Upgrading from XP to Windows 7

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AnneL

AnneL

SPFG, Supreme Picture Framing God
Joined
Jul 11, 2001
Posts
15,946
Loc
Wautoma, WI USA
I'm considering upgrading my 4 year old, custom built digital imaging computer from XP to Windows 7, mainly because I would like to upgrade the operating memory (it's currently 4G). It is capable of more but my geek tells me I would need to go to Windows 7 to make it work right.

Biggest concern is whether or not the main program I run on there, Photoshop CS2, will work with Windows 7. I've seen mixed reviews on that, mostly involving installing CS2 on new machines with Windows 7, very few about existing machines that are upgraded to Windows 7. I do have newer versions of Photoshop available but I don't use them because there are some features I use that I don't like the changes to them in the newer versions. I tried using CS5 for awhile and went back to CS2 because of those changes.

So, is the upgrade possible or should I look to increase the speed in other ways, like clearing out some of the programs on there we don't use it for anymore since getting Gary a new computer?
 
I'm not sure that I would upgrade a four year old computer to Win7 to get more performance from it.

At that age it might be more beneficial to get a whole new puter that is customised to run Win7 64 bit. It could have a faster processor, better video card and more memory than the four year old one, which may only last another year or two or three.

If you have newer versions of Photoshop, like CS5, I would also suggest that you spend a little time learning how the new bits work and get used to using it. You Tube will teach you anything you want to know!
 
To go past the ~3 1/2gb (32 bit) memory limitation, you need a 64 bit operating system (xp, vista, win7 or win8). With older motherboards, there are also often limitations as to how much memory they can manage. Before uprading (re-formatting) an old machine, make sure the physical board can manage 8 or 16 gb. (whatever the goal amount is) Windows 7 is from 2008, and XP was from 2001. If the computer is 4 years old, it's likely that Windows 7 drivers are available for the hardware - but this needs to be verified first.

I agree with Ormond. A four year old PC will have other limitations slowing it down. (slow processor, slower hard drive, etc) You'll probably be spending half of what it would cost to just replace the whole computer, which includes a new 64 bit operating system. It's likely that the upgrade of an older PC won't yield much of an improvement, and would be more likely to let you down sooner - because of the old hard drive. Do you need a nicer PC at home, or a new POS workstation or CMC machine? If so, maybe the OLD PC could be re-purposed for one of those tasks, and then replaced with something fast? New 64 bit PC's start at about $400, including the operating system. Just a few random thoughts.

I can verify that CS3 works fine with win7, but I'm not sure about CS2. We have CS3 on one machine(home) and CS5 on another(shop), both with Win7 32 bit and 4gb RAM. The newer versions (including CS6) have many advantages, and are worth serious consideration.

It's also worthy of noting that Windows 8 comes out in a week. I would wait a bit to have the current version, which seems very stable. I have been running Windows 8 here since March (as a beta tester for MS), and it has been turned on 24/7 since then - without a single crash or problem. I don't care for the new "touch screen/tablet" like interface, but that can be turned off to make it look like Windows 7. It is very similar to Windows 7 otherwise, which has been their best OS to date.

Happy shopping!
Mike
 
Actually this was a custom built machine and to replace it would cost close to $2000, which is what we just spent on a new one for Gary. Everything in it was designed specifically to run Photoshop and was the best available at the time. It has a terrabyte of memory, which is more than most new machines have. Even though it is 4 years old it is still faster than most new, off the shelf computers because it was built that way. The computer guy checked the specs and said it would handle the upgrade no problem.

My concern was just with whether it was possible with the version of Photoshop I prefer. I did take the time to learn CS5 when we first got it. While there are somethings I like a lot about it, the changes to the tools I use on a daily basis and the way it opens and displays images were such that it actually makes my job harder, which is why I went back to CS2. I might try CS3 and see if that was before they made the changes that irritate me so. If for some reason I need a newer version of Photoshop, I can just borrow Gary's computer.

I'll see how it's running once Gary gets everything he has on my machine moved over to the new one and deleted off mine. That may just give it the boost it needs. It did run a lot faster before he started sharing my computer and putting his stuff on it.
 
Actually a 4 year old machine might not be too bad, depending on what you have.

I have been building my own PCs for almost 30 years and my cycle seems to be to build a new one about every two years. I never build quite the top of the line - I usually choose a CPU that is 2 or 3 below the top to keep costs down.

I just checked my records and I did my last build in December 2008; almost 4 years ago and for the first time, I have gone far beyond my usual 2 year limit and I currently have no need for anything better.

