Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade to Pro

beardiedog

What is the best and cheapest way to upgrade to Pro from Home Premium and would I still be able to upgrade via Anytime Upgrade if I buy a genuine key or do I need to buy an OEM or retail version?

I'm happy with W7 which works fine on my old P4 computer but I'm having issues with running a particular DOS program I use for my business. It ran without problems in XP so I thought maybe if I upgraded to Pro, it would run properly again in XP mode. I've tried running it in XP compatibility mode. It works, though I have to keep saving often as ntvdm.exe crashes randomly in W7.

WAYT

Can your CPU run XP Mode?
In your case I would dual boot.
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

esuhl

Have a look at DOSbox:
https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/

Also, I don't think the Anytime Upgrade works any more for Win7.

WAYT

esuhl wrote: »

Have a look at DOSbox:
https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/

Also, I don't think the Anytime Upgrade works any more for Win7.

It does. But his processor is not capable of XP Mode.

beardiedog

Thanks esuhl, I've tried DosBox in the past but I had problems printing successfully from it so I gave up.

I also tried TameDos but couldn't make head nor tail of it. It still crashed anyway.

beardiedog

Thanks WAYT, I thought about dual booting but I didn't want to reinstall everything again as I believe you have to install XP before 7 if I'm right?

I have XP on a separate installed drive and I back up onto there each night. I could go into BIOS every time I wanted to use the DOS program to avoid it crashing, but I need to switch constantly between "DOS" and W7 so it would be a pain having to go into the BIOS to switch every time.

I'm not aware if there's a way to boot from a floppy menu option on startup/restart as you can with the dual boot option.

Frozen_up_north

If you have a genuine copy of Windows XP (or even an earlier one), you can install it on a later operating system using Oracle Virtual Box. No need to complicate matters by trying updated operating systems, moving even further from DOS.

I run 32 bit XP under Windows 10 64 bit, both run simultaneously. Legacy programs, including RS232 ones via a "soap on a rope" adapter lead, run just fine.

https://www.virtualbox.org/

justaquestion

What are the chances that old 98, XP pc games will run on Virtualbox, I have tried them before on VMware player without any success?
Thanks a lot.

beardiedog

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

If you have a genuine copy of Windows XP (or even an earlier one), you can install it on a later operating system using Oracle Virtual Box. No need to complicate matters by trying updated operating systems, moving even further from DOS.

I run 32 bit XP under Windows 10 64 bit, both run simultaneously. Legacy programs, including RS232 ones via a "soap on a rope" adapter lead, run just fine.

https://www.virtualbox.org/

I had a look at it as well as others over the weekend. Wouldn't I have the same issues as XP mode though, running on the old P4 processor?

onomatopoeia99

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

If you have a genuine copy of Windows XP (or even an earlier one), you can install it on a later operating system using Oracle Virtual Box. No need to complicate matters by trying updated operating systems, moving even further from DOS.

I run 32 bit XP under Windows 10 64 bit, both run simultaneously. Legacy programs, including RS232 ones via a "soap on a rope" adapter lead, run just fine.

https://www.virtualbox.org/

I checked a random P4 processor on Intel ark and they have no VT-x support (I wouldn't expect it of a 15 year old CPU), which means virtualization is going to be tortuously slow.

WAYT

beardiedog wrote: »

Thanks WAYT, I thought about dual booting but I didn't want to reinstall everything again as I believe you have to install XP before 7 if I'm right?

I have XP on a separate installed drive and I back up onto there each night. I could go into BIOS every time I wanted to use the DOS program to avoid it crashing, but I need to switch constantly between "DOS" and W7 so it would be a pain having to go into the BIOS to switch every time.

I'm not aware if there's a way to boot from a floppy menu option on startup/restart as you can with the dual boot option.

Did you bother to peruse the content to which I linked?

Apart from that, your CPU is already twelve years old. The time is coming when you'll need to "reinstall everything" anyway. Better to do it on your own terms.

Perhaps time to invest in a new PC. £50 will get you something that will do the job properly. Unless you can't afford it, it seems ridiculous struggling along with half measures that barely work.
Then you can put your old drive in as a secondary drive. Even better, fit a solid state drive as the boot drive.
At the very least, upgrade your CPU to one capable of virtualisation.