You won't miss xp for even a second. Windows 7 is safer. Xp is responsible for about 85%of viruses. Windows 7 64 bit has less than 0.5 percent of viruses. Just for safety alone, the upgrade is worth it. The other improvements are a bonus. Xp was good in it's time. Windows 7 is really fine, right now . Don't look back.
hhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmm yes I upgraded my notebook frm Xp to 7. I never used Vista and I guess, it was a rite decision now I'm lovin 7
Don't live in the past! It is time to go away! Improved security, speed and an excellent user experience, WIN7... Yes it is worthwhile to upgrade. PS: I'm not Uncle Bill and I'm not doing merchandise
Your call. Win 7 has better security features and has most drivers built in. But performance wise, I find them to be comparable. Of course there's some more eyecandy too. One thing though: installing xp used to take me about 1h or more and win7 just takes 15min via usb
I was a die-hard XP holdout for the longest time, even though my system was well within the comfort zone of Vista and 7. Also a long-time Linux user, so I'm on the minimalistic mindset when it comes to resources. Tried Vista, hated it. Went back to XP. Did that with SP1 and SP2. Toyed with various 7 betas, still had Vista's bad taste in my mouth, immediately chalked it up as Vista SP3. Couple weeks ago I finally took the plunge and gave the RTM a go. Knocked my socks off. Raw benchmarks are hit or miss vs XP, some faster, some slower.. but wow the overall "perceived performance" is just amazingly better than XP. It just takes off running and doesn't stop. Everything I've thrown at it runs flawlessly, no need mucking about with a silly XP virtual machine. Even some very old games, say Baldur's Gate and the like, zero issues. Noticing a lot smoother operation with Visual Studio and the like as well. The only "downside" is getting used to it. This is not XP, do not treat it as such. First thing I'd do in XP is go and disable many services.. don't do that in 7. (In fact it'll most likely make your performance worse!) The only things I've disabled was the remote registry for security issues, and the homegroup services. I also killed off system restore as I've never ever had a reason to use it, and my older IDE drives tends to get sluggish while it's doing its thing. Even with all that stuff enabled, it's not hogging your memory; sitting at the desktop I'm only using slightly more memory than XP. It's also much more efficient than XP when it comes to handling resources, you'll notice it pretty quickly. There are a couple very minor quirks in 7 that I found, but it's only been official for a short while vs XP's what, 8 years? Of course XP will be more mature. Nothing major, it's never crashed on me yet. I still use Windows 2K3 (based on XP) on a couple servers.. it's just painful to use now, I can't imagine ever wanting to go back. Definitely recommend you give it a spin. Back your stuff up and do a fresh installation.. you won't regret it.
I would also recommend to update to Win7 ( x86 or x64 does not matter ). Never had a problem so far, except the "Windows Task Host shutdown" problem, but hey that's why hotfixes are made.
On a different note; I upgraded 3 of my machines to W7 and will likely leave the others as XP machines. No significant difference in speed (slightly faster W7 boot) or performance. IMO; W7 is, somewhat, better than Vista (its really just Vista SE); so far its not something to jump up and down about. Its new, its different (sometimes frustratingly so), its just another OS, in a long line. Enjoy!
I use both. XP and 7. 7 will offer you better results with certain things and Xp will give you better results with other things. Comparing the 2 is like oranges to watermelons. Xp still serves it's purpose and 7 is definitely worth having. Now if I happen to be fixing a vista pc or asked my opinion on weather a person should upgrade from vista to seven, it's a different story. Burn vista. Vista will become like ME. Another forgotten MS mistake.
Well credit where it's due; Vista SP2 is nowhere near the pile of suck it used to be when it went RTM. It's far from 7's level, but it improved. May be a gargantuan pig when it comes to performance, but at least it didn't BSOD if you sneeze too loudly like WinMe used to do. In WinMe, I wrote a custom screensaver that would reboot the system when you woke it back up. I figured if it wasn't sitting at a blue screen already, it would be soon, so do a quick restart to get those five good minutes in. I think right before 7 was released, Microsoft changed the Vista slogan from "The wow starts now" to "It sucks less". Pretty sure I read that in a Microsoft press statement somewhere.
Yeah, but the current MS Windows 7 commercials are Terrible! They are out and out LIES! Windows 7 is "Easier"? On what planet? Windows 7 was created by customer comments? In your dreams! Homegroups makes networking marginally easier - as if the average user will ever know how to do it. Someone (i.e. Apple maybe) should really sue MS for dishonest advertising. P.S. I've moved All my machines from XP over to Windows 7 except for one of a dual install on a netbook (cause my insulin pump download tool doesn't work under Windows 7) and another machine that's old and doesn't have enough memory. I believe in rewarding what's a good effort (even if I won't break down and pay for it!)
To the OP, Make a 20 GB partition and try out the Windows 7 release candidate. If all the drivers work and you have a dual core machine, I think you'll like the results. But if some hardware or software that you use a lot doesn't work, you'll regret the $150 you spent on upgrading. Windows 7 is just an OS. It's a good OS, but the software experience is going to be nearly the same as XP. Simply the navigation in windows 7 is far better (search, start menu, opening/closing programs, graphics, etc).
XP or 7... Come performance, you can go either way. UI is faster in xp, but percieved performance is way faster in 7. Come security, definitely 7 Come features and goodies, 7 Come themeability, either way, but XP has the advantage. Come stability, if running XP SP3, either way Come compatibility, 7 all the way. Installation wise, 7 Easy of use, well, for most, xp. Most ppl don't like too much change, so will have dificulties adjusting in win7. Throw x64 into the mix, and I'd say, install the f**er and don't look back. In a year or so it will be rock solid and blazing fast. x64 native apps are growing in numbers as we speak, and in the mean time no worries about running all those x86 apps, cause they will all run fine. Slower or not then on an x86 system, that is open for debate. But I know I haven't used my dualbooted win7 x86 eversince I installed x64 side by side. It's just an ornament, and besides the use for testing purposes regarding tweaking, modding and f**ng up, it has no more use for me. And I was in doubt for a long time, like so many out there. But once I made the move to win7 x64, for me x86 was no more. Gen
This must be forgotten more than Vista Win 98 SE the best OS in that age. About 7: genuine555 made a good summary, install it and enjoy the features.
lol, ME and vista, MS's real answer to piracy. "OSes no one actually wants." True, vista sp2 was a bit better. I think they finally decided when it came to 7, that they would actually read the complaints folks made about vista.
Yes, Windows 7 has been great on all my machines. I hated Vista and still have XP on some of my slower machines. I have a dual boot system for testing with XPsp3 and Windows 7. All of my current dx9 era games work fine on Windows 7 ultimate. I am finally considering putting XP out to pasture, Windows 7 is easy to install but, do not upgrade. I have seen too many problems with vista upgrades.