Andrea Borman
Honorable Member
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2010
- Messages
- 1,166
- Thread Author
- #1
I only got my very first computer last year in April 2011. So my only experience of using a computer at home has been with Windows 7. Before that I was going to Internet cafes to use the computer. And of course there they had Windows XP. But using a computer in an Internet cafe is very different from using it at home. As you do not have to manage any settings like you have to with your own computer. I have 3 Windows 7 netbooks,all HP Mini 210,with Windows 7 Starter, and the two others are Windows 7 Professionall. Which I upgraded,from Windows 7 Starter using Windows Anytime Upgrade.
But I wanted to try Windows XP,because I am a great fan of Windows.And based on my experience with Windows 7,it is very user friendly. So a week ago I went and bought a brand new Windows XP 1GB netbook from a department store. I was very lucky to get this netbook ,because in England they are no longer making Windows XP or Windows Vista computers and laptops. They are all being replaced with Windows 7. So you cannot buy Windows XP or Windows Vista laptops in most shops now. But I was lucky because the Windows XP netbook I bought was the last one they had in the store. And they told me that they are not getting any more in stock.
The netbook is an Acer Aspire one Windows XP Home Edition service pack 3 operating system. I would have liked to have got an HP netbook as I am used to using that. But because all of the computers now are being made with Windows 7 only,the Acer was the only Windows XP laptop that they has in the shop. And I looked in other shops and stores, and I could not find Windows XP anywhere. So I bought the Acer Windows XP netbook.
Most people would probably just install Windows XP over their Windows 7. And I have read online that there is a way to do this. But I have limited experience with computers. So I would not have a clue how to do this. And also you must have a valid and activated copy of Windows XP. Which I don't thing you can download or get now from the Microsoft website.As I read that they are ending support for both Windows XP and Windows Vista,in a few years time. So I did the easiest thing and just bought a Windows XP laptop. But is it as good or user friendly as Windows 7 is? Read on-
The edition of Windows XP I have on my netbook is Windows XP Home Edition service pack 3. Which I think is equivalent to our Windows 7 Home Premium.The first thing I noticed was that Windows XP booted up faster than Windows 7. And then of course I had to set up my account on Windows. And I was very happy to find that I did not have to have a password. Windows XP only requires you to set up a computer name-for example- Andrea. But on Windows XP like on Windows 7, you DO NOT have to have a password if you do not want one. Which is great as I hate having to log in with a password and enter it every time I do some thing on my own computer. Also on Windows XP you are set up as an Administrator by default,just like Windows 7.
Then of course I had to remove all of that branded and unwanted Acer software. I found that on Windows XP programs uninstall a lot faster than what they do on Windows 7. And I also found downloading software from the Internet to be a lot faster on Windows XP than on Windows 7.In fact Windows XP is a lot faster than Windows 7,to my surprise .
Then there are other questions that I and other Windows 7 users may be asking. On Windows 7,I have uninstalled the Internet Explorer browser,and I would like to do the same thing on Windows XP. I tested this out to and the answer is-YES,you can uninstall IE on Windows XP by deleting the IE file in programs on C/drive.And I did this with the help of a tool called Unlocker. And I found that removing Internet Explorer on Windows XP did not effect Windows at all. I was also able to remove Outlook Express,an email client which I and most people cannot use, as well. And Windows was not effected by this either. I found that I was still able to get and install updates on Windows XP without IE.
On Windows XP you have two choices of installing updates-
1-You can go directly onto the Windows Update website in a web browser. But the disadvantage of this is that you cannot do this on Firefox or Google Chrome. You can only install updates from the website in Internet Explorer or on another Internet Explorer engine based browser,such as Green browser or Avant browser.So although I did not have IE,I was able to install updates from the website in Advanced browser and Deepnet Explorer.Which are the Trident(IE engine based) browsers I use instead of Internet Explorer. So if you want to install updates directly from the website on Windows XP, but do not want to use Internet Explorer. You can use Avant browser,Advanced browser or another IE engine based browser instead of IE.But this will only work with Trident engine browsers only,not with Firefox,chrome or Web Kit based browsers.
2-You can also install updates directly from control panel without going onto a web browser just like you do in Windows 7. I choose this method because I think it is safer than going onto a web browser. You can also choose to turn off automatic updating and install only the updates that you want,when you want to. Just like you do on Windows 7 and I found that updates took a lot less time to install than on Windows 7. On Windows 7,if you have 50 updates it can take up to 30 minutes to install. But on Windows XP it takes just 10 minutes or less.So installing updates is faster on Windows XP.
