New computer but win 7 or 8

[mick]

I have a friend who is asking me to help him choose a new desktop
computer. He has an very old machine running win xp, he does not do
much other than email, internet, a bit of video editing and photograph
editing. He is also not that computer literate, I have to walk him
through most basic things much of the time.

Choosing a computer to suit his needs is not much trouble but I am
stuck on whether to advise win7 or win8. I know a lot about win7 and
can help him to easily get to grips with understanding it, but if I go
for win8 I know it will be more difficult, as I do not have that here
at home to play with when he asks the inevitable help questions over
the phone.

The new computer will be between 4 and 8gb, no gaming, no touch screen.
I don't want to appear selfish from my point of view and help him spend
his money by buying an already oldish win7 when the newer win8 is
widely advertised as the next best thing since sliced bread if you see
what I mean.

As to myself, I have three machines here with win7 and cannot ever see
me upgrading to win8 as all the reports I have read so far just don't
convince me it is better. I had vista on a couple of machines awhile
back and although it worked well(for me), win 7 just blew it out of the
water and that is what I will be sticking with for quite a long time.

Oh, what to do :-?

 

[Mellowed]

I have a friend who is asking me to help him choose a new desktop
computer. He has an very old machine running win xp, he does not do
much other than email, internet, a bit of video editing and photograph
editing. He is also not that computer literate, I have to walk him
through most basic things much of the time.

Choosing a computer to suit his needs is not much trouble but I am stuck
on whether to advise win7 or win8. I know a lot about win7 and can help
him to easily get to grips with understanding it, but if I go for win8 I
know it will be more difficult, as I do not have that here at home to
play with when he asks the inevitable help questions over the phone.

The new computer will be between 4 and 8gb, no gaming, no touch screen.
I don't want to appear selfish from my point of view and help him spend
his money by buying an already oldish win7 when the newer win8 is widely
advertised as the next best thing since sliced bread if you see what I
mean.

As to myself, I have three machines here with win7 and cannot ever see
me upgrading to win8 as all the reports I have read so far just don't
convince me it is better. I had vista on a couple of machines awhile
back and although it worked well(for me), win 7 just blew it out of the
water and that is what I will be sticking with for quite a long time.

Oh, what to do :-?

Don't even think about Win8. I 'upgraded' my "Win7 laptop to Win8 and
tried it for 5 months. Reloaded Win7 a couple weeks ago. There is Zero
advantage with Win8 and a Desktop.

 

[Ken Blake]

Choosing a computer to suit his needs is not much trouble but I am
stuck on whether to advise win7 or win8. I know a lot about win7 and
can help him to easily get to grips with understanding it, but if I go
for win8 I know it will be more difficult, as I do not have that here
at home to play with when he asks the inevitable help questions over
the phone.

The new computer will be between 4 and 8gb, no gaming, no touch screen.
I don't want to appear selfish from my point of view and help him spend
his money by buying an already oldish win7 when the newer win8 is
widely advertised as the next best thing since sliced bread if you see
what I mean.

As to myself, I have three machines here with win7 and cannot ever see
me upgrading to win8 as all the reports I have read so far just don't
convince me it is better. I had vista on a couple of machines awhile
back and although it worked well(for me), win 7 just blew it out of the
water and that is what I will be sticking with for quite a long time.

Oh, what to do :-?

I strongly recommend Windows 8. It is almost always better to have the
newer version, rather than the older one.

Despite what many people think about it, it is not necessary to use
the new Metro/Modern interface: Windows 8 has two interfaces; the
Modern/Metro Interface (which may be all you've looked at) and the
traditional Desktop Interface. That traditional Desktop Interface is
almost identical to Windows 7's interface; the biggest difference is
that there is no Start Orb to click to bring up the Start menu. But
note that you can get the Start Orb back by using one of several
third-party programs, either free or very inexpensive (Classic Shell
at http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/ and Start8 at
http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/; my personal preference is
Start8, but they are both very good). And going from one interface to
the other is very easy; there are several ways, but simply pressing
the Windows key is perhaps the easiest. Simply installing one of those
two and using the traditional desktop interface may be a better
choice for you than going to Windows 7.

