I have been using windows 7 for a week now, and i was wondering, why? Seems exactly the same as xp, and bit faster than vista. So anyone here really think that people should even bother to upgrade, as for me there are no real advantages still to move from xp, other than xp looks boring. Thoughts....
Support and drivers for xp 64 is zero. Vista 64 sp1 is great, but I still needed to use a dual boot config to install some drivers so they would be picked up in vista ( weird, but it's the only way I got my old colorvision spyder to work) Win 7 64 is just more convenient for me, though for some reason I do feel as if vista 64 was a bit more snappy to install programs.
XP is too old. It has already reached it EOL, so no new techs will be incorporated into XP. Within 18 months XP drivers will be obsolete as 7 gets better and better reception. There is no doubt 7 is the future in business and home use, get used to it XP is old dead and useless.
lol, i was just asking people why they thought the need for upgrade. Most users will have everything in xp they need. thx for the other answers though. Glad some have found real reasons to upgrade, lol.
Looks - The transparent windows did look nice in Vista. Still does but this time it does not feel like everything is slower because of it. Ease of use - Things like how the start menu works, being able to press the Win key and type application/filenames, and the ability to "pin" items to the taskbar. The new explorer is also 10x more efficient in terms of layout and design than in XP, takes some getting used to but well worth it. Performance - It's not that much different from XP in terms of gaming and other use (unlike Vista). Also for gaming you get DX10/DX10.1 support. x64 - Finally works well without any major issues (except having to use signed drivers, come on MS... realize that was a dumb idea). Misc. minor/major fixes - For example did you know that if you connect from one Windows 7 machine to another one with Remote Desktop, you get much improved performance. You can also do thing you never could before like run DirectX applications and stream HD video right over the remote desktop, with no lag or sync issues (assuming you have the bandwidth that is). This is because it sends the video data/DirectX separately and runs it locally on the client. Not to mention you get all the Aero effects etc. If I had to point out the one thing that makes me feel it was a good switch, it would be the fact that unlike Vista I got a whole lot of new features but no massive performance impact.
Personally; I upgraded because of w7's usefullness in my HTPC it also works well for other machines. Having only one OS across all of my machines is a slight maintenance advantage. Nothing much really terrible with Vista any more, just nothing that was/is great. About the only reason to stick with XP is for its smaller resource footprint on older resorurce limited machines. W7 can work relatively well even there, but not for gaming or intensive applications (it works OK on my antique internet surfing machine; Abit nf7, barton 2500 with 3/4 gig of memory, it does gag on Crysis (barely playable with xp on low) as a test to see how far outside the minimum specs it would run). Enjoy!
Speed, looks, features, DX11. XP won't go on forever and when MS stops updates your not going to be very secure. I kept my XP partition around but since installing Windows 7 I have not booted into XP once since everything runs fine for me within Windows 7.
It is Smart not dumb. It forced Hardware manufacturers to come up with Quality Drivers to be certified. These companies are like sheeps need some whipping to come out with Decent Drivers that do not BSOD once 1 week. BSODing Windows due to drivers make Microsoft look bad although it is not their fault. You also should know Win7 utilitises Multicore more efficiently then Xp or Vista. It is a definite improvement hence worth upgrading.
Not so fast, HydroChronic, In the corporate world, we are still receiving XP Pro pre-installed and will continue to do so using our downgrade rights (till at least April 2011). We only just upgraded from 2000 platform in 2006. I'm sure it will be Windows 7 SP1 before talk gets serious. Wipe and re-load on 25,000 boxes is not something to take lightly. Though I have to admit, on a 32 MB crappy intel integrated video chip, DX11 can play 720p without stuttering, whereas XP Pro stutters jukes and jives.