Vista failing, Still using old JMRI software - upgrading to Win7

OK there is just tons of information here, but I don’t want to spend weeks going through it all. Can anybody just give me the short and sweet of it?

I don’t want to spend any money on train software when I already have something that works although I’m pretty sure I should maybe at least update it. The other reason why I don’t want to change software is that I have over 50 turnouts and I spent months programing the layout. So unless there is an easy conversion available, I don’t even want to think about reprogramming it.

The computer is capable of running 64 bit and I would like to go 64 bit, but I don’t know if the old JMRL software is going to work on it.

 

I don't know about this sort of thing, but might these URLs offer some guidance?

http://jmri.sourceforge.net/

http://jmri.org/install/WindowsNew.shtml

 

I have just installed the JMRI software (I assume you mean JMRI) on a computer running Windows 10. It installs in the directory Program Files (x86). This means that it is the programs DecoderPro and PanelPro are 32 bit programs and run in 32 bit compatibility mode. Installing a new operating system on an existing computer should retain all the old programs. Of course, the operating system Windows 7 is itself obsolete as Windows 10 is the latest version of Windows.

Also, I would expect that the latest versions of the JMRI software would be compatible with existing layout files. Just make sure to keep a backup of all your data files.

Rob Pearce (aka ViperBugloss)

 

thanks for replying Rob,

I am running Decoder Pro 2.11.3+dev with Java 1.8.0_66 on Windows Vista, but Vista is having problems . I’m having so many problems that I’m thinking of purchasing Windows 7 and starting with a clean install.

I just looked at the JMRI web site and discovered that DecoderPro is up to version 4.2.1 but it looks like they are talking about Windows 10. I have windows 10 on another computer and I don’t want it on my Train Room computer.

I can’t figure out how to log on the JMRI forum to ask for help. I was a member 6 years ago and I don’t remember how to ask questions now.

Anyway I just need to know what to do to get DecoderPro® and PanelPro® to work with my existing script files after I install Win7. They are huge with photos of every Loco that that I own except for the ones I bought in 2015. I spent months setting up all my turnouts in PanelPro along with routing and I just don't want to do anymore programming.

 

Thanks Rick,

Now that you mention that, I remember once having some trouble getting it to work and I sent all the files to a guy at JMRI who fixed the problem for me. All I had to do was copy it back into the folder. I was so burnt out by the time I got everything working that I never wanted to do anything more to the programming. It’s been 5 or 6 years since I made any changes and have forgot most everything.

OK then I guess I just need to download the newer PanelPro & DecoderPro versions and hope the old data files work. I probably should update the program before upgrading to Win7 to see how it works.

 

If you don't want to shell out money for Win7, you could try running Linux from a thumb drive, or set up a partition for it on the hard drive. A free little program called Yumi can burn the Linux distro to your thumb drive.

Steve S

 

You know I have been advised to use Linux ever since I first started having trouble with Vista 2 years ago, but it was so confusing with all the different versions that I never got around to it. I never heard of running Linux from a thumb drive, but that is interesting.
I have 3 desktops, one that has Win10 which is what I use as my main computer and two Vista computers. One of the Vista computers is in my train room used only for my trains and logging onto forums while the other is used by my daughter for her music. Both Vista computers have problems but the train room is the worst. I may swap the Vista computers because one is 32bit and the other is 64bit then install win7 on the 64bit and Linux on the 32bit for my trains.

 

JMRI does indeed work fine on Windows 7, both 32-bit and 64-bit. But if you have difficulty, I strongly recommend joining the JMRI group on Yahoo. The JMRI developers are there to help you, and they assist people every day. They will work with you until your problems are solved.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jmriusers/

- Jeff

 

Thanks Jeff, I know there is a lot of help there and they really helped me 5 years ago. It appeared that I was automatically logged in when I tried to ask questions this morning, but for some reason I can't figure out how to ask a question. I can't see anyplace or buttons to post.

 

Johnny,
There should be a button to start a new conversation but if not, you may not be logged in.
Either way, you should be able to search and find quite a few discussions about upgrading and moving to new computers.

