Windows 7

[VOGUE_MAN]

I use Windows 7 at work and I can barley notice a day to day difference, in saying that though things do seem to work better more of the time.

[Matra et Alpine]

I'm not much of a computer guy so I don't know what hardware I have exactly - I suppose I could find out if I wanted though. What I do know is this computer that I bought off my friend for $100 is 2.5 years old and was running on Vista I think and had huge troubles playing games - it crashed and in general did not work well.

Soudns lie a bat choice of hardware bits -- the curse of the PC, you CAN put anyones anybits together but don't expect them all to work perfectly. Closed v. Open systems debates to follow no doubt

Just run this ... Download details: Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and it will let you know on the hardware you have. Also, I'd check a little deeper and look for PROPER" Windows7 drivers for all the hardware you have and if any of it doesn't then see if you can swap it out for some that has. Find a mate who is a SUCCESFUL gaming machine builder/modder and scrounged some old bits form him/her.

he and the guy couldn't solve the solution so he stopped gaming on it.

Apart from the obvious cr@p like is it definately 32 bit ( good 64 bit drivers were thin on the ground on Vista/XP ) then hard to do "remote support" on gaming. Start ... Run .... dxdiag and then google for each device name given for "game problems" and you MIGHT get lucky - an evenign that coudl be well spent given the financial contraints

[aiasib]

I have Win 7 64-bit and I love it and recommend it to everyone who has vista, even XP.

[my porsche]

if you are on vista.. nothing. put the disk in, or download it as the case may be. run it, and it will do everything. the only program that i had that didn't cooperate was iTunes. go figure. and i didnt have to uninstall it, just de-authorize the computer, and reauthorize it after the install.

Damn it, the disks to Office and Photoshop are both at home (I'm at school) and AutoCAD and Inventor I don't exactly..."have"...disks.

For iTunes, will it store your songs, or do I have to re-upload all of the music I put on from CDs? It seems I had a similar problem going from my desktop to laptop.

In other news, the W7 disk has arrived, so I'll be piddling with this tonight maybe.

[cmcpokey]

Damn it, the disks to Office and Photoshop are both at home (I'm at school) and AutoCAD and Inventor I don't exactly..."have"...disks.

For iTunes, will it store your songs, or do I have to re-upload all of the music I put on from CDs? It seems I had a similar problem going from my desktop to laptop.

In other news, the W7 disk has arrived, so I'll be piddling with this tonight maybe.

unless you are doing a clean install, everything should be there. desktop shortcuts may go away but not the stuff saved there, but i had a clean desktop anyway, so i can't really say one way or the other. but even your cookies stay in place. all of my numerous analysis programs that are only mildly stable made the switch just fine. my less than legal copy of PS made it with no issues, not even losing my tool prefs. its a super easy install, just factor in about 30-45 minutes for it to process.

[Matra et Alpine]

Vefore you install run the "WIndows Easy Transfer" utlity on the W7 disk. That archi8ves all but the programs you'll need if you "Lose" anything. It wil even tell you which programs you need to install after
W7 is a LOT better on making sensible upgrades less painful --- at last !

The W7 upgrade will try to do the upgrade route first and THEN tell you if it can't and suggest you do the install route. So always TRY the upgrade and see what it says You may be lucky SO far I've only had issues with SP1 XP, Vista HOME ( for a Pro upgrade ) and my own Vista student needing clean install out of 50+ machines moved !

[my porsche]

According to the printout that came with my disk, if I'm going from Vista Home (I am) then I need to do the clean install.

I've just popped the disk in now, so we'll see what happens, thanks for all the information guys.