Upgrading from xp32bit to Win7 64bit is it worth it?

c627627 said:

So speaking of "just + one year from now" whoever is concerned over Windows XP end of life support will have Windows 8 option when that happens.

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While this is correct, those installing Windows 7 now will not need to worry about an EOL OS for some time, VS those installing XP, who will need to upgrade relatively soon.

Windows XP....R.I.P.

deadlysyn said:

In my experience, Win7x64 impressed me over XP since day one. After 6 months of being installed, XP started feeling "clunky", and would start giving me BSOD's on a fairly regular basis. Win7 has now been installed since the RTM release date, which I had gotten through MSDNAA. I have not had any problems whatsoever, and it still runs as smooth as the day I first installed it. As a matter of fact, the only reason I have plans to reinstall, is to finally put my Vertex 30GB to use.

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On my desktop I'm working off the same Win7 install since Julyish 2009 and it still feels like a fresh OS.

c627627 said:

Windows 8 will be available by then and from what I understand there will only be Windows 8 64-Bit. I hope they change their mind and offer Windows 8 32-Bit but as things stand now, I think there may be only Windows 8 64-Bit.

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In the 2012-2016 time frame (when Win8 will likely be the mainstream product) it just doesn't make sense to still have a 32 bit OS. I mean in 2010 you really only see 2 gig of ram configurations in sub $500 machines; the minimum amount of ram is just going to keep creeping up. And being that 64 bit OSs have been available for 5+ years now any software that still can't run in a 64bit environment by then probably isn't worth it anyway.

From a cost of development, distribution, and supporting standpoint it just doesn't make sense to create a 32bit version. By the time Win8 is really rolling people that have applications and hardware that will only work in 32 bit is going to be a niche market. A niche market in which MS would be glad to sell current 32 bit OSes by the way.

Wathnix said:

Yes, I agree that win 7 is better than XP, however we were talking about computing performance, and win 7 has been shown to be slower than XP, no surprise since XP is smaller.

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XP also degrades over time, causing performance to slow down. Sure, on fresh install, XP may seem faster. If all of those reviews were to compare 6 month old installs that have seen normal use, 7 would show it's true colors.

DaveHCYJ said:

On my desktop I'm working off the same Win7 install since Julyish 2009 and it still feels like a fresh OS.

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I think RTM was released to MSDN and MSDNAA sometime around August.

deadlysyn said:

... 6 month old installs that have seen normal use...

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Partition Drive... Image OS... Reimage OS.


I would go if I didn't reimage at least once a month.
Once I went a month and a half w/o reimaging... the computer was falling apart.

c627627 said:

Partition Drive... Image OS... Reimage OS.


I would go if I didn't reimage at least once a month.
Once I went a month and a half w/o reimaging... the computer was falling apart.

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Case in point. Win 7 performs better overall, as it does not degrade over time. Not having to reimage and restore changed user settings and files once a month saves significant amounts of time for the advanced user. For the average user who does not understand where their files reside, let alone how to create or restore an image, it's nothing less than a godsend.

I am not familiar with Windows XP 'degrading' more than Windows 7, where do you guys get that from?

I thought it was user related?

c627627 said:

I am not familiar with Windows XP 'degrading' more than Windows 7, where do you guys get that from?

I thought it was user related?

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i totally agree, it is definitely related the user. if you tend to install/uninstall programs frequently or allow programs to install junk, it is going to degrade.

c627627 said:

I am not familiar with Windows XP 'degrading' more than Windows 7, where do you guys get that from?

I thought it was user related?

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I get it from observation of my own (although it's been ~4 years since I've used XP) and our customer's systems (500+ machines in the field). It's more pronounced on "abused" XP systems, and noticeable on all XP-based computers connected to the internet. Isolated XP systems on which the software never changes don't seem to exhibit this behavior, nor do Vista or 7 machines, connected or not.

Just out of curiosity, c627627, why do you "Partition Drive... Image OS... Reimage OS"? Given that you "would go if [you] didn't reimage at least once a month", it seems that you're highly motivated...

It's all about superfast computing where 0.5 seconds is no good when you get used to 0.1 second speeds

never keep any personal files on operating system partitions ; move Desktop/Favorites/Start Menu etc. shell folders to non-OS partition for easier backup/restore.

C Drive partition: Windows 7
D Drive partition: Windows XP

All large applications are on
E:\Program Files
and
E:\Program Files XP

I use Superfast Shutdown 2.0 shortcuts to reboot from one operating system into the other extremely fast then reimage one OS from the other in a matter of minutes.


This is often faster than diagnosing, fixing Windows problems. As soon as I see anything minutely out of whack, I nuke the partition and restore it in less time than it takes... [insert metaphor].


Every setting in every application is just the way you like it. (Every menu size, every font size, every icon.) There is no substitute for organized quick OS partition backup/restore. Defragmenting, scanning old drives is good, but nothing makes your PC go faster than restoring a backup made just after you set up things the way you prefer...

