Vista upgrade...to what?

spark240

So my Sony Vaio desktop is running good old Vista Home Premium.

Im thinking I should upgrade, so do I go Win 7 or what?

I see a few options, and Im no PC expert, can I just get an upgrade disc?

I dont use this PC for gaming, music etc, just usual surfing, word & excel docs etc.  

musicegbdf

Think we need to know the Ram and processor to really answer. If it is possible 7 is good,much better than vista

monquixote

I think the system requirements for 7 weren't much different to Vista.

Phil_aka_Pip

Linux

Sambostar

You can have 7 as a 32 bit system or a 64 bit, everything else is 64 bit so you can't so that is your choice. Personally, I'd get another computer and use the old one, backed up and rebooted afresh, with the maximum ram it can take and NEVER connect it to the internet, so you never get the downloads and patches that eventually send your system into the stone age.  That is what I did as ALL 32 bit SOFTWARE  IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH WINDOWS 8 / 8.1 - so oh yeah, they want you to pay for the licence monthly....forever and get it from some cloud somewhere, in fact, it is impossible to buy an outright licence anymore, as you did in the old days.

Easy to say, but it hasn't all gone according to plan. 

Windows 8 / 8.1 is a piece of crap that is starting to error as much as my maximum patched out Vista Home Premium.  But internet browsing is a lot faster...but sending emails with data files is a hassle, but I've downloaded a lot of license free freeware, like Excel type things.  Of course the Dreamweaver, Photoshop and AutoCAD, stay in 32 bit on the old computer. 

I have to do some CD burning for transfers, but time and Microsoft world bullying has moved rather quickly since Windows 7 and some files seem, incompatible anyway, so I only present as printouts, PDF's or final printed drafts or Jpegs.

Actually I use a pencil, a sketch pad and a Fax machine more.

This is my Neanderthal way of trying to balance keeping up with technology and presentation, whilst not spending wods of cash on monthly licenses as Microsoft bully and force you to do, as I'm kind of from the if it ain't broke school of thought and see no sense in wasting cash, just because a software giant dictates that I have to.

 

Paul_C

I'm still using Vista, seems ok for now.

Sambostar

Too painful for me to use on the internet, I had to ditch it.

Fretwired

Anyone using Vista should move to Windows 7 .. their machine will speed up and have more free memory .. Vista was a pile a pooh. The specs for Vista and Windows 7 are basically the same.

johnnyurq

^^^^^^^^

Exactly this.

Every Laptop and PC I have migrated to a clean install of Windows 7 ran much better and faster.

Emp_Fab

stickyfiddle

7 was/is excellent. 8 is so horrible I bought a Mac instead.

holnrew

DOS

crunchman

Fretwired said:

Anyone using Vista should move to Windows 7 .. their machine will speed up and have more free memory .. Vista was a pile a pooh. The specs for Vista and Windows 7 are basically the same.

I'm tempted to go to Windows 7 with my desktop.  The problem I've got is that it's nearly 6 years old.  Last time I tried major changes on a machine that age, the hard drive died within a week!

Axe_meister

Sambostar said:

You can have 7 as a 32 bit system or a 64 bit, everything else is 64 bit so you can't so that is your choice. Personally, I'd get another computer and use the old one, backed up and rebooted afresh, with the maximum ram it can take and NEVER connect it to the internet, so you never get the downloads and patches that eventually send your system into the stone age.  That is what I did as ALL 32 bit SOFTWARE  IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH WINDOWS 8 / 8.1 - so oh yeah, they want you to pay for the licence monthly....forever and get it from some cloud somewhere, in fact, it is impossible to buy an outright licence anymore, as you did in the old days.

Easy to say, but it hasn't all gone according to plan. 

Windows 8 / 8.1 is a piece of crap that is starting to error as much as my maximum patched out Vista Home Premium.  But internet browsing is a lot faster...but sending emails with data files is a hassle, but I've downloaded a lot of license free freeware, like Excel type things.  Of course the Dreamweaver, Photoshop and AutoCAD, stay in 32 bit on the old computer. 

I have to do some CD burning for transfers, but time and Microsoft world bullying has moved rather quickly since Windows 7 and some files seem, incompatible anyway, so I only present as printouts, PDF's or final printed drafts or Jpegs.

Actually I use a pencil, a sketch pad and a Fax machine more.

This is my Neanderthal way of trying to balance keeping up with technology and presentation, whilst not spending wods of cash on monthly licenses as Microsoft bully and force you to do, as I'm kind of from the if it ain't broke school of thought and see no sense in wasting cash, just because a software giant dictates that I have to.

 

I'm running windows 8.1 here 64bit. I have no problem what-so-ever running 32bit software, in fact my old photoshop 32bit software can now see 4GB of memory rather than the 3GB which was the max when running 32bit OS.

It is stable as hell. I hardly use the new interface running in desktop mode full time (I like my icons on the desktop or in the task bar).

I run Oracles Virtual box for some old XP/DOS programs I have lying about as well as a couple of Linux VMs sometimes all at the same time (ok I do have 32GB memory and an i7 processor). It goes to sleep fine, wakes up fine with no data loss, which is better than Windows 7 did.

However if the hardware you have is getting on, I'd slap in an SSD and fill the memory as high as you can, and get a large drive for all of your data, less used Apps.

Hertz32

I'd dual boot Linux (probably Ubuntu) and Win 7.
Have Linux as your working operating system and use Win 7 for any applications that really need it.
That, or just Win 7 and wait and see what they do with Win 9?

FX_Munkee

Win 7 is just Vista fixed/SP3 so the hardware should be fine if not better than required.

boogieman

Just don't install Windows 8. Vile. :-S

Bidley

I've been over this ad nauseum on this forum, but I use W8 and it's fine. In fact, I really like it. You can configure it to run identically to  W7, with the performance boosts.

But W7 is a safe bet, you can't really go wrong.

Myranda

You can *just* upgrade with an upgrade disk. Though if the laptop is old (and with Vista it's fairly old) google the model number and try and find the drivers for things like the wireless, camera and motherboard in win7 versions... my laptop camera doesn't work in Windows7 and the USB2.0 sockets only think they're USB1 in windows7 as there are no drivers for some parts....

Windows7 will be slightly faster (and a re-install always rejuvenates nicely anyway)... and will look familiar enough that it shouldn't be too jarring

Myranda

stickyfiddle said:

7 was/is excellent. 8 is so horrible I bought a Mac instead.

Steady now!

Fretwired

crunchman said:

Fretwired said:

Anyone using Vista should move to Windows 7 .. their machine will speed up and have more free memory .. Vista was a pile a pooh. The specs for Vista and Windows 7 are basically the same.

I'm tempted to go to Windows 7 with my desktop.  The problem I've got is that it's nearly 6 years old.  Last time I tried major changes on a machine that age, the hard drive died within a week!

@crunchman .. I have Windows 7 running fine on an aancient low spec Dell laptop which is 7 years old.