Windows 7 "PRO" 64 bit - or not?

[MegaTsunami]

Hi, to cut a long story short, our beloved dual core Windows XP desktop died.

I regularly used uTorrent and my other half was a very happy and contented JASC Paint Shop Pro v7 addict

She dreads the look of Photoshop!

Now you can't get desktops with XP on anymore, we have to move with the times and learn Windows 7

Thing is, the MS Windows 7 compatibility site doesn't seem to positively indicate that PSP 7 or uTorrent will work as both these progs. are so old

There is light at the end of the tunnel in that apparently "Windows 7 PROFESSIONAL 64 bit" has a XP mode that you download to run old XP progs.

However other stuff we've read said you can run most XP progs in any version of Windows 7?

Can anyone comment on this please?

We really haven't got £70 to spend on getting a Windows 7 PRO upgrade on any new desktop we get, especially if these will run on any version of Windows 7!

We've gone for the 64bit version as the desktops we've shortlisted all have 4Gb RAM, and you need 64 bit version for it all to be utilised?!

Excuse the lack of IT knowledge.

Wrong place but our choice of PCs are a DELL one, a Palicomp one or a Chillblast one.

DELL don't seem to let you upgrade to Windows 7 PRO though on their configuration screen, and they don't give you the FULL Windows 7 disc either

They'll sell you a £5 recovery disc though

Thanks for reading, please help us!

[bouncingjohn]

You don't need the "Pro" version, the "Home Premium" version of Windows 7 also has a Compatibility Mode (NB: this is built-in - you don't need to download anything) for software that absolutely refuses to run on later versions of Windows. That said, most old software will happily run without it (µtorrent definitely does).

One problem that Compatibility Mode won't help with is if you have 32-bit software that won't run on a 64-bit Operating System, but that's mostly restricted to things that need to access the hardware directly (e.g. drivers, some antivirus programs, etc.), though I have at least one game that just won't install on Windows 7 Home Premium x64 (or Vista Home x64 for that matter) - on the other hand I also have games that were released for Windows 98SE that run fine on Windows 7.

[MegaTsunami]

Many thanks bouncingjohn.

Much appreciated.

So we don't need Windows 7 PRO 64 bit then! Had a look a shops in the Trafford Centre and not one retailer sold a desktop with PRO on them, not that there's many shops left that sell desktops mind!

How do we know what software is 32 bit?

Surely JASC Paint Shop Pro 7 is not even 32 bit as it's that old?

All I know is if PSP7 won't work in Windows 7, I'll be in the doghouse with my girlfriend

Am I a man or a mouse? Squeak squeak LOL

P.S. Any chance you can give your opinion on this DELL XPS 8300? A good indepth review is here: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...roduction.html

...but DELL don't give you the full Windows 7 disc/DVD, and you have to buy a "recovery disc" for £5 extra (I had a long chat with an Indian customer support centre worker, and that was in no way racist comment, just stating they don't seem to have any UK support....)

Is that fan meant to be wonky?! Looks really small, inadequate and cheap!!!! And there doesn't seem to be any free PCI or PCI-E slots. Is that black thing a standalone graphics card ?



It wouldn't be used for playing games. Mainly for internet, and image heavy graphics work (TIFFs and RAW files), from digital camera's, plus encoding video footage into our own DVDs (using the excellent ConvertXtoDVD). Suppose having 8Gb RAM is recommended although we're laughing at how we used to get by on our old Intel Dual-Core XP Home system with 2Gb RAM, until it died!


Thanks

.
.
.

[Behemoth]

Having 8 GB of RAM while no essential, is absotlutley fanatastic, for your needs 4 gig of RAM would be fine. I dropped 8 gig of RAM purely as I was finding certain tasks I was doing too slow on 4gb.

With 8gb of RAM, it's a case of switch on, see the bios screen and oh look theres my desltop.

Perhaps consider something with an AMD chip, still pretty quick and will save the pennies. I run an Pheom II X2 (dual core 3.2 GHz as standard) and got it to unlock all its other cores so I've got a quad core monster and overclocked it up to 3.8 GHz. goes like hell

[bouncingjohn]

How do we know what software is 32 bit?

