Windows 7

[Dukat]

Bah, I'm having to bite the bullet and upgrade from Windows XP at long last.

I may well keep XP around on dual-boot, but I'm pretty sure this is the beginning of the end for that O/S


Anyway - Windows 7!

What who where and when? I want to know names, faces! Whats the word on the street and all that guff?!

If I want to upgrade, how much of a ball-ache am I looking at? Its been yonks since I switched to XP and I'm set in my ways. Now I've just bought Just Cause 2 and it won't run on windows XP, and so tomorow I fully intend to have windows 7 bought, installed and JC2 running - just wondering about any pit-falls, hardware troubles or higher requirements and so on?

Any help much appreciated, just looking for a bit of information on upgrading to and using windows 7 after a lifetime of windows xp.

 

[ford prefect]

Bah, I'm having to bite the bullet and upgrade from Windows XP at long last.

I may well keep XP around on dual-boot, but I'm pretty sure this is the beginning of the end for that O/S

Good, it was a pretty awful OS.

Anyway - Windows 7!

What who where and when? I want to know names, faces! Whats the word on the street and all that guff?!

If I want to upgrade, how much of a ball-ache am I looking at? Its been yonks since I switched to XP and I'm set in my ways. Now I've just bought Just Cause 2 and it won't run on windows XP, and so tomorow I fully intend to have windows 7 bought, installed and JC2 running - just wondering about any pit-falls, hardware troubles or higher requirements and so on?

Any help much appreciated, just looking for a bit of information on upgrading to and using windows 7 after a lifetime of windows xp.

It's fairly hassle free. Throw in the disk, it will put your current windows install into a windows.old folder, so you can take out what you need before deleting it, and thats basically it, job done.

 

[Ch3tan]

You shouldn't have any driver ballache either, I've done 4 win7 installs, 2 laptops and 2 desktops and not had a single issue.

Don't bother with a partition, just install and all your XP stuff will in in windows.old as ford said.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Got an HP + win 7 combo, check itself before it wrecks itself, fairly often(if you like), no problems, no boot problems, no speed issues(high tech guys might whine about that) and all in all it gives everything windows should.

It's like a long term relationship, it may not have all the tricks the amsterdam red light district has, but it'll clean your underwear and blow you once every full moon.

Well, XP was that, win 7 has been to amsterdam and had her boobs done too

 

[DocWolfe]

You can't upgrade XP to Windows 7.

 

[cHodAX]

Only replace.

 

[old.Tohtori]

You can, but it's a bit trickier then vista -> 7.

 

[DocWolfe]

If he's upgrading XP to 64-bit Windows 7 then you can't.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 - Help & How-to - Microsoft Windows

Microsoft page seems to say you can. Ofcourse "To upgrade your PC from Windows XP to Windows 7" is subject to a certain amount of leanway

 

[Dukat]

Great, sounds good!

I've currently got three partitions - C: OS (15GB), D: Apps (~170GB) and E: Data (~500GB)

Since the 15GB C: isn't big enough (apparently?) for W7, I was thinking I'll want to get a small new hard drive to put it on, but then I thought that might be wrong, since I'll probably have to re-install alot of my applications anyway before they'll run soundly on W7 - so I may as well just clear out D: and juggle partition sizes? I'm a little unsure on whether I'd need to do this though?

That said, this upgrading process seems to factor-in previously intalled program locations etc, so does this mean the programs I have on my D: Partition will be fine to be left as they are to just pick up again after the W7 change?

Also, I've only just noticed the 32/64bit jazz, I'm assuming I'll want 32bit for maximum compatibility with older programs/games? As far as I'm aware my PC will run on either (will look into this in more depth perhaps).

Cheers for all the help so far lads, top stuff!

 

[cHodAX]

Trust me, if you can you want to go the 64bit route.

 

[Ch3tan]

Go 64bit, programs will still work in 32bit mode if they don't have a 64 bit version.

As for your install, you can resize your partitions from within windows.

 

[cHodAX]

Had to post this...

 

[Edmond]

I use XP at home and Vista at work, i much prefer XP, which is why i'm holding back from upgrading to 7

I do need to rebuild, and i know i will have to go with 7, but just waiting for this one to die on its arse, which tbh is not far off

 

[Syri]

About the biggest thing I had trouble getting used to going to windows 7 was "add/remove programs" being renamed to "programs and features". Everything I was using on xp has worked perfectly with 7 so far, though it's not THAT surprising really as I don't really use much in the way of old stuff, and it's the older stuff and the more custom made stuff that will have the most trouble with the newer versions of windows.
With regards to the installation, I always prefer to have a partition for the OS, and any apps like Office and such. Got a 50gb one set by for Windows 7, and a good assortment of other programs, and it's got 12gb free at the moment, since the retail launch, and that's without paying any attention to clearing it up or anything. If you monitor temp folders, and move the virtual memory and hibernate data, it'll go even better on space. I like the seperate partition though, as it means if things go wrong, I can just nuke that one if need be, and know that all my documents, games, music, movies etc are all safe on other partitions.

 

[Calaen]

Not had any problems other than the above poster with the renaming of things

But typing it in the search box pretty much puls it up anyway!

 

[Lamp]

Currently using XP and very happy with it. Since I don't use my PC to play games on anymore, it does everything I want it to do pretty much problem free. My father just got a new laptop with W7 and I hate it. Better the devil you know

 

[kamorrista]

win 7 works nice for me on new laptop, but win xp is a classic problem free one, I use it on my netbook and PC, never had a problem, but in the other hand Vista just sucks, patching everytime and running slow sometimes, lots of problems with it (my parents PC)

 

[DocWolfe]

I use windows xp at work and I fucking hate it now, I've got windows 7 at home, and all the things I could do with being useful at work XP doesn't have. such as the Windows + Left/Right/Up keys, which allows you to split the screen and maximise things.

The new task bar would be incredibly useful as well.

 

[Dukat]

Ok I've just finished installing Windows 7 and I'm now fully into the 'messing about' phase

Liking it so far I have to say, there's alot there I'd thought would really annoy me but actually works pretty well.

So far really quite impressed, I still dont like this 'libraries' business but I've been told its actually a very good idea if I bear with it, so I'm persevering so far

A couple of flashy gadgets on the desktop keeping me happy, steam installed and Just Cause 2 installing as I type this - no doubt it won't work after going to all this effort but I'm pleased to be on Windows 7 even so, almost feels like a new PC

Cheers for all the help and advice, have to say you lot seem to have been spot-on so far, ended up taking out my old 170GB HDD with C:\(WinXP) and D:\(Apps), thinking that as a worst case I can always have that handy to fall back on, set up a new C:\(Win7) and D:\(Apps) on my new 320GB HDD and am now looking forward to filling it up with loads of games I won't ever play and so on

Cheers again everyone!

 

[Ch3tan]

Libraries is just my documents renamed.

 

[ford prefect]

Libraries is just my documents renamed.

Not quite, Libraries can be set to pull specific document types - images or audio for example from multiple locations and allows them to be shown under one folder.