I use Windows 8, almost exclusively with the traditional desktop
interface, and with Start 8 installed. If you were to look at and use
my computer, you would have a hard time realizing that it's not
Windows 7.

And another new third-party program that I like and you might want is
the $4.99 ModernMix at http://www.stardock.com/products/modernmix/

 

[Ken1943]

I have a friend who is asking me to help him choose a new desktop
computer. He has an very old machine running win xp, he does not do
much other than email, internet, a bit of video editing and photograph
editing. He is also not that computer literate, I have to walk him
through most basic things much of the time.

Choosing a computer to suit his needs is not much trouble but I am
stuck on whether to advise win7 or win8. I know a lot about win7 and
can help him to easily get to grips with understanding it, but if I go
for win8 I know it will be more difficult, as I do not have that here
at home to play with when he asks the inevitable help questions over
the phone.

The new computer will be between 4 and 8gb, no gaming, no touch screen.
I don't want to appear selfish from my point of view and help him spend
his money by buying an already oldish win7 when the newer win8 is
widely advertised as the next best thing since sliced bread if you see
what I mean.

As to myself, I have three machines here with win7 and cannot ever see
me upgrading to win8 as all the reports I have read so far just don't
convince me it is better. I had vista on a couple of machines awhile
back and although it worked well(for me), win 7 just blew it out of the
water and that is what I will be sticking with for quite a long time.

Oh, what to do :-?

I just got a new desktop with Win 7.


KenW

 

[Paul]

I have a friend who is asking me to help him choose a new desktop
computer. He has an very old machine running win xp, he does not do
much other than email, internet, a bit of video editing and photograph
editing. He is also not that computer literate, I have to walk him
through most basic things much of the time.

Choosing a computer to suit his needs is not much trouble but I am stuck
on whether to advise win7 or win8. I know a lot about win7 and can help
him to easily get to grips with understanding it, but if I go for win8 I
know it will be more difficult, as I do not have that here at home to
play with when he asks the inevitable help questions over the phone.

The new computer will be between 4 and 8gb, no gaming, no touch screen.
I don't want to appear selfish from my point of view and help him spend
his money by buying an already oldish win7 when the newer win8 is widely
advertised as the next best thing since sliced bread if you see what I
mean.

As to myself, I have three machines here with win7 and cannot ever see
me upgrading to win8 as all the reports I have read so far just don't
convince me it is better. I had vista on a couple of machines awhile
back and although it worked well(for me), win 7 just blew it out of the
water and that is what I will be sticking with for quite a long time.

Oh, what to do :-?

No matter what you do, you can add something like this to it.

http://www.classicshell.net/

There are commercial versions as well, starting at $5.00 that do
much the same thing.

Show your friend the interface "stock", then add that and
see if the new shell is more appropriate. Don't forget to
burn the recovery disc set, when the new machine comes in.

*******

I have Windows 7 on my laptop, and Windows 8 on a disk on this machine.
On Windows 7, I can run Windows Virtual PC if I want, while on
Windows 8, Hyper-V is included on the disc, but can't be used because
of the need for SLAT (processor hardware feature). And Windows 8 has
a blacklisting feature, where it won't allow things it doesn't approve
of to run, so I can't use the older virtual machine software. So to me,
I have a new OS, that can't do as much as the old OS.

The WinXP I'm current booted into, I have VPC2007 installed, and I have
a bunch of virtual machines in that. The two OSes before Windows 8, they
provided a solution I could use.

So for your friend, you need to estimate the number of things
that aren't going to work. You can run the Windows 8 upgrade
assistant (subject to some version of .NET being needed), and
it will list the existing programs that might be a problem.
And that will allow you to estimate how much of an impact
the new OS might have.

W7UpgradeAdvisor (to check existing apps).

