Johnny, Change your membership preferences in the JMRI Yahoo group to "do not receive emails". Then you can just go to the group and skim down the messages or topics (you can choose which to display ) and read what you want. If your JMRI computer is pretty much only for that use you'll have few problems with Win 7 if you've got enough memory to run Win 7. Mint Linux is pretty easy to use, free, fast and doesn't need a lot of memory (obviously more is better with any OS). I've got it on a couple of machines (an old Dell laptop & a Dell desktop) and they run JMRI very well. The laptop is solely used to run JMRI so that I can use smart phone throttles on my main layout. I use another machine running Win 7 for Operations to generate traffic on the main layout and for programming locos on a separate programming track. The desktop runs a variety of applications including JMRI and is attached to a small switching layout and does programming, throttles & Operations for that layout. Mint Linux has a bit of learning curve but Mint does look a lot like Windows and there's tons of support out on the web. There are a number JMRI Yahoo group members who use Linux so there's support there also. Oh yea, a pet peeve here- if it still works it's not obsolete. Maybe support is waning but just because a new version something comes out doesn't mean an older version is no good. In fact in the Linux world this seems to be the philosophy. Unfortunately not the case with other operating system philosophy. That said Windows 7 is still very viable. Dave
Thanks Dave, Vista still works perfectly fine except that it cannot update. I discovered a couple of years ago that I could update Vista using Bitdefender, but this past month has been hard. I did get it updated finally, but it took 4 or 5 times with Bitdefender to do it. I have been using Bitdefender for probably 7 years primary because its the only way I can update Vista. I don't know if there are any other programs to update Vista, but I don't like being stuck with only one choice.
Another option is to set your email preferences for the JMRI group to "Digest." This means you will receive only one or two emails per day from the JMRI group, each containing 15 or fewer posts. A message list at the top of each Digest makes it quick and easy to scan for topics that interest you. If you see something you want to read, just scroll down to it. Otherwise, delete the Digest. It takes only seconds. - Jeff
Johnny, One other thing. If you're not going out on the internet with the vista and it just runs JMRI I wouldn't worry about updates. Heck the thing is running. Dave
Those compatibility lists really are only for catching things as mentioned like oddball TV tuners from fly by night manufactures and fax cards the same. AKA, cheaper cards and old cards that nobody uses anymore. And computer that can run Vista can Run Windows 10 and it will probably run it better. If you actually put in a new Video card, it will probably run 10 quite well even. At work, we've revitalized dozens of Windows Vista/ Windows 7 era PCs with it. Add a bit of ram and at most an SSD (if it's your only PC) and you'll have a very capable PC. I am a big fan of 10. I basically and getting rid of every 7 and 8.1 computer I have and moving them to it. Of course, since you don't OWN 7, you can't upgrade for free and for the cost of an upgrade, you could by a computer with it installed. Vista is OK, but in 2016, it just isn't worth the headache.
