Category: Geeks r Us
I know a lot of people tout the reasont why people should upgrade.
that's all well and good, but I'm curious:
Who else on the zone uses Windows XP as there main operating system?
My desktop and laptop run Windows XP.
I still use it; my desktop has it; and if/when I get a netbook, that will have it as well.
I had to get a new laptop in May of this year and insisted on having XP installed.
I have it on my netbook and my husband still has it on his work computer. We also had it on the family computer before it kicked the bucket. My desktop has Windows 7 and I like it just as well. Of course, I'd rather have a Mac but such is life.
Becky,
how did you manage that. did your computer shop have to use the downgrade option from microsoft?
Why did you insist on it being instaled?
I have it on my net book, but that is it, I like win7 better over all. its just as stable, loads quite fast and I like the search box on the start menu.
I have XP on my desktop. I just got a new laptop that has Windows 7 and Office 2010 on it, so I am learning those. However, I still use my XP desktop as my primary computer. I know it probably doesn't have long for the world, and I need to move on to Windows 7. For now though, I love my XP, and will be quite sad when this machine goes to the eternal bit bucket.
eternal bit bucket? lol hahaha, great description there Alicia.
I'm using XP as my main window computer. i find it work well with what i need to do. Considering the machine is about 6 years old or so, i really don't have much choice. I also have window7 runs on my netbook, it is ok, but the netbook itself is rather slow, so...
Yes, i also have the problem with this machine getting close to the "eternal bit bucket", but it have serves me well in the last 6 years or so. It will be sad to see it go. I have lots of memory with this computer *smile*
I'm still using XP. I refuse to use Vista ever sicne trying it a few times. I DO have a windows 7 disk, and I think my computer would even run it. I haven't had the inclanation to install it yet however.
like everybody, my desktop and laptop are from 2007. The desktop has some older hardware (i just keep porting the working hardware from config to config, so one of the sound cards for instance is from 1999 or 2000.
My desktop is from 2006, and like yours Joanne, this has traveled to the various states I've lived in over the years. I knew it wouldn't run Windows 7, which is why I have the new laptop. Guardian, like you, I tried Vista on several friends' computers, and refused to get it for myself. Yuck.
John, I insisted on it because I hate having to learn new things. LOL. I know I'll eventually have to, and by the time this computer kicks the bucket hopefully I'll be able to afford some professional training to learn to use Windows 8 or whatever incarnation of Windows is out at that time. I was able to get a new laptop with XP because a friend who has a computer store near him was able to help me arrange it. This place is used to accommodating customers' whims.
ah. i just was wondering if tha'ts how they did it, since that's the only way to leagly do it. unless of corse you have an XP disk .
most (but not all) of my hardware on the desktop (custem whitebox) will run Win7.according to the MS site.
i dunno what i'll do 2 years from now, but we'll see.
Becky, you are in luck.
MS will support XP until 2014, and continue to let people do downgrade rights until 2020.
It's not my primary computer but I do have window's xp. it's on a old desktop me dad bought for me in 2005 or early 206. I love my windows 7 laptops a lot better however. My xp is very slow, and barely works I am actually surprised it does at all.
You can actually still buy XP JH. Many companies will install it for you if you call iin your order. Dell even list some new computers with the option.
It will be good until 2014 as far as updating from Microsoft, but will continue to be serviceable for more years after if you decide. Just like 2000 it worked for a while after it was not serviced by Microsoft.
Becky, Windows 7 requires no professional help to learn. You can actually set it up, so that your start looks and works like XP if you want.
Last buy an old computer from a pawn shop, or find one. You can than legally use the key on it for a new install on a new computer.
Isn't Windows 8 about to come out in a few months? So 7 will be obsolete soon too. Like I said, by the time I can't get a computer with XP anymore, who the hell knows what version of Windows we'll be up to.
probably 9 or 10 they seem to come out with one about every 5 6 years or so.
