Which operating system?

[mbauer]

Originally Posted by at6

With the support for windows XP going away, I am debating whether to upgrade to Windows 7 or just replace the whole tower. My RAM is maxed out as far as what can be installed and the system is 8 years old. While everything is operating just fine, I ahve reservations about installing Windows 8. Thanks.

This is an interesting question.

For one thing why worry about an upgrade? What happens if you use your system offline? No reason to upgrade.

Windows is the best, right?

I too use Windows XP, because of AutoCAD.

Lets see. there are several million viruses to watch out for. That is why Microsoft has stopped supporting XP. Too many viruses avaialble on-line.

The Govt'ment says you must have the latetest software if you want to do business with them. So Microsoft puts out untested software every year to comply. Dosen't matter if the software actually works.

You didn't mention Vista at all, so that means you understand about that operating system. But you mention 7 instead of the latest 8 or 8. whatever. Why? Seems the best answer would be to sign onto Windows 8. Its the latest and greatest.

Good luck using anything windows puts out!

I'm going back to Macs! less than 100 viruses instead of millions.

Mike

[at6]

Thanks guys. I have Norton 360 for my antivirus and it works extremely well. My reason for considering Windows 7 is due to the programs I have with my XP. When I used the windows upgrade assistant from Microsoft, there were features from XP that I would lose which is why I considered going to 7. With 7 I think I might be able to update the IE to the newer browser. Is that correct?

[airdave]

Firefox is better.

[Darwin]

If you upgrade to Win 7, make sure you get the home premium or pro versions...they have what is essentially a Win XP emulator which (as I found out when I upgraded) is necessary to run a lot of the older software versions. I suspect it may 'dumb down' a 64-bit OS to run 32-bit software, but haven't picked up enough geek to know if that is really what the problem is. Fortunately, when my computer guru cleaned a virus from my laptop, he had an old computer he was trashing that had a home premium license he used to upgrade my Win 7 home.

[at6]

Thanks Darwin. I was thinking Windows 7 pro from the start. My sysytem is a 32 bit so if anything, it will be smartened up. I just can't justify a new computer at this time. If this one dies, then out of necessity, I will buy a larger computer.

[John Wagenseil]

Greetings
If your computer is still working there is no reason to upgrade the OS.
Just keep using it, and buy a new system when the old one fails.
It is cheaper in the long run to make the investment in a completely new system than to attempt to upgrade the OS and leave everything else the same.
If you are used to XP, you will not have too many problems using Win7, providing you are able to find a copy.
You will hate and may not even be able to use Win8. For example to turn off a computer running Win8, it is no longer a matter of clicking "turn off computer", you have to know the secret hand movement used to rub the hidden magic hot spot.
The Win8 file system is messed up, there is a lot of forced connectivity to the internet, the opening aps page is a bandwidth hog whose main purpose is to advertise M$ sponsored products, and if you just want to look for a file on your hard drive, the built in search function seems to give priority to searching the internet rather than looking at your drive contents.
If you upgrade your OS, there is also a chance you will have problems running some of your old programs, and your old hardware will not run if no new drivers have been written for the hardware.
Running a newer Windows OS on old hardware can often be frustrating as old hardware is not powerful enough to run new OS well, though this is supposedly less of a problem with Win 7.
It is easier just to keep your computer the way it is.
Since you do have old machine with old disk drives, it is important that you back up all of your important files, otherwise you will be very unhappy when one of your drives has a fatal crash. Buying a new external USB drive for back up is a very wise investment and not too expensive. Files can be copied directly from your computer to the external drive, if you want to make an image of your C drive you will need back up software, which might come bundled with the new drive, or you can probably find a no-cost back up program on PortableApps or FileHippo.
The fact M$ is no longer providing updates to WinXP is not a problem, if you have your system backed up and are using a decent antivirus program, I think Malwarebytes and Spybot still run on older versions of Windows, check and see if other AV programs still run on XP.
I still have a computer that runs Win97, it works just fine. Your XP computer will keep on working for you even if M$ no longer "supports" it and wants you to spend money on a new OS that you will really hate (if you try using Win8 right out of the box).

[3Turner]

Lots of great recommendations so far. All it will boil down to is what do you feel more comfortable with; upgrading OS from Xp or computer to get new OS.

What I didn't see recommended (since you don't want to spend too much), why not consider purchasing a used computer instead of new? Here local we have a second hand laptop store which they sell several different laptops with all different types of OS pre-installed. You may even want to try a pawnshop....I've seen used computers for sale there as cheap as $250 to $300. Getting a used computer will solve trying to find a Win7 computer as there should be some used ones out there.

I myself upgraded from XP straight to Win8....and I have no problems with it....though it did take some time to get used to it. Here is another thread in the past which has lots of Win7 and Win8 chatter in it.
Windows 7 vs 8. Any opinions or experience with Win8?

One last thing I'd recommend is get rid of the Norton 360. Norton and McAfee are resource hogs. As soon as my McAfee license expired, I went straight to Comodo Internet Security freeware. It runs great, much smaller hit on the computer processor and again...its free. You can upgrade to a paid subscription if you'd like, but its not necessary.

Originally Posted by John Wagenseil

For example to turn off a computer running Win8, it is no longer a matter of clicking "turn off computer", you have to know the secret hand movement used to rub the hidden magic hot spot.

Yes, there is the learning curve and then remembering where to swipe if you get a touchscreen only computer. I use my Win8 as a desktop...with mouse and keyboard. No touchscreen here. To get the shutdown button, I just move my cursor to the right side of the screen (top or bottom corner) until the flyout menu comes out and click shutdown.

Originally Posted by John Wagenseil

The Win8 file system is messed up, there is a lot of forced connectivity to the internet, the opening aps page is a bandwidth hog whose main purpose is to advertise M$ sponsored products, and if you just want to look for a file on your hard drive, the built in search function seems to give priority to searching the internet rather than looking at your drive contents.

Can you explain more on this? I have yet to see any indication that my Win8 machine is forcing connectivity to the internet or forcing me to use any MS apps. As a matter of fact, if I turn off the internet connection, I do not run into any roadblocks asking for me to connect. As for the pre-installed Metro apps....I hate them. I don't use them. I changed all my defaults from those tablet like apps to regular desktop software. For example, when I first got the computer, I would get some photo app viewer pop up whenever I clicked jpg, tiff or png..etc. As soon as I changed it to Windows Photo Viewer (the default Windows viewer software) all was well. No more prompts to use whatever useless apps.

Originally Posted by John Wagenseil

Since you do have old machine with old disk drives, it is important that you back up all of your important files, otherwise you will be very unhappy when one of your drives has a fatal crash. Buying a new external USB drive for back up is a very wise investment and not too expensive.

This I agree with wholeheartedly. I have 2 external HDs (2TB and 1TB) which I use to backup all my data. There were some sales from Costco over the holidays which they had a 2TB portable HD for $60!