_____________________
Intel i7 920 [200] BCLK x 19 = 3.80 GHz @ [1.4000] CPU Voltage & [1.35000] QPI/DRAM Uncore Voltage, Batch 3836A394
3 x 1GB G.SKIL DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) [DDR3-1691MHz] 10-10-10-24 @ 1.64 DRAM Bus Voltage
ASUS P6T Deluxe v.1 [LGA 1366 Intel X58] BIOS 1606
Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT with 120mm Scythe S-Flex F fan
ASUS EAH4850 Radeon HD 4850 1GB DDR3 @ 625 MHz GPU & 1986 MHz Memory
OCZ Agility 60GB SSD
Asus Xonar DX sound card
Antec nine hundred case, two front 120mm fans, one back 120mm Fan, one top 200mm fan
Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W

XP does degrade over time, what happens is that as you add service packs and updates the performance slows down.

try doing a fresh install of pre-SP1 win XP with 512MB RAM. The performance will be great! You can start up and shut down very fast and programs will open in a snap! Now do all the updates. Performance will be very noticably slower. This is even worse if you have only 256MB.

You can regain much of your performance be upgrading to 1GB or 2GB but it will never be quite as snappy as before updates.

Perhaps programs, inserting themselves, services starting at boot as a result of installed programs is more of a reason for older systems.

On older systems, installing integrated XP+SP2 should be just as fast on fresh install. I haven't tested fresh install of XP+SP3 on older systems but mine were XP+SP2 and when I eventually updated to SP3, things did seem a little slower and I did reimage back to SP2 and decided not to go with SP3 on older systems but the thing is, there are no updates for XP SP2 systems any more, only for XP SP3.

Too many programs require XP SP2, so I would say XP+SP2 is the minimum unless you have no need for programs that require it. My old system was Athlon XP and on my new i7 system, these things make no difference, it's what the user does to mess things up that makes the difference.

Upgrading from XP to 7 doesn't give enough pluses to over come the negatives of the hassle of the upgrade process.

XP works just as well as 7, and you don't have the learning curve or the problem of old applications that don't work with 7 or the cost.

For a new machine, 7 is the way to go, but upgrading isn't necessary or useful in most cases.

At some level, the question of "Is it worth it" becomes entirely subjective.

For me, as long as the machine is capable of running 7 as it's meant to be run, it's worth it. From a productivity and user experience standpoint, it's the single most significant upgrade one can make. Furthermore, from the standpoint of "power users"/creative professionals, < 4GB available to the OS is now inadequate, given the prevalence of HD video and RAW file sizes > 100MB.

After ~4 years of neither using nor installing XP, I've come to dread the times when I need to deal with customers who have older machines running it. I'm looking forward to the day when MS drops support so that I have a definitive reason to tell these customers that we will on longer work on nor support their machines.

Can you make your case in more detail. How and why is Windows 7 worth ditching Windows XP over?

I edit videos heavily, edit my DVDs heavily. I have just started editing Blu-Ray discs.


I have a Windows 7/XP dual boot. I tend to use WIndows XP because you can move icons/folders around and group them when you work. As you may or may not know, doing this crashed Windows 7 Alpha versions and so Microsoft disabled this feature altogether and so you cannot move items around in Windows 7, except on Windows 7 Desktop.

Microsoft does not allow disabling auto-arrange in Windows 7 and so I find myself using Windows XP moreso than Windows 7 on my machine.


How can I specifically and quantitatively benefit from Windows 7 over Windows XP, in real life?

I am willing to reboot into my Windows 7 partition and test those claims.

_____________________
Intel i7 920 [200] BCLK x 19 = 3.80 GHz @ [1.4000] CPU Voltage & [1.35000] QPI/DRAM Uncore Voltage, Batch 3836A394
3 x 1GB G.SKIL DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) [DDR3-1691MHz] 10-10-10-24 @ 1.64 DRAM Bus Voltage
ASUS P6T Deluxe v.1 [LGA 1366 Intel X58] BIOS 1606
Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT with 120mm Scythe S-Flex F fan
ASUS EAH4850 Radeon HD 4850 1GB DDR3 @ 625 MHz GPU & 1986 MHz Memory
OCZ Agility 60GB SSD
Asus Xonar DX sound card
Antec nine hundred case, two front 120mm fans, one back 120mm Fan, one top 200mm fan
Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W

Over the summer/fall, I setup 20 desktops and 20 laptops all with Windows 7. There isn't an XP machine left in my office. Only exception is a VMWARE XP on my workstation.

Windows 7 took little adjusting to. Office 2003 > 2010 was more difficult for staff, as expected. I also had an office printer (HP Laserjet 8000 dinosaur) that initially was problematic for some. But some driver trickery took care of that.

Otherwise, everyone loves it. I love it. I like not having to install a bunch of 3rd party software right off the bat just to make XP do something modern.

