Adice Needed For Windows XP Upgrade

None ^ | March 2, 2014 | cva66snipe

[cva66snipe]

I have two computers running XP. The most important one to upgrade right now is my desktop. I've gone back and forth trying to decide whether to go with 7 or 8. Furthermore the terminology being used for OS packages adds to the confusion for me. For example Starter, Builder, etc. Here is what my computer has.

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600

Service Pack 3 Build 2600

System Manufacturer Dell Inc.

System Model Inspiron 530s

System Type X86-based PC

Processor x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 13

GenuineIntel ~1795 Mhz

BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. 1.0.12, 3/1/2008

SMBIOS Version 2.5

Available Physical Memory 634.88 MB

Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB

Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
It's a 32 Bit system

I found a Windows 7 Upgrade disk for over $200. However I need to know if I can go a cheaper route and install a full system package over the XP without having to manually wipe my HD? I know I'll loose my data and I'll back up My Documents so that isn't an issue. Spending money for a Full System OS and it not want to install would be a huge issue.

I have to upgrade with a Disk. Downloading an upgrade or OS is out of the question. I'm on 52K dial up. Would Windows 8.1 full system work? That would get me around the 300MB download. W/7 as much as I would like to have it over W/8 would likely have me doing a couple of days of downloads to bring it up to date.

The last upgrade I did on a computer was W/ME and it was an upgrade disk. Oddly enough a W/8 upgrade disk for previous versions is not to be found in stores in my area just the full system. As I understand it an Upgrade disk is a full system disk.

To further confuse me a tech at a local store said yea W/8.1 would install no problem. But the darn box states not for use with computers with XP or VISTA. Now if that is simply because you would loose your documents etc fine I can work around that part. As I understand it using an Upgrade disk from XP to W8 that's going to happen anyway the Upgrade disk will do a full install wiping all files.

My system is basic a CD/DVD player and I have an external HD for back up and additional storage. A new machine is not afordable for me right now and besides I'd have to puy a dial up modem in it.

Any advice? Thanks.

[Yosemitest]

Maybe so, but AT&T ran optic fiber cable for landlines 2 years ago, here, and I've got e-6 cable-line from the house to the road about 500 ft away.
I think the closest SLICK cabinet is about 5 milesaway.
I driven a fair amount of Tenn, but I don't know what town or city is close to you, so you could think about moving.
But if you're like me and living on family homesteaded land that's been in the family for over 100 years, you wouldn't even think about moving.

[cva66snipe]

The Fiber Optic is why you have DSL. It can't be done over regular line cable beyond three miles. The cable in my area came about in large part because my dad got royally PO'd about the old paper insulated Aeriel cable that went out each rain.

Back in the late 1970's I was flying home from Norfolk to Knoxville and a plane crashed in Atlanta. He didn't know I was on a Piedmoont Turbo Prop making five stops in North Carolina and as usual it was late.

Well the phone started ringing and wouldn't stop even off the hook. Dad finally had enough and jerked it off the wall and proceeded to beat it to a pulp with a sledge hammer. Next day he took it to work in a small box and handed it to his boss LOL. He was working inside back then. He eventually went to the Public Service Commission and an underground cable was put in and a SLICK System.

I live in a rural area about 20 miles north of Knoxville. My families been in the area since the late 1700's so I reckon I'm staying :>}

[dynoman]

I just did a Win 7 fresh install on an XP machine. Win 7 will do an amazing amount of service updates, it’s well over 100 of them. I’d advise taking the computer to somewhere where the internet service is better than 56K to down load the bulk of the updates.

[Johnny B.]

Keep in mind that to (legally) upgrade two computers, you will have to buy two copies of Win 7/8. You would also have to buy one or two copies of a newer version of Office if you’re worried about those.

A 56Kb modem line is going to seriously hurt when it’s time to get all those security updates. I just reinstalled Windows 7 on my laptop along with Office 2007 (and Visual Studio, which you probably don’t have to worry about), and I’ll bet I had to download over a Gigabyte of upgrades, most of them security related.

