Should I change my OS from XP to Windows 7?

I upgraded to Windows 7 about 2 weeks ago. HATE IT!! Too many incompatiblility problems and still a lot of bloat. So…I’ve reverted back to XP.

Not just no but HELL no!

You will lose a bit of compatibility and the learning curve is steeper than you might think. Linux with KDE (as opposed to GNOME, the other common desktop) is closer to WinXP than Windows 7 is, and with WINE, it’s more compatible too. Hell, I’ve seen Linux configs that fooled Windows users!

I upgraded the day it came out and love it. But I don’t have any old hardware. If I did I’d be pissed. It seems faster and more user friendly than previous versions. Plus, I love aero snap and aero peek.

BTW – I usually wait the standard 6 months before upgrading, but I had used the beta for awhile so I knew what to expect.

My opinion if you plan on using windows or work in a domain environment then yes upgrade, especially if cost is not a consideration. BTW – if you hardware supports it (a lot don’t) you can use XP mode and everything that worked in XP will work in 7 even hardware I think (but aren’t certain of, definitely software though.) The link for XP mode is here, you’ll need at least professional version to use this and I believe there is a piece of software you can download there that would tell you if it will work with your hardware.

If it is not broke. Don’t fix it.

@limeaide From everything I’ve read, XP-mode is slower than hell and nothing you want to run if you have less than 6GB of RAM. It’s basically a repackaged version of Virtual PC; it emulates a Virtual Machine, and emulators tend to be considerably slower than running natively. The last one I tried turned my 3.4GHz P4 into a 366MHz P3.

Yes you should and Yes you will hate it, but then you’ll learn to love it. Cause if you stay on XP you’re gonna get hacked and then you’ll cry. I say if you really love xp and don’t want to leave it. Get windows 7. Get vmware workstation and load xp as a virtual machine. You’ll have all the zanny classic quirks that xp has offered over the years, but your xp box will be in a sandbox contained around windows 7… which is actually way more secure than xp. If you get windows 7 ultimate you can stream media and a bunch of cool stuff that you could already do in Windows XP Media Center. Awesome! Personally I want to try out Chrome OS. Push the On button and in 5 seconds you are up and connected to the internet. Damn google strikes again. Oh yeah and if your machine gets slow after a while using 7 that’s ok. Its probably because of the same reason that vista xp 2000 98 95 do too, so don’t worry its normal. If you get any other version than ultimate you’ll probably be saying… I wish I would have gotten the better one. Then when you have the best you’ll say, wow I paid too much for this. Supposedly the 64bit version is awesome but you’ll run into plenty of driver issues. It makes an IT guy like me just want to go back to school and earn a different degree. You will also love how you knew where everything was in XP is not where its supposed to be in 7. In fact its worded 2 or 3 other ways. And classic is not xp classic, its vista. So if you didn’t upgrade to vista like they thought you would then you’re sort of out the loop. Now granted. Windows 7 is wayyyyyyy better than vista. Its just cooler and hipper and more intuitive. Its just a matter of getting used to the new interface. You might as well do it cause no one is going back to the xp interface anytime soon. You might think you want to try Mac, but you’ll probably be more upset in the ui than windows 7.

My guess is that it will rock when touchscreen becomes the norm.

@jerv I haven’t personally used the “XP Mode” but I have used Virtual PC with an XP install on it and it was really quite snappy. I currently use virtual box from Sun and they’re really fast as well. I don’t have any issues with slowness on virtual PCs I’ve ran with 1 GB to 4 GB systems and they seemed to work great. Not sure what you used or when, but I’m guessing things have gotten a lot better since.

@jerv I just looked up some stuff about XP mode and seems like there was a hotfix put out to fix a slowness issue. I might test this out sometime if I do I’ll update here.

@limeaide Good! That is another issue that I forgot to mention though. Windows 7 is still a work-in-progress, though it came out of the gate more stable and all than Vista was even after SP1. Still, 7 has some teething pains to work out.

