All,

I'm looking to upgrade the OS on my home pc from XP to Windows 7. Ideally I would like an install DVD etc rather than an upgrade. Can anybody please point me in the direction of some places to get this from at a reasonable price? I've been looking at some of the student offer sites that don't require a .ac email address but they all do it as an upgrade. Cheers folks.

A quick google & it looks like Home Premium is about £100 from the likes of Amazon & Ebuyer

I'm looking to upgrade the OS on my home pc from XP to Windows 7

Why?

My PC has a few viruses on it (tried malwarebytes, threatfire, ccleaner, windows defender which won't update, avast) which I cannot remove so if I'm going to the trouble of re-installing windows on it I may as well upgrade. Also I run 4gb RAM which I may upgrade to 8 so probably a 64 bit version.

Re-installing windows isn't a good reason to upgrade. Allowing you to use large amounts of RAM might be, though it's pretty marginal for 4GB – how serious are you about going to 8GB (bearing in mind that's serious amounts of money, and you appear to be on a budget)? W7 really isn't all that incredible – it's just an OS after all.

Windows 7 was a massive disappointment. After reading how good it was, how user friendly etc etc I bought a new desktop with Windows 7 Pro. It's crap, still bloated and slow (on a brand new pc) and still has random messages popping up all the time.

It also failed to recognise some kit such as printers and cameras despite them being nothing fancy.

I've kept it but now dual boot and run 7 only when I really need to.

This isn't a 'windows sucks, use something else' reply. Personally, I like Windows 7 and the only pop-ups I used to get could be disabled in UAC.

But, how much windows only software do you use? Ubuntu is free and is pretty good. I use it 90% of the time (quite a few games won't run it so I use windows 7 for that aspect). Initially I used it as I do a lot of coding and linux is generally better for that, but now I use it because I prefer it to windows. Ubuntu 10.04 looks nice, is easy to use and automatically does loads of driver installs for you. Also, if you don't mind using a command line you can use 'apt-get install' which will download and install software for you which is pretty nice!

Ubuntu also has WINE (windows emulator) which can handle a lot of windows software pretty well these days. Try out an Ubuntu Live CD, it lets you get a feel of Ubuntu without having to install anything. If you don't like it then you haven't spent any money or lost anything and can continue to buy windows 7 :).

Yes, I like Win 7 a lot too, and XP seems antiquated in comparison. Admittedly, there was no 64 bit driver for my scanner, and it wouldn't work from XP in a virtual machine either – but everything else has been fine.

There's a method for using the upgragde discs as a normal install, do a google search and the use software for students.

7 is very good I noticed a big difference moving from XP to 7 on what was a modern machine. Not had any problems dues to the software dodgy memory made mine go a bit mental for awhile. Drivers problems I've had have been for the my camera but just use a card read instead and an old webcam but that's nothing.

I don't want to install Linux on it as its mainly for gaming and the Mrs uses it sometimes too. Not entirely sure whether it will be a 32 or 64 bit version but want to get the best out of my dominator RAM but drivers for the games in 64 bit are somewhat lacking. I've used Solaris and now Linux for 16 years so I know how they work alright and have a beast of a Linux box (sun) in work but want a native widows OS for home. Hence why I'm looking for an upgrade to xp.

I bought Windows 7 from here. I bought the upgrade version but installed to a clean drive without any problems. I'm not even sure if I was asked to enter my XP details at any point.

I have no idea what you lot do with your computers. I never had any problems with XP and windows 7 is just blinding as far as I'm concerned, it's lightning fast, especially at boot up, recognises everything I plug into it, has some nice features stolen from apple while leaving the bad ones behind and just works.

Obviously it has it's limitations but I have plenty of linux boxes to cover the gaps.

Ah fair enough then! I've not had any issues running 64 bit 7 for gaming for what it's worth. I don't really play the most cutting edge games though as I only use my laptop (it does have a reasonably decent gfx card).I don't think I've heard of any driver issues from my mates running 64 bit either.