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=20

Same for Windows 8 (to check existing apps).
I'm hoping this'll run, without getting hung up on NX/XD first.
Lots of P4 based computers can't run Windows 8, because they'd
don't support NX/XD in hardware. See if the upgrade assistant
will run, and give a list of troublesome applications. I don't
expect a big deal, but it's fun to check anyway. Something to do.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/upgrade-to-windows-8

Paul

 

[Metspitzer]

Don't even think about Win8. I 'upgraded' my "Win7 laptop to Win8 and
tried it for 5 months. Reloaded Win7 a couple weeks ago. There is Zero
advantage with Win8 and a Desktop.

I have never used Win8 either. I can't imagine ever liking a touch
screen interface on a home computer. I can't even reach my monitor(s)
without sitting up.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I have a friend who is asking me to help him choose a new desktop
computer. He has an very old machine running win xp, he does not do
much other than email, internet, a bit of video editing and photograph
editing. He is also not that computer literate, I have to walk him
through most basic things much of the time.

Choosing a computer to suit his needs is not much trouble but I am
stuck on whether to advise win7 or win8. I know a lot about win7 and
can help him to easily get to grips with understanding it, but if I go
for win8 I know it will be more difficult, as I do not have that here
at home to play with when he asks the inevitable help questions over
the phone.

The new computer will be between 4 and 8gb, no gaming, no touch screen.
I don't want to appear selfish from my point of view and help him spend
his money by buying an already oldish win7 when the newer win8 is
widely advertised as the next best thing since sliced bread if you see
what I mean.

As to myself, I have three machines here with win7 and cannot ever see
me upgrading to win8 as all the reports I have read so far just don't
convince me it is better. I had vista on a couple of machines awhile
back and although it worked well(for me), win 7 just blew it out of the
water and that is what I will be sticking with for quite a long time.

Oh, what to do :-?

There is a learning curve to go from Win XP to Win 7 also. I can't guess
whether it would make any real difference to your friend either way, and
your experience with 7 would be of *some* help to you when you're being
his W8 tech support.

Is there anywhere where there are computers with Win 7 and Win 8 that he
can play with? Maybe his reactions will be informative.

And as I was typing, I was thinking that, in spite of what you wrote
above, he might be happy with a touch-screen system, hence Windows 8...

Please forgive me for the unauthorized speculation

 

[nukid]

Windows 8 has a blacklisting feature, where it won't allow things it
doesn't approve of to run

This alone makes the choice of Windoze 7 an automatic no-brainer.

If you get Windows 7, you own the computer.

If you get Windows 8, you use the computer, subject to the whims of some
sysadmin in Redmond, which whims are likely for sale to the highest
bidder, meaning your machine is going to be adminned by a committee of
representatives of such consumer-friendly organizations as the RIAA, the
MPAA, the federal government, some other countries' federal governments,
Monsanto, Big Telecom, Amazon, Apple, etc., etc., etc., and, of course,
Microsoft.

And the proof that you can't trust them to use such a feature solely for
end-user benefit by, say, only blocking malware, that they've apparently
blocked virtual PC software proves that plenty. Virtual PC software isn't
universally unwanted by users, but Microsoft certainly doesn't want you
running Linux on your PC without *at least* having to close everything
and reboot to switch between them, and M$ and a variety of third parties
don't want you to be able to use an endless string of disposable virtual
PCs to avoid their adware polluting your main OS install, or to use time-
bombed "trial versions" more than once, or other things like that that
benefit software vendors at the expense of consumers.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

This alone makes the choice of Windoze 7 an automatic no-brainer.

If you get Windows 7, you own the computer.

If you get Windows 8, you use the computer, subject to the whims of some
sysadmin in Redmond, which whims are likely for sale to the highest
bidder, meaning your machine is going to be adminned by a committee of
representatives of such consumer-friendly organizations as the RIAA, the
MPAA, the federal government, some other countries' federal governments,
Monsanto, Big Telecom, Amazon, Apple, etc., etc., etc., and, of course,
Microsoft.

