I still use XP lol plan to upgrade

woofercooker

woofercooker

woofercooker

Associate
Joined
4 Nov 2011
Posts
512
Ive been using XP for ages, Had no reason to upgrade so far mainly used my pc for watching videos and some retro counter strike type gaming.

Anyway im planning a new build now and will obliviously need a new OS, Ive only briefly used new windows and its was confusing to me i didn't like it at first glace, with xp i boot up to desktop and i know where all my stuff is etc, Does it take long to get used to windows 8 coming from xp?
 
In short No.

I will be honest with you, but if you are happy with XP, there is no reason why you cannot stick to it. Its a solid OS that does its job and it does it 100% perfectly.

Now, on the other hand, if you are building a new setup then sticking with XP is a bit cheap-skate as well. XP will not get the most out of your new hardware like 8, 7 or even 6 will, so I would absolutely say go for it.

I will also be honest with you, but I myself am torn between 7 and 8.

I took a while to go to 8 and I have only just done this about 3 months ago, but in truth, I am half wondering if I made the right move. There is a lot of things that are irritating me about 8 that I never had in 7.

At random times, some of my Steam apps all of a sudden get corrupt configs, especially when Im several levels into a campaign and bosh! - I have to start again.

My internet log in info seems to randomly vanish too.

At first I thought it was me or my PC but I have upgraded 2 PCs to Win 8 and they both do it, and a couple of mates also noticed these and other things too, plus, there is the nigle about the Desktop UI is now so basic that its pre-indows 95.

Another irritant is that I have bought Windows Blinds and the one PC I cannot get that to run on, is my main PC.

There are other issues and I am considering going back to Windows 7 but the only reason why I have not, is that I need to justify buying Win 8.

I think they are both as good as each other and so to settle a debate on the choice, is to see which you can get for cheaper... Go for that one.
 
woofercooker said:
Ive been using XP for ages, Had no reason to upgrade so far mainly used my pc for watching videos and some retro counter strike type gaming.

Anyway im planning a new build now and will obliviously need a new OS, Ive only briefly used new windows and its was confusing to me i didn't like it at first glace, with xp i boot up to desktop and i know where all my stuff is etc, Does it take long to get used to windows 8 coming from xp?
Click to expand...

Like any OS if you are willing to learn no it does not take long,XP support is ending soon and also Win8/8.1 will give you many benefits ie improved security,new features DX11.1 and 11.2 down the road,you can always add a third party button mod like Classic Shell http://www.classicshell.net/features/(I don't need it) if you can't get use to the UI etc..

As to Steam comment by FatRakoon I've never any any issues on three different Win8/8.1 PCs since Win8 launch(I'm a gamer with tons of games installed),if something is getting corrupt then I would check HD, ram and even overclocking settings if any,only time you many get a corrupt game is if you do an upgrade from say Win7 to 8,but even then you can run file integrity check from within Steam to repair it.
 
Last edited:
You'll need to upgrade by April 2014.

Download a trial version of Windows 7 and play with it in Virtualbox. You can do the same with Win8.
 
If you are concerned about learning a new OS, W7 is the way to go. I upgraded to W8.1 and I prefer it to W7, but it does take some getting used to, even though the only UI changes are mostly visual. If you stick with it for a month, then you would be 100% used to it. I wouldn't go back to W7 unless I had to, but it's still an excellent OS. I just prefer 8.

Either way, both are infinitely better than XP. Easier to use, more functional, better looking. Pretty much anything you plug into your PC will automatically find drivers (XP I think only pretended to look). It's just a breathe of fresh air. You'll freak out at first, but it's SOOOOOOOO worth it.
 
Elevon said:
As to Steam comment by FatRakoon I've never any any issues on three different Win8/8.1 PCs since Win8 launch(I'm a gamer with tons of games installed),if something is getting corrupt then I would check HD, ram and even overclocking settings if any,only time you many get a corrupt game is if you do an upgrade from say Win7 to 8,but even then you can run file integrity check from within Steam to repair it.
Click to expand...

It passes the integfrity check OK The game files are all fine, its the config or the saved games that do it.

Its done it on

Dawn of War Dark Crusade
Dawn of War SoulStorm
Dawn of War II - Retribution

I have all the Dawn of War game but not played them enough to see if they fall over too

Saints Row 4
and a couple of Call of Duty games too... Black Ops is one and I think MW3 the other

They have all had random corruptions in the saved games.

Could be a number of things for sure, but the system is absolutely rock solid in every other respect and I get no issues in anything else, nor did I get these issues with Windows 7

And of course, it could simply be sheer bad luck, however, a couple of mates had seen similar things and it was only about a week ago, that we seem to have realised that the one factor we all have is that these problems NEVER happened until we went to Windows 8.