XP stayed around 14 years, so 7 could last a while even thought theres 8. I don't think many will upgrade to 8 though.
i have to agree, 8 is going to fail, even worse than vista did. 7 is actually quite nice, i actually couldn't go back to xp now, struggle when i have to use it.
Every 3 years. Remember when 7 came out? That was around 3 years ago now.
Wayne, i didn't know they'd install it. I was reading one company that say the only way they could was to use the downgrade rights option, as from what I understood companies weren't aloud to install XP after a certain date (forget when it was now though)
As far as serviceable, what did you mean by that?
if I tried to install say 2000 now, it wouldn't install ?
You can install any OS even 98. What I mean by serviceable is for example IE 8 you are running now will still work for a long time to come. Windows media player will still play your music. The only thing that stops is Microsoft's updates, but XP doesn't stop working. The complete structure of the internet, sites and such will have to upgrade before you can't really do much with it, so how long might that be?
Now as for 8, I don't think it will fail, I just don't see the masses upgrading unless they need a new computer.
Even now many businesses around the world use XP, so if the IT staff can keep it clean they might even use it for a while longer. The only thing will be is you won't be able to run newer Microsoft programs. How many people keep there computers updated anyway?
So you see XP will be serviceable for a while still.
XP will be serviceable until 2014, from what I hear.
i get it more.
XP will continue to receive updates and sacurety patches from Microsoft thru April, 2014.
but if you wish to continue to use XP after that date, you still can. Provided whatever programs you use continue to make updates that are compattible with XP, or you choose to use an older version.
The internet not working with XP that wont happen for ages now.
I was 'bout to say I know i saw some dude instaling Win98 on PC's on eBay, so I know its stil done.
Wayne you had confused me earlier, and i'm thinkin something's gotta be wrong. MS wouldn't just make 2K not work. what didn't i get? but its all clear now.
No baby boy. Microsoft loves us, so it will work. Many people are still using IE 7. They had no choice but to make IE 6 stop working, but look how long that took?
IE6 doesn't work anymore? how come?
IE 6 I heard was better than IE8 or 7.
I'm with xp with both my desktop and laptop. But I got windows7 on my netbook, though.
I'm using xp because,
1. I got used to it.
2. the outlook express. Hate thunderbird so.
3. E-Backup (for backing up the emails).
and for those who want their windows7 to look like windows xp, there's a program called classic shell. It's available for windows7, office2010 and also for office2007.
here's the link for windows7 to make it to work as your xp with classic view.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3276326/ClassicShellSetup_3_0_0.exe
Just run and follow the instructions. that's all.
Raaj.
Yes it installs easy. I like the way 7 is as out of the box, so have not changed mine.
I still use xp on both my desktop and laptop, simply because I refuse to use spl to do broadcasting. I've used the two soundcard method with winamp and the sam encoders, and it works, so if it aint broke, don't fix it. I wouldn't be able to do the two card method in seven.
I love XP. I have the professional version on both my desktop and my laptop. I don't think I'll upgrade until the programs I use absolutely will not support XP anymore. I despise Vista, and I've only used 7 once or twice and don't have a good feel for it yet, but as Renegade said, if it ain't broke...
Becky
My feeling is after 2014, slowly but surely stuff will begin to not work.
Raaj, this classic shell, is it different than switching back to classic style under 7? or does 7 not have that option like XP did.
You cant' use the two sound card messid in Windows 7 Byron?
Yes you can. I have a computer I maintain for a friend that does broadcasting and it uses the 2 cards. WinAmp works the same as well.
I know several others that broadcast and use Windows 7 as well.
Not pushing it, this is not the topic for that, but just wanted to say it is possible and does work.
wow okay i think i may have been unclear.
what i mean to say is that slowly but shurely, after 2014, programs may not continue to release versions that are compatible with XP (You'll need to stick with an oldre version)
IE8 is one such example (I think its up to IE10 now? IE8 is the last version of Internet Explorer that Microsoft makes that they say is compatible with XP.
What is SPL byran ?