What are your CPU, RAM, free hard drive space specs?

Yes. If you like new technology.

No. If you like your old stuff and find that you can surf the internet just fine.

I personally love it. Very stable, fast, and looks great. I also upgrade tech a lot faster than most people.

I would if my hardware were capable of running Windows 7.

I have XP on my desktop and love it. I wouldn’t change just for the sake of change.

Don’t know about moving from XP to 7, but if you were on Vista I would 100% recommend it.

Windows 7 is going to stay for as long as XP. I tried out the RTM version of Windows 7 and it should be fast on a new computer.
Pros:
1. Have to shift to 7 eventually, Microsoft’ll make sure of that
2. Utilises hardware better(Eg. Multicore processors)
3. ‘Polished Look’- Important for some, but I couldn’t care less

Cons:
1. XP is awesome and I am staying till I am dragged away. (XP’s support will run out eventually.
2. Gaming should be better in XP (For and avg config, not high end)
3. $$$$$$

But we will all have to move eventually, so if you have the hardware available go ahead. Its a pretty solid OS(For Microsoft)

@pjanaway If I were running Vista, I would save my money for psychiatric medication instead of Windows 7 :P

@anoop66 Are you sure we’ll have to upgrade to Win7? Have you ever heard the old joke, “The system requirements for this program said Windows 98 or better, so I installed Linux.”?

No, because some of my friends have Windows 7, and they absolutely hate it, a lot of programs are not compatible with Windows 7. I would just stay with Windows XP for now, until all the bugs are all figured out on Windows 7.

Wow, this is by far the most hate for 7 I’ve heard since it’s come out, this is ridiculous. I disagree with almost everything said so far. Seriously, I’ve heard nothing but praise everywhere else, I’m not quite sure what you guys are doing.

First of all, Linux always has a steeper learning curve and higher compatibility issues. I don’t care if you can deal with it, compatibility is something you have to work at to fix, and if you don’t know the system, it’s not going to work right for you. A better system it may be eventually, I don’t know, I’ve never spent extended periods on it. But I know that, while compatibility is much better then it has been, it will still not be as good out of the box, so to speak. I fancy myself a computer enthusiast, at least, and I’ve never taken up Linux full time because of the learning curve. Windows does everything I need it to, and easily. Why would I learn a whole new system, with compatibility issues, over a perfectly fine, high market share version?

Secondly, what are all these programs that are not compatible? I’ve been running 7 since beta and I’ve had maybe one compatibility problem, with my sound card driver, and it was fixed literally the following day. I’ve never had a problem, and XP mode works very well. It it slow, and will not utilize a graphics card, so you can’t really play games, but it will shell any program you want to run as XP and keep everything else working fine. Also, I’ve played Arcanum on 7 just fine and that’s 8 years old. Chances are most games you’d like to run will work just fine.

As for the feel, I think it’s excellent. It is very fast, loads several fold faster then my XP partition, and looks amazing. And if you really don’t like Aero, just turn it off. It’s quite simple. Options are easy to find and change (a huge difference over Vista), so you really don’t have that problem. It’s very easy to personalize and get working exactly as you like it to.

So, in general, I think 7 is great. Again, I’ve been using it for about half a year now, and I’ve had very few problems, i think it’s a great new OS.

Edit: Oh, also, if you want almost all of your personalization options in one place, Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a pretty good option.

@BhacSsylan Personally, I like XP well enough but there are things about 7 that would make any upgrade I do a dual-boot system since 7 has even more compatibility issues with some of the stuff I have than Linux does. I mean, WINE can run WinXP stuff better than & can!

As for steeper learning curve, that may dissuade the average person, but I had a pretty easy time with calculus and I’ve been into computers for >30 years, so I barely even noticed. Hell, I had an easier time configuring my first Linux box before all these automated, n00b-friendly graphical installers that Linux has now than I did trying to navigate and do stuff on my friends Win7 laptop.

