Just installed Windows 7 on My Vista Laptop & XP Desktop

[Like2Travel]

I debated doing this upgrade for a long time. I started another discussion several months ago when I was debating this. I finally decided to upgrade both of my computers to Windows 7. I bought two legal Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade DVDs from Amazon. They were around $120 each. Not cheap but a lot cheaper than buying two new computers. On top of that, I had to spend $40 on a new video card for the desktop that had Windows 7 drivers available for it. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on the upgrade.

I did the laptop first. Since it had Vista, I was able to do an 'Upgrade' option. This took around 6-7 hours including downloading all of the updates that were avalaible for it after the install. All in all, this was a fairly simple job. When you do this type of install, everything that was on the computer is still there when you are finished.

My desktop was more difficult since it had XP which requires a 'Clean' install. That means that your system drive is cleaned off and Windows 7 is installed on it. This is fairly quick. But, you have to have a good back up of all of your files prior to the install and after the install, you have to put everything back. This also means that you have to reinstall all of your programs too. I discovered several of my programs required me to buy new versions since my old versions were not compatible with 7. Also, prior to the install, I had to replace the video card while I still had XP to make sure it would run OK. It did.

I'm still have an issue with the desktop but in general I am very happy with Windows 7 on both computers. I would not recommend this option for everyone especially if you are on XP. But the upgrade to Vista is pretty simple even if it does take a long time.

[johnrbd]

Like2Travel wrote:

johnrbd wrote:
Thanks for the info. Last yr got a W-7 desktop (didn't want W-8) to replace old Vista computer. The Vista has 2 GB ram, the W-7 desktop has 10 GB - considerable faster.

Going from 2GB of ram to 10GB might make a difference. My guess is that if everything else were equal, going from 2 to 10 likely would make little difference. There might be a lot of other things on your new computer that might make a lot of the difference, faster processor, faster disk drive, less junk, and some other things. Very often, a computer will slow down as it ages because of more things being added over time. This past January, I installed the 2013 release of Norton Internet Security. It slowed both computer down some but slowed my XP desktop down a lot. I still have Norton and both computers are doing much better on 7 and neither computer had any hardware changes.

There is one other thing I have learned about 7. I mentioned earlier that 7 was slow when starting a program for the first time after boot up. What I have learned is this, if you let it set for 5-10 minutes, it starts everything up much faster. But, if you start things up as soon as it shows you your desktop, starting things up is very slow.

Enjoy Windows 7. I just hope that whenever Microsoft drops support for it, there will be a much better choice than Windows 8 for us to go to.

It will probably be Windows 8.9999.

I agree with you on some programs, especially older ones that I moved over from Vista, no difference or slight difference, one way or another. Especially Solitaire, even though I update it every other year. My Money program runs exactly the same speed.

BTW, I'm running A10-5700 cpu with HD-7660D graphics. I have plenty of ram but the cpu can bog down.

[Like2Travel]

johnrbd wrote:
Thanks for the info. Last yr got a W-7 desktop (didn't want W-8) to replace old Vista computer. The Vista has 2 GB ram, the W-7 desktop has 10 GB - considerable faster.

Going from 2GB of ram to 10GB might make a difference. My guess is that if everything else were equal, going from 2 to 10 likely would make little difference. There might be a lot of other things on your new computer that might make a lot of the difference, faster processor, faster disk drive, less junk, and some other things. Very often, a computer will slow down as it ages because of more things being added over time. This past January, I installed the 2013 release of Norton Internet Security. It slowed both computer down some but slowed my XP desktop down a lot. I still have Norton and both computers are doing much better on 7 and neither computer had any hardware changes.

There is one other thing I have learned about 7. I mentioned earlier that 7 was slow when starting a program for the first time after boot up. What I have learned is this, if you let it set for 5-10 minutes, it starts everything up much faster. But, if you start things up as soon as it shows you your desktop, starting things up is very slow.

Enjoy Windows 7. I just hope that whenever Microsoft drops support for it, there will be a much better choice than Windows 8 for us to go to.

[johnrbd]

Thanks for the info. Last yr got a W-7 desktop (didn't want W-8) to replace old Vista computer. The Vista has 2 GB ram, the W-7 desktop has 10 GB - considerable faster.

[Like2Travel]

As far as the ram goes, I think both computers had ample ram on XP and Vista and for Windows 7 too. The laptop has 2GB and the desktop has 3GB.

As far as speed goes, in places Windows 7 is faster and others it is slower. Booting up, 7 is much faster. Shutting down, XP was faster. Starting up something like Internet explorer, Chrome, Word, or most any program, XP was faster but just the starting up. After something is started, then 7 is faster. If you left your computer up all day or for long periods of time, 7 would look the fastest. If you just runs yours for 30 minutes or an hour every now and then, XP might look quicker.

I am very happy with this choice. Since Windows 8 is about all you can get on a new computer, I happy to have 7.

[johnrbd]

Did you notice any increase in the speed of either computer? Also, did you add any more ram?