Move from Windows XP to Windows 7?

[Hopkins]

Originally Posted by Simo98

Windows 7 is fine, it is actually a decent OS, they fixed a large majority of the stuff ups in Vista. It does push you to download updates a lot more regularly than XP ever did, but that's nothing unusual, everything is heading that way these days.

All your old games will run fine on Windows 7 afaik (hah, I remember being paranoid that Windows XP wasn't going to run games properly). Also they've come a ways with automatic driver installation in 7, which is a huge bonus imo.


Are you running 64 bit or 32 bit XP?

I have a computer with Vista and one with 7. I haven't really noticed a whole lot of difference between the two. Vista has been rock solid, I don't feel any need to upgrade that computer.

[Turock]

You can't upgrade XP to Windows 7. It has to be a clean install.

[bassybill]

W7 is a great OS - best ever, imo (although I haven't tried 8 yet).

I'm still using XP on an older machine that I use purely for studio work (no Internet) and it's fine, basically because I never really see the OS much. But on my everyday computer I use 7 and it's in a different league for many things. The disk indexing is particularly good, I can find just about anything with a few keystrokes, way better than XP.

[Electricblue]

Originally Posted by Turock

You can't upgrade XP to Windows 7. It has to be a clean install.

That's what I meant

So I should go for 7 then?

I'll have a look on the internet and see if 32bit or 64bit is better.

Is there a stripped-down version? I don't want Office or anything on it, no internet, no antivirus.

All I need is something to make all my hardware communicate with eachother

Price is no object

thanks for all the input

[Ayce]

One other option would be to dual boot, but that's another kettle of fish.

Your HDD is big enough.

[Turock]

Originally Posted by Electricblue

That's what I meant

So I should go for 7 then?

I'll have a look on the internet and see if 32bit or 64bit is better.

Is there a stripped-down version? I don't want Office or anything on it, no internet, no antivirus.

All I need is something to make all my hardware communicate with eachother

Price is no object

thanks for all the input

With 32 bit you are limited to about 3.5 GB of RAM. With 64 bit, you are only limited by what your motherboard can hold. Your processor looks as if it will support 64 bit, but be aware, you will need 64 bit drivers for all of your hardware. If your current hardware does not provide 64 bit drivers by now, most likely, they will never be available.
Windows 7 64 bit can offer performance improvement; it can also complicate x86 designed applications, and can even have a negative effect on performance.

[Icey101]

soon ill be doing it...but i am holding out...im not going to do it for games i've lost the motivation it keep chasing upgrades to run the latest games, so its a games console for me and keeping xp for as long as i can

[P. Aaron]

My old IBM ThinkPad has XP. These days it chokes when I am playing along to You-Tube. Think it's the internals just not keeping up with the gush of info coming at it. Hoping to upgrade soon.

My I-Pad just doesn't offer the You-Tube variety for all song versions I need or want to play along with.

[Clark Dark]

This is what you want. Windows 7 ultimate. It will not wipe your XP files. Instead it will place them in a folder named Windows.Old. I'm running Windows 7 ultimate (32bit) for over a year without any problems. The ability to keep all my XP files was a major plus.

[Electricblue]

I think I found a patch to enable more RAM use for the 32bit version. Sound legit?

[Philbiker]

Originally Posted by Electricblue

I think I found a patch to enable more RAM use for the 32bit version. Sound legit?

Definitely not. 32 bit windows can not address more than about 3.5 Gig of RAM.

I'm running 2.5 gig on a circa 2006 Toshiba Core Solo Centrino laptop and although it takes some time to boot up, it runs 32 bit Windows 7 just fine. MUCH faster than the same laptop running XP. "Readyboost" adds value - if you have a fast thumb drive.

I'm also running 6G RAM with 64 bit Windows on an AMD Phenom quad core desktop - this thing smokes, but the laptop is quite usable.

[warnergt]

I recently upgraded several computers from Windows XP to
Windows 7. Overall, I like it and recommend it.

I had to configure a few applications to run in "Windows XP
Service Pack 3" compatibility mode.

I also had to turn "User Account Control" (UAC) off. This is the
annoying Windows 7 feature that pops up a window every time
an application wants to make a change. It is a security feature
but it screwed up one of my important old apps.

My rule of thumb: if you've got a dual-core (or better) machine,
go for the Windows 7 upgrade; otherwise, stick with Windows XP.

[Strat-Mangler]

Originally Posted by Electricblue

I think I found a patch to enable more RAM use for the 32bit version. Sound legit?

It is impossible to change this via a patch, just as it's impossible to give you the ability to walk through walls.

All those patches tend to do anyway is create an extra virtual disk which will give you the impression/illusion via numbers that things are running faster when they aren't at all.

[MysticMichael]

Originally Posted by Electricblue

I'm not interested in Tweeting or apps or iAnything. I just want to make the most of my new hardware and that's it.

You say you're not interested in "iAnything", but I have to tell you that I'm currently in process of converting from a PC with Windows to an all-Mac environment...and I could not be happier!

Yes, I know that PCs are more varied, more numerous, and available at more price points than are iMacs and MacBooks. And I realize that Macs tend to be more expensive. But zoinks and forsooth! Are they ever worth it!

