Getting a new all in one pc. Dont want 7!

BengaLover

I am getting an all in once pc soon, and they all seem to have windows 7...
I want my good old XP,does anyone know if you can get one without windows 7, as all in ones are relatively new to the market and I havent seen ANY with XP as an option.

seamus

XP won't come bundled with any machine that you buy, it's off the market.

You could install your own version of XP on the machine when you buy it, but you'll probably find yourself unable to get drivers.

You know that you can modify the look and feel of Windows 7 so that it works almost exactly like XP?

BengaLover

I had a gander at 7 and it seems too much like Vista..I hated Vista..

youcancallmeal

I can't emphasise enough how much of a bad idea it would be to try and stick with XP, if you did any reading up at all about Windows 7 you would quickly realise it is probably the best operating system Microsoft have ever released. It has eveything good from Vista and XP with none or very little of the bad. What most people will tell you is "It simply works".

God I sound like a fanboy but seriously if you decided to go with xp because you "had a gander at 7 and it seems too much like Vista" then you are probably better off finding out the hard way.

BengaLover

ok, ok, ill haul myself outta the dark ages then..:eek:

Fysh

BengaLover wrote: »

ok, ok, ill haul myself outta the dark ages then..:eek:

XP will be a decade old come October this year. When OEMs finally stopped shipping it preinstalled, it still had IE6 preinstalled. It is, at this stage, two major versions back from Microsoft's current offering and should be treated as such.

Trying to stick with XP is a terrible idea, and all you'd achieve by doing so is to give yourself misery. Hardware support will disappear (USB3 support on XP? UEFI support on XP?). Software support will disappear. And then you'll find yourself unable to use the new computer you bought. Vulnerabilities won't be patched because only a numpty would still be using a decade-old OS by choice when there are newer versions available.

Vista is 5 years old, at this point. Yes, it was dire for a good 18 months after release - I refused to use it until after SP1 had landed. However, as of 2 years into its lifespan, it's fine as an OS if you've got the hardware for it. The exact same thing happened with Windows XP - it was an awful load of garbage for at least a year, until SP1 came along and sorted out the major issues (like not having native USB2 support, and being a horrible unstable load of rubbish half the time).

Windows 7 has avoided, for the most part, the initial-rubbish phase. If you're buying a new computer and want to use Windows, get Win7 preinstalled. The only reason not to do this is if you specifically want to buy a retail licence that you can transfer around the place, and frankly if you know enough to know why you might want to do that you shouldn't be coming out with statements like "I don't want 7 because it might be like Vista and I didn't like Vista even though I clearly haven't gone near it in the last 3 years".

TL;DR - everything youcancallme>al said with bells on.

Mr. Presentable

I built my first 7 PC on Monday and am happy to say I am really enjoying the new OS. I never did Vista, so came directly from XP.

I am using 7 Pro 64bit.

So, OP, I say go with 7. Support from MS for XP will end soon I think anyway.

BengaLover

ok, you have clinched it for me then..thanks.:)

JonathanAnon

BengaLover wrote: »

I had a gander at 7 and it seems too much like Vista..I hated Vista..

I was the same Benga, wanted to stick with XP... but because I give computer support to others, I had to upgrade to get familiar with it... It is MUCH better, and very very stable.. From a user point of view, it isnt hugely different... I found it much faster even on the same hardware as I was running.

I would go with Windows 7, and if you find you have have issues with it THEN downgrade to XP... But I cant imagine any situation where you will want to do that..

Overheal

Even since Vista I have seen no earthly reason to return to XP. Maybe if you are one of those crazy people who even in XP used the Classis Mode because you still lived in this crazy Windows 98 bubble. Even Windows Media Player 11 made up for Windows Media Player 10, and I don't miss 9 anymore. Not that much anyway. For me the much (much(much)) better support for Networking and Peripherals and USB far and away beats out what XP, and even Vista offered. Window-Management is very different at first but once you get comfortable with it you realize how much more efficient it is. They Upgraded the Calculate for goodness sake. The calculator! Thats only been waiting around for 15 years. And who needs Partition Magic when you can make and break partitions inside the OS itself? You dont. Thats what.

Very few people left around that are still afraid of it. Afraid of the Aero interface, mostly. Man up. The other improvements under the hood make XP look like what it is: Obsolete.

Fysh

Overheal wrote: »

Even since Vista I have seen no earthly reason to return to XP. Maybe if you are one of those crazy people who even in XP used the Classis Mode because you still lived in this crazy Windows 98 bubble. Even Windows Media Player 11 made up for Windows Media Player 10, and I don't miss 9 anymore. Not that much anyway. For me the much (much(much)) better support for Networking and Peripherals and USB far and away beats out what XP, and even Vista offered. Window-Management is very different at first but once you get comfortable with it you realize how much more efficient it is. They Upgraded the Calculate for goodness sake. The calculator! Thats only been waiting around for 15 years. And who needs Partition Magic when you can make and break partitions inside the OS itself? You dont. Thats what.

Very few people left around that are still afraid of it. Afraid of the Aero interface, mostly. Man up. The other improvements under the hood make XP look like what it is: Obsolete.

I agree with pretty much everything you say though I have to say that Windows partition management is still dire compared to pretty much any other current OS. OS X and any proper version of Linux both run rings around it - for instance, I shouldn't have to use feckin' GParted if I want to create a large FAT32 partition so that I can stash my music and videos on a partition that I can reliably read from & write to using Fedora as well as Windows.

As for the calculator, it is very nice to not have to use the Sysinternals powertoy to get access to a scientific calculator in windows now

Spunog UIE

Windows 7 is a lot better than vista and it doesn't suffer as much. I still have vista on my work machine and its a awful. I can sympathize with you leaving XP as it was one of the best but win7 is pretty good once you change a few things.

The search in windows 7 is like vista's and is pretty crap (badly done like it was in vista) and not as nice as the classic search in winxp, also the file copier is obnoxious and quite slow when moving lots of files, but there are as always different programs to help improve these.

G-Money

I really like Windows 7. I used Vista for a while and I didn't particularly like it, especially the Windows Explorer. There seemed to be 2 copies of stuff like My Music on show but you could only access one of them. The Windows Explorer on 7 is much cleaner. I also like how the windows can snap to one side for copying etc.

RolandIRL

The libraries in 7 are one of the most handiest features imo. Allows you to collect files from different locations into one without having to move them. Great also for sorting between them by different criteria (year, length, size etc)

Spunog UIE wrote: »

The search in windows 7 is like vista's and is pretty crap (badly done like it was in vista) and not as nice as the classic search in winxp, also the file copier is obnoxious and quite slow when moving lots of files, but there are as always different programs to help improve these.

Use Teracopy as an alternative file copier. miles ahead of the default windows one

Overheal

The libraries felt awkward in vista when they were introduced but they seem to be more intelligible in 7. im not aware of any direct comparison though.

bogman

Bit like yourself, an XP lover, needed to upgrade very recently, dont like the interface on Windows 7, it doesnt even have an email client, exploring is crap but boy is it quick in comparison, prob more secure too

Overheal

bogman wrote: »

Bit like yourself, an XP lover, needed to upgrade very recently, dont like the interface on Windows 7, it doesnt even have an email client, exploring is crap but boy is it quick in comparison, prob more secure too

Not an email client thats packed in natively, but they are available for free as part of your license.

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-mail?os=other

Been meaning to look at sky-drive for a while too.

Generally speaking they moved most of the optional features off the basic install. For most people it reduces the bloat and the number of things that require regular updating. I only use the windows live photo gallery for the most part, though theres an entire suite of software available in there