xp or windows 7

FirstTimer4Me

hiya

i know nothing what so ever about computers but i've always had great help on here

i've just changed from vista to xp and can't believe the improvement it has made

so my oh has this this machine HP 530 Celeron M 440 /1.86 GHz 15.4" Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ), RAM 512 MB HDD 80 GB DVD±RW (+R double layer) / DVD-RAM GMA 950 Vista Home Basic

hes decide to remove vista on the machine because he can't get used to it and install either xp or windows 7 on it but is confused so can i ask is windows 7 very similar to vista or xp hes used to xp but just want ride of vista so what op system should we have on it

oh nearly forgot we took the laptop to a computer shop to have xp put on but they said they canot put xp on it something about canot get xp drivers for the laptop

never asked the shop but can we get drivers or an xp disc for it?

hope someone undestands what were on about and help with some advice.

ta if anyone can help.

davb

Windows 7 has the look and feel of Vista, but is much improved.

If you are looking at changing the OS on the laptop, I would be surprised if there weren't XP drivers, as the spec puts it a couple of years old. Best to look on the manufacturers website at driver downloads.

Remember though, that if you change the OS, that you may need to purchase a licence for the new OS - even going back from Vista to XP.

Baldur

Windows XP is very old technology in operating system terms - it will be supported by Microsoft until 2014 but only for critical/security updates. Mainstream support ceased in April this year.

Windows 7 is more like Vista than XP but is much more pleasant to use (in my opinion).

The HP website does offer drivers for the 530 (for Windows XP Professional) as well as those for Vista.

DatabaseError

go for win 7, and, whichever you chose, upgrade the ram. 512mb really isn't enough for a modern OS...., and RAM is relatively cheap and makes a vast performance improvement.

davester

Windows 7 should have been Vista SP1 in my opinion, Vistas so well useless at times, doing things that has no point, like a program crashes, thinks about a solution then closes it anyway, Whats to think about the program stuffs up, close it don't go an make a virtual cup o coffee in the hope it will sort itself out. I blue screened Vista the first day I used it, which to me is justification of how bad it is. If anyone wants to know what I did to stuff it up, I uninstalled some incomapatable software. Restored the system with recovery disc.

RobTang

The solution checker thing is a great idea in theory, it just doesn't really work in practive for whatever reason. It goes online looks up if other people have had the same crash and what they have done to resolve it and send the results back to you.
unfortunaly due to a billion different hardware configs and (what i think is) a total lack of support its only really good a for a few specifc MS apps.

FirstTimer4Me

hiya

ta for all ya help some of the techie stuff above we don't understand but if windows 7 is like vista i think well have xp put on the laptop hes going back to the shop tomorrow to clear up what they said about the drivers thing and see if its possible to hve xp put on it

ta so much for your heklp people

Money_Grabber13579

Remember XP is old technology and probably not as secure as Windows 7 will be. Microsoft aren't releasing any new technology for XP that might help security - only patching old loopholes that already exist.

Sput2001

DatabaseError wrote: »

go for win 7, and, whichever you chose, upgrade the ram. 512mb really isn't enough for a modern OS...., and RAM is relatively cheap and makes a vast performance improvement.

Indeed.

512Mb isn't nearly enough RAM to run Vista properly, and isn't really enough for XP these days, either. You need to look at upping it to at least 1Gb.

GunJack

..yeah, 1GB and fresh XP install and it'll zip along....2GB and fresh XP and it'll comparatively fly

rygon

Ive never tried vista but between xp and 7 i'd go for 7 easily. Looks much better, easier to keep things like music, photos, vids together. Great for viewing pics. Easier to set up internet. Much faster than XP (although im now using the 64bit version) but i dont know if it will run ok with only 512mb ram, needs to be upped to 1gb least (2gb would be better with next to nowt cost)