Why are people switching back to XP?

Right - I've had XP Pro for 5 1/2 years and have been very pleased with it. I never considered upgrading it to Vista on THIS machine. I'll be getting a new box in a month or so and will be happy to have Win7 on it.

I only by a machine every 4-6 years, so I tend to "upgrade" with the machine purchase .

tim wrote in post #9236455
A couple of friends tried to go from Vista to 7 but had problems, so stayed on Vista. Another bought a new computer and chose XP on it as it's what they know. XP just works, and people know how to use it.

^^^ Agreed.


For now, XP runs CS3 and that's good enough for me.

Moppie wrote in post #9237103
I know plenty of people who believe the world is only a few thousand years old. I also know a few who believe the world is flat. I've meet people who believe wearing a seatbelt is dangerous, or that if travel faster than 100kph you will die.
They are the same sort of people who believe XP is the best operating system ever developed and that the Intel P4 is the height of computing technology.

I try to ignore them, and remind myself that rationality and intelligence can be mutually exclusive.

Change XP to 2000 Pro and P4 to P3 and you just described my boss!

Moppie wrote in post #9237103
They are the same sort of people who believe XP is the best operating system ever developed and that the Intel P4 is the height of computing technology.

Hey, I was training someone at work about a year ago who claimed to be a computer guru. I generally give people the benefit of the doubt... if they're smarter than me so be it. But about a week in he mentioned he was still using Windows 98, thought XP was a piece of crap and had never used it, and wanted to argue that Windows 2000 was the same product as ME.

But I think you and Tim have a point. Some people are just comfortable with XP and resistant to change. Even tech-writers apparently, making a big deal about doing a clean-install for upgrade (complaining about it.) When any time in the past, clean install has always be the PREFERRED way to do an OS install.

However, I see no problem sticking with XP on an old machine... no reason to upgrade to 7 if you don't see benefit. A bigger benefit might be a NEW machine altogether if you are using an XP era machine. Also some businesses may need to remain on XP for legacy niche software or processes.

The average home user however, I think would be best suited to getting Win7 on a new REPLACEMENT machine; as a few people like sapearl have already mentioned. Downgrading to XP on a brand new windows7 system generally makes no sense (and probably opens yourself up to security vulnerabilites.)

I dunno but for me its all about how stable my computer is running and my software requirements, I have been using XP Professional since the day it was introduced, was thinking of upgrading when Vista came out but decided not to when I heard about all the issues. I am still running XP from the original install its still stable never any problems runs Light Room, photoshop CS4, My diving sofware and the Internet perfect with no issues.

Why would I upgrade to Windows 7 just for the sake of upgrading, especially when you think of Microsofts passed history? Maybe just to look cool and upbeat to my associates or people like Moppie? I would only upgrade to Windows 7 if a software came on to the market which I would really like to have and would not run on XP, or XP became unstable or buggy which I have not seen in the 5 or 6 years I have been using it.

Moppie wrote in post #9237103
I try to ignore them, and remind myself that rationality and intelligence can be mutually exclusive.

I think the term you are looking for is independent, not mutually exclusive. I've met plenty of rational, intelligent people, and plenty of rational, stupid people... and way too many fairly intelligent but completely irrational people. No imaginary correlation, just zero correlation.

hughes_57 wrote in post #9237995
I dunno but for me its all about how stable my computer is running and my software requirements, I have been using XP Professional since the day it was introduced, was thinking of upgrading when Vista came out but decided not to when I heard about all the issues. I am still running XP from the original install its still stable never any problems runs Light Room, photoshop CS4, My diving sofware and the Internet perfect with no issues.

Why would I upgrade to Windows 7 just for the sake of upgrading, especially when you think of Microsofts passed history? Maybe just to look cool and upbeat to my associates or people like Moppie? I would only upgrade to Windows 7 if a software came on to the market which I would really like to have and would not run on XP, or XP became unstable or buggy which I have not seen in the 5 or 6 years I have been using it.

