Hello,
Visiting my parents for Christmas. Normally have a look over their computer to make sure it is not infested with viruses and do a disk clean-up.
All seems OK this time but wondered if it is worth upgrading the OS for them.
It is Vista at the moment and I was wondering about the ease and value of upgrading to Windows 7 for them.
Why not Windows 8? Because my father likes using his computer but too much change is likely to be confusing, Windows 7 looks/works more like Vista than 8 does from what I know and I use W7 at work so when the inevitable IT support calls come in I have a better chance of helping!
Nothing actually wrong with the Vista install just pondering it as I only come here about once every year so time to do this is rare.
Any thoughts welcomed as are good deals on an upgrade.
I suggest doing a clean install, and unless they have requirements for >4GB RAM, stick to 32bit Win7.
Driver support is better on 32bit platform (no need for signed drivers, which the 64bit requires)
As drives are cheap, buy a new drive and clean-install on that. Also allows you to move data from old (Photos, etc) to new.
Don't forget the internal SATA data and power cables (molex to SATA power adapter)
My daughters Dell Laptop has been running Vista from new and I also considered upgrading it to Win7. Thing is, it's been incredibly reliable and as long as MS are shipping software updates for it I can't really see what it would gain.
There's a reason MS shipped Win7 two years later (as opposed to the 6 year gap between XP and Vista).
Win7 will feel like a turbo-charged laptop by comparison.
I did an in-place upgrade from Vista to 7 on my Dell laptop. Worked well and I've never looked back, only thing Id say is it took a phenomenally long time to install; like, several hours, I left it overnight in the end.
Its a Dell desktop with a Intel Core 2 Duo 1.86 GHz processor and 3Gb RAM.
Sounds like there might be a perfomance boost and I quite like the idea of doing it on a new HDD as a clean install then plugging that in.
What are my best options for buying either as an upgrade download or a new DVD/CD?
MS are (not surprisingly) pushing W8 on their website so I am guessing I will have to go elsewhere to buy it, any good reliable options and which of the many sub-options (pro/standard etc) is the best to go for?
Thanks.
If you are doing an upgrade then your best bet would be Win8 while it's cheap; the learning curve isn't really that great, but OTOH if they're happy with Vista why change it?
Driver support is better on 32bit platform (no need for signed drivers, which the 64bit requires)
Most of us would say that that makes driver support worse on 32 bit systems. Go for the 64 bit version if you can, the kernel's more secure and reliable.
Are you happy to upgrade it and then rely on it not breaking (given your infrequent visits) 🙂
Rio - My Dad is 70+, his mountain biking learning curve is still good but on IT I think familiarity is good so the options are W7 or sticking with Vista.
Cougar - Hmm, that is a good deal but none of us are eligible. Is there a software4pensioners 😀
druidh - That is what I am known for on my visits here 😛 my PVR installation was a particuarly costly period for them after it didn't quite work as intended at first (though to be fair I had to ask them for instructions on how to use it last night so they have obviously taken to it)
's what remote support is for.
keppoch - that's why I said why change. But one Win8 feature that might appeal to those of us having to do this sort of remote support is the one-button "put the OS back to how it was" feature, which might at least get a corrupted system back to the point where remote support works. Just a thought.