PC Doctor House Calls

Ed Sterling
"PC Doctor"
 

Providing onsite computer care for metro-west "495" area of Massachusetts

Are you looking for someone you can trust to come into your home or business?
 
A mature individual trusted by police departments to handle their servers and data?
A former Army captain with a top-secret clearance who worked for the NSA?
Please consider the services of PC Doctor Ed Sterling


"I hate Windows Vista, can you install XP instead for me?"

So you purchased a new PC but when you got it home and set it up, it had this new Vista operating system on it that was significantly different than Windows 98/ME/2000/XP. It's a pain because you learned to do things in a certain way and you hate spending a lot of extra time fighting the computer. It seems like everything has changed, all the familiar names have changed, things are in different places than before, and you keep getting pestered CONSTANTLY by the computer warning you about security, and "are you really sure" you want to do this and that. You're angry!

Yes, "I have been there and done that." I have heard the complaints. And I have been asked to "get this garbage off the computer and install Windows XP" several times. The problem is, the success rate of doing that is actually low.

Why would that be? Well, it turns out that it's easy enough to "wipe out the (Vista) disk" and start from scratch, loading on Windows 2000 or Windows XP. But then the real hurdles are the drivers, which are the device specific software modules that allow Windows to talk to the network, the sound system, the CD player, and the USB attachments. I have encountered several (obviously brand new) computers for which NO DRIVERS exist for the older Windows !!! Therefore, after loading and starting up Windows 2000 or XP, there is no sound, no wireless connection, the video quality is poor and the letters on the screen are very large. This is because the proper "drivers" for those devices do not exist, and probably will never exist.

Why would these "drivers" not be available? The reason is that many of the new computers that you might purchase have complex computer "chip sets" in them that are just off the production lines. No one is going to "go backwards" and spend time writing "old Windows" software for these new chips. It's just as if someone wanted to put pollution and emission controls on a nice 1955 Chevy.... a nice idea for the environment but economically it's just not worth it. And for computers, Microsoft certainly does NOT want to encourage any PC maker to spend time making that new computer "backwards compatible".

I would be happy to attempt to convert your Vista computer back to Windows 2000 or Windows XP, with the understanding that you will provide me with a legal copy of Windows 2000 or Windows XP (so no, I don't have "extra" copies lying around to illegally copy for you, nor will I use illegal $25 copies of XP obtained on the Internet). I will do this work on an hourly rate basis,  with your understanding that not all devices may work because I may not be able to find drivers for those devices. I must tell you, so far, the success rate has not been very good, unfortunately. "I feel your pain!"


Call Ed Sterling at 978-779-6058 from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. 
Or Email: ed@EdSterling.com
(There is no charge for a brief assessment of your computer problem)

Click here to return to the home page