Why do people upgrade their AV then? Or upgrade their music/video players? Hell, why do Mac users upgrade OSX when apple's track record is worse than microsoft (files disappearing, compatibility vanishes without doing something to the machine, security becomes more lax, etc, all while never saying there is a problem/fix until they include it in a software update)? Why? Because upgrading is the only way to get new features that you may see help you do something you couldn't do before. Video wise especially, Vista and 7 are vast improvements over XP. WDDM was probably the best thing made for vista, even if it took three years to get it right on the driver side. Reliability with vista is much higher than XP (laptop on XP froze every once in a while, with vista, the only freezing was when the graphics memory was faulty, and that's hardware, not software), and anyone who had issues either didn't have the proper hardware drivers or had poorly programmed software.

basroil wrote in post #9238324
Reliability with vista is much higher than XP (laptop on XP froze every once in a while, with vista, the only freezing was when the graphics memory was faulty, and that's hardware, not software), and anyone who had issues either didn't have the proper hardware drivers or had poorly programmed software.

To be fair, you could probably say the same thing about instability in XP - it's likely to be either hardware, poor drivers or poorly programmed software. I've built very many XP systems and not had the slightest problem with any of them when it comes to stability and reliability. I'd hope for the same with Vista or Windows 7.

gcogger wrote in post #9238412
To be fair, you could probably say the same thing about instability in XP - it's likely to be either hardware, poor drivers or poorly programmed software. I've built very many XP systems and not had the slightest problem with any of them when it comes to stability and reliability. I'd hope for the same with Vista or Windows 7.

Issue with XP is that one hung program can freeze the entire machine. That just doesn't happen in Vista/7 (unless in fullscreen directx mode, but that's only because some programs disable the windows key now, and that results in being unable to end the task)

basroil wrote in post #9238324
I think the term you are looking for is independent, not mutually exclusive. I've met plenty of rational, intelligent people, and plenty of rational, stupid people... and way too many fairly intelligent but completely irrational people. No imaginary correlation, just zero correlation.

Why do people upgrade their AV then? Or upgrade their music/video players? Hell, why do Mac users upgrade OSX when apple's track record is worse than microsoft (files disappearing, compatibility vanishes without doing something to the machine, security becomes more lax, etc, all while never saying there is a problem/fix until they include it in a software update)? Why? Because upgrading is the only way to get new features that you may see help you do something you couldn't do before. Video wise especially, Vista and 7 are vast improvements over XP. WDDM was probably the best thing made for vista, even if it took three years to get it right on the driver side. Reliability with vista is much higher than XP (laptop on XP froze every once in a while, with vista, the only freezing was when the graphics memory was faulty, and that's hardware, not software), and anyone who had issues either didn't have the proper hardware drivers or had poorly programmed software.

I stand by what I said my XP OS is working perfect and very stable, to answer your point at this moment I know of no software, I have a need for that would not work on XP, maybe down the road when Windows 7 has had a chance to prove its self and for whatever reason I have to upgrade my machine, in this case I would try Windows 7 but for now I am quite happy with XP.

I know know anyone who has switched from Windows 7 to XP. I don't know why anyone would, unless they blindly tried to load it to a machine that had hardware without Windows 7 drivers.

I don't plan to upgrade my primary laptop to Windows 7. It's a couple of years old, and Windows 7 won't give it any new capabilities. I'll replace it in the first half of next year--that computer will have Windows 7.

I did upgrade my primary imaging desktop quickly. I was running XP 32-bit and needed to go to a 64-bit operating system for the ram benefits. All my hardware had Windows 7 drivers, and a clean upgrade was in the offing no matter which operating system I went to. The upgrade went smoothly, although I did have to upgrade my video cards and a couple of utility apps.

