I have an 8 year old Dell XPS computer with XP on it. Now that I am seeing the end of the road for XP, I have been thinking about my options. This computer, when it was purchased, was a very high end computer that listed for almost $3000. I know that I could buy a new Dell with Windows 8 or Windows 7. I have already helped a friend change from and old XP computer to a new one with Windows 8. I am pretty sure I don't want Windows 8. It might be great on a touch screen computer, but on a computer with a mouse and keyboard it's a piece of crap. I could buy a new Dell with Windows 7. This is not a bad option except I just hate to buy a new computer with one generation old operating system. That brings me to a third option, upgrade the Dell that I have. So far, I have installed and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. The result from that look pretty good. I have taking the Advisor print out to a local computer repair store and was told the computer would probably do OK with the upgrade. I would have to install some new drivers, reinstall most all of my software, and maybe buy a newer version of some software. It is also possible that there might have to be a hardware upgrade to the video card.Has anyone done an upgrade to Windows 7? If so, how did it go? What problems? How did the system perform after the upgrade? Did you have to buy any new software because the old version wouldn't run on 7? Did you have to install any new hardware?

Upgrading to Windows 7 is certainly an option...but, an 8 year old computer is probably getting close to end of life..with a major hard drive crash around the corner.It's hard to pay $3000 today for a brand new computer unless you are building a very high end gaming system.I'd start fresh.

I bought a new laptop loaded with Window 7. Some of my programs would not run on it, that I used on the XP. I was using a older version on Quicken had to replace with newer version. I have all my electrical wiring diagrams and other drawing for the MH on AutoCAD LT. It will not run on 7. I was lucky that I still have another XP computer to run my AutoCAD. Check you programs and data files to make sure they will work on Windows 7.

Win 7 does not have the drivers for certain hardware and you cannot get the drivers.That is a problem.Specifically, in my case, my portable sheetfed scanner won't work and the manufacturer did not upgrade the drivers for Win7.So I had to buy a new scanner.That there is the problem with using obsolete hardware.

I had to discard my XP computer because of motherboard issues otherwise I would still be using it. I have one with ME, 3 with vista and 1 with 7.You don't say why you need to do an upgrade, only that you can. What's the point of your change? Even though Microsoft says they are not going to support XP soon, the system you have working now will still work tomorrow and then some. Everything that works on 7 works on XP. I wouldn't bother with a change.

rctour wrote:I had to discard my XP computer because of motherboard issues otherwise I would still be using it. I have one with ME, 3 with vista and 1 with 7.You don't say why you need to do an upgrade, only that you can. What's the point of your change? Even though Microsoft says they are not going to support XP soon, the system you have working now will still work tomorrow and then some. Everything that works on 7 works on XP. I wouldn't bother with a change.I'm already having problems. My worst problem was earlier this year installing a new version of Norton Internet Security. That took me 2-3 weeks and 6-8 reinstalls to get it to work OK. Currently, my Windows Explorer version 8 is giving me problems and can't be upgraded on XP. I have installed Chrome. It work good for now. Yes, I think I could push XP another year or more but I think problems with XP will just get worse.I would like to do something before the oxen gets completely in the ditch. I also have Microsoft Outlook version 2007. I have been having problems with it because of it running on XP.

Upgrade Windows XP to Windows 7? | Good Sam Community

56 Replies

tatest
Explorer II
Sep 17, 2013
What applications, what peripherals are important to you?

Win7 lets you go to 64-bit, if your hardware is ready for 64-bit, but then all drivers are new and not everything from XP and earlier eras has 64-bit drivers. I have scanners, video capture devices, videocams, and still cameras I cannot connect to Win-7 64-bit. I have game software unstable in Win 7, and have had to update or replace productivity, photo editing, and video editing and processing software. But if you have no specialized hardware, no critical software that can't be replaced functionally be something newer, you might want to upgrade.

