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Windows 7

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Couple of questions.

As i mainly use my comp for WoW and the interwebs i'm assuming that i only really need a home premium version, but what's the difference between Windoes 7 and Windows 7 N ?

Is it worth upgrading to 7 bearing in mind what i use my comp for ?

What's the difference between upgrade and full versions ?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Windows 7 N is the same except that it doesn't include Windows Media Player. Who wants WMP anyway when you have Winamp for your music and MP Classic for your videos? :-)

    I tend to avoid upgrade discs like the plague. Installing a fresh copy of Windows is more stable than having one on top of another.

    For WoW, Windows 2000 is fine, as I ran it off that for a while. XP is of course fine, and so is Windows 7 home premium which I'm using now (64-bit).

    If you prefer not to pay for a full version of Windows 7, then a compromise would be to buy an OEM copy. You just get the disc and a license number in celephane wrap. Legally, you have to buy a piece of hardware to qualify for an OEM license, but you can get away with just buying a £4 mouse with it :-P
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I got my Vista and Windows 7 as student upgrade versions, as they were cheapest. You can install an upgrade as a clean install, but it requires doing it twice - first without entering the CD key, and then upgrade from within Windows, using the CD key, to activate it.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    What is your current situation, why are you upgrading? Unless you really need a feature of Windows 7, or like me will die of a brain haemorrhage if Windows Vista crashes again.. there are probably other options that may well be cheaper.

    World Of Warcraft will work on any of the Windows 7 versions, for better graphics performance though turn off the Aero rubbish by switching in to the Windows Standard theme in the Personalization settings.

    Windows 7 N does not include Windows Media Player, because it was ruled as anti-competitive by EU after Vista was released and Microsoft were ordered to sell a version of the their next operating system without Windows Media Player.

    If you've got Windows XP, I'd stick with it, Vista and 7 are so much more frustrating.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I haz Vista, which is a bit pants. Hmmm needs osme thinking thru.

    Thanks for the replies :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's faster and more stable than Vista.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I have Windows 7 Ultimate. Me like.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well, I would do the following and see how it goes..

    1) Uninstall any applications you don't need
    2) Change Windows to classic view
    2) Upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 if you use that, or Firefox 3.6 if you use that.
    3) Stop every other program loading at start up by pruning the Start -> Programs -> Startup folder
    4) Disable indexing by Windows Search
    5) Uninstall Windows Defender, replace it with Avast! Free Edition
    6) Avast! Free Edition will take care your anti-virus needs as well
    7) Don't use Outlook 2007, or Outlook in general.

    There is some more information on speeding up Windows Vista on the Microsoft website, basic and advanced respectively.

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Optimize-Windows-Vista-for-better-performance

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Ways-to-improve-your-computers-performance
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Dog With Sunglasses - v. good points there. In #7, (about Outlook), if RubberSkin has something like Hotmail, Gmail or AOL, he can use the webmail version of it and have it running as an extra tab in Firefox. By doing that, you're only increasing Firefox's memory footprint by an extra 15 megabytes instead of whatever Outlook takes.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I upgraded from Vista to 7, no clean install or anything. my PC is now a ton faster and far more stable/reliable.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    if you work in an educational establishment, or are a student

    http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/studentoffer/


    the windows 7 upgrade is 32bit or 64bit only, compared to a choice with retail, but its only £30, and for upgrade, just install a VLK of windows xp and run the upgrade ;)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thanks for the help guys. Funds are a tad low at the mo (thank you Selly Oak fucking hospital £79 parking charges so far this year) so i think i'll leave it for a bit.
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