On Windows 7.

[strredwolf]

I've already been asked this, so I'm going to lay it out to you straight.  If you think you want to upgrade to Windows 7, ask yourself a few questions:

1. How old is my hardware?  Are you running Windows 2000 or below?  Or are you running on an Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP (or older)?  Right-click your "My Computer" icon and hit "Properties".    If you're running old hardware, it's time to get a new PC with Windows 7 on it.
   
   
2. Really, how old is my hardware?  You're running XP on semi-decent hardware.  Just how decent?  Some hardware can enhance Window's security tremendously.  The Windows Upgrade Advisor can help there, off of Microsoft's site.
   
   That said, if you've upgraded your system to handle Vista, you're set for Windows 7.
   
   
3. How crappy is my software?  Vista is pure crap, and took three service packs to get right.  Windows 7's Beta and Release Candidate tests were very very public and Microsoft took the advise of "more is better" to heart.  Windows 7 isn't crap.  Flush Vista and get a speed boost with Windows 7.
   
   
4. Do I go 32-bit or 64-bit? This is more complicated, but there's a small utility you can use to help answer this -- and no, I don't mean the Windows Upgrade Advisor.  I'm talking about GRC's free SecurAble utility at http://www.grc.com/securable.htm. ; Just pull it and run it -- and if it says you can do 64-bit, and you got at least 4 gigs of RAM in there, you're using the 64-bit install DVD (the retail box has both 32-bit and 64-bit).
   
   
   
5. Is it worth it? Yes.

Comments

[kesarra.livejournal.com]

Do you have Vista? Best bet is to wipe it, but if you do decide to upgrade you should not run it from within Vista. Boot from the DVD.

Do you want to dual boot? EasyBCD makes things easy.

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

Had it. It's still on the Mac. I'm going to nuke the BootCamp partition.

[arakaraath.livejournal.com]

This gives me a another excuse to not upgrade to Windows 7: 7 year old hardware. But it runs XP just fine, I don't need upgrading, thank you.

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're stuck with XP there. I'd keep an eye on newer hardware just in case, because XP's now fully on the chopping block. I'd say, what, two years?

[aragontigerseye.livejournal.com]

I've been using 7 on my main PC (Athlon 64 3500+, 2Gig Ram, Geforce 8600 GTX) ever since the RC came out, and it runs much better then Vista, which I've been running for about a year to one and a half before.
Now, since my company is a MS-Partner, I got the Final for 7 last month and installed the 7 Ultimate version on my eeePC 1000h... and even there it runs great.

Now that the version I preordered a few month ago is on it's way to me I'll prolly switch my main PC to the final too... Just pondering if I should do 64 or 32 bit. The former would leave quite a few things I have non-functional, like my Scanner, my Laser Printer and my DVB-T-stick.
Then again, I don't use the Stick much anyways... and for the printer and scanner I can set up either a dedicated linux machine or try to get the sane server running on my router...