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Thread: Windows XP or 7 starter?

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    Default Windows XP or 7 starter?

    Wow, haven't started a thread in a while.. Haha

    Anyways, I'm buying a netbook to compliment my desktop, and I've been doing quite some of research on them recently. I've made my list of "wants" in my netbook for everything ( N450 processor, 6-cell battery, 10inch display, etc, etc) except for one thing: which operating system should I go with? For roughly the same price, I can have a netbook running XP SP3, or one running Windows 7 Starter. I've read about the stupid limitations on W7 starter (not being able to legitly change your wallpaper, for example), but are the drawbacks and watering down reason enough to just disregard it and go with XP?

    Thanks, I'd appreciate some input.

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    XP , XP will be alive for the next 6 years atleast

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hatashi View Post
    And then get Windows 7 Ultimate.

    And.. you can change the wallpaper of W7 Starter :l, you must've been doing something wrong.
    Show me an example of someone using windows 7 starter who can change their background (screenshots or video). Go google it and you'll find a bunch of people raging about being unable to change their wallpaper.

    EDIT: Alright, you can change the background but only by using an external program. But the fact that they dont let you do that out of the box is complete fail.

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    Here comes the inevitable, Why not get Ubuntu? (Linux).
    But if this is going to be your main computer, I wouldn't go for that.

    Windows 7 definitely is better than XP (shudders), but its still a lot harder to customize and look pretty, and STILL comes with a load of security features that (even though you can turn off some of them, there are still ones that you can't, and even if you could they'd annoy the hell out of you with little bleeping icons everywhere).

    It all boils down to what you want with this netbook.
    If you just want internet and IM, I'd say go with Ubuntu netbook remix, or Kubuntu netbook. They're built specifically for small screens and make it really easy to use, and they're very pretty and run very smoothly (also the plus of never having adware/spyware/viruses).

    If you want it for portable gaming, go with windows 7.
    If you want it as a main, I'd use XP.

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    I'd stick with XP.

    Everything is compatible with XP. More stuff isn't with 7 than XP. I haven't seen anything that is ONLY 7, not XP. Not yet anyway.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jacksterson View Post
    Here comes the inevitable, Why not get Ubuntu? (Linux).
    But if this is going to be your main computer, I wouldn't go for that.

    Windows 7 definitely is better than XP (shudders), but its still a lot harder to customize and look pretty, and STILL comes with a load of security features that (even though you can turn off some of them, there are still ones that you can't, and even if you could they'd annoy the hell out of you with little bleeping icons everywhere).

    It all boils down to what you want with this netbook.
    If you just want internet and IM, I'd say go with Ubuntu netbook remix, or Kubuntu netbook. They're built specifically for small screens and make it really easy to use, and they're very pretty and run very smoothly (also the plus of never having adware/spyware/viruses).

    If you want it for portable gaming, go with windows 7.
    If you want it as a main, I'd use XP.
    I'm in no way a linux fanboy, i just started using it and i use windows 7 on my main PC. He said it was for his netbook which is going to be his secondary computer. The netbook i recently purchased has almost identical specs and i've tried netbook remix, kubuntu and various other linux distros on it. Linux mint appealed to me in the end because it was very similar to windows in appearance and the community was always there to help with any problems over the irc channel.

    I've been using linux mint 8 on my netbook for a couple months now and i'm amazed at how well it runs. I'm able to use every compiz effect i can find and have no drop in performance. It uses way less resources which makes it ideal for a netbook =)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Oisterboy View Post
    I'd stick with XP.

    Everything is compatible with XP. More stuff isn't with 7 than XP. I haven't seen anything that is ONLY 7, not XP. Not yet anyway.
    Getting XP today for new computers is pretty much shooting yourself in the foot, with an exception or two like this case.


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    at least get a windows 7 home premium if ur gunning for an upgrade or a new system... so far there really ain't that much probs with compatibility...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Oisterboy View Post
    I'd stick with XP.

