So who's staying XPut?

[DaleDe]

My main reason for not wanting to upgrade all of my computers is the loss of programs. I have a lot of programs installed on XP and they would mostly become non-functional on a new OS. I got sucked in once when Microsoft said you could upgrade XP to 7 but you needed 7 pro to have XP compatibility. I bought 7 Pro but found that since my XP was the home version it could not be upgraded. GRR! Nothing was said about this. You need the Pro for compatibility but you can't install it on your system without losing everything. So I will be keeping XP for a long time to make sure I have access to those programs that would be difficult to find again.

Dale

[Glorfindel]

same here, expensive software + no disks = a problem

[Glorfindel]

and it is physicly imposible to upgrade without a new cpu and motherboard

[eschwartz]

Linux might be a good upgrade path, then, using WINE to run WinXP programs. It tends to work better the older the program, too, since the devs have had more time to code the translation layers. So ironically, linux+WINE is better than Win7 in XP/ME/95 compatibility mode.

[Glorfindel]

lol thats intresting. doesn't WINE have some issues with Win programs?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

lol thats intresting. doesn't WINE have some issues with Win programs?

So does XP compatibility mode in Win7/8.

Really, it depends on the program. So it's worth a shot.

[Glorfindel]

yes but as an alternative to xp?

[eschwartz]

If they will all work in WINE, then why not? Obviously, you check before tossing your old computer.

[Glorfindel]

yeah, figured on

[WT Sharpe]

I wonder how many U.S. Government computers are still running XP? I wouldn't doubt but that some enterprising folks have already sold a truckload of old XP computers to the government as soon as the news came out that Microsoft was dropping support for XP.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The reason I bought this particular system is because Dell continued selling XP on a few systems for quite a while after everyone else was only selling Vista, which I was wary of at the time.

I bought a system running Vista when Vista first came out. within 2-3 weeks, I encountered the dreaded "blue screen of death" and had to take it back to the shop. But after their folks got it up and running again I had no further trouble for years. Vista treated me really well.

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I wonder how many U.S. Government computers are still running XP? I wouldn't doubt but that some enterprising folks have already sold a truckload of old XP computers to the government as soon as the news came out that Microsoft was dropping support for XP.

did you hear about UK buying another year of updates for 2 million £s or something? thats a lot of moola

[booklover6]

We have 2 old desk tops running winXP. They are too old to upgrade. The kids use them. They do encounter the blue screen of death every so often. One I just got from my mother and then spent the money to upgrade the ram. My 16yo uses that for web, facebook, and homework. The other is in my girl's room, they just use it for internet. It's very slow.

I also have a Dell netbook running XP. It's hooked up to a full size monitor in my room. I don't use it a lot. Not going to even try to upgrade it.

I don't have any important web sites like banking on any of them. I use my Win7 desktop for important things.

As long as they keep running, they'll do. I do have 3 winXP boxes in my garage I need to get rid of.

[goldilocks]

I just got a new laptop with Win7. What a pain setting everything up!

1. Hooked up one of my portable drives and couldn't do anything with the files on it...had to "take ownership" of the files, then "grant administrator rights", and finally "reset permissions" for everyone through system 32? I have administrator rights so I don't understand why I had to go through all this mess just to view my own documents/files.

2. Then I tried to search for something on the portable drive and Win7 could not find it. (I do not like Wiin7 search mode). Hooked the drive up to my XP and it found the document right away.

3. I have Office 2010 and was able to paste web pages into a Word document and the pictures pasted fine on XP but not on the Wiin7. I compared all my settings in Word and made sure they were the same. Well for Win7 a website recommended disabling the Bluetooth add-in and the pictures would paste correctly-didn't happen for me. I still haven't figured out how to get the pictures to paste correctly.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant! I liked XP and I am sure there will be things I will like about Win7 but it reminds me of the old saying "Two steps forward and one step back."

I will keep my XP (it's just a little netbook) which I have had for five years and has served me well. Very few problems except is was kind of slow. It still holds my original Calibre libraries and all the books I have scanned (approx. 900). So I will use it for backup storage but will no longer connect it to the internet.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

did you hear about UK buying another year of updates for 2 million £s or something? thats a lot of moola

I didn't hear about that, but that's a lot of pounds to be flushing down the drain. I was wondering about our government because I retired in January and the computers we were using in our shop were still running XP.