To Win7 or not to Win7

bushmins · 1 Jan 2010 at 12:43

I have a decent laptop that ive been running XP 32bit on, ive always used XP and have not had any torubles with it.
I play a lot of games, watch vids, store all my photos etc. I dont do any of the msn, skype or facebook type stuff. I use Explorer in the most basic way possible.

Will installing Win7 on my laptop give me grief? XP installs, i update all the drivers as i have done for years, using the driver CD that came with the laptop and using nvidia for the latest graphics drivers, games generally install any DX software and of course XP update function does pretty much everything else - its easy.

Will i have to go all over the place looking for new Win7 drivers for sound, graphic, mouse pad and wirlesss devices etc?

Do it still use outlook and can i still maunally set it all up as i have done with XP i.e. setting the POP and SMTP values up.

Do i need to install Avast and Zonealarm as i always have with XP?

In other words XP isnt broken should i bother getting Win7? The only real thing that appeals to me is that i have a 64bit machine and have been running 32bit software on, so it must be better and even eaiser to use?

Also i have a valid version of XP, can i use this with Win7 Premium to get the XP compatibility mode?

Nymins · 1 Jan 2010 at 12:48

Win7 is brilliant at finding drivers. Installing it on various machines, i have only needed to find one or two drivers for external hardware, and of course just updating the graphics card drivers to the latest myself.

What spec of laptop it is and what make/model?

bushmins · 1 Jan 2010 at 13:15

Its the Clevo M571TU. 2.8c2d and 280M, DDR3-1066 4GB.

Nymins · 1 Jan 2010 at 13:29

Definitely go for Win7 64bit.

marmalade · 1 Jan 2010 at 16:37

Nymins said:
Definitely go for Win7 64bit.

Yup 64 bits In the forseeable future 32 bit will be as dead as 8

theheyes · 1 Jan 2010 at 16:40

Well, 32 bit will be around for a number of years yet but anyone buying new would be foolish not to go with 64 bit unless they had a very specific reason not to.

JessicaD · 6 Jan 2010 at 14:55

Bushmins,

First, prior to migrating to Windows 7 from Windows XP it would be best to run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.
To determine if your current computer configuration will be compatible with Windows 7 please go to the following link: http://*******.com/no4xb7

Another resource to verify compatibility is available at the Microsoft Windows 7 Compatibility Center located at the following link: http://bit.ly/1gW6Ns

Also, the compatibility mode feature is included in every version of Windows 7 -- however if you wish to use XP Mode you will need Windows 7 Professional or higher. Please note that there are also additional hardware requirements. To learn more, please go here: http://bit.ly/lvAjC

Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team