Is Windows XP Obselete?

[Mario The World Champion]

Also, my Windows 7 installation has had 0 minor or major attacks since early beta. =3 I put it through plenty of dangerous situations, too.

Wait. Isn't it common sense to NOT put your computer through dangerous situations? No wonder you keep on having issues and are now crying that XP sucks. A normal computer user would be smart enough to not do anything like you did. My friend would probably laugh at you if I told him that uyou put your computers through that stuff.

 

[Dawn]

Wait. Isn't it common sense to NOT put your computer through dangerous situations? No wonder you keep on having issues and are now crying that XP sucks. A normal computer user would be smart enough to not do anything like you did. My friend would probably laugh at you if I told him that uyou put your computers through that stuff.

I work with computers and am well aware of the possible consequences of what I do, though. I'm not really a "normal" user. I can have a completely annihilated Windows 7 machine up and running again in approx 20-40 minutes without losing any files, (or losing everything, if I so choose)

I say that because that is the amount of time it takes me to simply reinstall Win 7, which is basically a surefire last resort to any malware.

I'm simply willing to accept the risk of not keeping to very safe places in the web, because I see benefits of not doing so.

For instance, I've seen ads that appear on Myspace attempt to virus me up several times. (Avast promptly murders the ad before it does so.) I still go there, though.

 

[Archer]

I work with computers and am well aware of the possible consequences of what I do, though. I'm not really a "normal" user. I can have a completely annihilated Windows 7 machine up and running again in approx 20-40 minutes without losing any files, (or losing everything, if I so choose)

I say that because that is the amount of time it takes me to simply reinstall Win 7, which is basically a surefire last resort to any malware.

I'm simply willing to accept the risk of not keeping to very safe places in the web, because I see benefits of not doing so.

For instance, I've seen ads that appear on Myspace attempt to virus me up several times. (Avast promptly murders the ad before it does so.) I still go there, though.

If you're restoring all of your files after a reinstall in that amount of time, you're not scanning them before you do so.

And remember guys, your "computer friend" may be happy to help you out occasionally, but more often than not, you're not the only one who hassles them to do so, and they're likely to enjoy it somewhat less than you think. Advice is one thing, expecting them to clean up your computer every 6 months is another.

 

[Eldrei]

I'm still using Windows XP and I'm planning to switch to Win7 but I don't know much about comps!! What will happen if I upgrade it to Win7????

 

[Sneeze]

I'm still using Windows XP and I'm planning to switch to Win7 but I don't know much about comps!! What will happen if I upgrade it to Win7????

IIRC Windows 7 gives you the option to retain all your original files while overwriting your current OS and such, never done it myself though so not entirely sure how it works.

 

[locoroco]

i personally dont like win7 to much requirements if u want a gameplay computer stick with xp win7 requires double of everything in the requirements for example

call of duty modern ware fare

Required (minimum) Specs
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 2.4 GHz or AMD(R) Athlon(TM) 64 2800+ processor or any 1.8Ghz Dual Core Processor or better supported
RAM: 512MB RAM (1gb for Windows 7)
Hard Drive: 8GB of free space
Video card: NVIDIA(R) Geforce(TM) 6600
or better or ATI(R) Radeon(R) 9800 Pro or better

recommended

CPU: 2.4 GHz dual core or better
RAM: 1G for XP; 2G for Win7
Hard Drive: 8GB of free space
Video card: 3.0 Shader Support recommended. Nvidia Geforce 7800 or better or ATI Radeon X1800 or better

as u can see everything reccomended for xp is lower than win 7 also if the version u plan on installing is win7 home premium or any other version thats not win7 ultimate many of the programs made for xp wont work on win7 unless u have win 7 ultimate and run the program in compatibility mode and anyways that disk cost almost 350$ why would u do it stick with win xp

 

[Dawn]

If you're restoring all of your files after a reinstall in that amount of time, you're not scanning them before you do so.g, expecting them to clean up your computer every 6 months is another.

