Upgrade from Vista to Win 7

[drnick]

Hi,

I have an elderly OC system (Ultimate OC 9800GT) the kids use for gaming, mainly playing via steam. The spec is below. Steam is stopping supporting Vista so I wanted to upgrade to 7 and as I'm awful at the software stuff and wanted to maintain the games and some other contents of the hard drive (my internet is bad and would take weeks to re-download it all) I mailed a nearby shop who said an old system probably wouldn't run Win 7 well and I should get a refurbished rig from them. They said the upgrade would cost in excess of £150 anyway and they could sell me a rig for that.

Sounds like complete **** to me and they're trying to sell a system, but I just wanted to check. The old rig has only really just stopped managing the new games this year.

Can you still legally download 7 (I have the Vista DVD and Licence) or did they stop that, I seem to read different versions.

I'm really bad at the software stuff and juts thought it would be £30 or so and convenient.

Vindows Vista 64bit home pro
Antec 900 case
Intel core 2 quad Q6600 2.4ghz overclocked to 3.GHz.
Corsair 650w ATX2.2 PSU
Seagate 500gb 32mb HD
Gell 4GB (2x2) PC2-6400 800MHz DDR2
Abit IP35 Pro XE INtel P35 (775 Socket)
Radeon 6850 1024MB Graphics - upgraded from original 9800GT

Any advice or comments welcome, but sounds like I need a different shop.

 

[Journey]

Don't bother with Windows 7, just get Windows 10, it'll run just fine. You can get licences from about £10 from that famous auction site, sometimes less and you just download the ISO from Microsoft and make a bootable USB drive.

EDIT: In fact, while you are at it, grab a cheap 120-240GB SSD, install your new OS on that, and you'll have a system that flies along.

 

[Big Frank]

Windows 7 is still supported.

It really doesn't take a great system to run it.

If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:

• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor*
  
  
• 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
  
  
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
  
  
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver.

 

[foster grant]

Don't bother with Windows 7, just get Windows 10, it'll run just fine. You can get licences from about £10 from that famous auction site, sometimes less and you just download the ISO from Microsoft and make a bootable USB drive.

EDIT: In fact, while you are at it, grab a cheap 120-240GB SSD, install your new OS on that, and you'll have a system that flies along.

Yeah, dont bother with Win7 do as Journey says go with Win10

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Dell Optiplex , i5 or i7 version. if you go i5 then its normal desktop form, i7 is either small form or standard .

most come with windows 10 installed from about £200-300 . Move into your case and use PSU and GPU

 

[Big Frank]

The problem with windows 10 is that the start menu is a total mess and it's incompatible with a lot of older software. Running in compatibility mode doesn't even help.

It's all down to personal preference I'm on windows 10 cuz my hardware only supports windows 10 otherwise I'd be on windows 7.

 

[foster grant]

Lol my Windows 10 start menu is not a total mess, never has been

 

[Big Frank]

Lol my Windows 10 start menu is not a total mess, never has been

Have you Googled "classic start menu windows 10" and seen how irate people are that there is no option to change to the windows 7 / classic start menu.

Even my partner who isn't that great with computers went "what is this crap, you can't find anything" when she clicked start on my computer.

Like I said it's down to personal preference. Some people like the tiled start menu. I prefer the windows 7 start menu so I downloaded classic shell as recommended by loads of other people who hate the windows 10 start menu.

 

[TheVoice]

The Windows 7 Start menu was long regarded a mess too by people who wanted the XP style one. Aesthetics aside, they both work in a fairly similar way so Im not sure why one alphabetic list of program shortcuts/folders is harder to use than another.

 

[Big Frank]

The Windows 7 Start menu was long regarded a mess too by people who wanted the XP style one. Aesthetics aside, they both work in a fairly similar way so Im not sure why one alphabetic list of program shortcuts/folders is harder to use than another.

You had the option to change it back to classic start menu though unlike windows 10 that's the issue most people have.

 

[Admiral Huddy]

I think you may struggle with driver support on some older 775 boards.. Bear this in mind as you may be throwing good money away.. I use a linux installation on mine now.

 

[andy_mk3]

Windows 7 is a good choice IMO. It's still a very good OS and plenty of driver support for that era of hardware.

