On the horns of an O/S dilemma

andersel

andersel

Charter Member 2014
I bought my current PC in the dead zone between XP and Windows 7. VISTAL! Actually, I’ve been able to undo/neutralize many of the most egregious things about VISTA. Now I ‘m thinking about a software upgrade to Win 7. I’d like as many opinions as you (my SOH compatriots) care to put forth as to whether or not this might be a good solution to living with VISTA. I’m not particularly sanguine about the prospect of having to buy a new computer, so a software/OS . upgrade would be my 1st choice. Whadda ya think?
 
Upgrading from Vista to Win 7, my brother-in-law and sis-in-law saw performance and stability increases on their systems without doing any hardware upgrades. But they don't use their systems for gaming...general e-mail, photo editing, and bid prep (my bro-in-law owns and operates a commercial plumbing company).

If moving from Vista to Win 7 will give you a performance increase or give you a more stable OS depends on your current system specs. While I am not a hardware guru by any means, there are those on this site who are. Give us your system specs in detail and someone will surely be able to give you advice on your best options.

OBIO
 
Hi,

I now use Windows 7 at work and its a worthy successor to WinXP. If you do make the change the consensus is that the best option is a complete reformat rather than an "upgrade" from Vista to Windows 7.

Alastair
 
I'm still using XP for home and office, only my laptop has Vista. When it comes time for me to upgrade, it will be to Windows 7. One thing about installing games and sims in Win 7, like Vista, is that it is usually best to not install them to the c:/Program Files directory as 7 shares the security features of Vista.
 
If you do go with the upgrade route, (upgrade dvd's) you have a couple options here to.
1: just upgrade your original os (xp or vista, keeps all your files and folders)
2: you can do a fresh install (you'll need to format the drive) can do this from dvd's
3: add another hard drive, then do a fresh install. (keeping your original os)

I have done 2 and 3 and they both work. My gaming rig i added another hdd then installed wins7 to it. Now i can boot into vista or wins7. And i am typing this from a dell mini9 that i did a fresh install of wins7 ultimate. (had XP on it) I have the upgrade dvd's of win7 ultimate which comes with both x86 and x64 versions. :mixedsmi:

Joe
 
I am using Windows 7 on a fairly powerful HP Desktop. I have noticed that programs run faster and smoother on "7", despite having integrated video and only 4GB of RAM.

I would recommend upgrading to Windows 7 over Vista and XP. I just format and do a fresh install when it comes to upgrading the OS. I never trusted the "overwrite" procedure to update the original install.

I'm still running Windows XP Pro on the Jetline, but that machine has so much power, there really isn't much that slows it down. FSX can't even come close to making it stutter.

BB686:USA-flag:
 
If you decide to move to W7 I'd suggest the VISTA upgrade route is fraught with too many problems.
Me, I run the Enterprise version of W7-64, as it is the same as W7-64 Ultimate without the extraneous bells and whistle.
FS2004 runs on my system at 60FPS while FSX is presently (I'm 'experimenting' BTW) set at Unlimited FPS .......:kilroy:
 
In typical two step cycle Microsoft went from a good OS (XP) to a crappy one (Vista) and then back to a good one W7. So that choice to me is very simple ... Get W7.
Which version of 7 you need depends a bit on what you want to do with the PC besides FS use. I would definitely opt for the 64 bit versions.

If you can do a clean install rather than an upgrade I would definitely go that route. No upgrade is ever truly clean. Of course that would mean that you have to reinstall FS completely. I would copy the entire folder onto an external HD so that you can later simply copy it back onto the freshly configured PC. Then only a few pay ware add on bits might need re-registering so if you are at all in doubt about having all your license keys,passwords or what ever might be needed you might try your luck with an upgrade and hope that it does import all that correctly.

Cheers
Stefan
 
Thanks for all of your input. There was never a question about whether to upgrade to WIN 7. But now I have a lot more information about the possible options available to me . The clean install sounds like the best route, and I most likely will go with that. The need to re-register some products will be something of a pain, but is do-able. Re-installing FS9 is not an issue. As is probably true with all of you, I save EVERYTHING!

This may all be moot. I’m on a disability retirement and won’t have the $$$ until October. So I’ll live with my VISTA machine (for now) and dream of WIN 7.

Thanks, again, for your advice. I know I’ll be asking for more.

LA

DELL XPS 630i
intel Core Duo
Samsung HD642JJ
4gb RAM
nvidia 9800GT
Creative SB X-Fi
acer AL2216W 23"
 
When I built my new system a month or so back, I knew Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit was the OS I was going with. At nearly $300 for the retail package, I was originally going to wait until tax return next year to buy it. My wife kept telling me to go ahead a buy it so that I could fully enjoy the power of my new system. But that $280 price tag just looked so HUGE...that was 25% of the price I had paid for the parts to build a killer tower. But then I saw it....the OEM Builder's Pack of Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit. A full $100 cheaper than the retail version. I grabbed that one.

I'm not sure if Newegg.com will let you buy the Builder's Pack of Win 7 without having ordered parts to build a system...but if you can, go that route. Same OS, just in a plain white envelope instead of a shiny box with pretty pictures.

OBIO
 
The truth is that W7 will be the new XP soon enough. The software juggernaught is already turning its back on XP so eventually all will have to go that way. I have it on good authority that 7 is not much more that Vista fixed up, that is 7 is what Vista should have been and once you get used to it it's not bad. If you are on a budget, you can look around for a starter version of 7. I believe it is a full OS only without the bloatware no one ever misses anyway. It can be had for around $100 or less if you do some snooping. Most retailers deny it exists for the usual reasons but some good off-the-beaten-path comp stores run by and for geeks will have the skinny on it.
 
Having clean installed 2 W7 x64 and having upgraded both x86 and x64 versions of Vista to W7 i would say either route is fine.

There is a caveat though ... If your system is unstable (and properly patched Vista SP2 is quite stable) then you should do a fresh install ... Rather than carry your system corruption along with you.
 
aeromed202 said:
...some good off-the-beaten-path comp stores run by and for geeks will have the skinny on it.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately - for me, at least - there not a hell iof a lot of off-the-beaten-path comp stores here in Anchorage. I'm pretty much stuck with Big Box retailers and the internet. But, like I said, none of this is going to go down until some time in October, so I can spend some time shopping around on-line. Thanks again all. LA
 
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