You've obviously never seen how effectively Avast scans then. =3 Believe me when I say if a file is getting transfered or running it's getting scanned in the background with Avast, downloads included. <3 Avast. (This is part of the free version, too.)

@Sneeze: It's called a Custom Install and is available to XP users, unlike Upgrade install which is frankly a bit overrated.

Simply make sure it does not format your drive and you will not lose your files.

i personally dont like win7 to much requirements if u want a gameplay computer stick with xp win7 requires double of everything in the requirements for example

call of duty modern ware fare

Required (minimum) Specs
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 2.4 GHz or AMD(R) Athlon(TM) 64 2800+ processor or any 1.8Ghz Dual Core Processor or better supported
RAM: 512MB RAM (1gb for Windows 7)
Hard Drive: 8GB of free space
Video card: NVIDIA(R) Geforce(TM) 6600
or better or ATI(R) Radeon(R) 9800 Pro or better

recommended

CPU: 2.4 GHz dual core or better
RAM: 1G for XP; 2G for Win7
Hard Drive: 8GB of free space
Video card: 3.0 Shader Support recommended. Nvidia Geforce 7800 or better or ATI Radeon X1800 or better

as u can see everything reccomended for xp is lower than win 7 also if the version u plan on installing is win7 home premium or any other version thats not win7 ultimate many of the programs made for xp wont work on win7 unless u have win 7 ultimate and run the program in compatibility mode and anyways that disk cost almost 350$ why would u do it stick with win xp

Scuse me... Nice fake minimum requirements. Too bad all I had to do to find out was google the specs myself.

Here's the REAL specs, which only mention Vista...because..yeah old game is old. It's also a fact that Windows 7 has lower requirements than Vista due to the massive complaints Vista got about that.

Minimum System Requirements

Required (minimum) Specs
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 2.4 GHz or AMD(R) Athlon(TM) 64 2800+ processor or any 1.8Ghz Dual Core Processor or better supported
RAM: 512MB RAM (768MB for Windows Vista)
Hard Drive: 8GB of free space
Video card: NVIDIA(R) Geforce(TM) 6600
or better or ATI(R) Radeon(R) 9800 Pro or better

Recommended Specs
CPU: 2.4 GHz dual core or better
RAM: 1G for XP; 2G for Vista
Hard Drive: 8GB of free space
Video card: 3.0 Shader Support recommended. Nvidia Geforce 7800 or better or ATI Radeon X1800 or better

=/ FURTHERMORE, the only thing that's even mentioned being different is the RAM, not "everything". CPU is the same, Hard Drive space is the same, Video Card is the same. Finally, most programs work with Windows 7. Thank you very much.

 

[Heart's Soul]

[beep], Seven, it won't even install on my PC because my PC is THAT bad. 1.15GHz, 256MB RAM. Not even enough to boot 10 Chrome tabs on Seven. I'll stick with my YouTube-less XP, thank you very much.

 

[donavannj]

[beep], Seven, it won't even install on my PC because my PC is THAT bad. 1.15GHz, 256MB RAM. Not even enough to boot 10 Chrome tabs on Seven. I'll stick with my YouTube-less XP, thank you very much.

Well, if you've only got 256MB of RAM, I think it's time you started looking for a new computer. Especially if you want to game. (b'-')b

 

[15ares]

heck no! XP pwns all, it doesnt ask for permission with everything like vista, and vista doesnt even let you open all the files and programs xp does. i hate my vista lol. Idk about windows 7, but i still say XP FTW!!!

 

[Archer]

as u can see everything reccomended for xp is lower than win 7 also if the version u plan on installing is win7 home premium or any other version thats not win7 ultimate many of the programs made for xp wont work on win7 unless u have win 7 ultimate and run the program in compatibility mode and anyways that disk cost almost 350$ why would u do it stick with win xp

As Yellow said, RAM is the only difference because, being 8 YEARS NEWER, 7 is running more in the background. For a very good reason, too. 7 can cope with an older CPU, I've had it running on my 1.2GHz/1.5GB/Tablet just fine. It's the RAM it needs and it still idles on less that Vista, which really isn't that bad. Did I mention how horrible XP x64 is? Because if you're gaming, chances are you're have 4GB ram, in which case:

1. You won't care less about the extra 500-600MB that Vista and 7 use
2. You'll have a 64-bit OS and XPx64 is a last minute-throw together. And no drivers for it, Whereas Vista and 7 x64 are great.


