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I’m looking on my laptop that is running Win 7 to see what version of IE Explorer is running. I can’t find it??

Should it be that difficult to ID the version that is on this machine?, or is it just my lack of understanding ‘computer language’??

So now I bought the new disc for Windows 7 today to proceed to update my old desktop computer from XP over to Win 7.

I asked the sales people about what I should do with reference to what version of IE I should utilize if I were to make it my browser? They said get the latest one,…..that would be ?? version 10 or 11?

But I am really disappointed to here of folks having this trouble with IE10 and 11 on a machine with the newer Win 7 on it. That is one of the things I was hoping to get away from,…this constant ‘explorer has stopped working’. or is hung up, etc.
Will Microsoft EVER get anything to work correctly anymore?

I’m getting so fed up I think I will go buy a MAC

I have done 2 upgrades from XP to 7 so far. Goes easily with Laplink PC Mover which they have for $25 for XP users. You just pop inthe 7 disk while in XP, tell it to install custom, it saves all the data and programs to a file called windows.old and then you run PC Mover, and it will pull everything from there. The only thing that seems to get borked is MSE. Both times I had to download new as the moved one gave an error. It takes about a day and a half to do including all the windows updates.

Are Win 7 disk still available? I thought I saw a discussion that this was older software, and with this great demand coming soon, it might not be available??

So without a disc, I would have to download it from somewhere,…is that correct? And with all the scammers out there where would be the best places to get this software as a download?

Okay I’m back from overseas, and I’m planning to attacked this upgrade to my desktop computer in the next few days.

I was prepping a couple of ‘backup devices’ to place my files and photos on just in case. When I placed a call to Microsoft help desk they indicated that it was not necessary for me to take XP off of the machine (nor back the files up) before downloading Win 7 onto it. The rep indicated that the new Win 7 would take over from the XP automatically?? Can this be true??

Back when 7 was released, I went through the very same upgrade path you are now facing XP to 7. I also took the opportunity to go from XP 32 bit to 7 64 bit.
Provided your hardware is supported by Windows 7, the migration will always be a bit disruptive, since you cannot upgrade in place. So, you will need to make sure you have good backups of your documents and other important data, before you start the process.

Windows 7 will required a clean install, which means you will have to reinstall all the programs you need, once the 7 setup completes. If you would like to make this migration easier, there is paid software that you can buy to migrate your programs from XP to 7. I did that back in 2009. You don’t have to do so, but you can do it, if you are keen in making the migration easier.

Is it possible that my older XP machine will not run on a 64 bit operating system? (not that I understand this 32 & 64 bit stuff,…ha…ha) but I think I remember seeing a potential problem about this somewhere.

My laptop is a 64 bit Win7, and if I remember correctly I had problems reading some text documents created with my old XP desktop unit that were stored on my external hard drive ? I forgot the details. Or maybe it was because my external HD was set up in a 32 bit manner? I’ve gotten confused with all this new stuff. I will have to drag that external HD out tomorrow and see if I can determine the exact problem I had looking at those old files on the external HD using my Win 7 laptop.

Unfortunately I can do no experiments with my desktop HP (XP) as it is back in the USA, while I am over in Thailand for 2 months. But I did bring along that external HD, just in case I had time to review it.

Thanks VERY much for all the contributing help with making this computer illiterate guy try to understand some of this new computer wizardry.

Give Linux a try. Sure your Windows Programs won’t work but Linux usually has a similar program.

One distro of Linux that has a similar look to Windows is Zorin. http://zorin-os.com/

All it will cost you is the price of one DVD.

Lets see if I have this correct?
1) Linux is a different operating system than XP.
2) It is an ‘open source’ operating system
3 How does one go about installing it? I imagine you DO NOT first uninstall XP, as that would leave your computer bear, wouldn’t it?
4) So do you install Linux, then discard the XP?
5) Or can you have both running on the computer?
6) Or do you transfer all of the stuff on your current system over onto another hard drive storage, then transfer that info back to the computer once you have installed the new operating system Linux?

7) Not sure I totally understand this statement, “Windows Programs won’t work but Linux usually has a similar program”
8) Is there somewhere I might ‘experience’ Linux before I make the switch?

did get a newer internal LARGER hard disk and had everything moved to it by the store
the xpprosp3 system is running faster and the new disk space will make it last as long as the motherboard now

max the ram out and get a newer bigger HD and keep using that xp system for a long time

In other words use it just like an external HD (that is not portable) ?

Thanks very much for those replies thus far. I’m going to look into each one when I return to USA from visiting my wife in Thailand. Since I am living part time in DC area I believe I can likely find some used/or refurbished computers with Win7 on them as suggested by ‘FUN downtown’.

Since I am not a person who likes to ‘waste things’ (kept my old ’73 SLC Mercedes running for 30 yrs) , what would be my best disposal of the older HP desktop?….or since it is still running great, should I try to employ it at some other job?…perhaps in programing and reading the DCC (digital command control) & sound decoders they are placing into model trains?? ( I have a big collection I hope to make use of in later years)

Or could I really donate it into some third world school program where it might really get used?