Apropos the discussion on the ending of support for XP:
We have two laptops; a 1 year old Lenovo Ideapad, running W8, which I/m beginning to like, and an Acer Aspire 1654 WL Mi, Bought Jan 2006, running XP on
Intel Pentium M proc 760 - 2GHz, 533 MHz FSP 2Mb cache
ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300 PCI Express with 128Mb VRAM
80Gb HDD
I know that I should Google the following questions, but I need answers spelling out for dummies, not people who speak computer!
1. Will this machine support W7 or W8? Mrs. too uses this one, and would be more comfortable with the classic desktop available with W7. I use W7 at the office, and can see she would be able to work, without giving me too much grief.
2. Are Windows upgrades available for XP>W7 and XP>W8, and where's best to get them? The XP is OEM, from Comet - as I say - 2006.
3. When upgrading, do I need to format the HDD? I don't want to, since there are a lot of applications, some of which I don't have the software for.
4. The machine does take some time to boot up. Does an upgrade replace the legacy registry from XP, and thus improve boot-up time?
That will probably do for now. We like the Acer, and don't particularly want to replace it, so TIA
Neil
edited to sort out correct operating system
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 14 Apr 14 at 00:52
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I think you mean XP :) now corrected
>> We have two laptops; a 1 year old Lenovo Ideapad, running W8, which I/m beginning to
>> like, and an Acer Aspire 1654 WL Mi, Bought Jan 2006, running XP on
>> Intel Pentium M proc 760 - 2GHz, 533 MHz FSP 2Mb cache
>>ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300 PCI Express with 128Mb VRAM 80Gb HDD
>> 1. Will this machine support W7 or W8? Mrs. too uses this one, and would be more
>> comfortable with the classic desktop available with W7. I use W7 at the office, and can
>> see she would be able to work, without giving me too much grief.
This will just about run Windows 7 (badly) depending on the amount of RAM you have. Personally the cost of doing so would be too high to make it worth while.
>> 2. Are Windows upgrades available for XP>W7 and XP>W8, and where's best to get them? The XP is OEM, from Comet - as I say - 2006.
As far as I am aware you can only buy Windows 8.1 upgrade now, you can buy an OEM version of Windows but technically that is supposed to be for new computers only, but it is a grey area. An OEM licence of Windows 7 costs around £70.
>> 3. When upgrading, do I need to format the HDD? I don't want to, since there are a lot of applications, some of which I don't have the software for.
You certainly will with Windows 7 OEM, with the upgrade version of Windows 8.1 then technically not, but some of your applications may not work properly. You can install Windows 7 OEM over the XP to avoid formatting but you will still need to reinstall your applications and it will cause all sorts of other issues especially with a tiny 80gb drive.
>> 4. The machine does take some time to boot up. Does an upgrade replace the legacy registry from XP, and thus improve boot-up time?
A slow boot time can be a sign of a warn hard drive, so I would test this before going any further.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 14 Apr 14 at 00:55
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Yup XP. See what I mean about Dummies!
8o)
Last edited by: neiltoo on Sun 13 Apr 14 at 16:38
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>> 1. Will this machine support W7 or W8?
Just about. - See below.
>>
>> 2. Are Windows upgrades available for XL>W7 and XL>W8, and where's best to get them?
>> The XL is OEM, from Comet - as I say - 2006.
There is no upgrade from XP to 7 or 8, it will need to be a reinstall. However thats a good thing as a new install will be clean and won't have all the old XP clutter slowing it up.
>> 3. When upgrading, do I need to format the HDD? I don't want to, since
>> there are a lot of applications, some of which I don't have the software for.
Yes you will need to do a clean install, none of your old XP apps will be ported over so you night as well reformat. Some of your old apps might not run on 7 or 8
>> 4. The machine does take some time to boot up. Does an upgrade replace the
>> legacy registry from XL, and thus improve boot-up time?
Yes and will boot up faster - your old XP registry is well cocked up by now.
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You have seperate issues;
Your Acer is not butch enough for the modern world. And its disk is not large enough. Its difficult to see you continuing with the machine into the future.
XP is no longer going to be supported with all the potential, and over-hyped in my opinion, potential security issues that may bring.
You have software without installation disks, and in many cases this software isn't going to work on W7/8 anyway. There is, in anycase, no upgrade path that will protect already installed software from XP to W7/8.
Was it me I would keep the XP Acer, do nothing confidential on it and not use it for anything that needs security (banking, for example). But I would keep it if there was software on there that I did not wish to do without.
Then I would buy a W7/8 machine and do everything I could on there.
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>>
>> Was it me I would keep the XP Acer, do nothing confidential on it and
>> not use it for anything that needs security (banking, for example). But I would keep
>> it if there was software on there that I did not wish to do without.
>>
>> Then I would buy a W7/8 machine and do everything I could on there.
Like he said.
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XL issues again - RattleandSmoke