Also, regarding Program Compatibility, you should really do a bit of research before you go throwing it in as evidence. There are a small number of programs that don't run on XP; most of which are outdated. There's absolutely no reason to get Ultimate. Everything from Starter Edition (neutered Netbook version) has the option to run in compatibility mode. If you're thinking of XP mode, it's just another virtual machine, so you might as well run the more versatile VirtualBox from [Sun] *shotted* Oracle. By the way, XP mode is available in Window 7 Professional, which is only step up from Home Premium.

Oh, and if you're gaming on XP, have fun with your archaic DirectX 9, while we're all using DX11.

Sorry for ranting... :D

You've obviously never seen how effectively Avast scans then. =3 Believe me when I say if a file is getting transfered or running it's getting scanned in the background with Avast, downloads included. <3 Avast. (This is part of the free version, too.)

I'll have to have a look into Avast at some point; I used it ages ago when it was trying to imitate a CD Player, and that was enough to turn me off.

[beep], Seven, it won't even install on my PC because my PC is THAT bad. 1.15GHz, 256MB RAM. Not even enough to boot 10 Chrome tabs on Seven. I'll stick with my YouTube-less XP, thank you very much.

Yes, it will not physically let you install unless you have 512MB Ram. You can always hack the disc image to remove this, but it's really trying to tell you something.

That's also the funny thing about Chrome (and IE8/Safari). Each tab is a separate process. So while Firefox is a bit of a sloth to open up, and its uage may be higher with one tab open, it doesn't make a huge difference if you open a new tab. Whereas the others open an extra instance of the program with each tab.

If you find FF too slow, try K-Meleon. It's a little ugly (I'm a little obsessive, though), but it's quite snappy. Based on FF's engine, too.

15ares, you do, um, realise that the UAC prompts are to stop unauthorised access to your system, don't you? XP is so prone to security threats, it's not funny. Proof: With both an XP computer and Vista computer, try to delete system32 and see what happens... I'm telling you now, that your Vista install will kick up a stink and continue running. Can't say the same for XP...

a

 

[twocows]

If you're restoring all of your files after a reinstall in that amount of time, you're not scanning them before you do so.

And remember guys, your "computer friend" may be happy to help you out occasionally, but more often than not, you're not the only one who hassles them to do so, and they're likely to enjoy it somewhat less than you think. Advice is one thing, expecting them to clean up your computer every 6 months is another.

I'm the only person I've ever met that actually enjoys fixing peoples' computers, and most everyone I know does it (since most of my friends are computer science guys like me), if that ratio tells you anything about how much most computer science guys don't want to fix your computer.

OTOH, I'd be more than happy to do so for pretty much anyone, and I don't charge (though I take donations) since I actually enjoy it.

heck no! XP pwns all, it doesnt ask for permission with everything like vista, and vista doesnt even let you open all the files and programs xp does. i hate my vista lol. Idk about windows 7, but i still say XP FTW!!!

Turn off UAC if you don't like it, though for someone with the amount of "expertise" you're showing, I certainly wouldn't recommend it since it's an important security feature (one that, as you pointed out, XP lacked).

vista doesnt even let you open all the files and programs xp does

That should read "idiot programmers haven't updated their outdated crap to run on Vista," or in other words, it's the application developer's fault. And any "files" that "open" in XP should open in Vista or any other Windows OS, for that matter, as long as you have something associated with opening it.

 

[Dawn]

2. You'll have a 64-bit OS and XPx64 is a last minute-throw together. And no drivers for it, Whereas Vista and 7 x64 are great.