As has been mentioned, there are many reasons a business would choose to keep a currently well-running XP machine until they replace the machine itself. A business must always ask the question, "Does this expenditure truly make or save the company money?"

hughes_57 wrote in post #9238892
I stand by what I said my XP OS is working perfect and very stable, to answer your point at this moment I know of no software, I have a need for that would not work on XP, maybe down the road when Windows 7 has had a chance to prove its self and for whatever reason I have to upgrade my machine, in this case I would try Windows 7 but for now I am quite happy with XP.

Point is that you shouldn't downgrade rather than you should upgrade. If you are running XP era hardware, it may not be needed at all. In fact, all the cool things like DX10 and DX11, VT, and advanced power management probably don't matter for your hardware because they don't support it. But why you would ever downgrade to XP from 7 is beyond me, especially since XP mode is a full install of XP, just in case one random poorly programmed XP only program is a requirement (and it'll still be faster on a core 2 duo or better than it was on your p3/p4 that theoretically you had before)

In2Photos wrote in post #9237820
Change XP to 2000 Pro and P4 to P3 and you just described my boss!

Hey, I happen to use a P4 running XP at work
Thats start of the art too, most of the team are using 233mhz thin clients

davidcrebelxt wrote in post #9237861
But I think you and Tim have a point. Some people are just comfortable with XP and resistant to change.

There are always going to be people resistant to change, and of course there are always people out there who like messing with old stuff.
I love old cars, some people love old computers and operating systems.
While I believe the world would be a better place if we all drove Triumph TR6's and Lotus Elans, it's only a dream. The reality is I've got all of my friends driving Honda's and Toyota's because they are safer, cheaper and more efficient.

basroil wrote in post #9239079
Point is that you shouldn't downgrade rather than you should upgrade. If you are running XP era hardware, it may not be needed at all. In fact, all the cool things like DX10 and DX11, VT, and advanced power management probably don't matter for your hardware because they don't support it. But why you would ever downgrade to XP from 7 is beyond me, especially since XP mode is a full install of XP, just in case one random poorly programmed XP only program is a requirement (and it'll still be faster on a core 2 duo or better than it was on your p3/p4 that theoretically you had before)

I did downgrade from Vista to XP thank god I did, XP has served me well for my requirements since, that was the one time I upgraded to a newer OS because well let me think about this, oh yes it was newer

IMHO it is all about what works for you, the software you want to run for me this is the most important. Why upgrade to newer OS just because its new like windows 7, if your current system and software is serving your computing requirements with no problems I say stick with it.:p

hughes_57 wrote in post #9239590
I did downgrade from Vista to XP thank god I did, XP has served me well for my requirements since, that was the one time I upgraded to a newer OS because well let me think about this, oh yes it was newer

IMHO it is all about what works for you, the software you want to run for me this is the most important. Why upgrade to newer OS just because its new like windows 7, if your current system and software is serving your computing requirements with no problems I say stick with it.:p

As you said that is great if that is what works for YOU! XP didn't work for me on my photo machine. I needed 64 bit for my 6 GB of RAM. Drivers were not available for XP 64 bit. So I went with Vista. I have had few problems with it. The one I did have was an HP problem. I no longer own that printer and all is well. But after using Win7 on a new laptop I will be upgrading to it on every machine I own (except for my daughter's laptop, it is just for pre-school games). It is much easier to have the same platform across the board.

In2Photos wrote in post #9239874
As you said that is great if that is what works for YOU! XP didn't work for me on my photo machine. I needed 64 bit for my 6 GB of RAM. Drivers were not available for XP 64 bit. So I went with Vista. I have had few problems with it. The one I did have was an HP problem. I no longer own that printer and all is well. But after using Win7 on a new laptop I will be upgrading to it on every machine I own (except for my daughter's laptop, it is just for pre-school games). It is much easier to have the same platform across the board.

That is one thing that would interest me in Windows 7 its ability to break the 4GIG RAM barrier, I will wait and see how Windows 7 performs over the next 6 months before considering the upgrade when I build my new System, like I have always done even when upgrading from DOS to Windows 3.1