Upgrading to Win 7

I have a pretty basic laptop (Dell Vostro 1000, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD) that's running XP Home SP3. The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft tells me it can run Win 7, but only the 32-bit version. Would it be worth it performance-wise to upgrade? The laptop is used mainly for web surfing and word processing. I expect Win 7 is safer than XP, but I've never a malware infection of any kind in 15 years so don't see that as a real advantage.

 

Go for it. Disregard what advisor is stating. Unless you are going to be doing stuff tha needs 64bit processing, the 32bit version of Win7 will suffice.

 

Thanks. Think I'll go for it.

 

Windows 7 is a great improvement on XP although there is a learning curve and as XP is no longer supported you are doing the right thing.
The 32 bit version is a perfectly good system and as you have only 2GB ram there is no point in going for the 64 bit version as you will not get any benefits.

 

Oops :-o

 

Thanks. I suspect RAM is the reason I can't upgrade to the 64-bit version. But 2GB is all this machine will take.

My main reason for wanting to upgrade is that my wife's new laptop has Win 7 and I know nothing about it. Every time she has a problem or wants to know how to do something, it takes me a while to figure it out.

 

Windows 7 is an excellent OS although some of the dedicated XP users will not give it a chance.

I mistakenly said it is no longer supported when of course it is and will be until 2014 :-o

You will find it will take a while to learn but the effort is worth it and should you have any problems we are always ready to help.

 

With only 2GB RAM there wouldn't be any point in installing Win 7 64-bit as the only real difference between 32 and 64 is the amount of memory each can use. 32-bit is limited to 4GB to include system memory, graphics card memory, and any memory requirements of other system devices, so most 32-bit users with 4 or more GB only see about 3½ GB usable RAM. In performance terms there isn't any perceptible difference, and functionally they are identical.

Go ahead and install 7 32-bit and it won't be long before you have forgotten all about XP, solid OS that it is.

 

Great. Thanks to all for the advice. Ironically, when I was laptop shopping four years ago, I chose the Vostro (classified by Dell as a small business machine) because I could get it with XP instead of 7. Guess I'm finally ready to move up.

 

If the old machine is still usable, use it for a NAS, or if you use a CATV or other provider that is not like ATT's UVerse, use it for a pfsense or smoothwall router project. Many uses for old machines.

I have a P4 3gb with 2gb RAM, 500gb hard drive, that is going into reserves, and have a few ideas what to do with it. May turn it into a dvd server, or may just use it as a SBS rig running ClearOS, as a test rig, just have not decided.

One cool project that I like so far, since we have a home theater is http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbmcposterdisp/ info can be found at http://www.avsforum.com/t/1439406/movieposter-virtual-movie-poster-display-software/0_100

 

Thanks. I expect I'll be visiting that site quite a lot.

 

Some Luddites, errr.. People using Win 7 really like the "look and feel" of XP and use this:

http://majorgeeks.com/Classic_Shell_d7686.html

It has a 4.2 geek rating, I use it, I love it. Never a problem...