What do I currently have. Q9550 Quad Core processor, Gigabyte motherboard, 8G memory installed, 16G limit. 2 PCI Express x16 slots, 3 monitors, 1TB+ SATA storage with Win7 64 bit.

I am running the usual mix of software; a WAMP stack for development, other development tools, Photoshop CS4, Office 2007, Quicken, several other imaging packages and a bunch of the other usual suspects.

My CPU is still on the High End Benchmark charts at http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html, showing a benchmark of 4.104. If I were to do a new build today, I would probably choose something like the i7-3740QM which has a benchmark of 9.959, a little more than 2x my current CPU. But the PC wouldn't be 2x faster given minimal improvements in SATA throughput and less than 2x improvements in memory speed. I would guess that a new PC would be 30-40% faster than my present one. And since everything runs just peachy, I might be 'stuck' with my present PC for a couple of more years.

The only current reason I would do a new build today is if my motherboard bites the dust.

All that being said, if you have a typical 4 year old 'off the shelf' PC with all the compromises (shared memory, low-end processor, etc) typical of that ilk, then your 4 year old PC is better off as a door stop.

It could go either way.
 
AnneL said:
Actually this was a custom built machine and to replace it would cost close to $2000, which is what we just spent on a new one for Gary. Everything in it was designed specifically to run Photoshop and was the best available at the time. It has a terrabyte of memory, which is more than most new machines have. Even though it is 4 years old it is still faster than most new, off the shelf computers because it was built that way. The computer guy checked the specs and said it would handle the upgrade no problem.

My concern was just with whether it was possible with the version of Photoshop I prefer. I did take the time to learn CS5 when we first got it. While there are somethings I like a lot about it, the changes to the tools I use on a daily basis and the way it opens and displays images were such that it actually makes my job harder, which is why I went back to CS2. I might try CS3 and see if that was before they made the changes that irritate me so. If for some reason I need a newer version of Photoshop, I can just borrow Gary's computer.

I'll see how it's running once Gary gets everything he has on my machine moved over to the new one and deleted off mine. That may just give it the boost it needs. It did run a lot faster before he started sharing my computer and putting his stuff on it.
Click to expand...

You posted this while I was writing the previous post. It sounds a lot like mine. If the motherboard can support at least 8G, then you can put a 64bit OS on there and you should be just fine.

Can you find out the CPU and memory capacity of the MB and let us know?
 
Thanks Larry. Whether the computer can support Windows 7 or not isn't the question. According the place that built it for me, it can so I'm assuming that means the motherboard can support at least 8G since I originally asked him about upgrading from 4G to at least 8G. He has the specs saved in his system. When I had it built, we made it so it could be upgraded in the future.

The question is whether CS2 is compatible with Windows 7 since in order to upgrade to anything faster than 4G I would need to put Windows 7 on my computer. I did some searching on that issue yesterday and couldn't find anything on the compatibility when upgrading an existing machine. Just on some issues that have arisen when trying to install CS2 on a new machine with Windows 7.

If I do this, it won't be for awhile since I'm behind on my retouching work. I've literally got hundreds of images I need to get done in the next few weeks. :help:
 
Well he could keep it XP and put 64 bit on, too - if you can still find it. You dont NEED windows 7.

Mike
 
AnneL said:
...So, is the upgrade possible or should I look to increase the speed in other ways, like clearing out some of the programs on there we don't use it for anymore since getting Gary a new computer?
Click to expand...

Oops, was responding to this without noting all the rest. If CS2 has problems with Windows 7, be wary of relying on the XP compatibility mode. I've had bad luck with it recognizing drivers, when trying to run some legacy software.
 
He probably could find 64 bit XP. He probably has it somewhere at his shop. His company deals a lot with businesses and many of the ones they work with were slow to upgrade from XP because of compatibility issues with the specialized software they were using. That's why they were still offering XP computers after most places had stopped.

For all I know, I may even have 64 bit XP on that computer. I never checked since he said that upgrading the memory wouldn't be worth it unless I went to Windows 7. If I get into the shop tomorrow, I'll take a look.
 
Pat Murphey said:
Oops, was responding to this without noting all the rest. If CS2 has problems with Windows 7, be wary of relying on the XP compatibility mode. I've had bad luck with it recognizing drivers, when trying to run some legacy software.
Click to expand...

Thanks Pat. That's one of the questions I had. I did see that you could run programs in an XP compatibility mode in some of the info I turned up in my searches but had questions on how well that worked.
 