And the proof that you can't trust them to use such a feature solely for
end-user benefit by, say, only blocking malware, that they've apparently
blocked virtual PC software proves that plenty. Virtual PC software isn't
universally unwanted by users, but Microsoft certainly doesn't want you
running Linux on your PC without *at least* having to close everything
and reboot to switch between them, and M$ and a variety of third parties
don't want you to be able to use an endless string of disposable virtual
PCs to avoid their adware polluting your main OS install, or to use time-
bombed "trial versions" more than once, or other things like that that
benefit software vendors at the expense of consumers.

I am reminded of philo's remark in another thread in this NG:

Message-ID: <[email protected]>

 

[Drew]

There is a learning curve to go from Win XP to Win 7 also. I can't guess
whether it would make any real difference to your friend either way, and
your experience with 7 would be of *some* help to you when you're being
his W8 tech support.

Is there anywhere where there are computers with Win 7 and Win 8 that he
can play with? Maybe his reactions will be informative.

And as I was typing, I was thinking that, in spite of what you wrote
above, he might be happy with a touch-screen system, hence Windows 8...

Please forgive me for the unauthorized speculation

Or a windows 7 touchscreen which my wife uses happily.. a 26 inch
touchscreen I might add.

 

[chicagofan]

I have a friend who is asking me to help him choose a new desktop
computer. He has an very old machine running win xp, he does not do
much other than email, internet, a bit of video editing and photograph
editing. He is also not that computer literate, I have to walk him
through most basic things much of the time.

Choosing a computer to suit his needs is not much trouble but I am
stuck on whether to advise win7 or win8. I know a lot about win7 and
can help him to easily get to grips with understanding it, but if I go
for win8 I know it will be more difficult, as I do not have that here
at home to play with when he asks the inevitable help questions over
the phone.

The new computer will be between 4 and 8gb, no gaming, no touch screen.
I don't want to appear selfish from my point of view and help him
spend his money by buying an already oldish win7 when the newer win8
is widely advertised as the next best thing since sliced bread if you
see what I mean.

As to myself, I have three machines here with win7 and cannot ever see
me upgrading to win8 as all the reports I have read so far just don't
convince me it is better. I had vista on a couple of machines awhile
back and although it worked well(for me), win 7 just blew it out of
the water and that is what I will be sticking with for quite a long time.

Oh, what to do :-?

As someone who recently converted to Win7 [from XP] with a new laptop
purchase, I would strongly advise going with Win7 versus Win8, because
that will be enough of a change to deal with. I am still wishing I had
XP back, and may buy Win7 Pro, just so I can get a better simulation of XP.

His uses and your knowledge of Win7 seems to answer the question to me.
bj

 

[Ken Springer]

I have a friend who is asking me to help him choose a new desktop
computer. He has an very old machine running win xp, he does not do
much other than email, internet, a bit of video editing and photograph
editing. He is also not that computer literate, I have to walk him
through most basic things much of the time.

Choosing a computer to suit his needs is not much trouble but I am
stuck on whether to advise win7 or win8. I know a lot about win7 and
can help him to easily get to grips with understanding it, but if I go
for win8 I know it will be more difficult, as I do not have that here
at home to play with when he asks the inevitable help questions over
the phone.

The new computer will be between 4 and 8gb, no gaming, no touch screen.
I don't want to appear selfish from my point of view and help him spend
his money by buying an already oldish win7 when the newer win8 is
widely advertised as the next best thing since sliced bread if you see
what I mean.

As to myself, I have three machines here with win7 and cannot ever see
me upgrading to win8 as all the reports I have read so far just don't
convince me it is better. I had vista on a couple of machines awhile
back and although it worked well(for me), win 7 just blew it out of the
water and that is what I will be sticking with for quite a long time.

Oh, what to do :-?

I've seen this question asked various ways over the years, and it
appears to me, the replies usually don't give the questioner much help,
or simply comes from the wrong viewpoint.

No offense intended, but I think you may be looking at this from the
wrong viewpoint.

When faced with this question, the only question that needs to be asked
is, "What will be the easiest for your friend?" In this case, you'd
prefer Win7 because that's easier for you. Would Win7 be easier for
your friend?

And the person who is being asked for help needs to think outside the
box. Too many people do not, they tend to stay with what they are
familiar with.

