Discover and Use Against You NSA snooping DOES concern you. --JorgeA

The author of this article credits someone in their forums here who apparently posted the HP advertisemnt yesterday evening, so I guess he had it first. Pretty tame thread so far with but a couple of lectures from NeoKids on how their toys are better than ours. The news about H-P made it to CNN Money, where there is (was) a link to this story: HP Leads the Charge Back to Windows 7 In turn, that brief item links to The Verge, which has become aware of this development (and they show pretty much our same image): HP brings back Windows 7 'by popular demand' [emphasis added] Surprisingly, the discussion there has been relatively sedate. Maybe the Win8 fans are in shock. --JorgeA

Thanks a bunch for the info! I managed to open an account. We'll see how easy/hard it is to use next time I have an image to upload... --JorgeA

Cool -- very nice! Maybe I should look into registering/subscribing to that Web service. Anything else we need to do to get them to see it, or do we just need to let nature take its course? --JorgeA

I just checked. The e-mail circular does contain a "webview" link at the top which goes to a Web page showing the same image. But, like the e-mail, the page shows private information (my e-mail address) toward the end: I'm not sure if that Web page exists outside of e-mails or dedicated pages for H-P customers. There's a long string of characters in the second half of the URL, which undoubtedly are used to identify the recipient; changing them leads to an error when trying to reload the page. The image I uploaded is from a screenshot that I took of the e-mail, then cropped to show the important stuff (and to leave out the private info). --JorgeA