Given your situation (money’s tight, no high-speed Internet), you really should give Linux a try first. Get yourself a “Live CD” version of some distribution (I would recommend Mint Linux) and give it a try. They will sell you a Live CD for $5.95, if you can’t find a copy some other way.

Note that you don’t have to make any changes to your existing system to try it out. Just boot from the CD (you might have to get into the BIOS at power-up to tell the computer to boot from the CD instead of the hard drive).

Also, much of the major software you would be using (Firefox for web surfing, LibreOffice for documents/spreadsheets/presentations) are also available on Windows, so you could try them out on your Windows machines.

(Quick aside: On several occasions, I have “rescued” corrupt Microsoft Word documents by opening them in LibreOffice, and then saving them again. LibreOffice isn’t perfectly compatible with Microsoft Office, but sometimes it’s better.)

One final comment: there is software available for Linux, called “Wine” that can run hundreds (thousands?) of Windows applications in Linux. If you have a particular Windows-only program or two that you can’t live without, you might find that those packages will run using Wine.

Good luck!

http://www.linuxmint.com

http://www.libreoffice.org

http://www.winehq.org

[norwaypinesavage]

You can buy a number of decent off-lease computers with Windows 7 already installed for well under two hundred bucks. I have several of them. One company is GearXS, though a lot of their systems are loaded with Linux, so pick carefully.

[johncatl]

Your equipment is old. Upgrading is really not the way to go.

Buy a new system(s) and transfer the data to the new hardware. It is a little more work, but a better solution.

Manufacturers pay so much less for the license than you, that the hardware cost is less in the overall scheme of things

Built into both Windows 7 and 8 is a utility called Windows Easy Transfer. It will move your files and settings to the new hardware. Use an external hard drive to copy the data from the old to the new.

Your real decision is between windows 7 and 8 and the version. You really don't need the professional version, so the home version should work in your situation. Windows 8 can be made more user friendly by installing one of the free utilities that bring back the start button and the program menu. Two I have used are; Start Menu 8 from Iobit (www.iobit.com) and Classic Shell (www.download.com)

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

ont orget eboot he omputer.

[AlbertWang]

I upgraded my laptop from Windows XP to Ubuntu a couple months ago.

It was free and my PC is really fast compared to XP.

At start up I can boot up into either XP or Ubuntu.

[ShadowAce]

[trebb]

Whenever possible, do a clean install instead of an upgrade - there are always some glitches with an upgrade, especially with a system that has been running, and presumably had some "tweaks" done over a period of time.

Other than that, I'm happy with 7, but some folks have told me that 8.1 is nice with the desktop option in effect. I would guess either 7 or 8.1, whichever you can get the best deal on.

[hoosierham]

If security is your main concern you should be running one of the third-party anti-virus programs. Also NoScript or similar free programs. You can tighten up that XP pretty well. Are you running a firewall program or hardware firewall device?If the hackers can’t get to your system then lack of new MS updates doesn’t matter.

how about free multi-platform browsers and office programs? SeaMonkey is the modern replacement for and has the functionality of Netscape Communicator. Open Office or Libre Office instead of MS Office.

Ubuntu linux is free to download or cheap to order a CD or DVD.

It is your money but as others have said,it makes more sense to buy a refurbished off-lease system that will be newer and greater capability for less than a MS software disk.

You can buy a nice Dell desktop with Win7 for $100 shipped -do an ebay search. patience will let you eventually find a laptop there or elsewhere. Ham radio flea markets (hamfests) often have vendors with many computers for sale very reasonably.

Honestly if my phone co-op didn’t block the cheap dial-up ISPs I would probably still be using dial-up.If one isn’t downloading videos 56K is quite usable.Browsers (at least some) can beset to load pictures only on your request,etc.

[Cheerio]

Personal preference being what it is (a matter of opinion) I prefer Windows 7 over Windows 8 hands down.



It is a matter of personal preference but in my family we are running Win 7 Pro on 6 machines and love it. About 5 months ago I purchased a netbook to read news on in the morning when I go for coffee and it included 8 - I hate it and would replace it with 7 if it didn't have a warranty. IN FACT I still may install Win 7 over it. I installed the "classic shell" and use the desktop exclusively, which essentially makes it "look like a Win 7". I have no need to ever use the "metro" side of it. Total waste and I forecast it will go down in MS's history books with the ME and Vista debacles. As an aside I do not own - and never will - a smart phone.