I'm not going to attempt to tell you what to recommend, just offer some
thoughts for you to consider while helping your friend.

You've mentioned you have to help your friend with even the most basic
tasks. So perhaps you should look for something less complicated than a
newer desktop with a more complicated OS. I'm thinking along the lines
of a tablet. Look at all of them, Android, iOS, and both versions of
the Surface tablet. See if your friend can do the tasks needed there,
and if the OS will be easier for your friend to pick up and learn. Make
sure your friend can print, scan, etc., whatever needs to be done. If
the basics your friend needs/wants to do can't be done on a tablet, then
tablets won't work.

Please, don't just do a cursory check, I can't tell you how many times
I've read a post online that says you can't do X and Y with such and
such OS, and I'm sitting here saying to myself, "He/she's full of s**t."
LOL Even check to see if a new peripheral will work, but the old one
won't. I'm thinking specifically of printers here. Maybe the old
printer needs to be hardwired to work. But a new wireless printer would
work fine.

If you determine tablets simply won't cut it, then you'll have to go the
desktop route, possibly a laptop. That being said above, think about
your friend first.

My mother asked me for help in choosing her first computer. I was the
first person to have a computer in the family, but had no clue as to
what would fit her. The first requirement I had for that quest was,
"Where can she get help locally if there's a problem?" At the time,
Windows and Macs were her only options. I didn't use either OS. So, I
took her to a store, sat her in front of a Mac computer and a Windows
computer, and had the salesman help her with both. The goal? To figure
out which OS made the most sense to her. She picked the Mac. It was OS
8, I don't remember which version of Windows was current at the time.

If you really want to consider what your friend is comfortable with,
take him to the store and let him pick between Macs and Windows as they
come out of the box. I have a friend who has never been able to make
sense of Windows, but OS X makes perfect sense to her. I'm comfortable
with both, as well as others, but my Mac really gave me fits early on.
And, sometimes still does. LOL

If you're friend does pick Windows, then I'm with Ken Blake for the
following reasons:

1. It is the current OS from MS. It sound like your friend may have this
computer until it turns to dust. So go with the current OS. I
went to MS
today to help a friend get additional gadgets for Win7, and MS has
shut
that down. To use Yoda-speak, "Pi$$ed was I." If you want additional
gadgets, you'll have to get them off the web.

2. With Win 8, your friend can try both the touch screen and desktop
screen
in the store. Help will probably be needed. Then, if he does
prefer the
touch screen interface, your basic decision regarding the OS is done.

There are a couple of variations of the touch screen interface. I
have my
Win 8 virtual machine starting up with one of those variations.
Make sure
all options are shown to your friend. I have a 24" widescreen
Mac, with Win 8
starting in the All Apps mode with small icons. IMO, makes the
touch screen
interface tolerable.

3. As Ken B pointed out, you don't have to start with the touch screen
interface with Win8. I think I had Win 8 booting to the Win 8
desktop, but
I don't remember how I did that. LOL Paul recommended Classic
Shell.
I have this installed on my netbook with Win7. There are
various skins
you can apply to make Win8 look like earlier Windows Start Menus.

That being said, there are a myriad of Start Menu replacements out
there
that can change the look of Windows. You may find one that is
even easier
for your friend to use. Which translates into less work for you
in the long run.

4. I've not tried the virtual machine(s) in Win 8, but VM software
seems like a non-
player for your question. When I get a real Win 7/8 computer
built (DOA
motherboard replacement is on the way to me) I may give them a try
in 8.

5. When picking the hardware, consider your friend's eyesight, and
what configuring
you can do to compensate for that.

Anyway... That's how I'd approach helping your friend pick a new computer.

Do what's best for your friend, not for you. <grin>

FWIW, your type of question is what I really enjoy working with. Unlike
most, I don't worry about being spammed from newsgroups. Or, overloaded
with questions. So the reply to address for this message is valid, and
if you want to pick my brain (what's left of it anyway! LOL), feel
free to email.


