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when is best time to ditch my Windows XP SP3 laptop?

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Markito

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Posted November 8, 2012 at 3:59PM

I ask this because it will mean having to buy a new laptop since mine is an H.P. Compaq 2GHz, 2 x 1 GB, 160 GB, almost 5 years old. It works perfectly, but I understand its comparatively small disk / memory won't allow me to up-grade to a later, hungrier version of Windows.

So should I buy now - well before XP support ends - or wait another year? I don't know whether waiting will enable me to have an even more up-to-date version of Windows, or whether the manufacturers will see XP's demise as a chance to raise prices for all the last minute customers.

(By the way, I am a light user; just e-mails and web surfing.)

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rickf

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Posted November 8, 2012 at 4:17PM

Your laptop may well be able to take up to 4g Ram. 160g h/d is well sufficient for wins7. I would suggest, if your laptop can take it, to buy 2x2g ram making 4g memory then install wins 7 64bit OS. As you are a light user 160 is more than enough.

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Markito

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Posted November 8, 2012 at 6:24PM

Thank you Rick. Much appreciated.
Does anyone else have any views about this?

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canarieslover

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Posted November 8, 2012 at 7:47PM

If it still does what you need to do, which would be seen as very light use by many people, then just carry on using it and putting your pennies away until such time as it either dies or you needs become much more demanding. Hopefully by that time you will have saved enough to go out and buy a new laptop and Windows 8 will have been sorted well enough to make it everyday usable.

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lotvic

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Posted November 8, 2012 at 9:47PM

If it was mine I would look to do as rickf says as W7 has a long way to go before it's likely to be 'outdated' and W8 (as canarieslover says) is not sorted enough yet (drivers, glitches, etc)

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iscanut2

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Posted November 8, 2012 at 10:23PM

I agree with rickf..Win 7 is very good and I see no reason to even think about upgrading to Win 8. Perhaps also buy an external USB hard drive to store any docs, photos, music etc.

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woodchip

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Posted November 8, 2012 at 11:35PM

If it does what you need why do you want to ditch it? Just to keep up with Microsoft is going to be a costly exercise

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woodchip

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Posted November 8, 2012 at 11:38PM

PS I have HP about the same age a HP510 XP home 2.13Ghz Centrino CPU only a 60Gig drive but I use a External USB drive when I need to

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Marg7

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Posted November 9, 2012 at 12:05AM

If you want to upgrade to windows 7 you can download and run the windows 7 upgrade advisor which will test for any potential issues http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/downloads/upgrade-advisor

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xania

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Posted November 9, 2012 at 10:40AM

If you find that 160 GB is not enough, you can always replace the HHD as well. Far cheaper than a new laptop. I run mine with second external 500 GB pocket HHD - runs fine on WIndows 7 32 bit.

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Markito

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Posted November 9, 2012 at 11:41AM

I have found out that the laptop can take up to a max of 4 GB of RAM (2 GB is installed.)

So if I add 2 GB and this is enough to cope with Windows 7, I'll wait till XP Pro SP3 is no longer supported (April 2014 I believe,) and then change to Windows 7. I also take the point of buying a External USB drive to free up some disk space.

I'm overwhelmed by your responses and I'd like to thank you all for your help.

Mark

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