What I have now is a decent Dell Inspiron with quad-core, 4gb memeory, and a fairly good video card. The basic unit works pretty good and I am running XP on it. It originally came with Vista, but because I was hearing so many bad things about Vista, and it wouldn’t load and run a simple photo editing program that I like, I went back to XP.
Now I am thinking about upgrading to Win 7, which I hear is pretty good, especially compared to Vista. However, I am confused about all the variations out there with Win 7, Home, Professional, Starter, Premium, Anytime Upgrade, Enterprise, etc.
Since I have aleays done fne on the Windows standard versions that always came on the computer I bought, I think a basic Win 7 would be fine for me.
But I am looking around for a legal upgrade to Win 7 and don’t know what to look for. I see lots of upgrades, but they don’t say what you have to already have on your computer to upgrade to. I can always save my important stuff and load Vista back in to my computer if this is required.
Can anyone suggest a source and/or designation for the upgrade to Win 7 that I need, preferably the most cost effective?
I have a computer roughly the same as you do, and Windows 7 runs very nicely on it. I have Vista on my laptop, and after beating it with a stick, it is actually a very solid operating system. Vista’s problem is that it appeared to have been written by Microsoft’s lawyers, and dealt with the problem of spyware by making the user confirm constantly that whatever happened it was the users fault.
Mine came with Windows 7 Professional, but I use none of the features that distinguish it from Windows 7 Home.
Windows 7 home premium is the way to go for the average PC user. Home basic is for so called “emerging markets” and I don’t think you can get it in the US and Europe. Enterprise is a volume licensing thing and not available for the average consumer. Professional has features that are useful for small business users and so forth, stuff home users can do without. Ultimate has all the features Win7 has to offer, but as with Professional, not something home users really need.
Not that you cannot upgrade directly from XP to Windows 7. You would need to first upgrade to Vista, then from Vista to Win7. You’ll need to back up your data, do a fresh install, and then restore.
From what I recall you can use a Win7 ‘upgrade only’ disc to upgrade from XP but as you state you need to back everything up first. A clean install is the best way to go anyway, upgrade installs tend to be flaky.
Back up the data. I would also try using the Windows Easy Transfer tool. I’m not sure if it works from XP to 7 but I probably does. I know the tool worked from XP to Vista. Windows Easy Transfer backs up your data, all your settings, favorites, etc, and then transfers these to the new computer.
So, do the back up and maybe also try the Windows Easy Transfer. Then do a clean install of Win7. Step 3 is run the Windows Easy Transfer, and if it works you’re good to go. If it doesn’t work, then copy paster your back up data.
I know people who have done this successfully. The in-place upgrades take forever. You’re much better off doing it this way. Heck, if I were Microsoft, this is how I would make upgrades work in the future. It’s a lot better than taking eight times as long.