No OS crashes - ever. Seamless, iCloud-based data integration from one Apple device to another to another. A user-friendly interface that is a joy to use. And applications that are as intuitive as they are intelligent!

Yes, I know that practically every Windows thread has its Mac evangelizer and interloper. Sorry to be "that guy" on this thread. But dang, I've seen the light and I've just gotta say: Life is SO much nicer on "the other side"!

MM

[AmpedSilence]

I just built a gaming PC running Windows 7, 64bit. Runs flawless! I had a terrible time with Vista, Win 7 is definitely an improvement.

I am not a Mac fan and I can safely say that Win 7 can be very simple and basic to use, similar to XP but has different features that you don't HAVE to use.

thread where I asked about builds:

PC Gaming builds?

[Turock]

Originally Posted by MysticMichael

You say you're not interested in "iAnything", but I have to tell you that I'm currently in process of converting from a PC with Windows to an all-Mac environment...and I could not be happier!

Yes, I know that PCs are more varied, more numerous, and available at more price points than are iMacs and MacBooks. And I realize that Macs tend to be more expensive. But zoinks and forsooth! Are they ever worth it!

No OS crashes - ever. Seamless, iCloud-based data integration from one Apple device to another to another. A user-friendly interface that is a joy to use. And applications that are as intuitive as they are intelligent!

Yes, I know that practically every Windows thread has its Mac evangelizer and interloper. Sorry to be "that guy" on this thread. But dang, I've seen the light and I've just gotta say: Life is SO much nicer on "the other side"!

MM

I've seen 'em crash.

[Strat-Mangler]

Originally Posted by MysticMichael

You say you're not interested in "iAnything", but I have to tell you that I'm currently in process of converting from a PC with Windows to an all-Mac environment...and I could not be happier!

Good for you.

I've never seen OS crashes on a Windows-equipped computer that doesn't have a crapload of, well, crap installed on it. And I do mean "crap" as in search bars, plenty of conflicting so-called security software, stupid games, useless search apps, and the list goes on.

Go on an Apple forum and you'll see TONS of people experiencing a thousand different problems including, yes, OS crashes. I dated a girl into art who had a Mac. I've seen it crash plenty of times. Of course, she had installed a bunch of pointless crap on hers too, but ironically, the thing that made it crash the most was trying to watch a DVD movie (back in the day).

[Electricblue]

Thanks for all the help! I've put Windows 7 64bit on a 500gb hard drive I had lying around. It's not that bad I suppose. I don't like the directories but that's life... I've kept my 1TB XP-loaded drive safe just in case. All I need to do now is test some games

Do I need to install any extra drivers? I installed 7 and loaded up the Vista drivers for my graphics card (latest I could find). Anything else I need to do to get it working at it's fullest?

I can't remember how I got XP all loaded up... It's been a long time since I faffed around with this kind of thing. It's been a solid PC for 5 years and counting, all on the same install of XP

[uOpt]

Originally Posted by Electricblue

Merry Christmas eve eve, everybody!

Is it worth me "upgrading" to Windows 7? My aging desktop PC is currently running XP. I use it for mostly gaming, DAW's, music and movies etc. It's not connected to the internet and has no Antivirus (my choice). I don't like clutter so I use my laptop to virus check my new goodies (music, games etc) and then move them to the desktop PC.

Everything seems to need higher spec machines nowadays (obviously) so I'm considering building a decent PC. I understand I need Windows 7 to make use of high-spec stuff.

Thing is, I hate Windows 7. To me, it seems like a watered-down mess. I'm not interested in Tweeting or apps or iAnything. I just want to make the most of my new hardware and that's it. And I bet all my old games won't work on 7.

XP service pack 4 would be great, but that's not gonna happen.

I don't want to upgrade my whole PC just so 7 can do the same thing as XP, but use more resources.

Am I screwed?

My current spec is:

Intel Pentium Dual core 3.4ghz
4GB DDR2 RAM
Nvidia 9600gt 512mb
Hitachi 1TB sata hard drive.
I can't remember the motherboard...

Cheers guys, have a good Christmas!

You don't "need win7 to make use of the good specs". All the drivers for modern things are available for XP. The only thing you cannot do is use more than <x> GB of RAM (<x> usually being 3.2) if you have SP2 or newer since Microsoft removed PAE support in SP2 for XP. SP1 still had it.

Nonetheless I would not continue to use what is probably a 3.4 GHz Netburst CPU since it's power-hungry and even if you solve the OS problem you can't buy DDR2 RAM at acceptable prices.

Win7 isn't too old game unfriendly. And you can always use XP in a virtual machine if you have a valid license key and install media from the old PC.

Newer games often use more than 2 GB of virtual address space and hence crash on default XPs (no matter how much RAM). Using a 64 bit OS lifts this limit for 32 bit apps to 4 GB without fiddling (again regardless of RAM), so you'll have a bit less trouble.

BTW, I do the same thing with a dedicated windows machine for gaming and it newer browses the Internet on it's own. Things come in directly from the games (autoupdates) or else are downloaded elsewhere and put on a network drive.

[UncleFluffy]

Win7 is probably the best version of windows since NT4.