Last month we were looking at Dropbox and Microsoft Live Mesh for use as on-line backups of your important data. One of the things we looked at was the lack of support by Microsoft for Windows XP. So, is it time to upgrade that ageing computer lurking in the corner to a bright modern operating system,to reap such benefi ts?<\/p>\n
Well, the answer is, perhaps predictably, both yes and no. Let me explain. In an ideal world we would all have the latest and greatest of everything. However, life isn\u2019t like that and
\nsometimes we can\u2019t have our cake and eat it (as my grandmother used to say). Microsoft is, in a way, a victim of XP\u2019s success. Launched in 2001 it\u2019s now 10 years old and that\u2019s a long time in IT terms. It\u2019s been the rock solid platform used by domestic and commercial users alike. It was available in a variety of guises including Tablet and Media Centre editions which have all proved popular with the majority of its users. But when you look at it alongside Windows 7 or Apple\u2019s OS X it\u2019s beginning to look its age. The big question is \u2018Can I upgrade just the operating system or do I need a new PC?\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, the bad news is that you can\u2019t simply whack a disk in your DVD drive and install Windows 7 over an existing XP installation. You\u2019ll need to back up all your data, emails etc and make sure you have your downloads or disks to reinstall any programs you use, and then carry out a \u2018clean\u2019 install. But there is a \u2018cheat\u2019. If you have a desktop PC it\u2019s possible to install a second hard drive and install Windows 7 to that which would then allow you to have both XP and 7 in a dual boot setup. This is a great option which almost \u2018does\u2019 allow you to have your cake and eat it! But if your computer is just too old or underpowered the only answer is to go out and buy a brand new PC or laptop. Prices have never been so good, and as long as you
\navoid the smaller \u2018netbooks\u2019 anything you buy today will be a far better performer than your old machine ever was.<\/p>\n
Sure, there\u2019s a learning curve involved, as there are changes between XP and Windows 7 (we\u2019re avoiding Vista here as it\u2019s so similar to Windows 7 that any Vista users would feel right at home) but it\u2019s worth the eff ort. Indeed Windows 7 is that Windows Vista should have been. Once you\u2019ve got to grips with Windows 7 you won\u2019t regret the move
\nTill next time\u2026<\/p>\n
by Steve Lee, Compumate
\ninfo@compumate.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last month we were looking at Dropbox and Microsoft Live Mesh for use as on-line backups of your important data. One of the things we looked at was the lack of support by Microsoft for Windows XP. So, is it time to upgrade that ageing computer lurking in the corner to a bright modern operating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-articles","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevillagedirectory.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevillagedirectory.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevillagedirectory.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevillagedirectory.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevillagedirectory.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thevillagedirectory.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevillagedirectory.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevillagedirectory.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevillagedirectory.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}