Upgrading from XP to Win7

[entropynz]

Hello,

Ok I've read enough to know that Win7 is better than Win8 for games so I want to upgrade my XP machine to Win7.

In choosing between 7 Professional and 7 Home premium is there any reason to chose professional over home premium? The only 2 things I note are the lack of "XP mode" and limit of 16GB RAM (which I don't think is a huge deal).

I'm considering this:
http://alphacity.co.nz/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=34579

Cheers from NZ

 

[ssddx]

i have win7 pro on my desktop and win7 hp on my laptop.

in normal day to day activities such as web browsing, gaming, office work, etcetera there is not much of a difference.

do you require xp mode or more than 16gb of ram? do you require the extra security features listed for professional? if not then home premium is likely good enough for you.

i would recommend getting an oem copy instead of a boxed upgrade or full install to save money.

speaking of saving money check if the oem copy is more or less than the upgrade copy. if you know someone with a windows 7 disk you can delete one file from it to make a disk which can install any version of windows. i believe you can use this to install from scratch windows 7 with an upgrade product key...

just an idea but personally i just buy the oem. i do have one of said disks though since i needed to reinstall home premium on my laptop so i know the disk creation works flawless.

just some ideas.

 

[entropynz]

i have win7 pro on my desktop and win7 hp on my laptop.

in normal day to day activities such as web browsing, gaming, office work, etcetera there is not much of a difference.

do you require xp mode or more than 16gb of ram? do you require the extra security features listed for professional? if not then home premium is likely good enough for you.

i would recommend getting an oem copy instead of a boxed upgrade or full install to save money.

speaking of saving money check if the oem copy is more or less than the upgrade copy. if you know someone with a windows 7 disk you can delete one file from it to make a disk which can install any version of windows. i believe you can use this to install from scratch windows 7 with an upgrade product key...

just an idea but personally i just buy the oem. i do have one of said disks though since i needed to reinstall home premium on my laptop so i know the disk creation works flawless.

just some ideas.

Thanks for the reply, I don't think I will need more than 16GB anytime soon. As far as the XP mode goes, i'm pretty sure most things run smoothly under Win7 at the moment?

 

[ssddx]

at a bare minimum i'd suggest 6gb of ram in current systems however 8 is recommended. the only people who need 16gb are power users or professionals and in such cases they have high end hardware to begin with.

windows 7 xp mode is a virtual operating system which does not come with win7 pro but is an option to download if you bought a pro or ult license. it opens as a window and inside of which acts like its own operating system where you can install programs. you can launch programs from win7 installed on this virtual os as well.

while all that sounds handy for compatability issues, unless you have a dire need for it you can probably make due with "compatability mode" which allows you to right click on program exe files and set the version of windows they are meant to run under. i've ran many xp software packages under win7 in this way without too much trouble. this feature is included in win7 by default and in most cases is all you need.