Thanks Nigel

Yep...my brief experience with Vista wasn't pleasant...I switched to Win7 and am very happy with it.

Ian

Thanks for the feedback, all ... after speaking with some others off line, I think I am going to go with XP which I currently have ...

Aha! there is a pattern, oh no! Windows 8 does it follow the pattern? hope not, anyhow, I am using Windows Vista for over three years, all windows have problems, you learn to live with it,eventually,as long as you have a legit copy of windows,always update them and use a good Antivirus program you shouldn't have any problems.

Tony,

I did tell you re-formatting with XP on that PC may not work, once you start to re-format if an error message pops up with " cannot find HD " your in trouble, I gave up in the end and left VISTA on and gave the PC away. Let us all know how you go on maybe your PC does not have SATA???

Tony

Though getting Windows 7 drivers for hardware from way back then could be a definate problem ... maybe impossible. But getting drivers for XP is a lot more likely to be successful.

Personally if it is working fine under Vista I'd probably leave it alone ... you know the saying ... if it aint broke ... But if it did have problems then I would try installing XP.

Hi Tony M

Windows XP was a cracking OS, however support for it stops in 2014 so is best now avoided.

Vista was a complete unmitigated disaster for Microsoft, so much so that they re-introduced XP as computer manufactures and customers were refusing to accept Vista, Microsoft also bought forward the development and launch of Win 7 which even in its Beta phases was far superior to Vista. (It also would work on computers that ran XP whereas Vista required you to upgrade to a more powerful computer)

Go with Windows 7 pro, as if there is the odd problem with some of your old programs or hardware, (Pretty small unless it is really old) you can download virtual XP which runs within Win 7 solving any problems.

If you go with XP make sure you set the motherboard Bios to its defaults, as this will set the SATA drives to IDE mode which will allow XP to load without problems.

If you want to use the more advanced features of SATA drives (you will need to set this in the motherboard Bios) press F6 when the XP install asks if you wish to load a Raid or 3rd party driver, then install your motherboard disc and choose the correct SATA driver, then just follow the instructions and you should be fine.

My recommendation however (And I have been working with computers of all types for over 30 years) is most definitely to go with Win 7 Pro.

Hope this helps

Bill

You can load and run old XP programs in Windows 7 using XP mode for those programs that are not compatible with 7.

I too recommend Windows 7.

XP was good, but 7, is the best.

Only in Windows 7 Pro, that feature is not available in other versions of Windows 7.

... hmmmmm ... ...


seems like talking about PC Operating Systems is a bit like talking politics, religion, and KEYBOARDS !!! ...

... thanks for ALL the input ... I will have to do some 'soul searching' ... I'll let you know what and when ... WHEW !!!