Is Windows 7 the new Windows XP?

cormie

I've been using Windows XP for the 8 years or so and see it as a simple platform that will allow me do what I need to do in every day computer usage. I know it well and it's served me very well throughout the years. When I've used VISTA on friends computers there's been a lot of things that have just made me ask, why?

I haven't used W7 all that much at all really and a friend has asked me to "fix" their computer, it's slowed down and there's a fair bit of crap on it, so I'm thinking a reformat is probably the best option and although it's currently on XP, maybe W7 would be better?

First things first I guess, would Windows 7 even run on the below machine?
Genuine Intel CPU
T2050 @ 1.60GHz
1.60 GHz. 0,99GB of Ram

If it does turn out to be a viable replacement, I may consider updating my own system altogether and also use Windows 7 instead of XP.

In terms of functionality, how does it compare to XP?

Have they taken away any features, simple things that were small but made computing that much easier?

Personally I like things to be minimalistic, I have only one icon on my desktop and I go for the "windows classic" theme in XP, with the simple, minimal grey taskbar rather than the larger, fancier looking XP/Vista/7 style. Is it possible to get this simple basic type theme on W7 too?

One big issue I'd have myself is I've grown to use a number of basic programs that simply just do what I need them to do. How is the backwards compatibility if I have a program that was made even before Vista and I'm looking to use it on w7?

Any feedback and input appreciated

MarkR

1 gb of memory would be too small. It is actually the minimum required for install.

I only installed 7 on my laptop as I had the licence, and wanted to be familiar with it. I still find the control panel cumbersome (might look for more hotkeys), and I don't see much functional difference day to day. I do like the ability to snap panels to the side of the screen, but other than that....

cormie

Interesting, so maybe a reinstall of XP would be best for the computer above, but for a fancy new machine, could XP still be the best choice do you think? Some things I've seen are nice, such as a file transfer telling you BEFORE the transfer that there's not enough space. I never use hotkeys myself so don't think that would be an issue. I do have a number of customisations in XP, such as not using a recycle bin, disabling some things at start up etc.

What about future compatibility? Can XP handle USB 3 etc?

I'm not desperate for an upgrade myself at all, infact the only reason I considered it is that I noticed a bit of slow down the other day on my own machine from a program and wasn't happy with the performance I've had this laptop for about 4 years now and it's the first time I haven't been happy with it performance wise, but this program is rare for me to use anyway, and not important so I might just leave it for another while until I HAVE to upgrade.

jayteecork

Man you can get decent laptops these days for around €300 then come installed with windows 7 and have enough RAM and processor to run it smoothly.

Maybe you could mention this to your friend.

Have a look in your local Tesco or check out the bargain alerts forum on boards.ie

cormie

Thanks for the suggestion but there's really no need to get a new laptop for the one above, it's only used for very light browsing, watching the odd DVD and a bit of music. I think a clean XP install would probably work best.

Would W7 be totally underpowered on the machine or would it run just as well as XP would?

Tallon

Stick with XP

My laptop and backup PC run it.

I LOVE W7 but, it makes no sense to install it on a machine that is much better suited to XP

nc6000

I'm running Windows 7 on a PC with only 1GB or RAM and find it can really struggle. 1GB of RAM is not nearly enough for Windows 7.

chin_grin

This might come in handy OP.

http://windows.microsoft.com/upgradeadvisor

It'll grade your machine and tell you what is and isn't compatible (hardware or software wise).

cormie

Thanks again for the replies everyone So I've decided to stick with XP for the friends laptop.

Out of interest, would you all recommend W7 on a new, high spec laptop over XP?

Tallon

cormie wrote: »

Thanks again for the replies everyone So I've decided to stick with XP for the friends laptop.

Out of interest, would you all recommend W7 on a new, high spec laptop over XP?

Yes, definitely

humaxf1

nc6000 wrote: »

I'm running Windows 7 on a PC with only 1GB or RAM and find it can really struggle. 1GB of RAM is not nearly enough for Windows 7.

If you turn off all the visual and "enhancement" bloat in W7 you can survive with 1GB RAM provided you don't stress it. 2GB Min for W7 is my baseline for a slightly better experience. 4GB is an excellent starting point to avoid sluggish performance and tearing your hair out with frustration.