Also, regarding Program Compatibility, you should really do a bit of research before you go throwing it in as evidence. There are a small number of programs that don't run on XP; most of which are outdated. There's absolutely no reason to get Ultimate. Everything from Starter Edition (neutered Netbook version) has the option to run in compatibility mode. If you're thinking of XP mode, it's just another virtual machine, so you might as well run the more versatile VirtualBox from [Sun] *shotted* Oracle. By the way, XP mode is available in Window 7 Professional, which is only step up from Home Premium.

Oh, and if you're gaming on XP, have fun with your archaic DirectX 9, while we're all using DX11.

Sorry for ranting... :D


I'll have to have a look into Avast at some point; I used it ages ago when it was trying to imitate a CD Player, and that was enough to turn me off.

Yes plz.

My gaming computer actually runs Windows 7 64-bit. It's a fact that XP 64-bit is absolute crud and can't even run most 64-bit programs. That being said XP cannot do 64-bit, which will become more and more popular.

Fact: My gaming computer (64-bit) is more stable than my 32-bit Windows 7 laptop, which has on ocassion run into some long term use bugs that are fixed with a simple restart. My gaming computer has yet to so much as run into a single hitch of problems despite the fact that given my way I'd rarely turn it off / restart it. I've never had to troubleshoot a single thing related to that beautiful machine~<3

And yeah. I'm sick of people talking about Program Compatibility while lazy developers sit out there making video games that don't even work on Vista and yet and expecting us to deal with it. NOT Microsoft's fault or problem. Get the torches and pitchforks, and yell at the developers.

So MANY of my programs work on Windows 7 Home Premium for me that I say who cares about XP mode? I don't need XP mode. Nothing except Mabinogi (Which is run by XP hugging noobs) even so much as requires advanced troubleshooting!




...Oh, and Avast imitating a CD-player? lol wut
Just so we're clear, this is Avast, the program I've trusted ever since I realized Norton was full of bologna
https://www.avast.com/index

Turn off UAC if you don't like it, though for someone with the amount of "expertise" you're showing, I certainly wouldn't recommend it since it's an important security feature (one that, as you pointed out, XP lacked).

Indeed. Very important security feature. You know that constant nagging you get when opening programs? That was also the developers fault. I say was, because I have UAC on and rarely get the admin approval screen even on my gaming machine anymore.

You know why it stopped asking so much? Wasn't Microsoft. That was developers realizing they were making their software with a major security flaw and fixing it the heck up. Back in the day of XP you couldn't so much as open a word document without running it in admin mode. When Vista and 7 came out, they offered UAC, which is a BRILLIANT security feature that simply was not followed correctly by developers at first.

What developers need to do, is realize that their programs DEFINITELY don't need to run in admin mode most of the time, and stop designing them to run in admin mode even though they don't have to. It's much more secure to do it that way, and takes away the annoying prompt.

Look at Google Chrome. You can install it without admin rights. Without admin rights, there's no fear of it damaging your computer. In fact, if I ever saw Google Chrome ask for admin rights I'd flat out deny because I know Chrome doesn't do that. Firefox does sometimes, but Chrome does not.

 

[Archer]

...Oh, and Avast imitating a CD-player? lol wut
Just so we're clear, this is Avast, the program I've trusted ever since I realized Norton was full of bologna
https://www.avast.com/index

You clearly haven't been using since "Norton was full of bologna", because it has been crap since 2000, and the following Avast interface isn't that old.

See? CD Player. Which means you saw Norton's failure later than you should. :D Just messing around with you, though. :P

EDIT: By the way, I've decided to try out Avast for a bit. See if it's as good as Avira...

 

[Dawn]

You clearly haven't been using since "Norton was full of bologna", because it has been crap since 2000, and the following Avast interface isn't that old.

See? CD Player. Which means you saw Norton's failure later than you should. :D Just messing around with you, though. :P

EDIT: By the way, I've decided to try out Avast for a bit. See if it's as good as Avira...

