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What with the impending demise of XP meaning that a fresh install is going to be impossible, I'm thinking of getting with the now and going to Windows 7 or 8. However, I'm not 100% sure the old Dell desktop or IBM portable will be compatible, so how do I try it out without spending out on a disk?
Anyone have a better suggestion than taking them to our local compuer shop and bunging them a few quid to try it?
I'm really not sold on the idea of moving to Linux as I can generally muddle my way through most Windows admin issues, and don't want to start on a new learning curve. Ta.
You can download an evaluation copy of the enterprise version. I don't know how that compares to the home version, it is usually equivalent to the pro retail pack.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/hh699156.aspx
How old is your PC? I wouldn't be too worried about the end of XP support immediately, but if it's pretty old I would be looking at a new PC.
There isn't one really as even a VM won't emulate your hardware specification.
Generally speaking Windows 8 is one of the most compatible Windows OSes there has been so no doubt if you're running older hardware it will find and install it all.
The main things to worry about are graphics cards, sound cards and printers and if they have suitable Windows 8 drivers available.
Take a look through your hardware in device manager and jump on the manufacturers sites to check for (and download in advance to a pen drive) Windows 8 drivers.
The best approach might be a new disk though and build that as Windows 8, go on treat yourself to an SSD!
You can download 90-day evaluation copies, e.g.
[url= http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57609295-75/how-to-run-windows-8.1-for-free-for-90-days/ ]8.1 free for 90 days[/url]
No no no.
[url= http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/downloads/upgrade-advisor ]Windows Upgrade Advisor[/url].
somouk - it was the graphic compatibility I was particualy wondering about as there's some perculiar specifcation requirement that means nothing to me. Processor speed and memory requirement seems fairly low. The desktop could probably have some specific improvements to make it work I suppose, but as for
I'm too tight for that!! 😀I would be looking at a new PC
Thanks for the enterprise edition pointers, that could well be a winner.
Edit - Cougar, I used that upgrade advisor thing, and it told me all the software was OK then suggested I buy a disk without giving any hardware advice. 😡
We've trialled Win8 on a cruddy old PC and it seemed to run faster than having XP on it - has kept it going for a couple more years perhaps...
Is your old disk full? If not you can defrag it then there are utilities to create a new partition in the free space. You can then install the new OS on the new partition.
It's not hugely difficult to understand, but don't do it if you are a total n00b
It has 2 hard drives in it so I could install win 8 on the other one, but while I can still get all the updates, I'm happy to just go for it and reinstall XP if necessary.