Computing with Cait

Are you considering buying a new PC?  If so, there may be other costs that you have to pay in addition to the purchase price for the new PC.

Software

The new PC that you purchase will probably come with the newest Microsoft operating system: Vista.  Software programs are designed to be compatible with specific operating systems and older versions of programs may not operate with newer operating systems.  In general, any Internet Security packages that you are using (e.g., Norton Internet Security or McAfee Internet Security Suite) will have to be upgraded to a version that will operate under the Vista operating system.  If you are using QuickBooks, you will have to upgrade to the newest version in order for it to operate under Vista.  You may have other programs that you have been using for a long time but for which you will need to purchase an upgrade in order to have the program continue to work. 

Hardware

Some of your current hardware (printers, scanners, all-in-ones) may not work with the Vista operating system and may have to be replaced.  In one case the client upgraded to a PC with Vista and wanted to continue using the wireless network adapter that had been purchased for the previous desktop.  Unfortunately, the adapter would not work and the manufacturer had not released drivers for the adapter that would allow it to work with Vista.  A new adapter had to be purchased.  If you have a printer that connects to the PC using a parallel cable (and it does not have the option of using a USB cable), you may have to purchase a new printer as most new PCs no longer have a parallel port.  

Transferring Files

The current PC you have probably has a floppy disk drive and may have a CD-ROM drive which can read CDs but can not create them.  Newer PCs do not come with floppy disk drives; they do come with re-writable CD-ROM drives.  If you have saved files on floppy disks, you will have no way to directly read them into the new PC.  Using a flash drive (also known as a thumb drive or USB drive) may be an option for transferring files.  However, if your old system was using the Windows 98 operating system, you may not be able to use some flash drives as drivers are not available for the flash drive to work in Windows 98, even though the PC has a USB port in which to insert the drive.   

Before you purchase the new PC you should make a list of the current software programs you are using and the external hardware you are using and check the manufacturer’s websites to see whether the software versions you are running or the hardware models you are using are compatible with the Vista operating system.  (For a quick link to some of the major vendor websites, check out our Web Links page.)  Remember that the price of the new PC may be more than the price of the new PC. .