Windows 7 or 8

[flyboyjohn]

Hi Folks, I hope this question hasn't been answered before but with Microsoft ending support for Windows XP, will BYE work on windows 8 ( which I nothin' about ) I have it on my laptop in my office on windows 7 and works great, my observatory desktop has windows xp. Any help would be appreciated.

John

[Jim]

I have used both Windows 8 and 8.1 with no issues noticed.

 

Regards

 

Jim

[admin]

Hi Folks, I hope this question hasn't been answered before but with Microsoft ending support for Windows XP, will BYE work on windows 8 ( which I nothin' about ) I have it on my laptop in my office on windows 7 and works great, my observatory desktop has windows xp. Any help would be appreciated.

John

 

BackyardEOS works fine on XP, Vista, W7, W8, and W8.1.

 

In fact all my development environment is all W8.1

 

Guylain

 

 

[s3igell]

While BYEOS and the Canon SDK have made the transition from XP thru Win7 to Win8.1, you'll want to be concerned about two things:

 

1) Check each piece of "necessary" Astro and Connectivity Gear that has it's own Software or Driver.  WinXP allowed some older styles of software that are no longer viable under Win8.  Unfortunately, since the Astro Gear market is rather small and most shops are just a couple of guys doing all their own coding and support, some older pieces of gear won't have updated drivers.  It's best you identify those through testing BEFORE you commit to your PC OS Migration.

 

2) Check that your new Win8 PC / Laptop has enough USB2 Ports to support your "necessary" Astro Gear.  While USB3 includes backwards compatibility, the "Devil Is In The Details" of Chipsets and Drivers/Firmware.  Many USB2 Devices exhibit issues when plugged into various USB3 Ports.  AND, the USB3 Spec focused on Increased Throughput and Supplied MilliAmps at the expense of Cable Length, so USB3 Extenders are less common and less capable of the 50-75ft Lengths supported by USB2 Extender Cables.  (I really wish someone would pair USB3 Speed with Gigabit Ethernet, but most USB-over-Ethernet devices actually fall short of USB2 speed.)

 

While Microsoft announced WinXP's End-of-Life over a decade ago, and has since extended it more than once, there is no Mayan Calendar End-of-Days Cutoff that causes WinXP to abruptly stop working.  Instead, once MS pulls the final plug, there will be no more Security Updates and other Software Vendors will quickly follow suit - eventually leaving your WinXP PC more exposed to Viruses and App Bugs.  (I'd actually expect Hackers to focus a good amount of effort on these "left-behind" machines, given that they represent 25% of the PC Market - and may become ripe targets.)  But, if you are careful - especially if you don't use that WinXP PC for Web Browsing or Email - then you could expect the OS to keep running as long as the Hard Drive or the CPU...