Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8

[Zed Head]

Who is doing what with the coming Windows XP support expiration? I've been in economy mode for a while, plus am not generally a "early adopter", so am still using Windows XP. I'm leaning toward just getting Windows 7 to keep running on my old computer.

Has anyone switched to Windows 7 recently, from XP or backwards from 8? Problems? Anyone using XP Mode in Windows 7?

Edited March 27, 2014 by Zed Head

[hr369]

win 7 is better and more stable than xp. I was a diehard fan of xp and resisted upgrading.

I first pirated 7 to test drive it then got a legit copy after I was comfortable.

The only problems you might have is if your computer is real old. software drivers may not

have been made for these devices because win7 was not out when the computer was manufactured. I've ran into this problem on several laptops i've upgraded. I did get around it

by installing generic drivers but its a more time consuming install.

win 7 was released july 2009. was your computer made before that?

[Stanley]

New computers have way more power than one from ten years ago. And they're cheaper. Maybe check Win7 requirements before trying it on the old machine (unless you have a ultra-fast gamer setup). Heard some problems with Win8, haven't tried it though.

[superlen]

Zed,

I too still run quite a few XP machines, but also have Win7 and (blech!)Win8. It took me a while to like W7, but I'm comfortable with it now. I hate W8 as an interface. If I were you, I would just keep using my XP until the pc it's on dies! Then buy your new pc and put W7 on it. I can't begin to tell you how much the win8 interface sucks! Apparently I'm too old to appreciate the new style of interface, I suppose that keeping a 286-16mhz machine around with dos 3.1 on it "just in case" doesn't help any.

BTW, The primary compiler I'm using for the HellFire GUI I run on my laptop which is XP. The compiled code I've tested on numerous machines with XP, W7, & W8 & there haven't been any problems. My prediction was that W8 would give me some grief, but no surprises.

Len

[Kurbycar32]

I rolled out windows 7 to about 6,000 computers last year and essentially eliminated Windows XP from my whole environment. If you are managing in scale Windows Vista (barf) introduced a whole new generation of group policy and power management features that made things much easier to manage. Vista was garbage but Windows 7 in my opinion the best OS and by far the best software release Microsoft has ever done. Its the only time ever, that a Windows product worked perfectly out of the box..

XP mode was cool but is almost completely unnecessary now that software has had 7 years to refresh to Vista/7 level of compatibility. Windows 8 was generally "OK". Its still not a good candidate for enterprise deployment but for the consumer it didn't have any major release flaws other than most people didn't like the interface. Windows 8.1 is actually much and noticeably better, I am building a deployment system for it right now. If you have to walk into a retail chain and buy a PC just grab one with 8.1 and you are in for a bit of visual shock but its a good OS you will get used to. If you want to get a Windows 7 machine (only minor downsides) you can purchase a business class machine with Windows 8 and exercise your Windows 7 downgrade rights. If you haven't noticed I do this professionally

[240260280z]

I hate the changes MS has done to the GUI's. The programmers took away so much out of either stupidity or trying to make it a Mac... all of Gates' work is being flushed.

Even easy tasks like making a new directory suck because the file and directory tree resorts and you loose focus.... you could be 2 screens down near Zebra and make a directory called Apple but then it puts Apple two screens up and leaves you at Zebra.

Even sorting is changed, it is now 1,2,3,04,0004,00000004, 4,5,6,7..... don't get me started on the "Ribbons" and how many more click you now have to do that were once just 1 click.

The task bar also sucks in that you can't easily make shortcuts to directories, quick launch is gone and the show desktop button is now way down by the clock.

I ended up having to write my own mouse acceleration table because the Win 7 one is crap.

I actually like Vista's GUI the best.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Blue

[Kurbycar32]

I ended up having to write my own mouse acceleration table because the Win 7 one is crap.

They actually addressed this in Windows 8. Essentially they allow any installed mouse software direct control over the hardware, bypassing the Windows system. If you buy a performance mouse that comes with software you get complete control.

Past that the best I can say for the OS is that its stable and generally works unlike the first 3 years of Vista's existence. The GUI is terrible for business usage but every GUI adjustment after release has been for the better, even though its still not great.

[mgood]

I have a lap top with windows 7 and had to install the virtual desktop so I could use windows xp for my camera software for my Canon 5D. Some of the software that is needed for the camera to connect direct to the computer via usb would not work in the W7 environment let alone in the 64 bit mode. I don't like the W7 layout, I too am old and used windows 1.5 years ago.

[240260280z]

BTW I'd love to get a couple of valid Vista install CD's if anyone has any to donate.

[djwarner]

If you absolutely hate the new GUI interface of Windows 8, there is an option to startup with the Windows 7 style GUI. I'm still running Windows 7 64 bit simply because I have found no significant improvement in 8. I do have a laptop with XP on it to support the drivers for my legacy camera because the mfg stopped supporting the camera before the driver standards changed.

If you have a legacy driver issue with Windows 7, you can install 7 on to an XP machine as a dual boot. Unfortunately, if you already have 7 or 8 installed, it will not allow you to create a dual boot install of XP.

[240260280z]

I can't understand why the stupid bastards can't keep the same GUI's to choose from but just change the underlying engine. ie install 8 but select the xp gui... some simple intermediary translator software is all that is needed to glue the two.

Heck I miss a lot of the features of the old 3.1 file manager.

[Zed Head]

Thanks for the feedback, especially from the pros. Hate to ask you to talk about work on your hobby site.

I've wondered if the talk about the wave of viruses and attacks waiting to happen is Microsoft hype to get people to switch. I can see my modem and hard drive activity and don't click on weird links or applications so riding XP until it dies has been in mind. I've not been hacked to-date. But for $100 I can get to Windows 7, another $25 gets me a Windows 7 capable set of software to run old Excel spreadsheets and open Word files (there seem to be a few consultants out there who get paid in software licenses). I've been running Office 98 on the install disks I got with my first Gateway computer, hence the XP mode question. And I just replaced a couple of capacitors in my power supply so my old dinosaur Compaq should last a few more years. I'm on my fourth hard drive.

Anybody running Linux?