Windows 7 forum: Should I consider upgrading to Windows 7 or 8, since XP support is ending soon?

I think you are confusing a Clean Install with a Clean Boot. A Clean install is basically reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows, hardware drivers and all programs from scratch. A Clean Boot is when you boot to a stripped down version of Windows by turning off all startup applications and unnecessary drivers and services.

I just downloaded from Microsoft at "Upgrade anytime" Windows 8 pro for 39.95. I had Vista on my lap top and Microsoft has a Upgrade anytime policy and it cost me only 39.95. You download the file, save it, pal for it and they e-mail you a Key #, install it and you're finish.

I received a email some time ago and if I upgraded to windows 8 pro it would cost $39.99 before January 31st. after that date it would go up to $199..99

on my old Dell Inspiron 530s without a hitch, Win7 loaded all the drivers and updates and runs like a champ...Digger

What Dell are you thinking about upgrading? Like XP Vista came out at a bad time hardware wise - they needed more horespower and RAM than was available for most buyers. Early Vista computers might have had single core P4 (still love them) or AMD processors and 512 - 1024 gb of DDR2 RAM. I would not spend money upping stuff that old and weak. A late Vista computer with a high end core 2 duo or quad core
processor with 3 gb of the newest ddr2 RAM might be worth it but they are fairly zippy anyway.

Dell has some of the most comprehensive info about individual computers out there. Go to their support site and use your service tag to find out which parts they used to build yours. You might have it with the original paperwork too. Then go to the websites of the companies that made those parts to see if they have updated drivers for W7. I plan on upgrading my powerful Dell XP computer (bought in XP's last month from the last company you could get a new home desktop with XP - Dell) mainly because of IE8 speed and security issues.
I'm not going to upgrade my Vista computer despite the extra speed with W7. Even though Vista is slower for most things, being able to use the faster IE9 with it makes its not worth the $$ and time for me to upgrade. My vista laptop has a 1.6 ghz dual core and 3 gb RAM and is a bit pokey but ok. A friend has one with a 3.0 ghz core2 duo and 3 gb of dual channel RAM and his is quite zippy.

I use a Dell XP desktop, HP Vista laptop, 2 yo Dell W7 desktop, and a new HP W7 Pro quad core 8 gb 7200 rpm hd laptop . I know the world has basically moved to 64 bit OSs but my favorite is the Dell W7 desktop. Its only a 2.9 ghz dual core, 2 gb dual channel RAM, 32 bit version of W7. BUT, it is a very fast computer and to my surprise and only because its the 32 bit version, many old XP programs run great on it including my old but still great Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 and of all things Risk II! If you do upgrade and have a bunch of old programs the 32 bit version might be worth thinking about. Its what I'm going to upgrade my old XP desktop to if n when I get around to it. That should make finding compatible drivers easier too. I was able to install Elements 2.0 on my new HP W7 Pro laptop when using XP mode which is a virtual machine but could not print the pics. Seems to be a problem using usb ports with virtual machines so I had to email the pic to myself then download it when back in W7 mode..... So I use my 32 bit W7 machine for those chores and the value of my 64 bit W7 Pro machine has diminished greatly in my eyes! BTW Adobe, now that the tests are over I'm back to having my Elements 2.0 on only one machine again - the 32 bit W7 Dell. Bet you hate hearing how well that works. I was almost gonna buy a new version for it or the new HP.

Just checked the Dell support site; Dell does not supply Win 7 drivers for the Latitude D830; only XP or Vista. (this is why Dell tech support gave you negative response to your question of upgrading). I am suprised because most systems running Vista will run better with Win 7. If you have a spare 2.5" drive, and a copy of Win 7, remove your current Vista drive; install the new drive and do a clean install of Vista; ensure all the drivers have been installed. Then upgrade from Vista to 7 and test your hardware and check if all drivers are still installed. Although Dell doesn't support Win 7 on this laptop it may still work. FYI: upgrading to an unsupported OS voids your warranty. LOL.

If you this works and you decide to upgrade your current, working Vista drive, I suggest cloning the drive to ensure you have a good working backup, just in case something to goes haywire.

