Upgrading from XP to Win 7/8 - Suggestion

I am thinking of upgrading from Windows XP SP3 to Windows 7 or may be Windows 8.

I am using a 5 year old computer (desktop). I don't know whether my CPU/Motherboard is 64 bit compatible. Here is the configuration of my desktop

Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160 1.8 Ghz
Asus P5G MX Motherboard
Transcend 1 GB DDR2 RAM
Windows XP Professional SP3 32 bit

Can I install Win 7 64 bit version in this system?
Is there any drawback moving from 32 bit to 64 bit?
Anything I should know before installing 64 bit Windows 7?

Any suggestion in this regard will be appreciated. Thank you.

Can I install Win 7 64 bit version in this system?

Yes.

Is there any drawback moving from 32 bit to 64 bit?

Practically, No.

Anything I should know before installing 64 bit Windows 7?

You were slow enough to upgrade.

dashing.sujay said:
You were slow enough to upgrade.

So, I am good to go.

Thank you so much.

W

forget about 64bit as in my opinion it is not even worth considering for older systems with 2gb or less ram.also why do you want to move to 64bit when you can't use its most significant advantage(ability to use more than 4gb ram).i use windows 7 ultimate 32bit on a 2gb ram system & sometimes feel lack of ram.

If you have >4 GB RAM, then go for 64 bit. Else, 32 bit will be better.

Thank you guys...

I have never bother about whether my OS is home version or pro version. Now I think I will have to read a little about them (at least) to get know what I get extra in Pro or what I am missing in Home version. Now Win 7 has few more versions beyond Professional.

I thought 64 bit will be faster than 32 bit, but I didn't know that it does so at the cost of more RAM. Better I will stick with 32 bit version. I will add 2GB more (1Gb+2GB) and upgrade to Win 7.

Hello there...

I have an acer aspire 5740g Laptop.. 3+ years old now....
I hated running Windows 8 on it and went back to Windows 7. And I am happy with it.
If your system has 2gb or more ram then I would like to suggest.. Go with windows7.
Windows8 is only worth it if you have a touch screen system..... It's a pain to work with mouse+keyboard...

So yeah... Windows 7 should be it if your system permits...
Cheers

Thor said:
Hello there...
I have an acer aspire 5740g Laptop.. 3+ years old now....
I hated running Windows 8 on it and went back to Windows 7. And I am happy with it.
If your system has 2gb or more ram then I would like to suggest.. Go with windows7.
Windows8 is only worth it if you have a touch screen system..... It's a pain to work with mouse+keyboard...

So yeah... Windows 7 should be it if your system permits...
Cheers

Where do you conclude that from? Have you been using only the Metro interface? I don't know if you have been keeping your mouse and KB in an awkward position but switch to desktop and its just the usual OS you have been using.

Thor said:
Windows8 is only worth it if you have a touch screen system..... It's a pain to work with mouse+keyboard...

I think you haven't used windows 8 at all. If not i highly disagree with you. it may get a little to get used to it. otherwise it is like faster windows 7.

I would suggest getting a 32 bit win 8.1 - if you don't like modern ui just enable boot to desktop option and if you feel like you're missing the classic start menu there are many alternatives available - this way you will have a notably faster and lesser resource hungry environment than win 7.

Thank you guys.

Same config, but Win 8 is faster than Win 7. Good to know that... I will keep this in mind.
Seems like I am not missing anything in Home Basic.

4. I am never gonna be recording TV.
5. It's just that not "easy", but I can create network and connect printers (correct me if I am wrong)
6. What's this Windows XP business program?
8. There is no network. Easy and secure doesn't matter here.
9. NA
10. This is something useful, I think.
11. English is fine.

I checked ASUS site... My mobo doesn't seems to support anything above Vista. (assumed based on there is no Win 7/8 to choose from the drop down option).

W

most of the vista 32bit drivers work fine with windows 7 32bit.

^ That's good to hear...
Win 7 site, doesn't have any information about my mobo. So can't say whether it would support or not. Let's see...

nac said:
^ That's good to hear...
Win 7 site, doesn't have any information about my mobo. So can't say whether it would support or not. Let's see...

Better Check intel site.
I found out 945 chipset has a win 7 driver, try luck on that..

Win 8 would be better. It does gives some problems but only in some GFWL games so far. And as for experience I actually like the start screen more than start button because now I have many software on first screen.