Originally Posted by MegaTsunami

Research?

Mostly software that is specifically 64-bit will say so, that which has x86 and x64 versions will differentiate and (usually) 32-bit only won't say anything.

I downloaded an evaluation copy of PSP7 and it installed and ran fine on my system (though it said it would stop working after 60 days if I didn't register it).

That PC looks okay - not something I'd buy, but then I prefer to build my own. The "wonky fan": if you look closely the screws holding the heatsink to the motherboard are level, so I would guess the fan is supposed to be like that. The "black thing" is indeed a graphics card, an Nvidea GTX 560 Ti according to the review you linked to, though it seems you can specify which card you want when ordering. The review also claims that there are two free PCIe slots, but I'm having a hard time seeing them in that picture - it's possible they were simply referring to the slots on the case (see, this is why I prefer to build my own - that way I know exactly what I'm getting).

As for a full Windows disc: you'll be hard pressed to find a 3rd-party seller that includes one.

[MegaTsunami]

Thanks guys.

We borrowed a friends laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit and installed Paint Shop Pro 7, and it seemed to work fine!

Didn't want to put uTorrent on though as it's her works machine

Does that mean PSP7 should work on the 64 bit version of Windows 7 then?!

Sorry for banging on but my g/f really wants to carry on using it, but we are def. getting a desktop with 4Gb RAM so need the 64bit Windows 7.

The other thing is Windows 7 64bit PROFESSIONAL that comes with downloadable XP mode has certain hardware requirements, but how are you supposed to know what's what? Its all a con! Surely any new processor should work?!



As for a full Windows disc: you'll be hard pressed to find a 3rd-party seller that includes one.
So what are you meant to do if you need to reinstall it? BTW it's the big guns like DELL that don't inckude the Windows 7 discs, smaller places like Palicomp, Dino & Chillblast do include the disc, go figure....

.
.
.
.
.

[MegaTsunami]

Having 8 GB of RAM while no essential, is absotlutley fanatastic, for your needs 4 gig of RAM would be fine. I dropped 8 gig of RAM purely as I was finding certain tasks I was doing too slow on 4gb.

With 8gb of RAM, it's a case of switch on, see the bios screen and oh look theres my desltop.

Perhaps consider something with an AMD chip, still pretty quick and will save the pennies. I run an Pheom II X2 (dual core 3.2 GHz as standard) and got it to unlock all its other cores so I've got a quad core monster and overclocked it up to 3.8 GHz. goes like hell

Originally Posted by Behemoth

With 8gb of RAM, it's a case of switch on, see the bios screen and oh look theres my desltop.

That sounds amazing

Any PC recommendations please?!

[gem]

My wife has had a Toshiba (generally more expensive)for around 10 years now and it was showing it's age so we went for an Acer 5742 (I have had an Acer for 2 years and it's been fine) which she is very pleased with. We will take hers to France with us.

[MegaTsunami]

Thanks gem.

You're taking her desktop pc to France with you?!



Sorry!

[gem]

You're taking her desktop pc to France with you?!

Originally Posted by MegaTsunami

No. I have a (2+ year old) Acer laptop and a Mesh desktop, my wife (SheWhoMustBeObeyed) has the Acer 5742 laptop.
Hope I have not confused you even more!

[MegaTsunami]

No. I have a (2+ year old) Acer laptop and a Mesh desktop, my wife (SheWhoMustBeObeyed) has the Acer 5742 laptop.
Hope I have not confused you even more!

Originally Posted by gem

It doesn't take much to confuse me gem LOL

LMAO @ your wife (SheWhoMustBeObeyed)

[Behemoth]

Put it this way since runnnng Windows 7 HP 64 I've not yet come across any software thats 32 bit that won't run on my hardware.

You really don't need Windows 7 Pro just for the Windows XP compatibility mode when you can install Virtual Box (free PC virtualisation software) providing you have a spare XP licence from an old dead PC.

Still don't think you need 8 Gig of RAM though, my boot up times have improved more since I last posted, although I cheated a bit, I've got an SSD.

[bdclippingpath]

I am also using windows 7 and I am not facing any problem with.

[malicean]

I'm considering switching to the 64bit, because my boot time with 4gb ram takes forever!