It's also been great for my organization at work. I typically run several programs all day long, with Outlook 2010 + many emails left open, Dreamweaver CS5, etc. The taskbar has been a godsend for a multitasker like me.

Nobody misses XP so far. Offices around me have taken notice and are slowly deploying Windows 7 as well.

So anyway, I am not saying do this or that. But for me personally and professionally, it's been worth it.

c627627 said:

Can you make your case in more detail. How and why is Windows 7 worth ditching Windows XP over?

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Sure, but please keep in mind my primary assertion, that some of these are, at a certain level, subjective issues: Things I love/are important to me, you may hate/not care about, etc... ad nauseum.

These are just a few of the features that spring immediately to mind, as I use them the most. A more complete listing of features may be found here (Click "Browse A to Z" on the left for a full listing).

Interface Improvements:

In Windows Explorer:

• Ability to select directories within the address bar saves repetitive use of the "up" button.
  
• Automatic selection of filenames excluding extension allow for faster renaming while retaining the ability to view file extensions.

Aero Snap:

Drag a window to the top of the screen, Aero Snap will automatically maximize it. Great for multi-monitor environments.

Aero Peek:

On the taskbar, you can preview thumbnails of the activity of running programs by hovering over their corresponding taskbar icons. If you have multiple windows with the same program, multiple thumbnails appear.

Mousing over the thumbnail brings the window to focus. Anyone who multitasks can save hours of trying to guess which window is running what, and you can very quickly check the status of a given process without loosing the window containing your current task in the mass of open windows.

Aero enhances things further by allowing you to see the "structure" of your windows while using Aero Peek.

Search:

Search indexing is built into the OS. It's incredibly fast and efficient and indexes both filenames and content. Start typing into the Start menu search box, and you'll instantly see a list of relevant documents, pictures, music, and e-mail on your PC. Results are now grouped by category and contain highlighted keywords and text snippets to make them easier to scan.

Libraries:

Libraries allow you to group directories within an intuitive, rapidly configured framework. Libraries are automatically indexed as a separate DB subset, which makes searching them essentially instantaneous.

Virtual PC:

VPC in Win7 is optimized for hardware acceleration and multiple cores and is seamlessly integrated with the host OS. "Windows XP mode" comes preconfigured and allows you to run legacy programs with minimal fuss.

Performance:

Sleep and resume:

Sleep, resume, and reconnection to wireless networks are all now essentially instantaneous.

USB devices are initialized much faster.

Better memory use:

Windows 7's memory management is much better than XPs. More about that here. Also, Windows 7 runs background services like Bluetooth only when required.

Better power management:

Notebook battery life is demonstrably better in Windows 7 due to better power management.

64-bit without the hassles

As I mentioned previously, the ability to address >4GB of RAM is no longer a luxury for the wealthy nor an enthusiast peccadillo. Win7 64 has full driver support and works flawlessly, allowing you to use the RAM you need.

...

hafa, I agree with you on most of those points and if the ability to disable auto-arrange was there so that folders and files can be moved around and moved around as smoothly as in Windows XP, it would be easier to use Windows 7 and I would use it more often.

And yes even though sometimes additional steps were required, I was still able to run everything in Windows 7 that I can in Windows XP so compatibility I agree is there. However Windows 7 64-Bit is not able to run some of the crucial programs I use and so unlike 32 Bit Win7, the 64-Bit definitely cannot run some of the older stuff and of course some older hardware cannot be used on Windows 7 64-Bit but can be used on 32-Bit systems.


One point that's definitely a problem is Windows 7 user unfriendly Search. I proved it to be somewhat broken if you look at the screen shots in post #61 of this thread: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=616264


Memory management is better... unless you have an external drive. It is impossible to check your external drive for errors without Windows 7 running out of memory resources to the point of being almost unusable. Proof: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=614387

N8N8N8 said:

I got xp 32bit and everyone is telling me to upgrade to win 7 64 bit. Is it really worth it? sure I can use more ram but is that worth it? What other benefits are there in speed wise? Will all my hardware work and programs work on win 7 64bit?

IF I upgrade to 64bit do I need to do a fresh install or can I just transfer everything to windows 7? I really don't feel like reinstalling everything and like the way my desktop looks lol.

Ty
n8

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It won't let you. Every time I've tried it says it isn't for my system. I have a 64bit cpu so it shouldn't be a problem. It appears that MS wants you to buy a full install disk if you want to upgrade 32bit XP to 64bit windows 7.

Rigit said:

It won't let you. Every time I've tried it says it isn't for my system. I have a 64bit cpu so it shouldn't be a problem. It appears that MS wants you to buy a full install disk if you want to upgrade 32bit XP to 64bit windows 7.

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The core files between x64 and x86 are completely different, so going from a 32 bit install to 64 bit will require a fresh install. To my knowledge, this is true of every operating system.