However, if you have a compelling reason to go to Vista/Win 7/Win 8 (three iterations of the system beyond NT/2000/XP), I'll repeat what has been said. Buy a new system. A $500 system today will outperform a $3000 system built when XP was new, been there, done that. I have two Win 7 systems, laptop and XPS deskside, get 99% of my use, cost a small fraction of my XP systems. But I keep an XP system alive (and anither as backup) to run the hardware and apps I've not been able to replace. Have a couple Ubuntu systems too, but that's a whole different issue.
LarryJM
Explorer II
Sep 14, 2013
whitebb wrote:
I purchased a year or so win7 and then bought win 7 professional one time upgrade and it gives me a 64 bit OS and a 32 bit virtual machine for older software, works better than regular win 7.Works so good I even purchase it for wife. good luck. She is the game person, not me.

That's what I have done for the last two laptops I have bought. I made sure I got the Win7 professional version and that way 99% of my old software and hardware still works.

Larry
burlmart
Explorer
Sep 14, 2013
The progress thing was joking. I still use Office 97 and Strollin' has indicated it should run fine in W8 using compatibility mode.
Wayne_Dohnal
Explorer
Sep 14, 2013
Like2Travel wrote:
I would like to hear of any other programs that failed on W7. Most of what I have heard is that nearly all programs that run on XP will still run on W7. Thanks.
I made a post about this about a year ago. Rather than repeating it, here's a link http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/26255901/gotomsg/26327005.cfm#26327005 . I didn't remember every single issue then, and don't now either. One that I didn't list is the electronic service manual for my 1994 Audi won't run on Win 7. I made the painful conversion to the Windows Live email client which is worse than Outlook Express but nevertheless worked. Then one day it quit working demanding a mandatory update. The update didn't work and I made another painful switch to the Thunderbird email client, which in the long run was a good move. I've switched to Open Office rather than pay for a new version of Word. The old one (Word 97) ran fine on XP, not at all on Win 7. Yes it's old but did everything I needed it for.
mileshuff
Explorer
Sep 14, 2013
burlmart wrote:
mileshuff wrote:
I've got several 32 bit programs that run fine in XP but will not run in Windows 7 64 bit and some won't even run in Win 7 32 bit. Microsoft has always been terrible at backwards compatibility. It's fine for casual users who have common off the shelf programs but quite different for those of us using high level applications, CAD, Programming languages etc.

It's called progress

Progress? Reliability, consistency, compatibility, are far more important than having the latest new techno gadget. When you have a corporation that invests millions into new software, some custom, you do not want to have to do it all over again ever few years when a new OS comes out. Way to costly. Stability and continuity is essential. If we know in advance that spending millions now for new software that won't run in 3-5 years we have to think twice. Progress is not wiping out massive investments every few years.
Chris_Bryant
Explorer II
Sep 14, 2013
elkhornsun wrote:
Hate to tell you this Chris but I seriously doubt that 5.25 floppies are going to make a comeback

Hey- I was a subscriber to Byte when Jerry Pournelle warned against 5 1/4" floppies- 8" were the omly way to insure data integrity.
I do have a couple of thousand dollars of hardware dependent on copy protected 5 1/4 inch floppies (and Apple DOS 3.3).
elkhornsun
Explorer
Sep 14, 2013
Hate to tell you this Chris but I seriously doubt that 5.25 floppies are going to make a comeback.

Microsoft decided to release differnt flavors of Windows 7 and to my knowledge you need Windows 64 Pro to be able to run all 32-bit and 64-bit programs. The Pro version has an XP emulator capability to run older programs written to run under XP. There is a separate upgrade to 64-bit Pro you can buy - not cheap.
Chris_Bryant
Explorer II
Sep 13, 2013
Heck- I have programs on 5 1/4" floppies-

Glad that 32 bit is no big deal- I couldn't imagine it.
burlmart
Explorer
Sep 13, 2013
mileshuff wrote:
I've got several 32 bit programs that run fine in XP but will not run in Windows 7 64 bit and some won't even run in Win 7 32 bit. Microsoft has always been terrible at backwards compatibility. It's fine for casual users who have common off the shelf programs but quite different for those of us using high level applications, CAD, Programming languages etc.

It's called progress
mileshuff
Explorer
Sep 13, 2013
I've got several 32 bit programs that run fine in XP but will not run in Windows 7 64 bit and some won't even run in Win 7 32 bit. Microsoft has always been terrible at backwards compatibility. It's fine for casual users who have common off the shelf programs but quite different for those of us using high level applications, CAD, Programming languages etc.

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Upgrade Windows XP to Windows 7?

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