Windows 7 or 10 for upgrade to Vista machine?

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  • BehindBlueI's

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    https://www.cnet.com/products/gatew...7-core-2-duo-p8400-4-gb-ram-200-gb-hdd/specs/

    It's an older computer but with decent specs. $29 for Windows 7 or $49 for Windows 10? Which will be faster on a machine with the specs of the one above? Vista is a giant PITA now that there's no support. Chrome, several anti-virus programs, etc. just don't work that well on it any longer and I'd like to extend the life of the laptop.
     

    K_W

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    10 is supposed to run fine on even older and lower spec machines.

    Throw in an $45 SSD to do a clean install and keep it unclutered and it should do fine.
     

    Hoosierdood

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    Hate to say it, but you need a new computer. That hardware wasn't designed to run Win 7 or 10 efficiently. 4Gb of RAM will be super slow. Win 10 takes around 2Gb of RAM just to run the operating system. At best, you will have maybe 1.5Gb RAM left to run all your other programs. If you are running antivirus, multiple tabs in Chrome, and other programs, you will be be more frustrated than you are right now with Vista.

    Do yourself a favor, and spend $500 on a good computer with a Core i5 processor and 8Gb RAM. You can actually find them cheaper than $500 if you look around.
     

    Hop

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    Or just ditch Windows and go with Linux. Go to pendrivelinux.com and create a usb boot stick to try. Use Mint Cinnamon.

    Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
     

    WebSnyper

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    On an older system, 10 will run better than 7. I also think it's a markedly better OS.

    Agreed, but as others have said, could be time for the OP to get new machine as well, given the specs he posted. Some light surfing and it will be ok, but even browsers (depending on number of tabs and content, etc) can suck up quite a bit of memory, etc.

    Also as someone stated above, Windows 7 will be out of support (no further security updates provided) come 2020.

    To the OP's question though, definitely 10 over 7.... And Vista was a PITA all along :ingo:
     
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    4651feeder

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    $29 or $500 is a no brainer to me; you gamble on the $29 and if it proves to not meet your expectations, you then splurge. Of course this is coming from a tightwad who just spent $190 (Monoprice, December) on a NOS ACER Travelmate 115M with not much more than your Gateway in the way of processing and has yet to realize he's missing out on something.
     

    halfmileharry

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    I'm hanging on to 7 as long as I can. Maybe 10 will be stable by the time MS dumps it as well.
    I have 10 on my new PC and hate it. I'm running a 6yr old Lenova with 7 most of the time. I use my phone and a laptop much of the time as well. Laptop came with 10 and after a couple of months with it I scrubbed it and put a new 7 load to it.
    Sorry, I just don't like 10 at all.
     

    CampingJosh

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    Dec 16, 2010
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    I have a new computer, but I want to keep using the old one as well. Mostly because I'm too lazy to move several of the programs to this one.

    FYI, I believe that it is not possible to actually "upgrade" from Vista to Win 10. You have to do a clean install.
     

    Mr Evilwrench

    Quantum Mechanic
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    Aug 18, 2011
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    I upgraded my mom's old laptop from Vista to 7 because I have DVDs for 7. M$ rolled 10 out in such a messed up way I still have a bad taste in my mouth and I don't trust them. She doesn't do anything heavy, maybe a couple of tabs in Firefox and an occasional print. I still have a laptop on 7 for a couple of special printers that I haven't put under WINE yet, but here I'm running an old core 2 processor with 4M RAM, and I'm running it hard under Mint 18.1 without lagging.
     

    WebSnyper

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    I'm hanging on to 7 as long as I can. Maybe 10 will be stable by the time MS dumps it as well.
    I have 10 on my new PC and hate it. I'm running a 6yr old Lenova with 7 most of the time. I use my phone and a laptop much of the time as well. Laptop came with 10 and after a couple of months with it I scrubbed it and put a new 7 load to it.
    Sorry, I just don't like 10 at all.


    Just curious, what was so bothersome about 10 for you? I've had zero issues with stability and I've been running it since before it hit general release.
     

    tr1gg3r

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    Apr 25, 2011
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    The Fortress
    My vote would be for 10 based solely on the fact that it natively runs virtual desktops. I know it wasn't an option listed, but, if you have to do a clean install to run 10 anyways, I would spend $0 and just slap Linux on there. As an added bonus, you wouldn't have to worry about Cortana spying on you all the time.
     

    1911ly

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    How much ram do you have? If you have 4 gig of ram and don't plan on adding then go with 7. 10 will run pretty well with 8. It's a pooch with 4 gig on a i3 that I have until I doubled the ram. My new laptop has 16 and it is really fast.
     

    Topshot

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    Oct 16, 2015
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    Terre Haute
    At this point go for 10. Your potential issue may be with drivers on the old hardware.

    I haven't tried it yet, but try user agent switching to get a browser to work. I know it won't help on sites that actually use features built into the newer browser versions, but I suspect many sites will still work fine.
     

    edporch

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    I'm hanging on to 7 as long as I can. Maybe 10 will be stable by the time MS dumps it as well.
    I have 10 on my new PC and hate it. I'm running a 6yr old Lenova with 7 most of the time. I use my phone and a laptop much of the time as well. Laptop came with 10 and after a couple of months with it I scrubbed it and put a new 7 load to it.
    Sorry, I just don't like 10 at all.

    I'm still running Windows 7 64 Bit Professional and like it.
    Just to be on the cautious side.
    On the updates, I've not done any of them that have anything to do with "Customer Experience", or other ones that were added that reduce privacy.
    Do a Google search on windows 7 privacy

    When I finally get to the point one day that Windows 7 isn't supported, I'll switch to OpenBSD UNIX, as my servers and network infrastructure have been OpenBSD for many years.
    It's solid, and has never crashed or been exploited since I began using it in 2001.
     
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    dugsagun

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    Jan 21, 2013
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    portage
    If this older one is just for surfin da net and watching you tube, netflix etc and checking forums and email. i vote 7. Keep it cheap, as you said u already have a new computer to do the real stuff on. Dont wanna spend too much as maybe in a couple years you may have to finally toss it.
     
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