My desktop computer doesn’t get much use and is currently running Vista !
I really need to upgrade to enable me to keep it running in some sort of manner.
Whats the best path in order to upgrade for the least cash and hassle ?
I have a new 275 Gb SSD sitting unused so was thinking of installing and using that as the boot drive if it makes much difference.

Yes, I want to stick with Windows….

Put Win10 on the SSD. Job jobbed.

I’ve had a couple of keys from here:

https://www.mrhightech.net/operating-systems/3553-windows-10-professional-0885370920925.html

And they’ve not been cancelled yet, if it ever happens, i’ll just buy another one for the price…

It sounds flippant but; Find the performance bottleneck, fix it, repeat.

I’ve got a Dell from about 2007 and my next upgrade would be an SSD but that’s only because I already put in a faster CPU, more RAM and a better graphics card. Your situation may well vary.

I run Linux Mint 18.1, very happy with it.

Splash-man – Member
I have a new 275 Gb SSD sitting unused so was thinking of installing and using that as the boot drive if it makes much difference.

sobriety – Member
Put Win10 on the SSD. Job jobbed.

^^^ This. 😀

Isn’t Vista out of support now, so no more security fixes?

I’d upgrade to W7 or W10.

Looks like thats my job for this evening sorted then provided I have a spare power cable for the new drive.

footflaps – exactly, thats the reason to change, no security updates, no Chrome or Explorer updates etc, etc.

SSD will make a huge difference. I’ve done all my PCs now, even the XP machine that runs my CNC.

SSD will make a huge difference

Very much this. I upgraded an old Dell laptop with an SSD and the difference is amazing.

And W10 is pretty damn good – very quick to boot and nice to use. I’m also a fan of Linux but always struggle with any flavour due to lack of drivers.

@sobriety does that just come with a code/activation key – thats all i need atm.

How much RAM is in it?

If your CPU is an old dual or single core it might not be supported, so check the support document!

How do I know this. I upgraded a PC with an unsupported CPU and could only get the 32 bit version to install from scratch (upgrade would not work at all). The 64 bit version just hung with no error notifications.

The funniest part about this is the “unsupported CPU” used the instruction set Microsoft claims is the reason for not supporting it 😆 so basically they couldn’t be arsed.

Edit: Windows 10 BTW

Find the performance bottleneck, fix it, repeat.

By far the biggest bottleneck in normal use is the HD so install the SSD. That’s why everyone marvels at the incredible transformation.

I’ve checked the CPU and it is supported so that should be fine.
Currently 3Gb of RAM fitted.

Though if I’m understanding the OP correctly he’s not particularly bothered about performance, simply about keeping the computer running now Vista is out of support (it’s been unsupported for almost 5 months, it’s about time!) The correct answer has been given already – I expect most computers running Vista will run W10, though clearly not all. If the OP did have an unsupported computer W7 would be the alternative option, though that’s only putting the problem off for a couple of years.

Whilst I get the love for SSDs, I’ve just put a new 500GB hybrid drive in mine for the W10 upgrade. Hopefully I’ll get most of the performance benefit without the huge cost of an SSD that size (which I do really need, old disk was 250GB and almost full – yeah I know I should be putting stuff on the cloud, but a lot of that was stuff which I can’t easily do that with). Don’t want to spend huge amounts on an oldish computer – though presumably newer than the OPs as it was running W7 originally, and the 500GB hybrid is still cheaper than a 120GB SSD which really wouldn’t be big enough for my use given current levels of software bloat and the stuff I do – I’ve already used 80GB without really having any data on it.

Anyway the performance improvement is significant so far, though I don’t know how much of that is down to the hybrid drive and how much to replacing an old bloated W7 install with fresh new W10 (it’s running noticeably cooler, so I suspect at least partly the latter).

I’m sure that’s not dodgy at all at that price 😉

Though I just used my W7 key for my new install. When I found it wouldn’t digitally activate despite having definitely done a W10 upgrade when that was a legitimate option in order to register it I was expecting to have to do an “accessibility” upgrade, but it turns out using a W7 key on installation still works just fine and gives you a legit digital activation. I suppose I should see if it’s still possible to do that with my W7 Enterprise keys (I did used to be able to get them to activate, but it complained if I tried that with a fresh install) 😉

Aracer – correct, just need to keep it running. It rarely get used other than ripping music and a few other bits.
It has been on my ‘to do list’ for a while but the wife keeps adding more important things to the list.

Am I better off clonning the drive to the SSD then upgrading or doing a clean install ?
In would prefer the former from a point of view of having all the software ready loadec etc

Personally I’d always do a clean install, which is what I’ve just done with mine. I don’t think you can even upgrade directly from Vista to W10, but in any case upgrading always seems to make a bit of a mess of things. It’s not that much trouble to reinstall any software IME, but you’ll probably find lots of things need upgrading so starting from scratch is good.

If it’s a desktop then you should just be able to plug the old disk in as a second disk and copy files straight across after you’ve installed W10.

Currently 3Gb of RAM fitted.

Assuming you’ve no plans to upgrade, W10 32-bit. If you’re going to throw more RAM at it, X64.

Am I better off clonning the drive to the SSD then upgrading or doing a clean install ?

There are pros and cons but in you case I’d pull the drive, fit an SSD and do a clean install. You can always revert to the old drive if goes West.

If you’re sticking with the hardware, there’s no direct upgrade path from Vista to 10 so it’d be a wipe and reinstall anyway.

I’m sure that’s not dodgy at all at that price

I’ll give you a legit W7 key which will allow you to install W10 in exchange for signing up for a 12-month STW Premier account or a donation to the same value to a charity of my choice.

Wow, well that was unexpected because it didn’t used to work that easily, but I’ve just successfully activated a fresh W10 install* using a W7 Enterprise key 🙂

I’m sure there must be something awfully naughty about doing that, but I kind of have the key legitimately and MS appear to be being quite lax about licensing on W10.

* on a VM – one I was using for testing but hadn’t bothered activating

Well they have been lax on programming standards for a while so about time licensing caught up.