I ran win 7 advisor tool. Green signal for almost all, except these...

Custom installation required
You'll need to perform a custom installation of 32-bit Windows 7 and then reinstall your programs. Make sure to back up your files before you begin.

(Is this a problem peforming a custom installation)

Adobe Media Player
Not compatible
This version of the program will not work on Windows 7.

(I don't know whether I am using this media player or not. So no idea, whether this would be an issue after upgrading)

Virtualization technology not supported
Your PC does not support hardware assisted virtualization technology.

(I googled about this, it seems like my proccessor doesn't support virtual machine. I have thought about installing a virtual machine long ago (around the time I bought this PC), but never tried it. I don't think there will any necessity will arise after upgrading).

Extra 15 GB of free space
For best performance, make sure your PC has 15 GB of free space before installing Windows XP Mode.

(Isn't it something to do with virtual machine? I have heard about XP mode in Windows 7, but don't know much about it. What's the use of xp mode? Can you guys briefly say what it is? So that I can determine, whether this could be an issue (serious) or not...

---------------------------------------------

I don't use outlook so no problem if it's not included in Win 7

They don't have compatibility information for Wordweb (dictionary). WW does have latest compatible version. So no problem here...

1. No its not a problem. Most people do Custom Installation anyway.
2. No its not an issue.
3. You can always just install two OSes if you want so no its not an issue.
4. Basically XP was quite old OS and so in Win 7 some softwares won't run so for them XP mode was made but now its irrelevant anyway.

Thank you Anand...
I am clear.. Have increased RAM and soon will upgrade to Win 7

Thank you all for your time and really appreciate helping me with the things I needed/wanted to know for this upgrade

You are welcome buddy. Glad to help.

Finally, installed Windows 7 32-bit.

Initial observation:
1. Everything was working fine even before I install drivers of motherboard. Seems like I don't need my motherboard CD now.
* Screen resolution set
* Audio/sound works
* LAN/internet is working
2. Booting is slower than Win XP.

nac said:
Finally, installed Windows 7 32-bit.

Initial observation:
1. Everything was working fine even before I install drivers of motherboard. Seems like I don't need my motherboard CD now.
* Screen resolution set
* Audio/sound works
* LAN/internet is working
2. Booting is slower than Win XP.

Thats weird. Win 7 is faster than Win XP.

Performance may vary as per hardware, simple

Mr.Kickass said:
Performance may vary as per hardware, simple

Yes but on same hardware it should perform faster. And in this case I guess hardware is same.

Yes

Hardware is same.

In XP it took 30 seconds to land on log on page, now it takes about 48 seconds. I am yet to install the software I use, even now it takes about a minute and 50 seconds to load everything and ready for the user to use. It's much longer than XP.

Now I am reading askvg master tutorial to make win 7 perform faster. Lets see whether that helps...

The tweak doesn't make a significant difference in boot speed. Still it takes long (but less longer than before) to boot.

Now every time I restart or start my PC, this flag appears "Install your power management system driver". I follow the link suggested and downloaded and installed. But again it keeps on flagging after restarting or when starting. What's the deal here? Should I ignore this flagging?

I googled to try to find a solution but couldn't.

This has got definitely something to do with the motherboard

Install display driver if you haven't already.

I think there might be a compatibility problem as the mobo manufacturer might not have drivers for Windows 8. I'm sure there has to be some workaround. In case things don't seem good but everything else runs fine, the notification will have to be manually turned off

nac said:
Yes Hardware is same.

In XP it took 30 seconds to land on log on page, now it takes about 48 seconds. I am yet to install the software I use, even now it takes about a minute and 50 seconds to load everything and ready for the user to use. It's much longer than XP.

Now I am reading askvg master tutorial to make win 7 perform faster. Lets see whether that helps...

Try installing INF update for 945 series motherboards from Intel's site.

lywyre,
Windows says it's up to date. I checked intel site, and run the update driver utility.
It says there is an newer update available (INF), so I downloaded and installed. It couldn't recognize few of the hardware like audio, LAN....

Kickass,
It's Windows 7. I didn't install any driver software. The OS itself installed everything. You think the one installed might not be compatible?

Baiju, Windows installed it.

D

1. check in device manager that none of the devices show up as not recognized including power manager.
2. defrag the drive - have seen that after new install and lot other initial driver installs drive does fragment. slow bootups are at times from fragmented and un-optimized partitions.