Anne, I have been running PS7 on my Win7 laptop for almost a year but I am nowhere near what you would call a power user.

That being said, I just installed CS6 along side it mainly due to compatability issues with PS7 and our digital copyright subscription.
 
AnneL said:
Actually this was a custom built machine and to replace it would cost close to $2000, which is what we just spent on a new one for Gary. Everything in it was designed specifically to run Photoshop and was the best available at the time. It has a terrabyte of memory, which is more than most new machines have.
Click to expand...

Anne,
Do you mean a terabyte of Ram or hard drive space. I certainly wasn't aware that a motherboard could hold a terabyte of ram. Hard drive space is no problem. My current laptop has 1.5 terabytes of hard drive space. Even down here where technology prices are a lot higher than in USA a 1 terabyte hard drive can be bought for $69.

AnneL said:
I'll see how it's running once Gary gets everything he has on my machine moved over to the new one and deleted off mine. That may just give it the boost it needs. It did run a lot faster before he started sharing my computer and putting his stuff on it.
Click to expand...
That might help, but a reinstall of Windoze might help even more, by getting rid of all the junk left in the system after programs have been uninstalled. It's amazing what that will do for a four year old machine if it's never been done in that time!
 
the other thing that can help alot with photoshop (as its very disc hungry rather than memory) is to install 2 ssd's

1 for the system and one for a cache space for scratch disc for photoshop, it will mke a big big diff, and would only cost couple of hundred
 
I have all versions of PS from CS through CS6 which run on a win 7 machine. Why do you need to run CS2 though? (we use it for file compatibility issues from Mac where people leave guides on about once a year)
 
The terrabyte is split between 2 hard drives, one as the main hard drive and the other primarily as a scratch disc for Photoshop (although I think Gary has been using it to store images on, which I keep telling him not to do!)

Lance, it's more a personal preference thing with the way the newer versions open and display images and brushes and how masking on layer masks is handled. I just don't like it. I prefer the old way they looked. Like I said, it's a personal thing with features I use all the time.
 
It might be a good time to consider adding a new primary hard drive, too. (C: for the operating system) 1TB drives are about $60 these days, and 2TB drives are about $99.

This way, it's less likely to let you down (4 year old drives are well into their near life expectancy). You could still keep the old ones in there, for extra storage. It's likely that the new ones are much faster, too. ..or you could install a solid state drive (SSD)
 
I have a 4+ year old computer with WinXP Home Edition Version 2002 with Service Pack 3 (upgraded to SP3 about a month ago). It has AMD Phenom(tm) 8450, Triple-core Processor, 2.11GHz, 2.75 GB of RAM. Everything works just fine. I keep it "tuned up". It is very fast, MUCH, MUCH faster than my HP Laptop with Windows 7, which i purchased about 6 months ago! I read many "Windows 8" reviews and opinions... if you have and like your "touch-screen", you "might" like it. If you prefer a mouse, you'll hate it. I prefer a mouse. (Well, as usual... that's Microshaft :bdh: for ya!) A customer has a touch-screen computer and told me they HATED it because it was getting full of fingerprints and had to be cleaned quite often. After using it a few days, they switched to using a mouse. A "BestBuy" employee said the touch screen computers on display had to be cleaned quite often to encourage customers to buy one. He said they sell very few.
 
I agree about touch screens. One of our shop's LifeSaver POS terminals, at the front counter, is an all-in-one with a touch screen. 95% of the time we use the included wireless mouse and keyboard, rather than the touch screen. I find those to be quicker and more accurate, especially when typing something such as a customer's address. The angle is better with a keyboard, IMO.

The only thing I like about the all-in-one unit is that it takes up so little space and has no tower under the counter, and is almost wire free.

Mike
 
I understand that Anne, I prefer some of the old versions and use them as I am more familiar with the versions from the days I was working on it myself. There are significant benefits in using the more recent versions, the results are better and the tools save much more time, especially for selections. In that, if it works - then it works and run with it. We use www.lynda.com for a lot of training to get used to new features.
 
Basically windows 7 is technically and specifically designed for the supported pc's so that if someone would like to try and install it onto the Pentium 4 with 1.6 ghz single processor obviously it won't work as it work on the i3 or i7..
 
johnlawrence is no longer with us, as he was a spammer from Pakistan. (posting a lot of short messages, to get the post count over the forum's minimum threshhold so it can start sending SPAM PM's to people)

Busted! :)
Mike
 
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