XP Home or Windows 7 Home?

Hi guys, My issue is this: I am Putting together a new PC I7 2,8 with 12GB ram etc… Now I am used to and like XP…. Will Win7 be best for the new gear? Will it be user friendly as I find XP? What is the difference with 32bit and 64bit??? Will my Outlook Express work on Win7 I have Office 2007 and 2010 so that's not an issue but my email is. My main use is home and internet so the fastest I can be the better…. Just really don't know if I should go for Win7 or not…. Your input would be great. Cheers

My issue is this: I am Putting together a new PC I7 2,8 with 12GB ram etc… My 2 cents Now I am used to and like XP…. Will Win7 be best for the new gear? – Yes Will it be user friendly as I find XP? - Yes, you can make 7 look almost like xp, this is how I have my system. What is the difference with 32bit and 64bit??? If I am right did you say that your going to have 12g ram, then 32 bits will only be good up to 3gigs, but 64 bit is faster and uses memory up above 3 gigs of ram. Will my Outlook Express work on Win7- no, thats been done away with, but windows live help me moved all my info into the new system with no problems. I have Office 2007 and 2010 so that's not an issue but my email is. - not sure how to respone, still using 2003 with 7 and np here so far. My main use is home and internet so the fastest I can be the better…. Well if you have that speed for the cpu and that much memory and going to 64 bit, lol you have all the speed you need. This is my 2 cents for what it is worth. Jimbo1

Thanks Jimbo. 2 cents well takin Will my Outlook Express work on Win7- no, that's been done away with, but windows live help me moved all my info into the new system with no problems. How/what email client must I use then? I see Office Business has outlook? Is this what they have done now? to make people buy the better Office to get the email client? I have read that Win7 can be very slow on the WWW??? I don't know how true that is? that is why I ask here, I trust your guys responses! Cheers again

Thanks Jimbo. 2 cents well takin

How/what email client must I use then? I see Office Business has outlook? Is this what they have done now? to make people buy the better Office to get the email client?

What I did was follow the instructions within W7 of setting up a new email client and the wizard asked me for my outlook express info and it was able to set up everything for me. Here are some links to show you what to expect in W7


http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows…start-to-finish

http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/tips/int…s-windows-7.php

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums…30-b37da5be6606

I have read that Win7 can be very slow on the WWW??? I don't know how true that is? that is why I ask here, I trust your guys responses!

Well not sure where that comes from, but I bought me a new Labtop and it had Vista on it, Installed W7 Prem and from the time I went on the net, it was way faster than XP or Vista, and system ran better than Vista. So as far as being slow, must have network problems, Speed issues or something. For me everything is better. In fact this PC I am using now has XP, moving up to win 7 once I get the new mb in and ram, saying goodby to xp.

Time to put the cow out to the pasture.

You will have problems with the new GUI of Windows 7 for a while, but there is no comparison between XP and Win 7 as far as I'm concerned. I liked XP and I like Win 7 even more. Definitely the way to go and once you work with it for awhile you'll like it.

One of the biggest problems you're going to have at first is UAC, which keeps asking you, "Are you sure you really want to do that?". You can train it or do as I and many others have done and disable it.

You will not like the new SuperBar (formerly called Quick Launch in XP) part of the Win 7 Taskbar but you can tame that so it looks and feels like XP if you want. The Win 7 Aero interface is beautiful, the built in themes and ability to have a theme rotate desktop backgrounds is really cool.Aero Peek is also great.

Like Jimbo1, Win 7 speed is as good as or better than XP was for everything.

Outlook Express is gone, but read this:

Windows 7 does not come with an active or enabled E-mail client, but Windows Mail (Outlook Express look alike) that was available in Vista is still there, it just needs some work to make it usable.

See here: How to Reinstate Windows Mail in Windows 7

or again as Jimbo1 said, install Windows Live Mail.

One feature of Windows 7 you need to get familiar with and learn to use quickly is the built in Search facility that is immediately available when you click on the Start button (Orb). It provides an easy way to get to almost anything in Win 7, including commands, folders or files. For instance, clicking on Start then entering mail will bring up one or more responses, one of which is "Go online to get Windows Live Essentials", which will give you a Outlook Express like E-mail client.

I run Windows 7 Professional 64bit with 4GB or ram (wish my computer would take more). I have a 22" LCD display which also helps I also run Microsoft XP Mode as a virtual machine for the times I need XP (or think I do) and for grins run Oracle VirtualBox where I have XP Pro, Win 98 SE and Ubuntu Linux 10 as clients.

Thanks guys, I will suss out the Windows live…. as I need a good email client… be a pain reloading my address book etc but…. Cheers

You will have problems with the new GUI of Windows 7 for a while

To clarify, the Windows 7 GUI will take some getting used to because there are significant differences between XP's front end and Window 7's. If you have used Vista, the transition will be less dramatic. Windows 7 is actually much more stable then XP when installed on current hardware.

For my 2 cents, there's no question - go 64bit Windows 7. XP was designed more than 10 years ago to support (by user demand) legacy (DOS era) hardware from 10 years before that! XP was designed when most home users did not have broadband, if they had Internet access at all. And XP was designed before badguys figured out the Internet was full of naive "marks" almost eager to be duped. Microsoft, pressured by the massive corporate world who had spent billions on hardware and custom software, weighed legacy support over security - and got bashed for that decision since day 1, and is still getting bashed for it.

Windows 7 was designed to support today's highly advanced hardware. And it was designed with security first, legacy support second - and rightfully so.

As for Windows Live Mail, it is an able email client but I don't like it. BUT I didn't like Outlook Express either having been an Outlook user since Outlook 97.

Cool guys, thanks for the help here….. Will go for 64bit Win7 and have looked at the links for Win live email… Looks similar to outlook…. And I see there is a picture program with it too? So that will save me trying to find new software. Does Malwarebytes, ATF Cleaner and C Cleaner work ok with Win7??? as that is all I use apart from virus/Firewall which is free with my ISP ( McAfee ) Cheers

If you look at each site, you will find your answers.

MBAM - Support for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and 7 (32-bit and 64-bit).

CCleaner - Runs on Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000 and 98. Including both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Now there is some controversy with ATF Cleaner. Many folks say it works great with Win7, but the home page clearly says, Windows 98/ME/2K/XP and Vista! And it goes on to say, "There currently is no ETA on the update, sorry."

You can use Windows 7 Easy Transfer to help you move from XP to 7. You will need an external hard drive or a good sized flash drive (8GB recommended).

You download and run it on the XP box and it copies all your data and settings, including Outlook Express stuff, to the external HD or flash drive. The you install Win 7 and run it again there and it copies the stuff back. Works pretty well.

If it were me, I would make an image backup of the XP drive/partition before doing anything, just in case something goes wrong, so this again points to an external HD as the way to go.

Cool Thats been good advice and tips… Seeing this will be a new machine I will still have this old girl ready to run if I have issues…. The File transfer is a good idea.. great tip I have an external drive I can use for that Anything else you guys can throw at me concerning the change over???? Cheers again

Ah, if it's a new machine then you don't really need a external hard drive. You can connect to two computers with a Ethernet crossover cable or through a router if you have one. I think there is even a way to connect two computers via USB , though I don't remember what it is.