    Everything is compatible with XP. More stuff isn't with 7 than XP. I haven't seen anything that is ONLY 7, not XP. Not yet anyway.
    Everything that is compatible in Windows XP is in Windows 7, so IDK what your talking about.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hatashi View Post
    Everything that is compatible in Windows XP is in Windows 7, so IDK what your talking about.
    yeah i had a few problems getting old games to run at first but that was only because i didnt have 64bit version of xp. everything works fine on windows 7 now, its only small things that are annoying.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Deimos View Post
    yeah i had a few problems getting old games to run at first but that was only because i didnt have 64bit version of xp. everything works fine on windows 7 now, its only small things that are annoying.
    Have you tried switching compatibility to Windows XP?
    Had some old games which we're refusing to run, but then switched the compatibility to Win XP, and they worked fine.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hatashi View Post
    Everything that is compatible in Windows XP is in Windows 7, so IDK what your talking about.
    Windowblinds. DEAMON Tools.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hatashi View Post
    Have you tried switching compatibility to Windows XP?
    Had some old games which we're refusing to run, but then switched the compatibility to Win XP, and they worked fine.
    well after a bit of looking around i found there were 64bit fixes to let the games run on vista, the fixes also worked on windows 7. so now i can play.

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    I downgraded from Windows 7 to XP because of the compatibility issues with Gameguard, I couldn't play Flyff for more than 5 minutes and I bought Gpots so I didn't want to quit.

    I don't really regret it because I wouldn't use DX11 anyway because my computer isn't powerful enough.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ControlKill View Post
    I downgraded from Windows 7 to XP because of the compatibility issues with Gameguard, I couldn't play Flyff for more than 5 minutes and I bought Gpots so I didn't want to quit.

    I don't really regret it because I wouldn't use DX11 anyway because my computer isn't powerful enough.
    Depends on which game and if you run on 32bit or 64bit.


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    yeah i use daemon tools lite all the time, never bothered with windowsblinds.

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    Quote Originally Posted by skeep View Post
    Windows 7 starter is horrible, i have no idea why you guys are saying its nice. You can't even change the wallpaper =/ I uninstalled it straight away when i bought my netbook and chucked linux on it. Windows 7 starter was using up 70% of the resources while the installation of linux i have atm is only using up 20% with a bunch of applications open. Definately go for XP

    EDIT: Just read you're post and noticed you also got a netbook. I seriously recommend that you try out linux mint 8. Its much more userfriendly than say, ubuntu, and it uses up barely any resources.

    The link is here: http://www.linuxmint.com/


    It also includes an irc when you install it so you can get help with anything straight away from other mint users!
    I do want to try linux, but isn't it kind of hard to use? I don't know if I have the time to learn it either. Also, if i do get linux, i kind of want to dual boot it with my original OS (be it windows 7 or XP, haven't decided yet), and i don't know if a netbook's performance or memory can handle it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by NINJADUDEv.2 View Post
    I do want to try linux, but isn't it kind of hard to use? I don't know if I have the time to learn it either. Also, if i do get linux, i kind of want to dual boot it with my original OS (be it windows 7 or XP, haven't decided yet), and i don't know if a netbook's performance or memory can handle it.
    Linux mint 8 is really nice man. Like I said, I chose it because it was the easiest to use. It comes pre-installed with open office and a bunch of other nice stuff. I havent had a problem with it so far and I was competely new to linux when I started out. Most things you'll need have been pre bundled up and are waiting there for you to download in their software manager too. If you're going to try out linux i highly reccommend you try out that one =).

    As for dual booting, it should work fine. I don't see any reason why you'd have problems.

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    Whoever said daemon tools doesn't work on Windows 7 just doesn't have the newest version because it works fine; in fact so did the older versions it's just that it wouldn't let you remove virtual drives after you made them but that's been long fixed.

    As for Gameguard it's been long since updated to support Windows 7; if there's any games that still don't work than they need to get cracking on updates.

    As for the question at hand, considering your options I'd go with XP. W7 Starter is way too stripped down; they basically removed all the features that makes Windows 7 better.

    As for XP hanging around for five years or so; I don't doubt people will be using it but it all depends what you do on your computer. Gamers who have newer video cards or plan on getting a new video card will want an OS that support DX11 so they'll want Windows 7.

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