Before I start lobbying my brother-in-law at Microsoft for XP-to-WINDOWS 7 upgrades (he'll be able to get them sooner than August), I just wanted to ask the techies savy .. would it be worth it ? In times past, with each new OS release, the resources required to run the new OS has increased. I'd imagine VISTA is no different. But what of the 64 bit thing .. would my laptops become more efficent (faster) using VISTA versus XP (if I am able to add more RAM) ? They all run XP now. We have two older machines that won't be conisdered for the upgrade, but our two newer laptops are both at least 1.6ghz (duo core or core 2 I forget which but it's the better kind) .. any comments would be appreciated.

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Vista is a RAM hungry monster.
Some of the features are nice but I think i would wait for win7 to come out. Instead of upgrading.

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SFC
Michael Larson
Minnesota-USA

A03/TQ1.0.92141E1

That depends. In my experience, Vista only works well on computers designed to run Vista. Even those capable of running Vista tend not to work if designed for XP . This may not apply to all machines, but I'd still be cautious .

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Squad Leader, 58th Regt., 2nd Batt., "Morse's Marauders" - U.S.S. Azuera
Primary MOS: Rifleman
Secondary MOS: Combat Demolitions

"When the going gets tough, the tough call on the Colonial Marines."

Ah, I meant Windows 7 ... Duh. The new OS that is 64 bit instead of 32 bit (whatever that means). All I know is that I am able to run more RAM with it. So it would be bigger disk space & memory hog, but do I gain anything from the 64 bit thing ... ?

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The current release of Windows 7 is still in time-limited beta (for testing purposes) and hasn't been finalised yet.

I've been playing with it in a virtual machine and it's a big improvement on Vista, but I don't see any reason to replace a working XP installation with it - wait till you buy a new PC that has it for "free".

Windows 7 will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, just like previous versions. IMHO, there are no real advantages to using 64-bit unless you are going to install more than 3.5 Gb or 4 Gb of RAM. There are some obscure security features that are only enabled in the 64-bit versions, but I wouldn't sweat it.

So, if I buy 2 more gigs of RAM for my Core 2 Duo 1.6ghz CPU laptop with 2G RAM, and get the WIN 7 64bit from MS direct through my bro .. I'm gonna be runnning faster than I would be under XP, right ? I would be able to open up big programs faster (Adobe CS), process big 12 millon pixel RAW images, etc, right ??

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Running Win7 on my ancient laptop which has half the minimum specs (only 512mb of RAM), and it still runs better than XP. Works fantastic on our EEEPC netbook, too. Less of the stupid administrator pop-ups you get with Vista.

Definitely worth skipping Vista and waiting for 7.

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A11/TQ1.0.32150E1 Murphy, J - Covert recording headcam. There is no flashing red light when you are on Kona-Cam
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Everyone who needs Windows should upgrade to 7 when it's properly released. The current beta is due to stop working on 1st August. They may release a "Release Candidate" in the meantime, but that will also be time limited. Microsoft has not guaranteed that people will be able to upgrade from the beta to the final version; I'd at least wait for the RC.

As for RAM, it's your choice. I wouldn't be so sure that your pre-Vista era laptop can even use 4Gb+ RAM, it probably won't make Photoshop open much faster and bear in mind that a 12 Mpixel RAW images aren't huge by modern standards (providing you're not using 50 layers!). Additionally, you'll need to buy one of the newest versions of Photoshop that have 64-bit support.

It may be boring and cheap, but I think the best way to make a Windows PC run faster is to freshly reinstall Windows - any Windows. However, I'm a cynical Luddite whose favourite operating system is AIX! But I'd avoid the Win 7 Beta (for your main system) unless you want to have to reinstall again pretty soon....

If you want your apps etc. to open faster, use an SLC SSD, or even better a RAID of them. The mechanical HDD is what's slowing down everyone's computing experience at the moment and has been for years. Thing is, it'll cost you many pennies for a good set of high quality SSDs.

The current word from M$ is that you'll have to downgrade to Vista from 7 Beta to upgrade to 7 RC1, which is due out in a few months at most. I'd wait for the full release personally...

the 64 bit only helps if you have apps that can use it

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Rob Slater
A08/TQ2.0.42136E1