It took a shockingly long while for a virus to bring that to my attention, now that I think of it. Ah well, I didn't use the web back then anyway. Was all for video games.

 

[Team_SJK]

It took a shockingly long while for a virus to bring that to my attention, now that I think of it. Ah well, I didn't use the web back then anyway. Was all for video games.

That's how it is for me. I still use XP because some of my games don't even run properly in 7. They're all choppy in Windows 7, yet they run perfectly fine in XP, but I like the way Windows 7 works and looks. So now you see the predicament I'm in. Maybe if I had a larger hard drive, I could dual boot.

 

[locoroco]

exacly what i mean try to run nfs u2 on 7 see if it runs i hate dx11 its crap i like dx9 better also for the ppl dont say that game is old if u think that try running pro street with my pc specs see if it run without any lagg

My pc specs:

AMD sempron 140 3.1ghz overclocked
Nvidia 7025 512mb ps 3.0 dx9
1gb ram 1066mhz
asrock n68-s mother board
win xp home

try running it in your win7 with those specs at full graphics with no lagg and tell me if win7 is better for gaming in other cases better for anything also i can run call of duty at full speed so dont say seven is better bcause the best gaming computers where made in xp platform until vista came out check out the alienware computers running xp and tell me its it comparable to win7 also i have a friend of mine thats runnin a phenom x2 on a xp for gaming also win xp home and 4 gb of ram at 5.2 ghz overclocked dont ever compare a xp to a win7 its still to early to call win7 the best os win xp is still the best for now

PS:sorry for my grammar mistakes my english is rusty

 

[Team_SJK]

exacly what i mean try to run nfs u2 on 7 see if it runs i hate dx11 its crap i like dx9 better also for the ppl dont say that game is old if u think that try running pro street with my pc specs see if it run without any lagg

My pc specs:

AMD sempron 140 3.1ghz overclocked
Nvidia 7025 512mb ps 3.0 dx9
1gb ram 1066mhz
asrock n68-s mother board

try running it in your win7 with those specs at full graphics with no lagg and tell me if win7 is better for gaming in other cases better for anything

I'm with you on that. I would like to invite people to try playing Oni (one of the best games by Bungie [now part of Microsoft], the developers of Halo) using a PC with:

- Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz
- 1 GB SDRAM
- No independent graphics processing
- Windows 7 64-bit
... And then I would like to invite people to do the same thing, with the same machine, only this time with Windows XP 64-bit. I guarantee, you'll see a Godzilla-sized difference in performance.


And Locoroco: Your grammar's good enough for me. ;-)

 

[locoroco]

First of all my graphics card is embbeded second thx i take that as a compliment since a lot of ppl say fix ur grammar and it gets real anoying after a while my comp also is running on a 30gb hd is not sata its a 9 year old hd like my computer was a amd duron 997mhz with 256mb of ram and a s3 graphics pro savage ddr im glad i upgraded her to wut she is right now she was just getting a lil bit to slow for me so i upgraded her best 200$ i ever spent hahahahahahhaha also my sempron is a dual core the only thing is that i havent unlocked it yet overclock with this motherboard is perfect no programs work accelerated they run normally shes also water cooled 30c• at that temperature she works in puerto rico and well its very cool since in puerto rico hot days go for like 90f so i guess she will make a decent gaming computer anyways back to topic no matter wut i will never buy win7 i've owned win xp for over 9 years and im 14 years old (yes ive owned it since i was 5) its been my first os and it will keep being it now i must say that i have been thinking about making her win 7 bcause i like the interface and the aero but thats the thing i like how it looks win xp's look its a bit dated but it works and also ive turned on task manager and when she is in idle the cpu charge is at 0% also the commit charge is 65mb out of the 1gig of ram i love my computer and love xp and like i said dx11 sucks its way to buggy i prefer my dx9 or dx10.1 but in no way i will put dx11 so haha take that all of the win7 users no offence intended win 7 is way to young to call it the replacement of win xp also i dont seem to have any security issues the last time i got a virus she just kept restarting so what i did was just turn her on in safe mode and using microsoft's tool MRT i cleaned her and she went back to normal that was when she had the amd duron so like i said win xp will keep being my os till by some miracle or extreme condition i have to change to win7 so for now i sugest you keep xp ok.

