I'm considering getting a new computer. However, I would like them to load my XP Professional instead of Windows 7.

Is this recommended?

No. Win7 is massively better than XP and IIRC Microsoft have dropped support for XP (someone will pop in and confirm, or not, this:-)).

Microsoft will be releasing security patches for Windows XP until April 2014, but Windows XP is now entering its reduced-support phase. I understand your feelings about wanting to stick to what you know, but if you buy a new computer now you would be better off getting Windows 7; that way you will be covered for a good many years rather than buying something that will be gradually getting phased out.

Support not dropped yet, still getting the updates on a regular basis at least twice a week.

My XP drive is still getting updates too, but as Marian says, it's a reduced level as they move towards phasing out XP completely by 2014.

I resisted getting XP until 2004, but loved the OS once I got used to it. I skipped Vista, but decided to embrace Windows 7. I'm very glad I did as Window 7 is leaps and bounds above XP. When I boot up my XP drive, it feels so ponderous and slow compared to Win 7. And I'm running both drives on the same hardware. Don't get me wrong; I still love my XP and will always have a drive or a computer or a partition with XP on it somewhere!

If you're concerned about gaming, check out our Windows 7 and Gaming post stickied at the top of the Glitches forum. We've been very pleasantly surprised at how well it's been playing our older games.

Unless you have someone build a computer for you or do it yourself, the chances of finding a brand name computer with XP on it are very, very slim.

I'd recommend a dual boot -- XP for whatever games don't work right in Windows 7 and Windows 7 for newer games and web browsing. I'd suggest getting used to using Windows 7 when possible, with XP as a backup.

I don't see the "ponderousness" that Draclvr mentions with XP. XP and Windows 7 are both fast with fresh installs on my new computer. XP and Windows 7 are on different partitions of the same drive on my computer, not on different drives.

Windows 7 does pre-load some things and is better at handling large amounts of memory, so on some computers it may be more responsive. It also requires more memory and processing power, but this isn't usually a problem on a new computer. Windows 7 is an operating system designed for current computer hardware, which XP is not. About the only thing it can't do is run certain games, including certain Big Fish games. For example, Top Ten Solitaire was never updated for either Vista or Windows 7. There are also some peripherals (e.g. certain printers, cameras, scanners...) that don't have 64-bit drivers, which is a problem for 64-bit Windows 7.

If you can't do a dual boot, XP is still a viable choice. But it's harder to find a computer with XP. If you want to install XP on a computer that was designed for Windows 7, you have to make sure there is adequate driver support for your computer's hardware configuration. It's a lot easier just to get the computer with Windows 7. But check the Windows 7 thread for what games work in Windows 7. If you have questions about certain of your favorite games, you can ask.

A dual boot would be the best of both worlds. That's what I have except that my XP boot is on another drive. You could do it on the same hard drive. And Window 7 makes it really easy to partition your hard drive and have a dual boot.

I have no question but that part of the slow feel of my XP drive is that is needs a fresh install of the OS. Actually, I've been thinking of doing a backup of everything I want on that drive and doing just that from the Restore partition. I just hate the idea of going through getting rid of all the bloatware that HP put on it though! But that's why I have PC Decrapifier on a flash drive!

Thanks,

My main concern was for the gaming, although I do like xp. When I got this computer built I also said no to vista and ordered xp and I was lucky enough to get it as it was no longer available in stores.

Maybe I'll wait until I really have to change to a new computer. I'm sure at some point games will no longer be xp compatable. Basically everything I have, printer, speakers etc, probably wouldn't work with the new computers anyway.

Thanks again for the all the info.

You'd be surprised, Flo! Windows 7 found generic drivers for my 7 year-old HP all-in-one printer and it worked great. My old speakers and all my other peripherals just plugged in and worked. I don't think I had a single old component that didn't work. I think one of the things Microsoft learned from the Vista launch is that they MUST provide outstanding driver support. And they did with Win 7.

Unless you aren't able to play games because of a weak video card or something like that, I'd hang on to that XP computer!

I've only come across 2 games that I cannot play, they both crash before even starting up.

The only thing I've seen in both these games that I haven't been able to see in most others, is some kind of Microsoft .dll file, but I was just grasping trying to find some component that would explain why I couldn't play.

I have a Radeon x600/x500 which will play anything I have, I had it installed mainly to play the Myst games. So, I really can't complain 2 out of 200 plus isn't bad.

I think I will hold on to it as long as I can.

That could be DirectX or the Visual C++ runtime libraries - you can safely update those any time.

Looking it up on the internet while investigating I found that it was the Visual C++ runtime libraries.

I know one game had the latest, 9 I think. So, I will check out the update.

Do you know whether or not this would cause crashing before the game even started to play. As soon as I click on the game icon, I get a flash a black screen then back to Game Manager.

Is it possible to update with a Radeon x600/x500.

Personally i am sticking to XP until nothing works anymore. I have not had any problems with my XP installation so i don't see a reason for switching to Win 7 at the moment. A lot of game developers have switched to Win 7 for development but in my opinion it would be stupid to stop supporting XP like M$ does with some of its newly released programs (Windows Live Essentials, IE9 and others). For some of us who have some older hardware (in my case it is my beloved SB Audigy) switching to Win7 might cause problems like i had where in around 45 mins after installing my pc kept crashing. Game performance i doubt that 7 is faster than XP in all games. And at this point I would rather use XP knowing that all games that come out for the time being will work on it rather (unless they are from M$) than every time i want to try out a game i have to look for "Windows 7 game compatibility" lists. Someone used to say "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Spyros

If the game requires the latest runtime libraries it probably would fail it to start. You can locate them on Microsoft’s web site.

The video card is independent of the version C++ - so no issues there. Updating your drivers may not be a bad idea though. If they're not current, you can update them from AMD's web site (AMD owns ATI).

Here's the download section - AMD - Graphics Drivers & Software

Hi,

I saw the uddates, but was leary of downloading, just because I don't want to mess anything up.

Can I just download without removing anything beforehand?

Hi Butcher,

I agree, I will keep my xp as long as it is working and allowing me to play the games I want. I found a solution to one game that wouldn't play, and it was to load to an external hard drive, I think I got the clue from here. I was amazed that it actually worked. But the 2 games that crash right away, did not work. So, hopefully by udating the drivers, it might help, I never updating them since I got the computer.

No need to uninstall anything -

Great, I will download the update.

Thanks, will let you know if it helps with the games I can't play.

Nope, didn't change a thing for that particular game so I am assuming the other will be the same as they both come from the same company I think.

Oh well, guess I'll just have to give up on those two and move forward.

Just in case you might have some insight these games are:
Victorian Mysteries "Woman in White" and Unsolved Mysteries "Amelia Earhart".

The both crash as soon as I click on the shortcut, the game doesn't even open.

Thanks for all the help folks.

If you bought these games from Big Fish, you should ask them about the problem. They'd be able to contact the game's developers.

I've been throught the BF support, and all I could get from them were generic answers. They've had a lot of problems with this particular game and have had a few updates, but nothing to fix this problem.

I'm actually thinking about contacting the developers myself.

If you do contact the developers, let us know what they say.