You were clear JH. That is right I think too. It will take awhile though. Several years I'd guess.
Even though some new programs from other places won't support XP the older ones will work for a while to come. The machines will probably stop working before XP actually does.
I think this way because XP was around for so many years, and much has been built around it. People are going to be slow to change things completely, and many of the things used to support newer OS systems are the same and work for XP.
Basicly since XP was the cornerstone of development, newer versions may continue to work with XP for a while yet.
If you choose not to use IE, you can go with firefox for instance, which unlike MS, hasn't abandend updates for its XP core base.
I hate IE 9. It's annoying, so I rolled back to 8. Anyway, I do use Windows 7 now, but that's only because my old desktop got to be really slow and I think the fan crapped out on it. It used to sound like a vacuum cleaner when it was running, would overheat if you tried to open up more than 3 applications, and would shut off. And I would clean out the computer using compressed air a lot and this would still happen about a month later, so I decided to retire my old buddy lol. That computer served me well for about 8 years, and probably still would if I replaced the fan. My laptop as I said is running 7, and I've actually gotten pretty used to it. I like the search feature, and the fact that in general it runs much faster. I'd say boot up time is maybe 45 seconds, give or take. With my old xp computer, um...5 minutes. I'm not even making that up. I timed it a couple times. The only other thing I miss about my old computer is being able to connect to ftp servers. I can't figure out what's wrong, and I think I did post a topic on here awhile back about that problem, but I can't get File Zilla, IE or Firefox to connect to any ftp servers, not even anonymous ones. On xp I didn't have that problem at all, and now that I think about it, I may try to get my other computer back up and running since no one has been able to help me solve my ftp problem. I saw similar things posted on a couple forums when I Google searched it, and got a frustrating lack of results there as well.
so if you stick W7 on the same hardware that you had XP on would it run better?
curious minds wana know.
Yeah JH, as per this classic shell, it will make or convert your windows7 to look like xp with classic view. Win7 has no such feature as it's own.
Raaj.
The computer I'm typing this on had XP on it. When I moved it up to 7 it is better.
which means 7 uses less resources.
i have xp on a hand full of vurtual machines and use windows 7 as my main os. When windows 8 is finally released, i don't plan on upgrading at all. Windows 7 all the way.
You know I can't honestly say it uses less resources. XP can run easy on a machine with say 256 512 MB 1 GB ram, but 7 requires at least 2 to run smoothly. It is rated at 1GB, but in my experience 2 is needed.
It boots faster, but I'd not say it uses less.
i was 'bout to say i didn't think of that. Ain't no way 7 can run on that little Ram. all the specs I read on it anyway
Maybe why some stil use XP too.
I've seen 7 run fine on machines with 1 gb of ram.
It has just as much to do with the processor, video card ETC.
In short, if your machine meets the minimum requirements to run windows 7, and you have no specific hardware that has no driver support under 7, there is just about no reason you shouldn't upgrade. Windows 7 is more resource efficient, stable, and secure. there are exploits that will never be fixed in XP, this is just a fact.
A lot of people I know will not upgrade because they're scared of change, and they don't want to find new ways to get things done.
Many die hard XP users have misconceptions about what is and is not possible under 7. Though these are used to justify their comfort with what they have.
We're starting to see many more corporations and schools make the jump to 7, and more will follow. Home users aside, corporations and school districts are really the main thing keeping XP support alive. though with 8 on the horizon, XP support is just going to be one more crutch developers need to potentially deal with.
Depending on how I decided to go about building a new app, XP support may or may not be something I choose to incorporate
I'd only do it if supporting XP required no extra work on my end. Though, i'm not a developer either.
.
I was talking about les ram James, such as the 512MB or 256MB.
I suppose if you've already got a machine that is running XP and you like it keep it in good shape and simply backup the drive on it. In the future if you still have a thing and are building something after the machine you had gives up the ghost install the backup, and run XP.
