XP MCE 2005 Vs Windows 7

[harleyoz]

I'm currently running XP media center on my HTPC & it's up to the task at the moment, or so it seems. I have no experience with windows 7 at all & was wondering if there is any advantages / disadvantages to upgrading ?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I'm currently running XP media center on my HTPC & it's up to the task at the moment, or so it seems. I have no experience with windows 7 at all & was wondering if there is any advantages / disadvantages to upgrading ?

native ocur tuners (aka digital cable/fios) support for starters...

 

[audit13]

I found that the image quality went up as soon as I loaded Win7. I was using an Ati 4550 when I upgraded to Win7 from XP MCE.

 

[harleyoz]

was that TV image quality or blu rays as well? ...TV could be a good reason to upgrade

 

[Cmd Cheyd]

There are definite advantages to upgrading. XP is now nearly 10 years old, support is being phased out. That means even critical security patches will no longer be produced for it unless you are a corporation with a multi-million dollar extended support contract directly with MS. And security is an issue for XP. Microsoft has upgraded the security model thrice since XP was initially released (once at XP SP2, again with Vista, and lastly with 7's release). There's also better codec support and MUCH nicer home networking support in Win7.

 

[krzywica]

Also if you are looking to upgrade but don't have the cache )) you can always give Linux a shot....most of the popular distro's have support for booting the OS from a thumb drive, so you can try it out without touching your existing OS.

 

[harleyoz]

Ok, good stuff to know thanks! I'm hesitating as I'm pretty sure I'd need to upgrade the whole PC along with it as its just fast enough now & I'm sure Win7 will consume a few extra resource, but if it gives me any trouble I'll have a crack at it anyway

 

[davidtwotrees]

My computer guy really likes 7. He claims it is NOT a memory pig.

 

[krzywica]

My computer guy really likes 7. He claims it is NOT a memory pig.

Nope not at all.....IMO W7 is just as lightweight as XP because of its optimization.

 

[harleyoz]

That's good to know, I might try win 7 on a second drive & see how it goes , since drives are cheap nowadays
Easy to change back it I need to .

 

[audioAl]

Up grade

Ok, good stuff to know thanks! I'm hesitating as I'm pretty sure I'd need to upgrade the whole PC along with it as its just fast enough now & I'm sure Win7 will consume a few extra resource, but if it gives me any trouble I'll have a crack at it anyway

Yes, you will need two gigs of ram at least to use Vista or windows 7.