Have Win 7. Not happy. Will XP phase out

[sandy99]

NOT a computer whiz but can get around. I bough a new Sony laptop with Windows 7 on it - (they all seem to now!)

I had XP :) on old laptop o 7 has meant a lot of learning - still is! I never got Vista as it seemed full of problems. I don't like 7. :mad: I lost FrontPage (why would they do that!!;), Easy CD Creator 3.5; lost HP 3 in 1 deskjet printer and many other things that were older software, etc , etc. Some I have found patch things for and managed to get them going, other can't happen. I had to buy a new Student Office to get Word again.

 

I am asking a general question.

If I get rid of Windows 7 off this laptop and put XP on it (ahh!), how long will XP be around and supported? Will I just have to put up with 7 as the others will be outdated soon. Would I have years still of use with XP? I have already installed lots of software on this new laptop. If I got rid of 7 would I lose all that? I don't have discs for everything. Would there be any ongoing problems getting rid of 7 and installing XP?

 

Windows Live Mail - Why ever did MS change 'Send and Receive' that was in Outlook - over to Sync - that took me ages to find! I still have to figure out to change it seperating my different email accounts. I am happy for them to be all in one same Inbox etc.:o

[RandyL]

April 2014 is when I think there will be no more updates for XP Home.

 

I lost hardware and software too when I went from Windows ME to Vista but I found great free software to replace it. 7 can be configured to look a lot like XP. Live mail can come close to looking like Oulook Express if configured.

 

If you need help configuring anything let us know by starting a thread on the different areas. And we can also suggest some free software should you need it.

 

I've already seen some things that don't support XP and there will be more in the future. So it's not just Microsoft updates.

 

If you put on XP you'll need to make sure you can find all the right drivers if they even exist and buy a retail version of XP. Once unsuppported I would reinstall 7. You will likely need the disks for that. Personally now that I have Windows 7 I will never look back. I love it now that I have it the way I want it.

 

As for Live mail look at it's Tools>Message rules>Mail. You can set up rules to send different mail to a specified folder of your choosing.

 

As I said though I don't suggest downgrading.

[Synapse]

I'd also say that you ought to try and stick with Win 7 on a new machine, maintenance and security wise it is much better than XP.

 

For a decent email client, have a look at Mozilla Thunderbird, better than both Outlook Express and Live Mail.

 

If you really do find you need to go back to XP, make recovery disks for Win 7 before you start, there will be a utility on your machine to burn them for you - probably need 2 or 3 DVD's.

[Armageddon]

I have 5 machines all running win 7 and am used to it now Microsoft has phased out support totally for xp service packs one and two but continues to offer for service pack 3 for a short time , I would stick with win 7 theres tons of free software about and am sure your laptop came with a version of nero or power dvd for creating cd's etc and theres open office which is free as a replacement for word and the thunderbird email client as a replacement for outlook/livemail

[Plastic Nev]

I am another who bought new and it came with W7 of course. In my case though I bought new in order to get W7 so I can work my way round it for myself.

Like Randy, now I have things the way I want them I love it, so much quicker than the old desktop with XP.

I also got the two months free trial of Microsoft Office, but only need a word processor program. I used to have, in fact still do have the Microsoft "Works 8" on the XP desktop, which I bought for it, but on looking round, yes there is "Works 9" but only available in the USA and not here in the UK. I am not paying the full fee for Office and all the clutter that brings, so I went for the free "Open Office" for this W7 machine.

There are some problems with Open Office, but got round by converting the old Works Word documents just by re naming them to .Doc files.

However, there are a lot of things you can do in Open Office that are actually better than the Microsoft Office. I much prefer the way it opens a power point show, as you can see each slide individually, or run it as the show, whichever you want. That is something you can't do with the Microsoft power point viewer.

Nev.

[sandy99]

Thank you so much everyone for all the useful answers. I am going to study all those and see what to do. Thanks also for info re changing Live Mail more like Outlook. I will check that.

 

Great that someone is enjoying learning new software.Its easier for the youngsters to learn the new stuff . Instead of Front Page which i fiind really easy for my website - I now have to learn my way around something like Serif Web 4 or the new Microsoft one. Progress... hmmmm.:rolleyes:

[wellies]

I've read that Windows 7 Starter isn't up to expectations but the Home Premium version is good and worth persevering with in my opinion. I wouldn't go back to XP now. I don't know much about HomePage, apart from it being a WYSIWYG web page constructor/editor. There are some free programs to choose from that could replace it. Try typing: free wysiwyg editor into a search engine and see if you think any would make a suitable replacement.