WINDOWS XP TO WINDOWS 7: DOES IT WORTH AN UPGRADE?

Just as it was the case for Windows
Vista, Windows 7’s main rival is not Linux, Mac OS X or any competitor
operating system, but the Windows XP platform. Because of Microsoft’s support
lifecycle for its products, Windows OSes often overlap. In this context,
Microsoft needs to labor continuously to convince users of older releases of
Windows to upgrade to the latest iteration. This is without a doubt the seed
that generated the Windows XP vs. Windows 7 comparison.

 

Microsoft has deemed Windows 7 as the
most successful Windows release thus far. The company underlined recently that
no less than 7 copies of Windows 7 are being sold each second, and that the
number of licenses that were pushed to customers worldwide surpassed the 150
million milestone.

Meanwhile
the choice to move from XP to Windows 7 is one that some people are still
hesitant about. You know XP. You like XP. Why mess with a good thing? That is
most people’s opinion, but here are five good reasons why.

1.         Support from Microsoft. On April 14, 2009, Microsoft ended mainstream support for
Windows XP. What that means is that you can't get free support for any problems
related to Windows XP again; so you'll be pulling out that hard earned cash you should have use for other necessities to get help
from now on. In addition, the only fixes Microsoft will provide for free are
security patches. If there are other problems with XP, you won't get fixes for
those. 

On
Aug. 14, 2014, all support for Windows XP ends. So you won't even be able to
get security patches, and your computer will be open to newly-discovered
threats with no way to protect you. That's bad. 

Yes,
that's about two more years of support, so if you just won't give up your XP,
you'll be covered; but with the tradeoff that you'll be paying for any
Microsoft support, and won't get anything but security patches from here on
out. (In Microsoft's defense, it has supported XP much longer than most
software companies provide support for their products. But no company can
support programs forever.)

2.
        User Account Control. Yes, it's true that many people hated User Account Control (UAC) when it was introduced in Windows Vista. And in its
first form, it was hideous, assaulting users with endless popup warnings.
However, it improved with subsequent service pack releases. And in Windows 7,
it's better than ever, and more configurable. That means you can tune it to
give you as few or many warnings as you want.

 
Besides,
no matter how much UAC was hated, it also closed one of XP's biggest security
holes -- the ability for anyone with access to the computer to act as the
all-powerful administrator and do whatever they wanted. Now that huge security
risk has been eliminated -- assuming you don't turn it off.

3.
        More applications. All the programs are now being written for the
Vista/Windows 7 platform. This started years ago, and will continue to be the
case for years to come. If you want that new 3-D shooter game or kick-butt
utility, chances are it won't work on XP. Upgrading to Windows 7 will give you
access to all the cool stuff your neighbor has that you don't.

4.
        64-bit computing. The reasons are a bit technical, but the upshot is that 64-bit
is the future. While there were 64-bit versions of XP in the past, they aren't
for sale anymore, and are not for typical consumer use anyway.

The
newer 64-bit computers are faster and more powerful than their 32-bit brethren,
and software is starting to appear that takes advantage of 64-bit power. While
32-bit gear and programs aren't going the way of the Dodo in the immediate
future, the sooner you make the move to 64-bit, the happier you'll be.

5.
Windows XP Mode. Through Windows XP Mode, you can
use XP and still get the benefits of Windows 7. If you have the right version
of Windows 7 (Professional or Ultimate), and the right kind of processor, you
can have the best of both worlds -- Windows 7 and Windows XP.

Windows
XP Mode is one of the coolest things about Windows 7. Without diving into the
geeky details, it allows you to run Windows XP in a virtual environment; the
old XP programs think they're on an XP computer, and work as normal. You don't
have to give up the things you love about Windows XP to get the many benefits
of Windows 7.

What
could be better than that?

All in all I have reopen the poll on "Which Operating System is your best Ever?" (at the right hand column of this page) in order to get your feed back and I will appreciate your response.