Is is worth upgrading from XP to Window 7?

[d000hg]

Upgrade to W7 while it's still on sale - I would say 64bit unless you have a good reason otherwise.

[Paddy]

Yes, Plus XP is no longer supported (or won't be soon, not sure on dates) so no more patches or fixes

“No longer supported” so WTF. It still works, it does not mean the end of patches, updates will still be available. The “No longer supported” scare is often misinterpreted by client’s as the software will stop working. If XP is working and you don’t need the W7 features; then there is no point in upgrading.

[ChimpMaster]

Office 2010 is a pile of tulip

Win 7 is OK and useable

2010 is the only one on sale else I would go for 2011. Beats 2003, which I'm using at the moment anyway!

I've gone for Win 7 Pro 64bit on my new-build PC. Very happy with it.

Make sure you've plenty of RAM. I'd recommend 8GB or more. A multi-core processor would be ideal too. At least 6 cores...

Ah of course, with Vista I am restricted to 3Gb. With 7 allowing more RAM this makes it a done deal! 64 bit it is then. I just hope I don't destroy my PC whilst upgrading!

[shaunbhoy]

“No longer supported” so WTF. It still works, it does not mean the end of patches, updates will still be available. The “No longer supported” scare is often misinterpreted by client’s as the software will stop working. If XP is working and you don’t need the W7 features; then there is no point in upgrading.

It all depends. I use lots of legacy applications, and I am finding that whilst they all work just fine on XP, more and more of them are not supported in Windows 7.
Pain in the arse really. The easiest solution for me is to get a second laptop with XP, which thankfully I am not going to have to fork out for.
Horses for courses really.

[d000hg]

“No longer supported” so WTF. It still works, it does not mean the end of patches, updates will still be available. The “No longer supported” scare is often misinterpreted by client’s as the software will stop working. If XP is working and you don’t need the W7 features; then there is no point in upgrading.

No, it DOES mean they will stop releasing patches, at least anywhere as quickly. For businesses, that is as bad as it if stopped working.

[Scrag Meister]

I moved from XP to 7 when I built a new machine back in September.

Works fine does what it says on the tin.

Some nice features. Simple driver updates. 16Gb Ram.

[petergriffin]

I'm going to buy Office 2010 from Software4Students (for the kids innit) and thought I might go for Windows 7 too... but is it worth upgrading from XP?

No. Just repartition your hard drive and install a good user-friendly and software-rich Linux distribution like Mint (note: I don't use Mint for myself; I use Slackware but I won't recommend it to newbies).

All new Linux distros come with Libre Office which is like Openoffice but better. There's nothing, apart from advanced gaming probably, that Win 7+ Office can do that Mint + LibreOffice can't.

[Churchill]

WSBS.

All the stuff in the lab is legacy.

And it doesn't work on 64 bit either.

Ho hum.

My philosophy is: if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Coz if you fix it, it will get broke and not in a good way.

Win 7 Pro does have some pretty good compatibility modes...

Also, you could run your legacy windows as a VM using "VirtualBox"...

Just saying, like...

[d000hg]

You don't even need VB... "XP Mode" is pretty cool and lets you run your XP apps, in a VM, from the W7 desktop.

[Spacecadet]

There's nothing, apart from advanced gaming probably, that Win 7+ Office can do that Mint + LibreOffice can't.

SQL Server?
Visual Studio?