The Computer Buzz

January 21st, 2010

Nome and Paul Van Middlesworth - owners - The Computer Factory
 

Don Nailed It

Don Edrington has long been featured as a columnist for the North County Times. Don AKA “Computer Tutor,” answers computer questions sent in by his readers. When it comes to operating systems and applications, Don knows his stuff. His advice is to the point and above all, practical.

This past Monday one of his readers asked a question about upgrading from XP to Windows 7. Don acknowledged that he had upgraded to both Widows Vista and later to Windows 7 In order to be able to answer reader’s questions about these operating systems, but Don confessed a preference for Windows XP.

Don wrote “Personally, however, I prefer Win XP and use it for 90% of my work. I have yet to discover anything in Vista/7 that I can’t do with XP.”

Don continued. “Furthermore, I have some very useful XP compatible programs that won’t run on any but the most expensive version of Windows 7.”

Don was referring to the fact that the more expensive versions of Win 7 allow users to download an XP emulation utility from the Microsoft website. Incidentally, while all AMD CPUs have “emulation” capability, many Intel CPUs do not.

Don Edrington’s experience and conclusions concerning XP, Vista, and 7, echo those of our customers and ours. To summarize: XP is fast, stable and runs all applications, Vista is slow, aggravating and doesn’t run older applications, Win 7 is nearly as quick as XP, stable and also won’t run some of the older versions of many commonly used applications.

Here are some simple guidelines to helping users apply this information.

If your PC is between two and five years old (with XP), it may be better (in terms of performance, cost and aggravation) to optimize your old PC with an upgrade as an alternative to buying a new Win 7 PC and having to deal with learning a new OS as well as transferring files and reinstalling applications and peripheral devices.

Even if your PC is older than five years, as long as it has XP it may be cost effective to upgrade. If not, it should still have some trade-in value. We refurbish late model trade-ins and offer them as used desktop and notebook PCs with Win XP and lots of extras. These “refurbs” cost between $125 and $325 and are perfect for most home and office applications.

If your PC has Vista, you may choose to upgrade to Win 7 or downgrade to Win XP. The cost of doing either would be the cost of the operating system (unless you already own one) plus about $90 in labor.

If you plan to buy a new PC and are willing to upgrade your older applications, then Windows 7 should be your choice. If you plan to continue using older applications, you might consider choosing Windows XP in your new desktop or laptop PC. Microsoft has promised XP support through 2014.

Whatever your requirements may be, The Computer Factory is the only place we know that can sell you a new notebook or desktop PC with your choice of operating systems.