There appear to be Mac versions of both,
Whether your current keys would work with the Mac versions is another matter. It maybe makes that clear on those pages or ir should at least be something you could ask about.
With Linux you could always try Wine I suppose but I doubt there is a version of that which would run on a Mac as I doubt that Apple great fans of Opensource.
Thanks. That’s encouraging.
At best, I could use them with a Mac.
At worst, I’d have to pay for Apple versions, but that’s not the end of the world.
Nothing’s going to happen just yet, of course. In fact, by the time MS insists on me converting to W11, my present laptop might be asking to be ditched anyway.
Damn now I’m receiving messages from Microsoft in the lower right of my computer monitor. Telling me Windows 11 is coming. If I have to upgrade and this is another Windows ME disaster, I may start breaking things.:twisted::twisted:
Whatever happened to if it isn’t broke …?
It’s one thing telling us that W11 is coming, but let them tell me that I MUST have it and I assure you that I’ll rebel!
If your PC does not have a compatible motherboard, then you wont be able to download it. . . fact!
[FONT=“Trebuchet MS”][SIZE=“4”]I don’t mind the updates. What makes me mad is the fact that if I let my laptop accept and download and install the updates I lose my sound. I’ve tried all the fixes and Microsoft as well as Dell…neither one can offer any help at all to fix this issue. So if I wanna continue to enjoy Hulu and YouTube I have to constantly reset the date for the auto update which by the way I turned off. But Microsoft forces it anyway. Otherwise I will have no sound and I would have to go somewhere to download another audio output thing? The least they could do is either fix that issue or give us fixes that actually work.[/SIZE][/FONT]
That is annoying and not unheard of with Dell. It seems to me like MS updates are overwriting the Dell audio driver, although with a make as popular as Dell I can’t see why the driver would overwritten with one that doesn’t work.
As well as asking Dell and Microsoft without success, does trying everything include the suggestions that can be found on the Internet about the problem, including using the Windows troubleshooter? A search for ‘dell laptop loses sound with windows updates’ brings up a number of results but I’d steer clear of anywhere trying to sell audio drivers. This video seems to cover all the bases:
I bought a used HP laptop computer that came with all sorts of HP specific software on it for drivers etc. It wasn’t running all that well with one thing and another so in the end, I formatted the disk and cleanly installed Windows 10. The Windows installation supplied everything needed to run the computer without having to reinstall any of HP’s own software. The computer has been good since, all updates accepted.
It’s a drastic cure for computer problems and I don’t know if formatting and reinstalling the OS (without the Dell software) would have the same success but I’ve often thought that when Windows is cleanly installed with just its own software, that’s when it works the best.
The world, of drivers, is a minefield.
Who is responsible for making sure that Windows has the right driver for your device?, I’d suggest (in your example) that it must be Dell.
A manufacturer creates a device, to work with Windows, and sells the device, usually with the driver included in the package, ready for installation.
MS, meanwhile, compiles a set of compatible device drivers, (via contact with the device creators?) so that MS can do all of it’s updates without having to keep going back to, say, Dell, to check out if the MS saved device drivers are still right.
So, then you have two, maybe, drivers of different levels, being thrown at your device.
Add to that the various Device Driver companies who sell their own drivers & confuse the issue still further.
Bottom line, in my opinion, is that the firm which sells it’s devices as “Compatible with Windows” must be responsible & must fix any issues ever arising.
If they say it’s compatible it must be so, and remain so!
They ought to be making sure that MS is kept up to date.
My impressions is that they don’t do this!
(Just my thoughts)
On my Windows PCs driver updates are optional - presumably to avoid this problem. Apparently that change came sometime in 2019.
Ah on reading that it seems the drivers I see under optional may be back level ones. What a minefield. I recall losing bluetooth once. I found a fix through google - it was installing a driver set for a different adapter. Not sure how that worked but it did.
It seems to be a weird cop out!
Why cannot the creator of a device write the driver and get that driver officially approved to work with Windows?
He made the product, writes the Driver code, and fails to make sure it works.
Not a Microsoft Problem, in my opinion.
I live in hope!
I’d have kept XP if I could, and if it was still supported.
Actually, even if it wasn’t!
XP was a good OS, I skipped Vista because of being happy with it but I remember XP coming in for an awful lot of stick on forums for years even so. As regards Windows 11, I think there will be…
Discontented people with compatible computers who will want to avoid Windows 11.
Discontented people with incompatible computers who will really want to upgrade to W.11 but can’t.
Discontentment over the shortage of barge poles. 
There will certainly be plenty to talk about over the coming months. Microsoft’s expectations of computer hardware could come down before the release date.
I liked XP too, but regarding Windows 11 I see that MS had to pull the compatability tool because of problems.
So if you tried it & got a “no”, there might still be hope.
Personally I bit the bullet & got a new lappy, as I’d been threatening to do since my op. and this lappy is advertised as being compatible.
My 5-year-old Intel NUC desktop with a 6th-generation i5 however was not.
Not that I think it’ll make exactly loads of difference mind you, other than this laptop being far easier for me to use.
I suspect that MS will modify the requirements, but, in the meantime, imagine how much money they might make by a high proportion, of the millions of Windows users, buying a new PC to conform!
Get 60, or so, percent of company buyers to upgrade, or buy new PCs, then bring out as miracle fix for those who previously didn’t meet the spec!]
It’s a no brainer!
I would agree with you except that from what I see, companies most frequently won’t upgrade PC’s until absolutely necessary and they are rarely early adopters.
Unless necessary as part of their business of course.
If you look in most offices & workplaces, the computers in use tend to be pretty ancient affairs.
No, forget the tinfoil hat stuff.
This is Microsoft responding to a need because they are losing huge amounts of custom to Android, Chrome and other gaining-in-popularity operating systems.
And when the customers for the OS leave, so do the customers for expensive office suites etc. that are ideally-suited to that operating system.
On top of that is a decline in the need for computers, because not only do phones & tablets do most of what a majority of folk want but even TV’s increasingly-frequently have smart features which include web browsing.
Long-gone are the days when Microsoft’s only real competitor was Apple.
The times they are a-changing and IMHO Microsoft is only trying to cling on.
Not us. I downloaded OpenOffice Suite onto our desktops. This suite of programmes are free-ware versions of MS Office and, in my opinion, all the better for that. You can even save files in MS formats using OpenOffice.
We’re all familiar with what the subscription-based Office 355 is about but now Windows 365 is making an appearance…
There we go!
Now we know where MS wants the flock to go!
Windows 365 Subscription will become the big money maker, just as Office 365 subscription version has taken over the lion’s share of office use.
Even the non business W10 user might prefer going this way if the deal is better than having to upgrade their PC.
I wonder if Windows 365 would be as versatile as a Desktop OS? I suppose it might only be possible to install MS Store Apps into a Cloud account.
It looks like it will be a fair time away for home users and there will (hopefully) still be the choice of the cloud OS or a computer OS.
A cloud Windows OS via an Android App? Quite a progression.
It is quite a progression but will home users really need this?
I don’t see it’s usefulness for home users from what I’ve read, but I suppose time will tell.
Personally I think that Microsoft have left it too late and the technological advances of recent years have already caused such a negative impact upon what was once their core business that they will never recover their once-dominant status.
Hence their decision there to concentrate primarily upon business cloud computing.