 

[twocows]

First of all my graphics card is embbeded second thx i take that as a compliment since a lot of ppl say fix ur grammar and it gets real anoying after a while my comp also is running on a 30gb hd is not sata its a 9 year old hd like my computer was a amd duron 997mhz with 256mb of ram and a s3 graphics pro savage ddr im glad i upgraded her to wut she is right now she was just getting a lil bit to slow for me so i upgraded her best 200$ i ever spent hahahahahahhaha also my sempron is a dual core the only thing is that i havent unlocked it yet overclock with this motherboard is perfect no programs work accelerated they run normally shes also water cooled 30c• at that temperature she works in puerto rico and well its very cool since in puerto rico hot days go for like 90f so i guess she will make a decent gaming computer anyways back to topic no matter wut i will never buy win7 i've owned win xp for over 9 years and im 14 years old (yes ive owned it since i was 5) its been my first os and it will keep being it now i must say that i have been thinking about making her win 7 bcause i like the interface and the aero but thats the thing i like how it looks win xp's look its a bit dated but it works and also ive turned on task manager and when she is in idle the cpu charge is at 0% also the commit charge is 65mb out of the 1gig of ram i love my computer and love xp and like i said dx11 sucks its way to buggy i prefer my dx9 or dx10.1 but in no way i will put dx11 so haha take that all of the win7 users no offence intended win 7 is way to young to call it the replacement of win xp also i dont seem to have any security issues the last time i got a virus she just kept restarting so what i did was just turn her on in safe mode and using microsoft's tool MRT i cleaned her and she went back to normal that was when she had the amd duron so like i said win xp will keep being my os till by some miracle or extreme condition i have to change to win7 so for now i sugest you keep xp ok.

It's really not the grammar that bothers me it's that you put all your text into a long paragraph without ending a single sentence and it gets really convoluted and hard to understand because it just keeps going on and on with no real end in sight and I can't find a place to stop reading because your whole thing is one sentence and it ends up being plain unreadable and it becomes really hard to follow especially since the period is a placemarker of sorts and it also breaks up sentences so you have time to process what has been said so to actually put that much text into a single sentence with bad grammar to boot plus the fact that you seem to throw unrelated ideas in at will makes your text just plain unreadable.

Darn, it still only ended up being half as long as yours.

Also, you have no idea what you're talking about. DX11 isn't "crap" or "buggy," it's basically DX10 with a few enhancements, which was basically DX9 completely overhauled to be more efficient and more graphically impressive. If you think it's "crap," either your system is outdated and you're getting low framerates on DX11-enabled games or you have your settings cranked down low so it looks bad. Another possibility is that your graphics card doesn't even support DX11, so you're blaming problems on something you're not even using. If your system is really using integrated graphics, guess what: you're not using DX11. Intel integrated graphics doesn't support DX11 yet, so any glitches you're encountering are from DX10. Of course, if you're on XP, you don't even have access to DX10 or DX11, so again, any problems you're having aren't even from those versions.

"The best computers were made with XP until Vista came out." And the best computers were made with Vista until 7 came out. Just because your friend stuck XP on his machine doesn't mean it's the best platform for gaming. As for mentioning Alienware as an example of a gaming machine, no gamer in their right mind would buy a pre-built unless they just liked to waste money. Building your own computer is far cheaper and will get you better quality parts. I built a gaming machine for my brother recently. It has Windows 7 on it and games run just fine; they probably run better than they would on XP thanks to the optimizations DX10 and DX11 offer to newer graphics cards. And again, DX11 comes with and is only available on Windows 7. You can't have one without the other.

As for the interface, you can disable the Aero theme if you want it to look like classic-style Windows.

EDIT: It turns out DX11 is for Vista and 7, my mistake.