I must be a genius- I did a perfect Windows 7 upgrade.

moshe

My 20006 Dell E510 was getting pretty long in the tooth and when I saw that Dell had the Win7 family pack 3 upgrade license on sale this past weekend for $125, I bit the bullet. My next stop was the local Compusa store for a Galaxy 256mb PCI-E video card- with a NVidia 8400GS chipset for $19.95 after rebate. I installed it in on my old XP computer and then ran the WIN 7 upgrade advisor from Microsoft- showing-- a 3Ghz P4 cpu, 1.5Gb memory and the new video card passed the requirements for the Win7 Aero screen- all tests were in the green. I only have a 305 watt Pwr supply and this card was spec'd to need only a 300 watt power supply. Hopefully, time will show the manufacturer was being honest on that one.

My Windows 7 software arrived today and after watching a couple of YouTube videos showing how the upgrade was supposed to be done on an XP machine I was game for the installation. Maybe a just little nervous, as Bill Gates's Windows OS had flooged me before ( Windows ME anyone?), but I was very pleased how it went down. Seventy minutes later and some reboots, I was done- except the Nvidia Card was only giving me a 800x600 screen.

I installed the Win 7 drivers that came with the card and after another reboot, I had a beautiful 1280x1024 screen . One small issue with the Aero was fixed with the Aero troubleshooter.

Next up, I installed the Microsoft Security Essentials anivirus program. I'm done now!!

Anyone have any suggestions for good Windows 7 programs?

Lady Lee

I bet that feels real good

GLTirebiter

Congratulations, Moshe! I upgraded from XP to Windows 7 about a year ago, and am very pleased with the experience. That's not something I often say about software!

moshe

Now that I'm semi-retired, I discovered that money doesn't land in my lap anymore. Since we only use the computers for basic Internet and office functions, I couldn't see investing $400 in three new boxes = $1200. My older premium Dell computers are now lower end ones, but it seems more than fast enough after the Win 7 install. My daughter's computer is 2 years newer- a Vista model. I am doing a fresh install on it, too. Then the last one is a 2006 Dell laptop. It might give me some issues on the video driver.

Yes, Lady Lee, we need our computers today, don't we?- I hope your re-newed one is working well for you.

Lady Lee

Yes, Lady Lee, we need our computers today, don't we?- I hope your re-newed one is working well for you.

I don't let many neighbors in my place. It is very small. I had to choose between a computer desk or a sofa and cable TV or the internet.

I'm here ain't I?

The "new" computer is working great. I actually like it better than the old one even though the old was was newer than the "new" one. hope I said that right

at any rate I'm happy and I'm here

King Korn

Oh nooooo ewww. I bought my pc with windows 7, and I must say it sort of is overrated. You really should have just upgraded the video card on your XP and left it as an XP. On the other hand, if all you are is a casual PC user, then W7 isn't so bad, but I'm a hardcore gamer. W7 messes up the graphics on a lot of awesome classics, it blurs the display of a lot of higher-end games, and the updated WMP removes and changes a lot of long-time standard features (Such as but not limited to: Burning ripping CD's, easy switching between Now Playing and Media Library, etc etc.) If you're like me and you use WinRAR a lot, (If you don't know what it is then you probably won't ever need to) the right-click context menus are almost nonexistant for any programs installed on the computer. I can no longer "Right-click/Winrar/Extract here" with my windows 7 and It's extremely annoying! To top it off, my Macromedia flash games don't work with Win7 because it doesn't support the latest version (Or any older versions for that matter) of Macromedia Flash Player.

My only good things to say about it is... at least it looks prettier than WinXP, but I'll take function over style any day.

/Rant over.

moshe

I was OK win XP, but I wasn't Ok having computers with an OS that wasn't going to be supported by Microsoft.- they are pulling the plug on XP later next year. I have a good 2.4ghz P4 that I will keep to the ready- it has my burning, ripping and legally purchased DVD copy programs on it. My Win98 box is still in mothballs, too.

I haver been more than satisfied with Microsoft's free antivirus program- Security Essentials. It doesn't seem to cause slow downs like McAfee did and I haven't had any infections since I installed it a year ago.- did I mention it is FREE?

Soldier77

moshe, I will say that I hate Windows, more exactly, I hate Microsoft. But, I will say I was the guinespig in my company to be the first and test subject to install and run Win7 in a pro environment. Well, I will be the first to say that I like what they did with it. Very well implemented and delivered. Blows Vista out of the water.

Now if onlh they would implement everything as well as Apple. :)

TD

Good for you Moshe!

You're probably okay on the power supply as long as you don't have multiple hard drives and optical drives.

When a power supply fails though, it often takes the mother board and cpu with it.

King Korn

Even though XP won't be "supported" all that means is that they won't be "updating" it with things like XP specific updates. Read; IE security updates. (Pssh use Firefox anyway, it's a million years ahead of IE) in the end, XP uses virtually NO system RAM, but Win7 uses 2 GB, just to RUN! Run smoothly that is. If you don't mind slowdowns constantly, annoying hiccups and the like, you can deal with less. However for most of the general public, Win7 will do fine, but for hardcore people like me, we really should just stick with XP.

Just my opinion though. But when I can't play my Starcraft because they've added so much CRAP (Koff Windows Aero koff) I no longer am their friend. If they release a patch, goody we're friends again.

I must be a genius- I did a perfect Windows 7 upgrade.

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