Until you can't do much with it you want to do will than be your time to change, or you have a nice computer with XP to play with and a working machine with whatever 7 or 8 depending.
i clone my drive to a secondary 40 gig internal, and have the third 40 gig internal for temp sound files.
I'm still using a Windows XP netbook, although I may decide to get a Windows 7 basic laptop in the near future. My wife is also running an XP netbook and I'm not sure waht she's going to do if hers ever gives up the ghost. She may be getting a laptop for her schoolwork, and I assume that will have the latest Jaws on it and Windows 7.
Me *hands up) but want to get win 7 soon; I love xp though and would be happy to stick to it if it wasn't going out of fashion. :(
I probably will stick to it until support actually ends in less than 2 years.
Actually your Netbooks came with reinstallation disc. They've got the key on them as well on the machine. If one goes and you have a tech have him or her install the XP on your new computer. As JH says for 2 year, and it will still be supported.
Well my netbook that came with XP is now running Home Basic win7, I must say, so far I am impressed with win7 and how it handles my netbook. Its got 2 gigs of ram, a 750 gig HD and can run at 1.66 gigahurts. Its a Adam processer not sure of the clock speed. Its an asus EEPC HE1000.
I still used it up til last Saturday when I got a bran spankin new computer with windows 7, so learning curve but I think it will be great once I get there :)
I read yesterday from Kim Kamando:
Windows 7 becomes most-used OS
Windows 7 has surpassed Windows XP has the world's most used operating system, capturing 42.76 percent of the market.
why so low? is the other (not quite half) split between XP, Vista, 2K, 98, 95, 3.1, Dos, and other flavors of Linix?
You have Mac users, Linux users, and as you said older operating systems. But I'm guessing the remaining percentage is a split there. A lot more macs being sold now, and with newer Linux distributions that are more human-centric with GUIs like Ubuntu you see a lot of users leaning that way.
I didn't think of MAC users at all.
that's what I thought though, Leo.
Interestingly enough, google is set to stop supporting IE 8 for use with mobile apps when windows 8 and ie 10 come out later this year.
Looks like many web centric companies are going to follow in their footsteps, leaving people no choice but to slowly start turning to firefox and other browsers.
what do you mean by mobile apps, james?
are you saying that i wont be able to use Google's search features or say YouTube anymore with IE8?
Wayne, what dell computers or new computers list XP as an option for install?
I see a few new computers on eBay with this option, but haven't really found anyware else.
I'll check. The simple way is to get your new computer. Format it. Load XP, and use the serial number on your old one to license it.
Okay JH. You ask me if there were any company's in America and also if you could find one that would build you a custom PC with XP.
http://www.velocitymicro.com/index.php
I'm still going to check Dell, because I did say they had some systems with it, or would put it on for you.
Okay JH. On Dell I did a search for computers with XP. There are 5 laptops and 5 desktop models that can be down graded. They come with 7, but you can ask for XP is you desire.
http://search.dell.com/results.aspx?s=gen&c=us&l=en&cs=&k=Computers+with+Windows+XP&cat=all
and wayne the one I found that you can put XP on with downgrade options is...
http://www.pugetsystems.com/
new on eBay is:
http://stores.ebay.com/FLOURISH-COMPUTER/Value-System-/_i.html?_fsub=15555426&_sid=114106983&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322
Okay. We can safely say that XP is alive and well if you must have it until Microsoft stops supporting it.
Yes it is very alive and well, and is an option for those that want it. maybe somebody doing a google search for NEW computers available with Windows XP will find this topic and it'll be helpful to them.
I sure hope so!
In addition, you can probably by new XP cd's off eBay as well and do an install on an older puter, or one of those puters with no operating system from a site such as:
http://www.dellauction.com/
or if you are really on a crunch and need a puter, with not a lot of ram, or a very much older system at cheap prices, you can try:
http://www.pcliquidations.com/
PCLiquidations.com will also install XP (Example:
http://www.pcliquidations.com/p7699-dell-optiplex-755-tower
But the one thing I do like is that this site it isn't a downgrade option.