In saying that, 1GB for XP is borderline too even with the bloat turned off...again 2GB Min. XP from 2002 is very different to XP in 2011 with Service Packs and updates.

RAM is not very expensive at the moment so a clean install and a memory upgrade is a smart combination.

cormie

Good to know, although that may change by the time I need to upgrade my own. Now the slowdown I mentioned above on my own machine, my machine spec is:

V1500 CORE 2 DUO T5470 1.60GHz,800,2M 1
Vostro 1500 15.4 WXGA+ True Life 1
Vostro 1500 Black cover Camera 1
Free Memory upgrade from 1024GB to 2048GB 667MHZ 1
Save Euro 110 Ex Vat 1
English Documentation Vostro 1500 1
1500 Ship Accessories UK 1
Vostro Resource DVD - (Diagnostics & Drivers) 1
2048 MB 667 MHz Dual-Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x 1024 MB) 1
Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA (5400RPM) 1
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive 1
90W AC Adapter - 2 wire 1
Primary 6-cell 56WHr Li-Ion Battery 1
Not Included Carry Case 1
256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 1
Irish/Spanish Modem Cable and Adapter Internal V.92 Data, Fax, Voice Functions 1
Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-PCI Card EUR 1
UK/Irish - (QWERTY) - Internal Keyboard 1
Software Drivers Vostro 1500

In terms of processing power I need, well this is about the max I'd be after:

Full System Requirements for Pro Evolution Soccer 2012
Aug-30-2011

Ok we have been in touch with Konami and with the release of the demo we are publishing the PES 2012 system requirements so you can check that you can play it.

Note that these PES 2012 system requirements may still be adjusted...

PES 2012 Minimum system requirements

OS: Windows XP SP3, Vista SP2, 7

CPU: Intel Pentium IV processor 2.4GHz or equivalent

RAM: 1GB

GFX: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon x1300

GFX RAM: 128MB of RAM, Pixel shader 3.0, DirectX 9.0c compatible video card



PES 2012 Recomended System requirements

CPU: Processor Intel Core2 Duo 2.0GHz or equivalent

RAM: 2GB

GFX: NVidia GeForce 7900 / AMD ATI Radeon HD2600

GXF RAM: 512MB of RAM, Pixel shader 3.0, DirectX 9.0c compatible video card

So its pretty low requirements all round really. However, once you get your hands on the full version be sure to get back here and update your FPS etc on our RATING page

Is there anything I can simply buy as an add on that will greatly improve my laptops performance and keep it as is for another few years? The laptop itself is grand, has been going strong for 4 years and the thought of having to reconfigure every detail as much as I have with this one is daunting so I'd like to avoid that if possible until I definitely need to!

Voodu Child

cormie wrote: »

Is there anything I can simply buy as an add on that will greatly improve my laptops performance and keep it as is for another few years? The laptop itself is grand, has been going strong for 4 years and the thought of having to reconfigure every detail as much as I have with this one is daunting so I'd like to avoid that if possible until I definitely need to!

Not really.


For basic use (web browsing etc) the laptop should be perfectly fine for at least a few years.

A modern 7200rpm drive, or even better a SSD would improve the general 'perkiness' of the system (boot time, opening applications etc). Same for maxing the ram, and ram is very cheap right now.

But if you're talking about games then you're stuck with a slow processor and old GPU and that's what is going to hold you back. (Actually you can upgrade the CPU in theory but it would only be worthwhile if you saw one dirt cheap on ebay.)

RoyalMarine

why not try windows 7 lite?

its purposely made for those who want windows 7 but have low pc specs.

then again, im running windows 7 ultimate on an acer aspire one with 1gb of ram and it runs perfectly fine as long as i dont fill it with junk. (also have aero disabled.)

Daemonic

cormie wrote: »

Thanks again for the replies everyone So I've decided to stick with XP for the friends laptop.

Out of interest, would you all recommend W7 on a new, high spec laptop over XP?