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.3
Firefox 19.0.2
Thunderbird 17.0.5
LibreOffice 4.0.1.2

 

[Ken Blake]

As to myself, I have three machines here with win7 and cannot ever see
me upgrading to win8 as all the reports I have read so far just don't
convince me it is better. I had vista on a couple of machines awhile
back and although it worked well(for me), win 7 just blew it out of the
water and that is what I will be sticking with for quite a long time.

Let me add a few points to my earlier message, strongly recommending
Windows 8, and explain why I say that

1. If Windows 8 is better than Windows 7, for the vast majority of
people it's not much better.

2. But even if it's not better than Windows 7, it's also not worse. In
most cases (again, using the desktop interface and using third-party
software like Start8), it's almost identical.

3. For you, and for almost everyone running Windows 7, there's little
reason to upgrade. Staying with Windows 7, at least for the near
future, should be fine.

4. But for someone buying a new computer and having to choose between
Windows 7 or 8, to me it's no contest: he should choose the newer
version, Windows 8. That's for the following reasons:

a. Windows 8 will be supported longer than Windows 7

b. As new hardware and software comes out, some of it will be
supported only on Windows 8. Get Windows 8 *now*, so you don't have to
upgrade later (but for someone like you who already has Windows 7,
there's no disadvantage to upgrading later rather than now).

c. Security improvements will mostly be directed toward the newest
version, Windows 8.

d. There is *always* a learning curve and a potential for problems
when you take a step as big as this one, regardless of how wonderful
whatever you're contemplating moving to is. Sooner or later you'll
have to upgrade (to Windows 8 or its successor) because you'll want
support for hardware or software that you can't get in 7, but don't
rush it.

e. Your friend should embark on the learning curve to Windows 8 now,
not have to take the learning curve for Windows 7 now, and for Windows
8 later.

So to repeat myself, you and almost everyone else, will have to
upgrade to Windows 8 (or its successor) sooner or later, but there's
no rush. You are not like your friend buying a new computer.

 

[Ken Springer]

So to repeat myself, you and almost everyone else, will have to
upgrade to Windows 8 (or its successor) sooner or later, but there's
no rush. You are not like your friend buying a new computer.

Just to be a muckraker, ditch Windows in favor of OS X or some flavor of
Linux. LOL


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.3
Firefox 19.0.2
Thunderbird 17.0.5
LibreOffice 4.0.1.2

 

[Mellowed]

I have a friend who is asking me to help him choose a new desktop
computer. He has an very old machine running win xp, he does not do
much other than email, internet, a bit of video editing and photograph
editing. He is also not that computer literate, I have to walk him
through most basic things much of the time.

Choosing a computer to suit his needs is not much trouble but I am stuck
on whether to advise win7 or win8. I know a lot about win7 and can help
him to easily get to grips with understanding it, but if I go for win8 I
know it will be more difficult, as I do not have that here at home to
play with when he asks the inevitable help questions over the phone.

The new computer will be between 4 and 8gb, no gaming, no touch screen.
I don't want to appear selfish from my point of view and help him spend
his money by buying an already oldish win7 when the newer win8 is widely
advertised as the next best thing since sliced bread if you see what I
mean.

As to myself, I have three machines here with win7 and cannot ever see
me upgrading to win8 as all the reports I have read so far just don't
convince me it is better. I had vista on a couple of machines awhile
back and although it worked well(for me), win 7 just blew it out of the
water and that is what I will be sticking with for quite a long time.

Oh, what to do :-?

Well you have had some very nice and well thought out responses. I was
too lazy.

What are you going to recommend??

 

[ray carter]

I have a friend who is asking me to help him choose a new desktop
computer. He has an very old machine running win xp, he does not do
much other than email, internet, a bit of video editing and photograph
editing. He is also not that computer literate, I have to walk him
through most basic things much of the time.

Choosing a computer to suit his needs is not much trouble but I am stuck
on whether to advise win7 or win8. I know a lot about win7 and can help
him to easily get to grips with understanding it, but if I go for win8 I
know it will be more difficult, as I do not have that here at home to
play with when he asks the inevitable help questions over the phone.

If you're going to have to walk him through things, it would make sense
to advise him to get what you are most comfortable with.