 

Hi Johnny -

If you are logged into Yahoo AND you are a member of the JMRI group, then you will see a screen like the one below. In the upper right your name will appear. Farther down, on the "Welcome to JMRI users" line, you will see a "New Topic" button. Click it to post your question.

If you do not see the "New Topic" button, either you are not logged into Yahoo or you are not a member of the JMRI group, or both.

- Jeff

 

Jeff, Mine looks like yours with my name on top and the number of messages in mail, but it says join a group. I'm assuming that since my name is on top that I'm already in. I guess I'll have to click on join a group. I thought I did that yesterday and a list of groups came up with nothing that I was interested in. I give it another try.

 

Well I joined the group again and now there isn’t anything to click on. I think I might have changed my email address since I used it last. I was getting 100s of emails every day and finally just got a new email address to stop it. I hope that doesn’t happen again from rejoining this group.

 

If you are talking about buying Windows 7 to install on your current hardware (which is running Vista), I would suggest against this for two reasons: (1) There is a lot of technical details to worry about when doing your own operating system install. This is masked when you buy a computer with Windows preloaded on it - the manufacturer has figured out all the settings needed to work with that hardware, including the video chipset and other components. If you do your own install of Windows 7 (or Windows 10), you will be left to figure out this stuff for yourself. (2) As time marches on, all software vendors, including the Microsoft developers of the Windows operating system, assume that people have more powerful PC hardware, with more RAM than in previous years. If you have a computer running Vista, it was probably sold with Vista, which was several years ago, and I would bet against it having enough RAM to run a current Windows operating system, and to run today's current versions of applications.

I would instead suggest you get a new PC, with one of the newer more current versions of Windows pre-installed on it (after checking if the applications you care about will run under that version of Windows).

 

Not necessarily. I bought my desktop near the end of the Vista era, and my laptop at the beginning of Win7. They both have the same amount of RAM, but the Vista machine has a much more capable processor and video card. But when Windows 1o came out, I wasn't allowed to upgrade my Vista desktop because Microsoft deemed it to be too old.

If you still want to try Linux, the Mint version with the Cinnamon desktop is probably the closest thing to the Windows interface.
http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2947

Steve S

 

Oh man, I sure don't want any more computers. I have 4 desktops and a laptop.

I built the train room computer myself when Vista first came out and I went overboard on everything so that I wouldn’t have upgrade problems. At the time all my software only ran on 32 bit so I set it up for 32 bit, but I believe all the hardware can run on 64 bit although I can’t remember about the memory.

When Win 7 came out I downloaded a program from Microsoft to check for compatibility issues and it came up with 2 PC card problems. One was a TV tuner card and a fax machine card which I removed. I also upgraded the video cards last year when a coworker was upgrading his computer and sold me his duel video cards.

 

Well I now remember why I wasn’t logging into JMRI users. I canceled my membership over 5 years ago because yahoo groups are the worst possible forums there is with limited preferences.

The absolute worst thing about it is that you cannot pick what you want to subscribe to. I’ve been bombarded with emails about stuff I am not interested in and I do not want to read like stuff related to MACs which I do not have and will probably never have. I also like to be able to see images in the posts and not have to click on links to see examples.

Another problem is that you are required to show your email address which ends up as a magnet for spam and also popups. I’ve been emptying my spam folder a couple of times a day since I rejoined. I’m going to delete my membership and put a label on my monitor to never join another yahoo group again. I just hope I don’t have to change my email address again like I had to do the last time.

 

I belong to the Yahoo JMRI group and in preferences I have it set to send me summaries, I then have a filter setup in email to put the JMRI emails is a special folder. I get zero spam because of my membership

 

Thanks Paul, for some unknown reason the spam suddenly stopped after a few days. I’m not sure what happened and I’m just guessing that it has something to do with Yahoos filtering or perhaps my antivirus program.
I don’t like having so many emails about stuff I’m not interested in. Almost all the posts are about DecoderPro and I’m not interested in that. I found a setting to not receive any emails at all so I’m going to do that. Like someone else mentioned I can always do a search for any questions I have when they come up and not be bothered by emails that I’m not interested in.