Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7

Best decision would be to upgrade to W10, by far the best version ever.
A couple of points
- have all you documents on a drive other than C:\, I have done this for years, started with XP.
- run CCleaner-
- backup all important work externally.
Dich previous version completely, however in my case I still run a Dell XP machine so that I am able to use my stand alone scanner which needs USB2 and some other early Windows OS to run.
 
I'm no expert, but it should be possible to run Win 7 in a Virtual Box on your Win 10 machine. I still have a Win XP computer which I use to run older hardware such as a scanner & etc and that has Win 7 set up in a Virtual Box and it works fine. I forget exactly why I setup Win 7 like that, but it was something to do with working around a hardware/software issue.
 
I've moved boot hard disks and an SSD from one PC to another without issues. Windows will probably complain about a hardware change but I always managed to get past that.

I don't have issues with Win10 after I stripped all the rubbish from it. Looks much like Win 7 now. Win 8 was the version I really detested.
 
If your PC was originally Windows7 and you followed the free update route, you can download from Microsoft a Windows7 ISO to re-install it on your PC, but you have to supply the Windows7 product reference code to get the download. This may or may not be on a sticker on your PC depending on how the original OS was installed.

If you have more then 4GB of RAM or can upgrade your motherboard to get more than 4GB then Windows10 is the best long-term option. At 4GB or less, Windows7 is far less heavy on the PC than Windows10, according to my side-by-side comparisons.

I currently have XP on a reasonable 32bit PC that runs TRS2004, TC3 and TS2009 acceptably, Windows7 on several PCs that run TC3, TS2009/10/12 very well, and two Windows10 machines that manage (barely) because one has a maximum of 4GB RAM and the other is an Intel integrated graphics machine. I am not a frame-rate junkie and am happy enough to get a reasonable experience rather than cinematic realism (is that an oxymoron?).

Windows10, looking at what is happening using their own resource manager and the Sysinternals suite, seems to be spending a lot more CPU time running the antimalware services and doing compatibility checks of the software and drivers installed on the machines.
 
Last edited:
So long as you have a retail copy and not OEM you can try to install it on whatever PC you want Win95 upwards. I wouldn't put a 32 bit OS on a new PC which is a waste of its capability.
And installing a pre used Win7 Retail you might have to phone to get it activated and will anyway if installing on an offline PC to get a code. It shouldn't work for OEM installs however I managed to transfer an OEM install of Win7 to a different PC by phoning MS, whether now Win7 is about to come out of support that is even still possible is unknown.

However likely problems:
Older Operating Systems will not have support for newer PCs as in drivers, chipsets that didn't exist for old OS's, which is why most run them in a VM on Win10, avoids having to find non existent drivers. You may get away with Win7 if it's not a this years PC. Newer processors, 7th generation Intel and AMD upwards are blocked from using old operating systems natively as no drivers created for them, so can only use a VM.

Win10? my Win10 PCs look like Win7, got rid of all the tablet / app stuff I will never use, silenced Cortana, replaced the Start Menu with Open Shell, disposed of One Drive, used Winaero Tweaker to get rid of a load of annoyances.

The biggest threat to PC's these days is not malware but phishing and clicking unknown links in emails, lot of IMO there is a lot of scare tactics generated by the Paid for AV companies to justify their existence / cost. Windows Defender is now as good, I suspect better than any of the rest and without the amount of unnecessary extra memory hogging stuff that the mainstream AV's include.

Win7 looking Win10....

 
I had both: Windows Vista, and Windows 7, and I absolutely loved them.

Is it still possible to buy a brand new, sealed from the factory, physical disc, with a legal licence, on places like EBay, or someplace else ?

There are a lot of scams out there, that sell an illegal product, fraudulent digital download, a repair/re-installation/recovery disc (no licence key), or a product that does not even exist !

I absolutely loved the great simplicity of these old obsolete Windows versions, and wish to install them on a brand new PC, that is totally, permanently, isolated from the internet, so as to protect my PC from malware and other malicious intrusions (as these obsolete OS are no longer supported by Microsoft updates).

What about a legal Windows XP disc ?

Windows 7 was my favorite, and I have that on my old PC, and a legal 32-64 bit, 1 PC license, 2 disc set.

Is it possible to transfer my old PC's Windows 7 OS, to a new Windows 10 PC, or to install it on a separate secondary hard drive on my new PC ?

Is it possible to physically remove the Windows 7 - 64 bit, hard drive from my old PC, and physically plug that Windows 7 - 64 bit, hard drive from my old PC, in on a new Windows 10 PC ?

What location is my Windows 7 OS installed on my old PC ?

I found both Windows Vista, and Windows 7 to be the easiest OS, to make subtle changes to my PC.

I presently absolutely hate using my Windows 10 PC !


If you must then buy a used dell from https://www.dellrefurbished.com/ and look for a win 7 machine. I have a Win 7 machine to support an old scanner but it is never connected to the Internet.

The main problems with win 7 are security and performance. Performance because the drivers for the hardware are better but be realistic and don't expect it to run on a 2 gig machine. Security issues means the suggestion would be don't use a credit card, or access your bank account etc and don't use the same password anywhere.

Cheerio John
 
The biggest threat to PC's these days is not malware but phishing and clicking unknown links in emails, lot of IMO there is a lot of scare tactics generated by the Paid for AV companies to justify their existence / cost. Windows Defender is now as good, I suspect better than any of the rest and without the amount of unnecessary extra memory hogging stuff that the mainstream AV's include.

Totally agree.

I think the OP needs to explore and tailor Win10 a bit further. Its very configurable, if you can be bothered. Apart from the compulsory updates (hate that they have taken away my control over this) Win10 is the best so far.
 
Last edited:
...

I think the OP needs to explore and tailor Win10 a bit further. ...

Maybe others as well. :)

I missed Clam's comments about Winaero Tweaker which sounds interesting. As I said earlier, I've already tweaked Win10 to my liking but getting rid of unnecessary junk remains of interest to me.

I'm beginning to wonder how effective Chrome is, since when I check Task Manager there seems to be a lot of Chrome related processes.

Bring back DOS 2.11. :hehe:
 
Last edited:
Back
Top