I stay with XP

As you probably know, there is no way to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. You can find a lot of articles in the web that explain you how to do that, but it is not a real upgrade but a clean install where you can preserve some of your settings and files in the best of cases. A tutorial is provided by Microsoft too.

The fact that you cannot preserve your applications is not a minor problem. You may think that it is just a matter of reinstalling them on a clean platform, but it may not work at all. It is a paradox, but if you are used to purchase original software as I am, you are seriously penilized. In fact, most of the applications I use are upgrades of original software I purchased several years ago as, for instance Jasc Paintshop Pro 4. My current version is Corel Paintshop Pro XI. I always purchased upgrades and in most cases I downloaded them, that is, I have not a box.

Obviously, when you install an upgrade, the install program looks for a previous original version. So, if I want to reinstall Corel Paintshop Pro XI on Windows 7 I should install first Paintshop Pro 9, at least, and then upgrade it to version X first, and to version XI later; plus all the patches, of course. Obviously, I have to do that for most of my original software. Freeware or shareware is simpler, since I only need the latest version and the registration key, in case of purchased shareware. It is really a mess.

I do not have a PC to run an operating system, but to use applications. So, if I have to reistall all applications it may take days, maybe a week, assuming everything works. But this is not the real pain. The point is: what if my original applications I purchased several year ago will not install on the new platform? If I cannot install the first available version, I cannot even install the upgrades. So I risk to have a nice colourful new Windows platform with few or none of my favorite applications for which I paid a lot of money for the first purchased version and all upgrades. Quite a good reason to stay on XP, in my opinion.

Post Scriptum: upgrading from XP to Windows 7 through Vista is mostly impossible for my machine. In fact — another paradox — Vista was too resource consuming to be installed on my well-tuned XP system. I was waiting for Windows 7 becuse it was less resource consuming but, if I have to upgrade to Vista first, I have no way. The system simply will not work.