 

[Ashton Crusher]

I strongly recommend Windows 8. It is almost always better to have the
newer version, rather than the older one.

Despite what many people think about it, it is not necessary to use
the new Metro/Modern interface: Windows 8 has two interfaces; the
Modern/Metro Interface (which may be all you've looked at) and the
traditional Desktop Interface. That traditional Desktop Interface is
almost identical to Windows 7's interface; the biggest difference is
that there is no Start Orb to click to bring up the Start menu. But
note that you can get the Start Orb back by using one of several
third-party programs, either free or very inexpensive (Classic Shell
at http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/ and Start8 at
http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/; my personal preference is
Start8, but they are both very good). And going from one interface to
the other is very easy; there are several ways, but simply pressing
the Windows key is perhaps the easiest. Simply installing one of those
two and using the traditional desktop interface may be a better
choice for you than going to Windows 7.

I use Windows 8, almost exclusively with the traditional desktop
interface, and with Start 8 installed. If you were to look at and use
my computer, you would have a hard time realizing that it's not
Windows 7.

And another new third-party program that I like and you might want is
the $4.99 ModernMix at http://www.stardock.com/products/modernmix/

I agree with you to a point. I had Win8 for a while but then started
over for reasons other then the OS and went back to Win7. I just
could not see any advantage to win8 for Desktop use. The plus's, what
few there were, were in very small performance improvements and some
nice (but not critically needed) improvements in some of the native
apps. The Cons included the horrible look to Win8, it was like going
back in time to Win3 with zero finesse in the "looks" aspect. If I
was going to be the unpaid support for someone and I was running Win7
I would want them to be running win7 also, esp on a desktop.

 

[Shadow]

Win XP or Vista ?
(Old useless, bug-ridden XP, or new improved, safer, faster,
more hardware compatible Vista, according to Micro$oft ads)
Same comparison.

Oh, what to do :-?

Win 7
With http://sourceforge.net/projects/classicshell/
At least with this your friend will know it's a computer and
not a phone.
[]'s

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Or a windows 7 touchscreen which my wife uses happily.. a 26 inch
touchscreen I might add.

My friend has a 24" W7 touchscreen computer and also uses the
touchscreen - mostly only for FreeCell, though

I figure if I analyze her fingerprint traces, I might someday learn how
to play FreeCell myself...

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I have a friend who is asking me to help him choose a new desktop
computer. He has an very old machine running win xp, he does not do
much other than email, internet, a bit of video editing and photograph
editing. He is also not that computer literate, I have to walk him
through most basic things much of the time.

Choosing a computer to suit his needs is not much trouble but I am
stuck on whether to advise win7 or win8. I know a lot about win7 and
can help him to easily get to grips with understanding it, but if I go
for win8 I know it will be more difficult, as I do not have that here
at home to play with when he asks the inevitable help questions over
the phone.

The new computer will be between 4 and 8gb, no gaming, no touch screen.
I don't want to appear selfish from my point of view and help him
spend his money by buying an already oldish win7 when the newer win8
is widely advertised as the next best thing since sliced bread if you
see what I mean.

As to myself, I have three machines here with win7 and cannot ever see
me upgrading to win8 as all the reports I have read so far just don't
convince me it is better. I had vista on a couple of machines awhile
back and although it worked well(for me), win 7 just blew it out of
the water and that is what I will be sticking with for quite a long time.

Oh, what to do :-?

As someone who recently converted to Win7 [from XP] with a new laptop
purchase, I would strongly advise going with Win7 versus Win8, because
that will be enough of a change to deal with. I am still wishing I had
XP back, and may buy Win7 Pro, just so I can get a better simulation of XP.

His uses and your knowledge of Win7 seems to answer the question to me.
bj

There are some free virtual machines available (I know of VMware Player
and Oracle VirtualBox) that do a decent job, so if you already have a
valid XP license, you can get there for free, rather than buying a 7 Pro
license.

BTW, I was not happy with the Windows XP Mode. I wanted XP for a couple
of legacy programs, and they didn't both work OK with XP mode, so I went
back to VMware.