What OS should i choose

[handscombmp]

I've got an old laptop (five yearsold ) i need to setup for a friend am i'm wondering what OS i should put on it.

He's got to use a windows OS due to certain programs but i'm wondering which one.

My three main choices i have thought of are...

XP
Vista
And windows 7.

Now Vista i've dicounted due to the overhead of it but i'm also worried that windows 7 may have some problems.
When i know you wont know until i get the specs (i'll try and get them tomorrow) but do you think that windows 7 would run ok.

Has anybody had any experience on running it on old PC's.

And then if i get windows XP (i could perhaps use the old CD key on the case if i can get my hands on a disc with it on) where would i get it from as haven't MS dropped support for selling it know.

EDIT: Seems you still can buy XP from scan and other places.

[Allen]

I've seen Windows 7 running quite well on recent netbooks which aren't very powerful, so in that sense I wouldn't have thought older hardware would have a problem running it. However, I've had problems trying to install it onto certain older hardware (due to drivers not being updated for Vista and therefore not working on 7 either).

I would therefore suggest you find out if there are drivers available for 7 first, and if you have difficulty finding them, then go with XP (if you can find somewhere to sell it).

[gss03]

I've got Win 7 Enterprise running on a Dell Latitude E4300 laptop at work. Only a Core 2 Solo @ 1.2 Ghz with 1.5GB of RAM. I've not noticed any real lag in performance and it just works ;-)
So as long as the machine you have has a decent amount of RAM I'd say Win 7 is the way to go.

[shadowmaster]

I've got Win 7 Enterprise running on a Dell Latitude E4300 laptop at work. Only a Core 2 Solo @ 1.2 Ghz with 1.5GB of RAM. I've not noticed any real lag in performance and it just works ;-)
So as long as the machine you have has a decent amount of RAM I'd say Win 7 is the way to go.

I agree, I've recently installed win 7 on a 7 year old laptop with intel centrino 1.4ghz and 2 gig of ram and it runs really well. Much better then when it had XP.

[Saracen]

How much memory?

Personally, I guess I'd say it depends what he's going to do with it. If you have an XP licence and can get the disk, would paying out for Wiin7 be justified, and if so, would it run decently on the machine? If not, don't.

As I've said before, I'm not a believer in upgrading just because a newer version is available, but only if it offers something worth doing it (and paying for it) for. So the issue (IMHO) is .... does it?

[TAKTAK]

If you have to buy a new OS, then get Win7.

If you have XP lying around, use XP.

Just go the cheapest route...

[handscombmp]

Well i should have the laptop in my hands to play about with my the end of the day so i can see the specs of it and see if i can perhaps use the old XP licence.

Another thing he wants doing though is for it to automaticaly sync with a certain folder on his desktop as soons as he gets in and turns it on.
Any software that would be able to do that (desktop is Win 7 Pro by the way)

[CaptainCrash]

Another thing he wants doing though is for it to automaticaly sync with a certain folder on his desktop as soons as he gets in and turns it on.
Any software that would be able to do that (desktop is Win 7 Pro by the way)

FreeFileSync is the best free syncing app I've come across to date (there's also a PortableApps .paf package if you prefer that). Select "Advanced, create batch job" and then use Windows task scheduler to run it at startup or logon.

I guess you could also use SyncToy, but it has a lot less configuration options, and personally I've never found it to be particularly reliable.

[jim]

It might be worth just installing without activating if you've got any disks lying around and just see how it goes - a trial period if you like.

[handscombmp]

It might be worth just installing without activating if you've got any disks lying around and just see how it goes - a trial period if you like.

That was an idea which i'll think i'll do.

Now i just need to wait till my mate gets back from work

[t4ct1c47]

I tried putting Vista on an old laptop with 512MB of RAM in the past and it ran very sluggish once an anti-virus had been installed on it.

I know a lot of people are likely to recommend Windows 7 as an operating system, but in my opinion if your laptop has less than 1GB of RAM you would be better off playing it safe and just put XP on it.

[mycarsavw]

He's got to use a windows OS due to certain programs but i'm wondering which one.

Do we know what these programs that are forcing him to use Windows are?

[CyberChris]

If the laptop will support Windows 7 go for that as it proivides better power managment etc.

[handscombmp]

Well after a couple of days of my mate not being able to get the laptop to me i finally have!

Though it's pretty rubbish and it was going to be a present for my mates son to keep him going through a levels and uni but it to far gone for that.

Looks like another thrend on laptop buying may be in order.

[pleo2005]

Xp is much better on older PC`s, Vista struggles on new ones so stay clear of it.

[Allen]

Xp is much better on older PC`s, Vista struggles on new ones so stay clear of it.

Vista doesn't scale anywhere near as well as 7 from what I've been reading. As I said above, I've had it running very well on pretty meagre systems.