Upgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

[ivtec]

Hi guys.I was given this Laptop with Vista OP intalled,my question is can i upgrade to winows 7 without losing any speed or performance,thanks in advance.




System configurations:

Toshiba Satellite L355D-S7825

Windows Vista Home Premium SP1; 2.0GHz AMD Turion Dual-Core 64x2 TL-60;

3,072MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz;

128MB ATI Radeon X1250;

Hard drive 250GB Fujitsu 5,400rpm.

[mariushm]

Re: Apgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

You will actually get more performance out of that laptop with Windows 7.

[shovenose]

Re: Apgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

Agreed, you will get much better performance. Just make sure to use a 64bit install of 7. Also, do a clean install ("custom/advanced") NOT an Upgrade. Just make sure to save your documents, photos, etc, onto some osrt of backup thing first...

[Topcat]

Re: Apgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

for his amount of memory, 64 bit won't help him in the least. I'd do 32 bit unless you plan to upgrade the memory.....and if its just a web browsing, emailing, and doc typer system, theres no need. Personally, i'd go to XP over 7 on those specs (XP will scream on that)......but anything, and I repeat ANYTHING is better than vista!

[mariushm]

Re: Apgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

The 64bit version of the OS and the 64 bit applications use only about 20-25% more memory, so he won't notice any degradation in terms of memory usage. The base OS will use about 200-400 MB of RAM, and the rest will be available for applications or for the OS to cache stuff until the applications need it back.

Also, there's nothing forcing him to use 64bit applications, he can continue to use the standard 32bit applications, therefore using the same amount of memory (after the amount the OS needs is deducted)

On the other hand, Windows 7 is more polished, it's snappier by default and has a slightly improved caching system, which will matter with his slow 5400rpm hard drive.

[ivtec]

Re: Apgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

Thanks everybody for your quick response,
i use the laptop more for video streaming like live soccer games from all over the world,

also if i either upgrade to windows 7 or go back to winxp will i be able to restore the system to factory defaults or restore system? thanks

[shovenose]

Re: Apgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

Do not use XP. It's like 10 years old. Windows 7 is the future, and so is 64bit.
Please don't jump on the XP32 bandwagon; it's slowing innovation...

[Topcat]

Re: Apgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

Do not use XP. It's like 10 years old. Windows 7 is the future, and so is 64bit.
Please don't jump on the XP32 bandwagon; it's slowing innovation...

100% false. XP is good and seasoned, and will do everything he needs with power to spare that won't be sucked up by OS overhead. XP has a 64 bit version, but he has zero need for 64 bit and wont within the useful lifetime of this machine unless he upgrades to some ungodly amount of RAM....which I highly doubt. Win7 is not the cats ass, sorry. WinXP will be well supported for another decade, I'd bet on it.

[shovenose]

Re: Apgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

100% false. XP is good and seasoned, and will do everything he needs with power to spare that won't be sucked up by OS overhead. XP has a 64 bit version, but he has zero need for 64 bit and wont within the useful lifetime of this machine unless he upgrades to some ungodly amount of RAM....which I highly doubt. Win7 is not the cats ass, sorry. WinXP will be well supported for another decade, I'd bet on it.

I'll bet you $2 that in 10 years XP will be the Internet Explorer 6 of today.

[Topcat]

Re: Apgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

I'll bet you $2 that in 10 years XP will be the Internet Explorer 6 of today.

No bet....it's already considered 'old'...but its still well supported.

I will bet you that 2 bucks that in 10 years, M$ will still activate XP licenses though, rather than discontinue it.

[ratdude747]

Re: Apgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

XP has a 64 bit version

if you can find the drivers, that is...

[Topcat]

Re: Apgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

if you can find the drivers, that is...

I've never had any trouble.... It may be harder on some ancient & obscure crap hardware, but anything good/mainstream will have x64 drivers.

in the OP's case, that's not going to be a problem....xp32 is all he'd need.

[ratdude747]

Re: Apgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

I've never had any trouble.... It may be harder on some ancient & obscure crap hardware, but anything good/mainstream will have x64 drivers.

in the OP's case, that's not going to be a problem....xp32 is all he'd need.

yes... bottom line: avoid xp 64 if you plan to use a TV tuner or any other non-server or non-basic HW...

[Topcat]

Re: Apgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

yes... bottom line: avoid xp 64 if you plan to use a TV tuner or any other non-server or non-basic HW...

ATI TV Wonder by chance?

[ratdude747]

Re: Apgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

ATI TV Wonder by chance?

any tuner for that matter... mine are conexant chipped hauppauge cards... which have no xp x64 support.

[toastygoodness]

Re: Upgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

yeah, multimedia blows on xp x64... none of my audio hardware has any support on it.
i'd rather use win2000 over xp, i felt XP was actually more bloated than win7 (xp's activation shit is really annoying to me, it trips everytime i OC).

on a standard workstation (old-ish hardware, ram <2GB, just for office/internet) though, i'd probably use xp 32-bit with safer-networking's sandbox.

[ivtec]

Re: Upgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

Thanks guys for the hard discussion on either be Xp or Win7,i don't use tuner i got a PC to Tv converter and connect to the VGA out to the Svideo since the laptop doesn't have any video out output.my worries are if i upgrade to win7 the laptop will get slower,

i have a sony vaio 1gb memo ram and have Xp 2sp installed and it runs good but if i upgrade to Sp3 pack than i have problems with the wireless connection keeps cutting off,so i only upgrade to sp2.

[mariushm]

Re: Upgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

DDR2 memory is cheap nowadays, DDR3 memory is even cheaper.

That laptop should have an extra memory slot in the back, which you can probably easily open by removing a screw. If there's no extra slot, you can probably remove the current 1 GB module and install a larger one.

[ivtec]

Re: Upgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

Today i went to Best Buy and enquired about the upgrade for my Toshiba laptop to win7 with the PC tech and he advised me to keep the vista op as it is,that it's best for what i use it for.

[ratdude747]

Re: Upgrading Windows vista to windows 7?

don't listen to geek (read: dork) squad. they want to sell you a new laptop. not help you.