Then there is the security issue. And it is true that based on what I have read, Windows XP is not as secure as Windows 7. And there is a higher risk of computer viruses and malware on Windows XP than what there is on Windows 7.But having said that, on Windows 7, I do not have any anti-virus programs on my computer. Because I don't believe in those. And so I do not have an anti-virus program on Windows XP either. And I do not intend to install any in the future on Windows XP.
But what I do have on Windows XP is Windows Defender. Windows Defender is bundled with both Windows 7 and Windows Vista. And Windows Defender can scan and check for spyware,and remove any it finds. But it is not an anti-virus program so although it scans and removes malware,it does not impose security settings or block programs, the way an anti-virus program does. Which is why I never use an anti-virus program. But PLEASE NOTE-Windows Defender is not included in Windows XP. But you can download and install it from the Microsoft website. Which is what I did. And I find that the Windows XP version of Windows Defender has additional settings that the Windows 7 version does not have. For example there is an option to set Windows Defender to keep a record of any new software you install,an option not included in the Windows 7 version. The Malicious Software removal Tool-MRT is also included on Windows XP like it is on Windows 7.
There was also a control panel but settings are not as clearly visible as they are on Windows 7. Windows XP also has Windows search and it found most files but not all. So I had to open some files myself and search inside of them. Where as the Windows 7 search finds everything.
Windows XP had no trouble finding my wireless network,which I was able to connect to. But there was no option to set it to a home or public network,like there is on Windows 7. Although I was able to enable the Windows XP version of Network Discovery and see my other Windows 7 computer on my Windows XP computer. Just like you can see your other computers on your network in Windows 7.
There is also the option to turn of some of the Windows programs in Windows XP.This can be found in under"add or remove Windows components."But this does not remove the programs,it just turns them off or disables them. And is the equivalent to Windows 7's" turn Windows features on or off." You can also turn off disable Outlook Express and IE6 by just un ticking the box here. But I found that on Windows XP it does not turn off the features completly like it does in Windows 7. That is it disabled some of the programs, but not all. For example,Outlook Express still popped up on my webpage,when I clicked on a email link. Even though I had unticked that box to turn it off. So from my experience it does disable IE6 and other Windows features and they do not appear in the start menu. But enables them if they are needed. Unlike on Windows 7,where the programs stay turned off, until you tick that box to turn them on again. You can also enable Windows features again in Windows XP by ticking the box.
I find Windows XP to be faster than Windows 7,and it installs and uninstalls programs faster than Windows 7. It also starts up and shuts down quicker than Windows 7. And another thing is that I tested out the restore to factory condition setting and I found that on Windows XP. My computer was restored to factory condition, that is a reinstall of Windows in -wait for it- 20 minutes. But on Windows 7 a factory restore takes from 2 to 4 hours to complete! What a difference!
Overall,Windows XP, despite being an older version of Windows is user friendly,unlike Linux which is not. It is faster than Windows 7 although Windows 7 is fast too . Windows XP takes up less space on your hard drive so you can store double the amount of programs on a netbook.But Windows 7 takes up more space. And there are a lot more default Windows programs on Windows XP than on windows 7.But then you have plenty of space.You can install and run all of the programs that you run on Windows 7 on windows XP. In fact most of the web browsers and media players we use on Windows 7 are older programs. Made for Windows XP but they run on Windows 7.
The disadvantages of Windows XP are that it has got Internet Explorer 6 and Outlook Express. But then we have also got several clones of Outlook Express on Windows 7 too. Another disadvantage is that the control panel settings are not as clearly listed as in Windows 7.But you can still find settings. Also there is no option to set your network to a home network,which would be a lot safer. There is just a general network setting only. On Windows 7 you set your network to either a home,office,or public network and Windows Firewall applies the settings. So you are more secure. But not on Windows XP,where there is just one setting,although they do have Windows Firewall. That you can turn on or off just like you can on Windows 7. But there is no Windows Defender on Windows XP,which is some thing that they should have included in this edition of Windows. And although you can install Windows Defender yourself,some people new to computers may not know about this. IE6 is also not very secure for browsing and not a very good browser anyway. But it is bundled with Windows XP,but then so is IE8 with Windows 7. But you can use other web browsers.
And some of the other software is out of date,such as MSN Windows Messenger 4.7 but you could uninstall it as I did or upgrade it. The version of Windows Media Player on Windows XP is,Windows Media Player 9, but it is working well. So I have decided to leave that and after I tested out the factory restore setting,I got IE6 back. But this time I am going to leave that and just use another web browser,Safefox or Google Chrome instead.
But I have found Windows XP to be user friendly and very fast and as good as Windows 7 but different of course. A lot of people install Windows XP on Virtual Box on Windows 7 but I do not know how to use that. And now days it is very difficult in England to find a Windows XP computer in the shops. But if you are lucky to find one like I did. Why install Windows XP on virtual machine,when you can have the real thing?