[KevinB]

You'll need more memory for 7 or 8.

2 gig of RAM is plenty for Win8. Yesterday I just upgraded my wife's Netbook having 2 gig of RAM and a small Atom CPU from XP to Win 8 and it not only runs, but runs quite a bit peppier than with XP. Win8 is actually quite a nice, efficient OS despite what you may hear from the h8ers. Just boot directly to the desktop and don't use the tiles. The tiles are quite nice on touchscreens, but are a nuisance on desktops.

[KevinB]

Pro for $83? Looks legit.

[rarestia]

Without reading through 60+ replies, I'm going to say something most people have already said: Linux.

Ubuntu Linux or Linux Mint will do EVERYTHING you need them to do, AND you could download either one, install it to a flash drive, boot off of it, and give Linux a test drive before you decide to replace your XP install.

Problem with your specs is that you don't have the horsepower needed to run Win7 or esp. Win8. They both require a minimum of 1 GB of physical RAM and a multi-core processor. Oh, and Windows 8 is only available in 64-bit.

If you don't want to upgrade your hardware, I'd highly recommend checking out a flavor of Linux. Linux is amazing for web browsing, email, instant messaging, and general duties. Linux is not, however, ideal for gaming at this time. If you're on a machine still running XP, however, I'd guess you weren't doing much in the way of gaming outside of maybe minesweeper or Freecell.

Just my $0.02.

[George Varnum]

I keep an old XP in the cellar for a back up, and use a newer laptop running W-7.

The W7 is fast and stable enough, but I really dislike the way the file menues present and the difficulty of selecting a file without missing the window a little with the cursor and having the menu disappear and having to start over again.

Having to scroll around looking for my file is a pain as well, and the list keeps popping up and down making it frustrating to catch a file even after I find it.
I can’t seem to maneuver up and down the filepath from explorer like I used to on XP.
W-XP was a lot more stable and intuitive.

Looking for some way to modify / retrofit W7 to operate more like XP, I found a program to do it (Windows will only offer it for PRO versions, which I don’t have) but it’s complexity scared me off.

Any suggestions?

[KevinB]

Oh, and Windows 8 is only available in 64-bit

Where did you get that idea? I'm looking at a 32-bit Win8 installation disk right now.

The OP said his machine has 2 gig of RAM, which is totally sufficient to run Win8.

[rarestia]

OP said he has 2 GB of VIRTUAL memory. He has 634 MB of physical:

Available Physical Memory 634.88 MB

That's a HUGE distinction, as newer OSes require physical RAM. Given his local machine is as old as it is, virtual memory would be highly undesirable, as he's likely using IDE hard disks. Memory swapping would completely overwhelm that spinning disk.

Is your install disk an OEM disk or an actual Microsoft-branded, purchased from Microsoft install disk? You will be very hard pressed to find a 32-bit OEM disk. Microsoft might provide 32-bit install disks as a courtesy, but by 2020, 32-bit will no longer be an option in computing. That's an industry push, not just Microsoft. You'd be doing yourself a great disservice with 32-bit Windows 8, as you'll be pegged at 3.5 GB of physical memory and won't be able to use the extended registers on 64-bit hardware.

So if you "got me" anywhere, it's that I should've said you won't be having a good time with 32-bit Win8.

[KevinB]

10-4, yes I missed that most of the 2 gig memory is virtual rather than physical. I wasn’t trying to “get” anybody regarding the 32 bit comment, just point out that W8 does come in 32 bit format. My experience with the 32 bit versions has been quite good. If I need to do something different in a few years I’ll deal with it then.

[rarestia]

I appreciate being kept in check by other FReepers, but when it comes to tech, given that it’s my industry, I can get a little over-defensive.

With MS operating systems, I spoke concerning Win8 without double-checking. Microsoft’s server operating systems are no longer available in 32-bit since Server 2012 came out, and that was my basis for commentary.

Thank you for keeping me honest.