I still have a Q6600 system running for a family member and it runs W10 very well, with a very very old OCZ Vertex2 SSD

 

[heatonpkmassive]

Have you Googled "classic start menu windows 10" and seen how irate people are that there is no option to change to the windows 7 / classic start menu.

Even my partner who isn't that great with computers went "what is this crap, you can't find anything" when she clicked start on my computer.

Like I said it's down to personal preference. Some people like the tiled start menu. I prefer the windows 7 start menu so I downloaded classic shell as recommended by loads of other people who hate the windows 10 start menu.

Just install Classic Shell? You gave yourself the answer, it's simple enough.

 

[Kurgen]

I dont think you are going to able to avoid re-installing the OS. If you have the Steam games folder on a separate partition you can just point steam to them after re-installing. If its on the same partitions as your OS i would suggest buying another HDD and moving it over.. if you buy the below and windows 10 from somewhere else. you will have a rapid system, however it is old and im suprised you can run any games at all (i guess cheap non AAA titles are ok). Both of the below you could use in any new or second hand system so woulndt be wasted money

I will add i have my mums PC on a core2duo and a 120gb SSD on windows 10 and its fine. its faster than my dads i5 on windows 7 HDD

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x WD 1TB Blue 7200rpm 64MB Cache Internal Hard Drive (WD10EZEX)= £35.99
• 1 x Gigabyte 120GB SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive= £19.99

Total: £64.68 (includes shipping: £8.70)
​

 

[Quartz]

Any advice or comments welcome, but sounds like I need a different shop.

Yes, you do need a different shop. The good news is that you can upgrade from Vista to Windows 10 without re-installation, but it's going to be a tortuous process. You will need install sets for Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10. First make a backup! Then you upgrade to Windows 7, but don't activate it. Install all patches and updates (this will take a while, maybe overnight). Then you upgrade to Windows 10. If the upgrade from 7 to 10 fails, upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8, then upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 10. Make sure you test before activation. Ideally, you would clone the HDD to a SSD before starting.

Note that while this method works, you will end up with a good deal of cruft.

 

[drnick]

Thanks for all the comments. I'll defo use a shop/service as it's really not my thing. I'm tempted to keep it simple and stick to win7 for the upgrade, maybe use a separate small SSD to run the OS from to speed things up, and keep the current HD as it is with all the games and stuff on. I really need a new rig myself as i'm going to struggle with next years AAA games, and the kids will get my current, much better one (by comparison), so its only a temporary measure for maybe a year until I can afford a new rig, so cheap an simple is the way to go. As long as they can make and print out a word doc for homework, and access steam, they won't give a monkeys what the start menu looks like and I never use that rig myself...

 

[Quartz]

Thanks for all the comments. I'll defo use a shop/service as it's really not my thing.

Really, do it yourself. Just pop in the DVD and away you go. Then run Windows Update umpteen times. You just have to be patient. If you have to pay for someone else to do it, you'll end up paying more than the cost of a replacement PC, as the shop told you.

You can make things faster by copying the install sets to the local drive and running them from there. Make folders like \Windows 7, \Windows 8, and \Windows 10.

One step I forgot to add: do a clean-up of the PC after doing the backup. Delete temporary files, temporary internet files and the like to free up space.

 

[alex crossland]

anything that runs 7 will run 10

 

[drnick]

I get the 'pop in the DVD' but which DVD? Ive been looking at upgrade discs and am vastly more confused than I was! I don't want to spend £200 on a disc as a used system with win 7 would make more sense. There appears to be a vast array of used discs that either wont work or require who knows what to make them work. Any hints where to get a genuine disc from.

Also looked at; Desktop 'SFF Tower PC 3.5" Sata HDD Hard Drive Preloaded Windows 7 + Office 2013' which is £28.50 with 500gb and dvd from popular auction site. I assume I should be able to swap this out with my current HDD and then just have to get internet up and running and away you go. Also have a modular PSU so could get the 80gb with no dvd version for £15 and just use it as the boot drive, and keep all the carp on my current HDD. Would this work as a really cheap option?

 

[Quartz]

You can download a Windows 7 ISO from Microsoft here and make a bootable USB key with a utility called Rufus. You will need a valid product key.

I assume I should be able to swap this out with my current HDD

That's not correct. It will likely be locked to the system.