“It it slow, and will not utilize a graphics card, so you can’t really play games…”
Unacceptable. Pure, 100% Fail. That also means no CAD either.

And is there an option to switch the taskbar to a “classic” view, or will I have to just remember what I have open at all times and play a shell game whenever I want to switch windows? I couldn’t get through the clusterfuck that they put where the Control Panel used to be so I couldn’t find such a thing.

If it works for you then more power to you. I remain unconvinced.

@jerv What compatibility issues have you had? I’ve not gotten a straight answer about that yet.

And frankly, I’m not sure why you’re having such an issue with the interface. I’ve never used Vista at all unless necessary, which has meant maybe three times since it’s come out, and I found the switch to be incredibly easy. What could you not do?

Can you run CAD on 7? chances are you can, I’m sure. My point above was that almost all games will run on 7. I ran a game from 8 years ago. Shouldn’t be an issue, any more then for XP. XP mode is purely for stubborn programs that will not work on 7. I have yet to find an example (especially since no on answers my question on compatability). And again, i’ve been using 7 for over 6 months. No issues.

And should you ever really have an issue, okay, make a dual boot system. Yes, it means you’re not fully running 7, i suppose, but I garuntee you’d be using it over XP exponentially less once you got used to it. I have a dual-boot since I was doing the beta (when not having dual-boot would have been stupid), and I almost never go to XP any more. I went to 100% 7 almost immediately.

What’s the issue with keeping things open? Any program you don’t have pinned to the taskbar will show up when running. Anything pinned to the taskbar will be encircled when running. And you can change it to have titles on the windows, so you needn’t use aero, and to no have the widows collapse (same as XP), and if all that doesn’t work, yes, it’s quite simple to have it return to ‘Classic’ Right click on start menu, and it’s right in properties, where that option has always been. It’s no worse then the Mac’s dock, much better in my opinion, and many people claim the mac dock as being amazing.

Edit: Considering the post below, I was also an XP fanboy. Never went to Vista, used XP since it came out. It was and is an excellent OS. 7 is just better.

A lot of XP fanboys (I used to be one) are going to say no, but the times, they are a-changin’. I switched from XP to 7 recently. It took some getting used to but I like windows 7 much more than I liked Vista. It’s not so bad.

@BhacSsylan Might just be every Win7 machine I’ve seen was misconfigured. then. Or maybe it’s just an Aero thing. Personally, I use RocketDock on my WinXP machines for a launcher anyways so I already have the functionality of pinning.

Also, I don’t have to look for a circle to see if something is open; it’s either there or it’s not, and I can get to it in a single click in the bottom my peripheral vision; I don’t even need to move my eyeballs. Plus, I don’t have to deal with sub-menus whenever I have multiple instances open.

Under 7, there have been times where I had a program that was running, I minimized the window, and it totally disappeared. I had to go digging for it. Not a one-shot glitch, and not just one machine. Again, it might be an Aero thing. However, that new taskbar can shove itself up it’s own ass until it coughs up it’s scalp as far as I’m concerned.

I am sure that there are CAD programs that will run on 7, and the would have to since XP mode can’t access graphics cards. Unfortunately, a few other specialty/custom programs I have (RPG utilities mostly) also appear to fall into the “stubborn” category and that means I need to pay MS more money to even get XP mode so I can run them… or I can just run them under Linux for free or stick with XP.

This might surprise you, but there are some things about 7 that I do like (the biggest thing being that it’s not Vista) but even the best operating system in the world means nothing if I put my fist through the screen and a boot through the side-panel of my tower or if there are things it won’t let me do that I could under my old “inferior” OS without spending more on software than I spent on my car.

@Xann009 That is what I thought too. However, any time my level of vitriol increases with use, that tells me that something is wrong, or at least incompatible. I can get use to a lot of stuff (not all of it good) but the UI on 7 pushed me beyond my limits.