So now I have got my Windows 7 netbooks and my Windows XP netbook. And windows XP is a very rich and fully functional operating system,just like Windows 7 is. In fact windows XP is like Windows 7 just an earlier version of it. So if you do have Windows XP on your computer,you can still use it. As well as your Windows 7 computer. Andrea Borman.
But I wanted to try Windows XP,because I am a great fan of Windows.And based on my experience with Windows 7,it is very user friendly. So a week ago I went and bought a brand new Windows XP 1GB netbook from a department store. I was very lucky to get this netbook ,because in England they are no longer making Windows XP or Windows Vista computers and laptops. They are all being replaced with Windows 7. So you cannot buy Windows XP or Windows Vista laptops in most shops now. But I was lucky because the Windows XP netbook I bought was the last one they had in the store. And they told me that they are not getting any more in stock.
The netbook is an Acer Aspire one Windows XP Home Edition service pack 3 operating system. I would have liked to have got an HP netbook as I am used to using that. But because all of the computers now are being made with Windows 7 only,the Acer was the only Windows XP laptop that they has in the shop. And I looked in other shops and stores, and I could not find Windows XP anywhere. So I bought the Acer Windows XP netbook.
Most people would probably just install Windows XP over their Windows 7. And I have read online that there is a way to do this. But I have limited experience with computers. So I would not have a clue how to do this. And also you must have a valid and activated copy of Windows XP. Which I don't thing you can download or get now from the Microsoft website.As I read that they are ending support for both Windows XP and Windows Vista,in a few years time. So I did the easiest thing and just bought a Windows XP laptop. But is it as good or user friendly as Windows 7 is? Read on-
The edition of Windows XP I have on my netbook is Windows XP Home Edition service pack 3. Which I think is equivalent to our Windows 7 Home Premium.The first thing I noticed was that Windows XP booted up faster than Windows 7. And then of course I had to set up my account on Windows. And I was very happy to find that I did not have to have a password. Windows XP only requires you to set up a computer name-for example- Andrea. But on Windows XP like on Windows 7, you DO NOT have to have a password if you do not want one. Which is great as I hate having to log in with a password and enter it every time I do some thing on my own computer. Also on Windows XP you are set up as an Administrator by default,just like Windows 7.
Then of course I had to remove all of that branded and unwanted Acer software. I found that on Windows XP programs uninstall a lot faster than what they do on Windows 7. And I also found downloading software from the Internet to be a lot faster on Windows XP than on Windows 7.In fact Windows XP is a lot faster than Windows 7,to my surprise .
Then there are other questions that I and other Windows 7 users may be asking. On Windows 7,I have uninstalled the Internet Explorer browser,and I would like to do the same thing on Windows XP. I tested this out to and the answer is-YES,you can uninstall IE on Windows XP by deleting the IE file in programs on C/drive.And I did this with the help of a tool called Unlocker. And I found that removing Internet Explorer on Windows XP did not effect Windows at all. I was also able to remove Outlook Express,an email client which I and most people cannot use, as well. And Windows was not effected by this either. I found that I was still able to get and install updates on Windows XP without IE.
On Windows XP you have two choices of installing updates-
1-You can go directly onto the Windows Update website in a web browser. But the disadvantage of this is that you cannot do this on Firefox or Google Chrome. You can only install updates from the website in Internet Explorer or on another Internet Explorer engine based browser,such as Green browser or Avant browser.So although I did not have IE,I was able to install updates from the website in Advanced browser and Deepnet Explorer.Which are the Trident(IE engine based) browsers I use instead of Internet Explorer. So if you want to install updates directly from the website on Windows XP, but do not want to use Internet Explorer. You can use Avant browser,Advanced browser or another IE engine based browser instead of IE.But this will only work with Trident engine browsers only,not with Firefox,chrome or Web Kit based browsers.
2-You can also install updates directly from control panel without going onto a web browser just like you do in Windows 7. I choose this method because I think it is safer than going onto a web browser. You can also choose to turn off automatic updating and install only the updates that you want,when you want to. Just like you do on Windows 7 and I found that updates took a lot less time to install than on Windows 7. On Windows 7,if you have 50 updates it can take up to 30 minutes to install. But on Windows XP it takes just 10 minutes or less.So installing updates is faster on Windows XP.
Then there is the security issue. And it is true that based on what I have read, Windows XP is not as secure as Windows 7. And there is a higher risk of computer viruses and malware on Windows XP than what there is on Windows 7.But having said that, on Windows 7, I do not have any anti-virus programs on my computer. Because I don't believe in those. And so I do not have an anti-virus program on Windows XP either. And I do not intend to install any in the future on Windows XP.
But what I do have on Windows XP is Windows Defender. Windows Defender is bundled with both Windows 7 and Windows Vista. And Windows Defender can scan and check for spyware,and remove any it finds. But it is not an anti-virus program so although it scans and removes malware,it does not impose security settings or block programs, the way an anti-virus program does. Which is why I never use an anti-virus program. But PLEASE NOTE-Windows Defender is not included in Windows XP. But you can download and install it from the Microsoft website. Which is what I did. And I find that the Windows XP version of Windows Defender has additional settings that the Windows 7 version does not have. For example there is an option to set Windows Defender to keep a record of any new software you install,an option not included in the Windows 7 version. The Malicious Software removal Tool-MRT is also included on Windows XP like it is on Windows 7.
There was also a control panel but settings are not as clearly visible as they are on Windows 7. Windows XP also has Windows search and it found most files but not all. So I had to open some files myself and search inside of them. Where as the Windows 7 search finds everything.
Windows XP had no trouble finding my wireless network,which I was able to connect to. But there was no option to set it to a home or public network,like there is on Windows 7. Although I was able to enable the Windows XP version of Network Discovery and see my other Windows 7 computer on my Windows XP computer. Just like you can see your other computers on your network in Windows 7.
There is also the option to turn of some of the Windows programs in Windows XP.This can be found in under"add or remove Windows components."But this does not remove the programs,it just turns them off or disables them. And is the equivalent to Windows 7's" turn Windows features on or off." You can also turn off disable Outlook Express and IE6 by just un ticking the box here. But I found that on Windows XP it does not turn off the features completly like it does in Windows 7. That is it disabled some of the programs, but not all. For example,Outlook Express still popped up on my webpage,when I clicked on a email link. Even though I had unticked that box to turn it off. So from my experience it does disable IE6 and other Windows features and they do not appear in the start menu. But enables them if they are needed. Unlike on Windows 7,where the programs stay turned off, until you tick that box to turn them on again. You can also enable Windows features again in Windows XP by ticking the box.
I find Windows XP to be faster than Windows 7,and it installs and uninstalls programs faster than Windows 7. It also starts up and shuts down quicker than Windows 7. And another thing is that I tested out the restore to factory condition setting and I found that on Windows XP. My computer was restored to factory condition, that is a reinstall of Windows in -wait for it- 20 minutes. But on Windows 7 a factory restore takes from 2 to 4 hours to complete! What a difference!
Overall,Windows XP, despite being an older version of Windows is user friendly,unlike Linux which is not. It is faster than Windows 7 although Windows 7 is fast too . Windows XP takes up less space on your hard drive so you can store double the amount of programs on a netbook.But Windows 7 takes up more space. And there are a lot more default Windows programs on Windows XP than on windows 7.But then you have plenty of space.You can install and run all of the programs that you run on Windows 7 on windows XP. In fact most of the web browsers and media players we use on Windows 7 are older programs. Made for Windows XP but they run on Windows 7.
The disadvantages of Windows XP are that it has got Internet Explorer 6 and Outlook Express. But then we have also got several clones of Outlook Express on Windows 7 too. Another disadvantage is that the control panel settings are not as clearly listed as in Windows 7.But you can still find settings. Also there is no option to set your network to a home network,which would be a lot safer. There is just a general network setting only. On Windows 7 you set your network to either a home,office,or public network and Windows Firewall applies the settings. So you are more secure. But not on Windows XP,where there is just one setting,although they do have Windows Firewall. That you can turn on or off just like you can on Windows 7. But there is no Windows Defender on Windows XP,which is some thing that they should have included in this edition of Windows. And although you can install Windows Defender yourself,some people new to computers may not know about this. IE6 is also not very secure for browsing and not a very good browser anyway. But it is bundled with Windows XP,but then so is IE8 with Windows 7. But you can use other web browsers.
And some of the other software is out of date,such as MSN Windows Messenger 4.7 but you could uninstall it as I did or upgrade it. The version of Windows Media Player on Windows XP is,Windows Media Player 9, but it is working well. So I have decided to leave that and after I tested out the factory restore setting,I got IE6 back. But this time I am going to leave that and just use another web browser,Safefox or Google Chrome instead.
But I have found Windows XP to be user friendly and very fast and as good as Windows 7 but different of course. A lot of people install Windows XP on Virtual Box on Windows 7 but I do not know how to use that. And now days it is very difficult in England to find a Windows XP computer in the shops. But if you are lucky to find one like I did. Why install Windows XP on virtual machine,when you can have the real thing?
So now I have got my Windows 7 netbooks and my Windows XP netbook. And windows XP is a very rich and fully functional operating system,just like Windows 7 is. In fact windows XP is like Windows 7 just an earlier version of it. So if you do have Windows XP on your computer,you can still use it. As well as your Windows 7 computer. Andrea Borman.
