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By Hervey Allen (hervey@oregon.uoregon.edu)
Over the past year we've discussed some of the issues surrounding the continued use of Windows 3.1. Continuing to use this operating system has numerous drawbacks:
Despite these significant problems, many Windows 3.1 users are reluctant to tackle the challenges involved in changing to a new operating system.
Hardware purchases. For starters, upgrading from Windows 3.1 to a newer version of Windows will, in most cases, require purchasing a new machine. Fortunately, computers have become considerably less expensive. A perfectly usable machine can now be purchased for between $1,000 and $1,500. We recommend purchasing name-brand equipment with solid warranties and good customer support. They may cost a bit more, but the time you save in repair and waiting costs is well worth the investment.
For newer hardware, we recommend running Windows 98, as Windows 95 does not have reliable support for a number of newer devices, including USB buses that are included on most recent machines.
Time. Learning a new operating system and transferring your data will take time. While this can be a serious deterrent to making the switch, it's very necessary, because sharing data with others will become more difficult as Windows 3.1-compatible software becomes further outdated. A case in point is the new Microsoft Office 2000 product. By default, Microsoft Word in Office 2000 cannot open or save any DOS versions of MS Word files (including Word for DOS version 6 files). You can install additional file conversions in Office 2000 to get around this problem, but these additional file converters do not even ship with the Office 2000 CD installers.
Many accounting and database software packages made for DOS or Windows 3.1 will not correctly recognize dates starting January 1, 2000, or they'll require you to enter dates using four digits instead of two. If you've already entered your data using two digits, this may be a difficult problem to resolve. A number of older machines running Windows 3.1 will simply fail to work on January 1, 2000. Most older machines will still work but will require that you turn the machine off before midnight on December 31, 1999, as their clocks will not correctly roll over to January 1, 2000. For more information, you may wish to browse the university's Year 2000 web site at http://y2k.uoregon.edu
If you have questions about hardware purchases and upgrades, you can contact Microcomputer Services between 9 am and 5 pm Monday through Friday by sending email to microhelp@oregon.uoregon.edu, calling 346-4412, or visiting Room 202 of the Computing Center.