I am talking about THE DELL, which will not help you if you upgrade a product to Win 8, even if that product is currentenly available for sale. You can put in the service tag and if Win 8 is not listed as a supported os, then you are on your own. I found this out the hard way. They don't really have any support to speak of, anyway.

The tech support guy at Dell was really only interested in getting me to buy their software support. They must get a commission or something. The truth is from experience I know that their software siupport is useless even if it were free. Dell is definitely on a downslide. The only reason I ever bought Dell was the availability of the touchpoint mouse built into the keyboard. Until recently I've only ever seen it on Dell and Lenovo but I did jjust see a new Sony with this small built in touchpoint mouse. Once you get the hang of it, you can operate the entire computer with one finger and you don't even have to lift it off the mouse.

depending upon versions you may not be able to upgrade from vista to 7, but you could certainly install a clean copy. Dell doesn't make a machine that win 7 or 8 won't run on.
I went to win8, because it is a lot quicker on my 3 machines. 1 boots in 20 seconds as opposed to 2 minutes for win 7. I did have to do a re install for the software that I was using. don't like the metro screen, use one of the free startup replacements.

I used XP mode for about a year, year and a half. Unfortunately, it became so slow I couldn't use it. Even basic tasks were taking forever.

There are reasons why virtualized servers are specially designed for this. XP mode is a form of virtualization for the home user. Macs started using it a few years ago because they can't run certain PC programs, particularly in the gaming and business categories. For example, a friend of mine couldn't get personal financial or tax software to run on his Mac.

For those that don't know, Virtualization is a technology that lets a single computer think it's more than one computer. This was originally designed for servers which, by very nature, are very specialized and therefore have a lot of unused capacity. Virtualization, therefore, allows the server to be an IP server, a time sever, and a firewall server all in one (theoretically, the number and types of virutal servers is infinite). Virtualization also allows virtual servers to be transferred between computers. Therefore, a virtual server can be transferred to another machine while the physical server is being worked on.

Virtualization works through "virtual machines" and a "host" machine. The "host" machine is the physical unit. "Virtual machines" are the systems that exist only in software; there is no physical unit. This gets really hard to imagine.

Anyway, all that to say that virtualization does not work very well for home users. it is a server technology. It slows down your computer and the virtual machine (such as XP mode) is terribly sluggish and limited in what it can do.

While Hyper-V is their latest, the change is most likely because in most companies you can't have more than one standard to support. This is a poll question so to continue this off topic discussion we'll have to start fresh.
Bob

I have both,Windows 7 and Windows 8.I like Windows 7 much better.I even have the hard drive split on my Mac and have windows 7 installed on it.I was at Staples and a few people were bringing there computers back with windows 8 and getting Windows 7.I just bought a new Dell a couple of weeks ago and i made sure i had Windows 7 in it.try it out,you might care for it.Go down to Staples or best buy and try it out.My buddie has a decent size computer shop and he says he wants nothing to do with windows 8.

To keep an open mind, I downloaded Windows 8 on my laptop and I gave it nearly 3 months of daily use to see if it was for me.

I even purchased a couple of Windows 8 "how to" books to help with the transition.

After this length of time, I was done. Enough is enough.

The experience was not in any way positive.

I did a complete restore of Windows 7 and I haven't looked back since.

I also purchased a new copy of Windows 7 and filed it away safe and sound, so that I can dump Windows 8 from any new computer that I buy in the future.

This is the perfect time to upgrade to windows 8 Pro since you have until 1/31/2013 to download it directly from Microsoft for $39.99.
That's much cheaper than getting Windows 7 and, Windows 8 is faster and more secure than Windows 7.
Full details are available at:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/buy?ocid=GA8_O_WOL_Hero_ShopHP_FPP_Null

I was at Best Buy today playing around with all the laptops with Windows 8 installed. I noticed on every laptop that it took what I called a considerable amount of time for each program to open after I clicked on the box or touched it with my finger. Seemed a lot slower then previous Windows 7 machines to me.
The best way to speed up any Windows 7 machine is to purchase a 120gb SSD drive and put the OS on it. You wouldn't believer how much faster the computer boots and opens applications.