I’m upgrading my pc. Just ordered 8GB Ram to replace 4GB. Still using XP (yes yes I know, dark ages), what should I upgrade to? Windows 7 or 8 as 10 will be out in a couple of months and I’ve read it’s a free upgrade. Also best place to buy? Thanks.

7 hard to find
8.1 I just got and is fine
10 comes as a free upgrade from either.

Is your chip 64bit? Other wise you just wasted the RAM upgrade.

As Mike said, 8.1 works well and all users have just been offered a free upgrade to win 10 on July 29th.

You can use your (non OEM) Win 8.1 key to install Win 7 – if you have a burning desire to do so.

Bite the bullet and go for Windows 10 when it comes out.

As Mikes says, unless you are running 64-bit Windows XP ( and you are almost certainly not ) then it won’t use the extra 4Gb that you have put in the machine.

Windows 10 won’t be a free upgrade from XP and I am not sure that any pricing information has been released for it, but since they are giving it away as a free upgrade for anyone on Win 7 upwards, I don’t think that it will be expensively priced.

You can join the beta program for Win 10 at the moment – I have 3 machines running it – it isn’t totally polished yet, but it would allow you to upgrade now and then buy a license later. Remember to make a backup of your current XP install before you go installing it, just in case anything goes awry.

Run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to check for potential issues first.

Thanks all. I’ve checked and it looks like I’m not running 64bit XP :(. Computer: AMD Athlon II X2 250, Processor: 3.01GHz, 2.75GB of RAM. No mention of 64bit as on microsoft web site. Is it still worth upgrading my RAM and using 32bit Win 7?

32bit can only address 4gb so thats 4- your graphics card.
Looks like your chip is 64bit so you can run a 64 bit OS
http://products.amd.com/pages/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=562&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Thanks mikewsmith. Looks like it’s ok to go ahead and install the 8GB RAM and upgrade to win 7/8.1 64bit then?

Yes, but…

Cougar – Moderator

Run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to check for potential issues first.

it looks like I’m not running 64bit XP 🙁

Not surprising. XP x64 is a) rare as hen’s teeth and b) absolutely gash.

Just to reiterate – run the upgrade advisor from MS’s website. It’ll forewarn you about any potential minefields you might hit around driver compatibility and suchlike. You’ll probably be fine, but it’s worth checking.

Jinx. (-:

Great will do. I’ll check back later.

As above, Win 7 is a free upgrade from 8.1. Discussing this yesterday when looking at new hardware from sellers to the professional market, plenty seem to come with 8.1 licence and 7 installed – my understanding is that a lot of businesses are doing new 7 installations and certainly not moving onto 8 (in fact I’m wasting time trying to get my brain to solve problems in the background for a new Win7 VM install I’m busy working on). 8 is very much the unloved child in the same way Vista was. There is a MS server which provides legit Win7 installers as a download if you have an 8.1 licence key.

If you do want to go to 10 though, it’s worth bearing in mind that MS have announced free upgrades from all 7 and 8 licenses, whether or not they are legal 😈

Oh and I agree with the comments about XP x64 – that wasn’t even a good choice when it was the only 64 bit option.

Finally, I’d recommend a move away from XP for all users if you have any connection to the outside world, whether or not you want more memory. Still have some here until the W7 gets rolled out on the second server, but we have a specialist environment which avoids some of the issues, and I still feel uncomfortable with that a year after we should have stopped using it.

Right, I’ve run the Microsoft Win 7 check and every thing is compatible apart from my printer which either requires an update or maybe replacing. Looking good. Thanks for all your help STW people! After the upgrade a nice shiny new LARGE led monitor is on the list!