( Then again, I am normall an ATI user and I have gone to nVIDIA recently too, plus I have loaned another nVidia to one mate, so is it nVidia? LOL )
 
FatRakoon said:
( Then again, I am normall an ATI user and I have gone to nVIDIA recently too, plus I have loaned another nVidia to one mate, so is it nVidia? LOL )
Click to expand...




I have two Nvidia based PCs and one ATi(all have 8/8.1) however the one that gives me the most issue(not in gaming however) is one with my Nvidia 560Ti card,got the famous freezing in Firefox for Win7/8 users etc with any driver above 314.22.

Thread here on Geforce forums https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/621899/geforce-drivers/desktop-internet-browser-freeze-or-tdr-thread-w-geforce-460-560-gpus-updated-11-20-13-see-page-50-/ about it and Nvidia are taking it seriously.

ManuelG said:WE have created a new test driver for Geforce 460/560 GPUs:

Windows 7/Windows 8 64-bit GeForce Desktop GPUs
http://geforceforums.s3.amazonaws.com/64-bit.zip

Windows 7/Windows 8 32-bit GeForce Desktop GPUs
http://geforceforums.s3.amazonaws.com/32-bit.zip

If you are able to, please download and install this driver and let us know your results. Once again this driver is based on driver 331.58 but introduces a newer fix. If you tested this driver, please email me your results to [email protected] and state if this driver fixed your issue, improve/worsened your stability issue and also include any dmp file you may have while using this new driver. Thank you for your time.
Click to expand...

I'm trying out their latest test driver which is based on 331.58 ,so far no issues so looks like they may have fixed this issue that 4xx/5xxx have had for over 6 months.


Ironically never had any issues with AMD/ATi.
 
Last edited:
hmm ok. 327.23 here.
I will give those a shot.

Trouble with completely random issues is that sometimes you will never know if you fixed the issue, or that it simply hasnt come up again... yet! #fakelol
 
I would certainly advise upgrading to Windows 7 and maybe even Windows 8. XP Support ends in April 2014, so you will not be running a secure OS.

I do not think FatRakoon's issues are so much Windows 8's fault, for the record. It sounds much more like a hardware fault or incompatibility to me.
 
I'd definitely upgrade from XP due to the support ending as mentioned.

I'd go straight to 8.1 as well.
1) There's no point (IMO) in buying into an OS that's already been superseded.
2) I never really used the start menu in windows 7, just hit the start button and searched.
3) I find windows 8 really easy to use. Since you can now boot to desktop, you never really see metro. All of my common programs are pinned to the taskbar (as in 7) and I've set up my metro screen with the stuff I use a lot but less often. Anything else I search for.
 
I was in the same boat as you mate.

Been using XP for about 8 years before I decided to make a new budget build and get an SSD. After reading about problems with XP and SSD's (although I have since read that it is possible to run a SSD with XP) I decided to plunk for Windows 7.

I think Windows 7 is a really nice OS - very polished. Runs like a dream with an SSD. Two minute boot times are a thing of the past. Went with 7 instead of 8 because I didn't want the Metro stuff and I just feel its a more mature OS.

The transition has been very easy. I don't think you have anything to worry about.
 
Last edited:
I would go for 7

I didn't want to upgrade either but I need DX11 for gaming now, once you get setup with windows 7 and when you learn the new control panel/settings layout and everything like that its not that much different from XP

and for windows 8 you may want to disable the whole 'metro' screen on boot and just use the desktop (I don't use windows 8 so use google or ask around here about that)
 
QlimaxUK said:
I would go for 7

I didn't want to upgrade either but I need DX11 for gaming now, once you get setup with windows 7 and when you learn the new control panel/settings layout and everything like that its not that much different from XP

and for windows 8 you may want to disable the whole 'metro' screen on boot and just use the desktop (I don't use windows 8 so use google or ask around here about that)
Click to expand...

I could never understand people that hold on to the past,problem with Win7 its already four years old and with a new build just makes more sense to go with latest OS,also it makes it harder if you stay on Win7 when you do want upgrade to Win9,10 etc because changes/layout will have changed even more and you will find it even harder ,end of the day nothing lasts forever but going with latest OS which has superior security seems more sense to me,anyway my pennies worth ;) .


http://blogs.technet.com/b/mmpc/archive/2013/10/29/new-security-intelligence-report-new-data-new-perspectives.aspx?Redirected=true
 
Last edited:
Coming from XP? You know no better than XP, go straight to 8.1, no point going to 7 on the basis of easier to use as you've not lived with Vista or 7 yet.

Why learn Windows 7 only to need to end up learning 8.1 (or newer) again anyway?

8.1 is better, faster and will last longer. Go for that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom