Upgrade to windows 7 or stay with xp

Windows 7 will work fine on 1Gb of RAM. We have approximately a dozen machines running on a Gig but they are all a minimum of dual Core as opposed to P4. If you want all the aero effects then I would recommend a minimum of Mb video. Or you could do what we do and just turn the visual effects off - for us it's a common-use machine so it doesn't matter. Only because and this is just my personal experience some software companies are moving away from XP. I got sick of the line - oh that doesn't happen in Windows 7.

BUT the real kicker is actually server side. The main reason that I moved to 7 is because I upgraded my servers to R2 to take advantage of some of the new WDS features. This has been my experience as well.

Just be sure to use the bit version of Windows 7. These computers will start up OK an maybe run 1 or 2 light program alright but as soon as you start more programs or resource hungry programs they will be dead slow.

With XP they might not be a "sports-car" but they will be OK for normal work, more usable and even though your users may think that they are old they will not hate them like they will do if you put Win 7 on them.

My company is in very much the same boat. We have several GXs and a mix of other machines and are debating upgrading them to Windows 7 or possibly 8 when it comes out I want to test the heck out of it first though. In the end I gotta do what the corporate management says. I did a little research and found that Windows 7 can be spotty on the GXs. Some install without a hitch and others are a beast and never actually run so proceed with caution. Just don't forget to take into consideration other software that may be running on those boxes like Antivirus and such.

While Windows 7 will run with that 1GB, other software will likely eat into that memory. I have run the tool in the past and also tested on various optiplex models.

The results weren't always great, so definitely test, test, test. Actually the biggest concern is the hard drive. In my personal experience, win7 folders are typically about 30gb after all drivers and basics. That leaves barely enough space to defrag. If this is a strictly kiosk-style deployment that's fine, but that scenario is rare. I did this on my home PC, which is roughly 3ghz P4, single core with one gig of ram.

First, you will need a Windows 7 installation disc. Load it into your drive. It doesn't matter if you load the disc from inside windows or when your booting up, but you will only be able to load from inside windows if you have it pre-installed. Then click custom install. If you're not sure whether you computer can handle Windows 7 If your going from vista it will be able to click the other option first again this only applies if you have windows pre-installed.

Follow the instructions that come up. If you want to completely erase your hard-drive and do a clean reinstall you can re-format it.

You will be able to do this when it asks you which partition of the drive you want to install on. Again, if you have windows pre-installed you will be able to create extra hard drive partitions with a program called Ease-us.

You can do this once you've installed Windows. Just create a new partition on the rest of your drive if doing a clean install. This means you'll just repeat the bit you've just done. When it asks you for a license key it may not depending on whether it is a pre-activated edition you're using or not enter it.

Finally, once its installed, some of your drivers that's what connects the software to the hardware may be missing. Your Realtek AC'97 Audio driver will be this can be downloaded from Realtek search in the start menu for devices. The ones that have a yellow symbol next to them are either missing or not compatible with windows 7. Click on them and click update driver. If you have a USB port you may be able to install through that instead.

I would recommend updating to Windows 10 though, as Windows 8 was not one of the better operating systems made by Microsoft. Unfortunately, Microsoft has not provided Windows 7 with the capability to upgrade directly from Windows XP. The explanation is that so much has changed between Windows XP and Windows 7 within the operating system kernel itself, the Registry, the drivers, etc.

Frankly, although in-place upgrades are convenient, experts always recommend doing a fresh install when moving to a new operating system in order to ensure the best performance and overall experience. Just think of it like Microsoft did you a favor by forcing you to do it the right way. Or can you?? I know you have blocked out that part of your memory to avoid horrible Windows Vista flashbacks, but surely you could make the switch to Windows Vista if its only for an hour or two.

Windows XP users can work around the upgrade issue if they have a copy of Windows Vista. I make no assurances that this will go off without a hitch. I will add a disclaimer: refer to the first tip where I reminded you that it is recommended that you do the clean install. Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.