My local computer shop says that he can install Win7 Pro and within that, can give me the ability to make it look like XP and it will run all my XP programs. The only other thing he says I'll need is to increase memory from 3gb to 8gb. The total cost would be £200. Any comments, and any possible problems? I've got a lot of programs I need that would not run on Win7. It's a desktop, not a laptop if that makes any difference.

Windows 7 pro can be bought for about 30 off ebay ram can be bought for about the same. I think because he is installing pro you would be using http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Virtual_PC#Windows_XP_Mode
although a lot of xp programs can be run by right clicking the icon go to properties and change the properties in the compatibility tab.

I think you would be better off seeking assistance from Mark. His advice is pretty much bang on and as karlb has intimated the price of £200 would appear to be rather high without seeing what hardware you already have.

Windows 7 does NOT need 8Gb, unless you're doing some heavy processing or gaming.

7 will run comfortably on 2Gb, better on 4Gb.

Can you elaborate on what you do with the PC, what software you're using and so on?

Thanks for all your inputs. I hope Mark sees this thread and chips in. One of my problems is that I don't like messing about with my computer, so I want someone to do it. It's a mystery why he says he needs to install 8Gb ram; I don't think anything I do is very demanding; no gaming. I'm on-line a lot. The main program I can't afford to lose is my photo processing one, ACDSee photo manager. I'm sure there are better programs, but I know this one and I don't want to have to learn something new, nor do I want to have to buy new versions of this and a few other programs. I'll probably end up sticking with what I have.

Hi Chris,
I've seen your desktop and all the qwerks you have there. So my advice to you would be this.

Buy a Tower On its own.
This one has win 7 installed ready to go.
http://m.ebuyer.com/662319

That's what you can have New without any problems, you plug it in, self installs windows and away you go.

Ok why have I chosen a new tower for you and not the upgrade. Your existing pc is getting older and who knows when it's going to throw its hand in.

You can't always run Windows xp programs backwards with Windows 7, as there were lots of printer problems through windows 7 as xp. The program your using are as old as win xp its self.

Now with two towers you can slowly copy and try to run your programs on the new machine. As you work out what is compatible and not.

There are a few roads to go down to getting your new computer to work with your new tower but its not always plain sailing to get them working.

Because you have your original tower you can just plug that in and get on with it when a program no longer works over on win 7.

The link I gave you above is showing you what new can buy with win 7 pro installed on it too. Take off £100 and you can have it without windows 7.

But its new and reliability speed is part of it too. Modern computers just work now Chris no arsin around.

You can run Windows xp inside win7 pro and above.

We all know Microsoft ballsed up win 8 so if windows 10 gets positive feedback your entitled to a free upgrade within the first year of windows 10 ( There was no 9).

I will try and call you in an hour to explain it better. Holding onto old hardware will only cause problems.

Mark

After reading your post above again.
You may just be better off with what you already have and maybe throw some extra ram in there if there is space or its needed. I can remote connect and check your spec on your pc. As said above xp only uses the first 3gb of memory and above that is just waste as xp doesn't know how to use more than 3gb.

Speak to you +7pm

Your running two operating systems off one Pc, Hence the extra Ram.

Quote .. How does Windows XP Mode work??

Windows XP Mode works in two ways—both as a virtual operating system and as a way to open programs within Windows 7. It runs in a separate window on the Windows 7 desktop, much like a program, except it's a fully-functional, fully-licensed version of Windows XP. In Windows XP Mode, you can access your physical computer's CD/DVD drive, install programs, save files, and perform other tasks as if you were using a computer running Windows XP.

When you install a program in Windows XP Mode, the program appears in both the Windows XP Mode list of programs and in the Windows 7 list of programs, so you can open the program directly from Windows 7.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/install-and-use-windows-xp-mode-in-windows-7

Thanks; I'm going to stick with what I've got.

I have just finished building a desktop. installing windows 7 on a new SSD was easy, and I had room to put an ssd and a hdd from my old machine (which ran Vista) into the new tower as secondary drives. I can see all my old files there and use them as I did on the old machine.

Why windows 7 rather than 8 or 8.1? Because Microsoft are giving away Windows 10 to owners of either and 7 was cheaper.

I've been told that 10 will only be free for a year; after that you will have to pay a monthly fee.

Not exactly true, mate. True with Windows XP 32bit, but you can easily get the 64bit, which will allow you access of up to 128GB of RAM.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/888732


@OP

As stated in an earlier post, you'll be running a virtual machine which runs XP. I personally use ORACLE Virtualbox with an XP VM, as I need it to run certain things too.

Well if that is the case I'll stay with Windows 7. It seems OK to me, and adapting to it from Vista proved to be a very easy transition.

My understanding is that free upgrading will be available only for a year. After that you'll have to buy it.

The option to upgrade to Windows 10 will be free for 1 yr and then you will have to pay for the licence in full. In other words please upgrade and be our global testers.

Monthly may be a misunderstanding to the apps that may come with windows 10 as its going to be like your phone with a apps store.

Microsoft office 365 is a monthly fee for example.

Hi Chris,

Thought I would chuck my two pence worth in. I work in IT so see this problem a lot. Windows so is old and dated. If your in a position to upgrade then 7 and 8 are both excellent. If not then XP was an excellent OS and with some good AV and firewall protection it could be used for years to come. ,ost xp machines are 32 bit which means 4gb ram (minus got ram) is the most you will be able to address. Anything more is a waste and will never be used.

An SSD is a huge upgrade for any pc, around £120 gets you 400gb SSD. Using acronis you can fully migrate with no fuss.

With an SSD and 4gb ram you will Defo notice the speed improvement, if you need more you can then pop in a new cpu. Depending upon what board you have you could get maybe a quad core Q6660 from ebay for relatively cheap.

If you need advice on prices, kit, migration, etc mark is your man.£200 gets you well sorted with SSD ram and migration

In passing, it's worth noting that OpenOffice is just as good as Microsoft Office and it's free. You don't HAVE to pay microsoft's danegelt.