My missus works from home and is currently using a rather creaky old Windows XP computer.
It is mostly emails, spreadsheets, word, the odd skype call i.e. nothing too taxing hardware wise.
She does store client information however so the upcoming ending of Microsoft support for XP is a worry.
So, she needs a more up to date p.c.
Question is- where to buy?
Windows 7 or Windows 8? (She has, and likes, a Windows phone so the tile thing wouldn’t be too much of a shock)
I’m guessing my knocked off antique version of Office 2000 won’t work either…
We have a monitor and a normal tower case will be fine.
Any ideas chaps?
Ta,
Mike

HP have just revived Win7 on loads of their stuff.

HP website

I think you’d be a bit silly to go for W7 given that you can make W8 look like W7 (or near enough that doesn’t matter) if you really want (since that’s the main complaint)

And then you avoid the ‘out of life’ problem you have with your XP box for a few more years.

If she has a modern windows phone then def windows 8 as all the stuff will work together nicely

the upcoming ending of Microsoft support for XP is a worry.

It’s not going to stop working, you realise. How often have you had to call Microsoft for support in the last ten years?

I’m guessing my knocked off antique version of Office 2000 won’t work either…

LibreOffice will.

Cougar, I think the concern is more with the lack of security updates and client information potentially being at risk. Patch Tuesdays being what they were for XP I don’t reckon it will be long before individuals PC’s are being compromised after support ceases.
If we were still running XP in the office I think my tin-foil hat may well be spinning at this point.

the Windows XP deadline is a timebomb IMO

Zero day exploit(s)…

Sure. But MS announced recently that they’re going to carry on releasing XP patches beyond the April deadline, for a while at least. How long that will last I don’t know.

You could always take it off the ‘net, of course.

the Windows XP deadline is a timebomb IMO

Zero day exploit(s)…

Zero day exploits will be a problem irrespective of security patches and active development. That’s what ‘zero day’ means.

Windows 8 takes the phrase “total utter cack” on to a whole new level.

Zero day exploits will be a problem irrespective of security patches and active development. That’s what ‘zero day’ means.

typically you would hope they would hard to find though

a developer might fix/change something with out fully realising the implication.. how much faith do we have in their QA

you would think code that isn’t changing would be great for anyone wishing to cause trouble

Windows 8 is solid, if she has a win 8 phone and isn’t a Luddite why bother with an older OS?

Hardware wise there is probably not much to worry about since its for office use. Save on the PC hardware and get a decent monitor with a good adjustable stand so it is easy to get comfortable in front of.

As a home user I have bought desktops in the last couple of years from both Arbico and Chilliblast and both have been fine. Not sure I would buy from Mesh again in a hurry although that machine has now been resuscitated and is running Linux quite happily.

Desktops seem to best be found either from smaller mail order builders like thetwo above, or from someone like Dell who are huge and set up to cater to the business market – although that may be what you want reading your post and therefore their outlet site may be worth a look. Tablets and laptops are all the rage so tend to be what you find in retail stores. Depending on where you are in the country good old PC World may be your only option if you want to go hands on before you buy. Having said that they were by far the best deal on spec and price when I wanted a laptop for teenagers school work so may be worth a look.

For office duties and web browsing then onboard graphics and sound and 4MB memory should be fine. The 2 we bought both cost less than 400ukp plus the cost of the monitor ( they were upgrades so we already had monitors to use).

I work for a public service currently having kittens about the potential effect of XP vulnerabilities, I wouldn’t risk XP with client data. If you are not gaming then you don’t need a separate graphics card and as suggested above Libre Office is compatible with Office and the Ninite website will give you access to a whole host of free software that will do most things well.

Win 7 still seems to be readily available from system builders if not on retail store computers. I am no more convinced by Win 8 than Microsoft who are rumoured to be desparately working on Win 9, but if user is used ot it and likes it then fair enough.

I’ve been running Windows 8 on a Mesh PC I bought in 2007, that came with Vista, now that was a really bad operating system.

Windows 8 has been solid, fast, runs everything I want (Ableton Live Suite 9…) no problem. Yeah ok so I installed a Shell to make it look like Windows 7, but it really has been a pleasure.

Only thing that didn’t work was the Garmin USB to Serial cable.