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Really basic question about Windows
- Thread starter Hnickm
- Start date
Kathleen R
Member
probably don't need to upgrade to Win 7
I'm not an expert but I have just come back to Mac about a year ago. I was using XP but when I got my Mac I didn't even know how to get XP & I was planning on needing it for some time so figured they wouldn't keep supporting XP forever. But since you already have it & it seems to be working, I'd say leave well enough alone.
Win7 comes in 32 bit & 64 bit. It also has 32 bit & 64 bit IE & I found out not all sites support the 64 bit version. Also I think some people reported some problems with Win 7 in Parallels 6 in some situations.
As long as Microsoft is still supporting XP & updating it, you are probably fine sticking with it as long as it is working for you. Another thing is that as always, newer operating systems add more stuff & need more memory to run, especially apparently the 64 bit version. I think Parallels recommends 2 GB to run it.
In addition of course you have to buy it. It also depends on why you have Windows in the 1st place. If you are running older Windows software it might like XP better. My impression is that the 64 bit version of Win7 has more capabilities but that a lot of programs haven't been written to utilize it.
I might also add that mine was running fine--Win7 64 bit in bootcamp set up as a VM in Parallels 5--from last April until about a mo ago when I started having a lot of crashes. Various remedies tried that helped but then recurrence. Even after 2 erases (crashes came back after 1st erase so Genius bar did another 1 w just minimal reinstall so far. Still some crashes so now they are going to replace hardware which I hope works, but we really don't know what caused it.
So I'm kind of spooked now, not knowing what has caused all this, but I would say, from that, if it aint broke don't fix it, unless you have some real reason to do so. At least as long as Microsoft is still supporting XP.
I'm not an expert but I have just come back to Mac about a year ago. I was using XP but when I got my Mac I didn't even know how to get XP & I was planning on needing it for some time so figured they wouldn't keep supporting XP forever. But since you already have it & it seems to be working, I'd say leave well enough alone.
Win7 comes in 32 bit & 64 bit. It also has 32 bit & 64 bit IE & I found out not all sites support the 64 bit version. Also I think some people reported some problems with Win 7 in Parallels 6 in some situations.
As long as Microsoft is still supporting XP & updating it, you are probably fine sticking with it as long as it is working for you. Another thing is that as always, newer operating systems add more stuff & need more memory to run, especially apparently the 64 bit version. I think Parallels recommends 2 GB to run it.
In addition of course you have to buy it. It also depends on why you have Windows in the 1st place. If you are running older Windows software it might like XP better. My impression is that the 64 bit version of Win7 has more capabilities but that a lot of programs haven't been written to utilize it.
I might also add that mine was running fine--Win7 64 bit in bootcamp set up as a VM in Parallels 5--from last April until about a mo ago when I started having a lot of crashes. Various remedies tried that helped but then recurrence. Even after 2 erases (crashes came back after 1st erase so Genius bar did another 1 w just minimal reinstall so far. Still some crashes so now they are going to replace hardware which I hope works, but we really don't know what caused it.
So I'm kind of spooked now, not knowing what has caused all this, but I would say, from that, if it aint broke don't fix it, unless you have some real reason to do so. At least as long as Microsoft is still supporting XP.
Hi, i am a windows fan and not so much os x. I don't know why i invested in a mac but i guess i was swayed by the unmatched pure beauty of the Macintosh computers, and perhaps on a lesser extent, the marketing and myths/facts about the system. Either way i've ended up with a macbook pro and despite being a windows user and fan, am not let down. I find that the only things i really dislike about os x is the dock and finder but anyways i'm not here to type a bloody blog. I use bootcamp and parallels desktop 6. I'd never used visualization before getting a mac but i'll admit, i love it, and parallels is my favorite program for os x by far. Anyways i run a windows 7 (32bit) bootcamp virtual machine. like the previous poster said, it has the capabilities of running 64 bit, but the programmers aren't utilizing the technology to it's fullest yet so it's not really a major benefit to go 64bit. This is actually a bit of a debatable subject but i'm pretty sure most people will agree with view. Anyways other than that, my windows 7 machine runs perfectly fine and the best part is, while i lack battery life in bootcamp; i run windows 7 in the virtual machine and get almost the same battery life as in os x. Windows 7 looks heaps better than xp in my opinion but to be honest windows 7 doesn't actually give me anything windows xp wouldn't. Just a tip though from something i heard, i'm pretty sure windows xp no longer supports updated for internet explorer so if that's the browser you use in xp (if you use xp to surf) you might want to stop and use an alternative free browser, they're better anyways.
Kathleen R
Member
browser comment
Only 1 thing about browsers to be aware of (well there probably are others but I'll mention 1 thing) is that some websites, especially when doing financial or tax transactions may require the use of IE. & they don't always tell you. so just be aware that some things like I read TurboTax for efiling wants IE, & several other websites that I have dealt with would allow navigation around & even filling in a transaction but then an error message at the end that didn't say it needed IE, but that's what it was. They just seem to assume that everyone is using IE apparently & don't think to bother to tell people that they need IE for it to work. On the other hand it may say it wants IE but for most functions work ok with another browser.
Really ironic also since before I came back to the Mac & this was actually several years ago I ran anti-malware software on my Dell. It always used to find malware (not the real bad kind of ones that mine data for tracking for marketing types) when I used IE. Although I'm not usually an early adopter, I moved to Firefox pretty early on since I didn't like IE & had heard good reports about it from trusted sources. After I did, I didn't get malware reports.
I don't know about IE support in XP. I had been using XP on my Dell but since it is an old OS I decided to start out on my new machine with Win7.
So if you are ever using another browser & especially during transactions it won't "take" even though it gives another reason like it isn't available right then--if you keep getting that message, suspect that it may actually require IE & a version that isn't too old--I see IE 6 mentioned--I have 8.
I'm running 64 bit Win7, but its IE 64 bit that caused issues. Don't know about the OS as I only partly understand that.
Only 1 thing about browsers to be aware of (well there probably are others but I'll mention 1 thing) is that some websites, especially when doing financial or tax transactions may require the use of IE. & they don't always tell you. so just be aware that some things like I read TurboTax for efiling wants IE, & several other websites that I have dealt with would allow navigation around & even filling in a transaction but then an error message at the end that didn't say it needed IE, but that's what it was. They just seem to assume that everyone is using IE apparently & don't think to bother to tell people that they need IE for it to work. On the other hand it may say it wants IE but for most functions work ok with another browser.
Really ironic also since before I came back to the Mac & this was actually several years ago I ran anti-malware software on my Dell. It always used to find malware (not the real bad kind of ones that mine data for tracking for marketing types) when I used IE. Although I'm not usually an early adopter, I moved to Firefox pretty early on since I didn't like IE & had heard good reports about it from trusted sources. After I did, I didn't get malware reports.
I don't know about IE support in XP. I had been using XP on my Dell but since it is an old OS I decided to start out on my new machine with Win7.
So if you are ever using another browser & especially during transactions it won't "take" even though it gives another reason like it isn't available right then--if you keep getting that message, suspect that it may actually require IE & a version that isn't too old--I see IE 6 mentioned--I have 8.
I'm running 64 bit Win7, but its IE 64 bit that caused issues. Don't know about the OS as I only partly understand that.