When I upgraded to W7 I used this to create a VM of my existing XP install. Initially I booted it up fairly regularly to grab files, settings etc. but very rarely now I'm 'settled' into my W7 install.
It is a nice security blanket though

cormie

Thanks again for the replies. The game is the only thing I had the problem with really, everything else although not lightning fast, certainly isn't slow enough to warrant an upgrade. It's fine really, I keep my system free of junk and only install programs I know I'll need so I think I'll probably leave it for another while yet. It may just be the resolution etc I had the game at that was the reason it was a bit slow.

tommy2bad

Win 7 is the new XP in as much as it works well and will be around for a good while.
Not much point replacing an XP install with 7 tho if the machinery is old. Drivers could be an issue. Altho I have put 7 on 5 laptops and a HP was the only problem one. Not microsofts fault HP just abandon models after they are 6 mths old.
7 rocks btw.

cormie

Completely forgot about the drivers issue. Thanks for reminding me, at least I can be prepared if I sort my friends laptop

unkel

Windows 8 is the new windows 7

Seriously though, 1GB is adequate for a 3-4 year old PC running Windows 7 for light use. Ignore the nay sayers And drivers will not be an issue on a relatively new PC itself but could be an issue if your friend has very old peripherals (printers, etc.)

As an alternative (to having to buy a relatively expensive operating system) your friend could consider buying a second hand laptop. You can get a decent enough one in the €130-€170 range. PC with the same spec would be cheaper again

Tallon

W8 is sh!t.... go suck a dick

cormie

Thanks again, my friend wouldn't know if it was windows 7 or windows 95 to be honest so I think XP would be the best choice for them, for me I guess W7 would be best, but I don't fancy going the upgrade route yet as everything is going nicely as it has been for the last 4 years on my current laptop, only problem was with that pro evo game which I've only played about 3 times in the last year anyway.

Calibos

I'm my families Tech Support guy but due to various reasons over the last 2 or 3 years I just haven't had the time to sort out their problems or advise on new purchases. All bar one family member hasn't really had the spare funds to get new hardware either. So I was still using a 2005 vintage Dell XPS desktop (3.4ghz P4/2gb Ram/Ati X859XT)), another family member was still using my old 2001 vintage Dell Dimension 8200. Another family member has been sharing his GF's laptop after his Vostro 1700 (2.2ghz Core 2 Duo/2gb Ram/NVidia 8400GM) died. Another brother replaced a Dell Inspiron 1501 (AMD X264 Turion TL50/1gb Ram/Ati1150M) after keys stopped working, Vista slowed to a crawl and he'd get random shutdowns.

The brothers Inspiron with Vista didn't inspire me with upgraditus and then after that neither did his newer Sony Vaio with Windows 7. It was just so slow that I didn't have the patience to even learn my way around Windows 7. My opinion of the OS was soured by the experience. Yes it looked better but I didn't feel the need to upgrade from XP.

After installing Windows7 64bit Home Premium on my new Desktop build I could now root around the OS without waiting ages for anything to open. ie. my patience wasn't been tested. Within a few minutes I was thinking to myself that this OS was actually pretty good

So I decided to install it on the 2005 Dell XPS that was going to a family member. Found drivers for everything I have plugged into it even the old 2005 Dell 962 printer. The only thing it didn't find drivers for was the game port on the soundcard. Nothing uses a gameport on a soundcard these days so that was no great loss. Its running perfectly fine on this PC. Better than XP in fact and its a much prettier OS and arguably a nicer user experience as well. All the negative feelings about it melted away, ie. Why did they move that there, where is this etc Basically I just couldn't be arsed learning or really thinking about it when I was experiencing it on an a laptop that Sony and my brother had filled with crap that opened at startup. I'd give up in frustration before giving the OS 5 minutes of my time.

In a fit of PC maintenence (Something I haven't had time to do in years) I pulled the old Inspiron 1501 and Vostro 1700 out of the attic, looked at some youtube disassembly vids, did a bit of research on the problems/symptoms and found that a new keyboard for the Inspiron can be had for about 20 euros and the shutdowns were down to a 100% blocked fan/heatsink. The Ram can be upgraded for about 25 euro (Wow, loving the ram prices at the moment! ) Vista had been corrupted on it and it was hanging on the Starting Windows screen. I ended up managing to re-installing Vista from the recovery partition. It took nearly a full day with all the Windows updates to get it usable and it still felt slow with a fresh install!! Then I discovered the registry tweaks and Dos commands to extend the Windows 7 Trial period to a year !! What was going to be a quick 3 day trial/messing around with it on old XPS hardware till it demanded activation, turned into....."its staying on this PC and sometime in the next year I'll afford the licence keys and........ Its goin on this old laptop too baby!

