Bank genie and windows 8

[roiphil]

Ok so support and updates for xp is coming to an end  , so my options are to keep xp or upgrade the pc to windows 8, i have done the check to see if its possible and it is, some items like adobe i have to reinstall but thats not a problem, but is bank genie compatible with w8, will i run into any problems, i can backup then restore if i have to as i keep it on dropbox so as i can use bg on my laptop aswell, any advise thanks phil

[NightHawk]

Nice to see you back on the Forum again Phil 

I knew about the demise of XP, so I sympathise for you, but I can't advise you on Bank Genie with Windows 8 as I only run Win 7.

However, the best guy to advise is George and he is returning home from his hols in USA today.  So give him a bit of time to get settled and no doubt he'll get back onto the Forum again and tell you what you need to know 

[AnthonyM]

I'm running Bank Genie Pro on Windows 8.1 with no problems prior to this I was running it on Windows 8 following an upgrade from Windows 7.

[roiphil]

Thanks for replies, yes i have been rather busy of late with the xmas trees, thanks for info AnthonyM i think the hardest part will be updateing the pc, me and technical stuff like this dont mix to well, i may get my pc guru in to do it for me, will wait on george to respond first though, there is no great rush anyway

[ideasguy]

Hi all - We have returned safely.
We flew over Cork this morning shortly after 7am, Phil. Unfortunately, there was so much cloud that we didn't see any of your part of our green isle (Ireland). Our journey took us to London, then back to Dublin. We saw the smog problem. When we arrived home we were alarmed at the density of the smog which had made its way here. Visibility was not good!

Thanks to Laurie and Anthony for responding to your query.
As Anthony has stated, Bank Genie works fine on W8, and of course so will Ideas Genie.
Let me know by email when you are ready to install on your upgraded hardware.

[NightHawk]

Welcome back George.

It's been very quiet anyway, you can take the reins back again 

[roiphil]

welcome back george, didnt even know you was away  sorry  i have been away and busy and stuff, will email you later, i will let you know when i do the upgrade, what is anyone elses thoughts on it is it worth going from xp to w8, apart from no updates etc for xp, phil

[Eric Hardy]

Anthea and I hope you and Mary had a wonderful holiday. The dreadful smog hasn't reached here but the sky has been VERY overcast for three days. There is just a little hint of things lightening this morning. The coming of Spring has been beautiful and you are back in time to savour it 

Eric H

[barryl]

Welcome back George. I did not know about the smog either as we are in Italy for a week!

Phil: I have just migrated from WinXP to Win7 (32 bit as it happens). I found a very useful tool called "Pcmove" which will recreate your old desktop from a stored copy (in windows.old) of your current system. I have used this on my three winXP systems and can thoroughly recommend it. Some things need reinstalling but by and large (and including Bank Genie) the migrated system just runs.

I bought Win7 a little while back as I did not like the sound of Win8. It can still be bought OEM (Ebay and the like).

[ideasguy]

Thank you Barry.
We've had rain overnight so hopefully that will clear the air.

Thanks for the advice about migration. That should be useful for those making the switch.

[roiphil]

thanks for the tip barry, still looking into  it all yet

[barryl]

Phil

If you want to use PCmover I can email you the Zip file. You will still have to buy a licence but it prompts you for that. TIP: do not use the licence while still in XP. You can do a trial install to see how to do it quite safely, and even buy the license (comes as an email) but dont quote the licence or else you will have to get another one when you want to use it for real! I fell into this trap!

I still thoroughly recommend it as it has saved me a lot of hassle.

[roiphil]

Barry, please do i will pm you my email, on my brief look at upgrading to windows 8 there appears to be a tool that does it all for you, i could be wrong the further you go into it, i have found out what driver, programes are compatible and the ones i would need to update, all fun and games phil

[barryl]

I think that the standard Windows migrate option only works on win7 and higher. I seem to recall noticing that microsoft are "selling" pcmover so it might be the same thing.

[bodger999]

Hi everyone - I'm a 'lurker' who, until now anyway, only George knew! (My name's Mike BTW.)

Phil - reading  this thread has made me 'come out' because hopefully I might be able to help you a lot by relating my experience because it's IDENTICAL to you!

Like you, I was pretty wary of Win 8 too, having been an XP man for years. Like you, I looked into upgrading my existing machine. In my experience though, I'd seriously think about getting a new computer if you can afford it. Older computers just can't take the RAM you really need. They say 'a minimum of 4 GB but Win 8.1 is far better with much more – probably at least 8 GB.

In Jan, I got a new PC with Win 8.1 installed. + believe me, it's great - it's so much quicker. In fact, today, I've installed an update that makes it work even better. Forget all the horror stories about Win 8 – Microsoft made the whole thing a lot more user friendly for people like us in the Win 8.1 upgrade. Forget the Start screens etc. too as you don't have to bother using them – I haven't. You can boot straight to a desktop + use your new machine just like you're used to except everything is much quicker.

I was using MS Money on my old machine. I got Bank Genie Pro and it works perfectly with Win 8.1 and I'm using 64-bit. I imported all the data from MS Money + off I went.

[roiphil]

Hi Mike and welcome, thank you for your input much appreciated, to be honest i didnt think about the RAM needed, i need to look at what i have on this pc, i could be better off buying a new one, this one isnt old well about 6 years at a guess, but it serves my needs but i also like to keep it clean and up to date and so forth, the prices of new ones these days is nothing really, and if you go to somewhere like harvey norman and say cash you always get discount,

i used to use ms money aswell until i switched to bg

phil

[bodger999]

Roiphil,

If you can afford another PC, I'd advise you to get one. It's a pain I know, but you'll be amazed at the difference. Just like you, my old PC is 6 yrs. old + suited me but 6 years in computerland is a lifetime!

Mike

[barryl]

It's off topic for BG! but .. I would suspect the increase in speed is because you are on 64bit. If you stick to 32bit (for compatinility reasons perhaps) the RAM is limited to (most of) 4Gb.

[ideasguy]

Good to see you posting Mike - you are very welcome.

Its probably a good topic for the Computers section, I agree, but since the discussion has started and the original query has been answered, we'll let in continue.

Good info there Barry, thanks.

I suspect an older computer with XP would struggle with being upgraded to W7 or W8.
My oldie struggled running XP

[bodger999]

You may well be right there Barryl but I agree with George, in that I think too, that someone would struggle running Win 8.1 on an old XP machine.

Sticking to BG though, I'd be surprised if it doesn't work perfectly with Win 8.1 whatever machine you use.