It was installed in a few minutes !! and the Windows updates only took less than an hour and a few reboots. Its running really well on this laptop and I think another gig or two of ram will make all the difference.

Two old PC's down and one to go. Turns out the Vostro 1700 needs a new mainboard. Another 2 gigs of ram and a 64gb Crucial M4 SSD in the second hard drive bay (never knew this lappy had space for two HDD;s till I opened her up ) and this laptop is going to be a flyer and second only to my new build in the household PC speed stakes.

My point is that Windows 7 has drivers for 99% of stuff at this point, installs in minutes, is lovely to use and I have gone from a point a few days ago of never wanting to leave XP to wanting to install Windows 7 on everything and even fixing up old PC's to install it on

cormie

Haha, thanks a lot for that Probably not worth taking the risk on the older machine but will most likely go with 7 for a new one

yoyo

Windows 7 is miles better than XP mainly from a security POV. UAC means that only software you authorize will install, that doesn't mean people who don't know won't click ok to install anything that pops up, but it hides the transparency of XP type malware/viruses. Secondly Windows 7 runs fine on 1gig RAM, yes more is better but I wiped my Samsung NC10 netbook off XP to Windows 7 and it runs fine, more RAM would be nice, same on XP.
XP is 10+ years old now and is showing its age, if you have access to 7 definately try it, but make sure you have an XP install available if things don't go to plan, also Windows 7 will run like sh*te if proper drivers are not installed on it, same goes with any OS

Nick

Tallon

UAC is the biggest pile of.... You get the picture, but that's hardly a reason to choose it over XP

yoyo

Tallon wrote: »

UAC is the biggest pile of.... You get the picture, but that's hardly a reason to choose it over XP

One of the ways Linux and Unix OS's are more secure is due to not always running as an Admin, UAC can get annoying but it makes the system more secure, out of all the computers I've been fixing lately removeing viruses and crap on Windows 7 is a breeze compared to XP.

Nick

Tallon

You don't have to run everything as an admin in W7 while UAC is turned off. You can specify it

yoyo

Tallon wrote: »

You don't have to run everything as an admin in W7 while UAC is turned off. You can specify it

True but I don't mind things Windows assumes need admin access such as installers poping up, its not a big deal for me,

Nick

cormie

Hi again,
Just thought I'd post this here, it was a reply I posted in my thread here about a new laptop: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056448037

I like minimalist everything and despise bloatware so I'd like to have the same kind of retail copy of Win 7 that I can also use on my next laptop if nothing better has come out in the next 5 or so years. What windows 7 package should I go for in this case I wonder? Anything similar to XP pro will suit me down to the ground and if there is one I'll probably be using the windows classic theme as I prefer the simplistic design, nothing fancy etc, just functional. I wouldn't like for the copy of W7 to be full of dell crap on a reformat and hopefully all drivers etc will be easily available and on hand?

is it possible to get the same type of retail copy, free of any extras and that will work on any new system if I cease use of the old? This is what I've done with XP over the past 10 or so years and the amount of reformats I've done with the disc was so much that I even knew the serial almost off by heart

tommycahir

If you get yourslef a copy of windows 7 from softwareforstudents.ie and then use nlite to slipstream any specific drivers needed, any service packs etc into the OS install package then i think that should achieve what you need - http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html

cormie

Cool, never heard of that before, Could I not just use the XP license I will be getting if I buy a new laptop though? Don't want to buy it twice...?

Is that nlite thing easy enough to use? I wouldn't be too technical but could do basic stuff I guess as long as everything is explained from within the program.

What way does it work, do you use nlite as a boot disc and choose all these options before, or do you need an OS installed, then set it up on the OS program, then it somehow formats and reinstalls with your choices?