Well shoot, I'm not liking what you all are saying My main trading computer running XP x86 is 4 y.o. and seems like it's in need of a reformat. I was planning to install W7 x64 over the holidays if I can pick up a SSD on sale next week. Maybe W7 won't seem too slow with a SSD.
So many closed-minded critics in this thread. Must all be republicans and not like "change" I can't wait until the crying and moaning starts in about W8... I'd say skip W7 and just go straight to W8. I'd bet it's just because the layouts are slightly different so the issue is just getting used to something new vs. the actual operating system?? A secret: I have a bit of an advantage. I volunteer with blind people a bunch. I help people who have recently lost their site to re-learn how to use a computer with no eyes. That means no mouse and all keyboard/shortcuts. There is some speech recognition but if it freezes they still need to know how to use a keyboard. If you close your eyes and use the keyboard only you'd realize that Microsoft really hasn't changed much across the whole XP-W8 span. Either way it forces me to know all the differences and be able to teach all the in's & out's of each operating system as well as the difference between what they used to use being sighted vs. whatever they are on now. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449 ^^^ Read that (or this for XP: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301583 ) and try some out. Don't just read it once - make a habit of reading it once a month from now until forever. Learn them and you'll start using your mouse less, be able to switch screens & applications faster and know where everything is no matter what the OS. Get Windows 8 Professional. It's $139.99 and the same exact price as W7. It'll be cool and fun looking for a few days, then it'll be a royal pain in the rear end for a few weeks - and then you'll learn to love it and never go back to XP or W7.
That's what MSFT says... and of course they're trying to convince people to discard one product so they can purchase another from them... however, 1. I've never had an attack or a virus running XP on a few machines perhaps 4000 hours per year. 2. XP will continue to be supported until April, 2014. 3. After XP is no longer officially supported, odds are you could use XP for another few years without problems. (Some people still use Windows 2000 and say it's faster than XP... and they are not really much at risk of virus/malware as the scumbags who design that stuff don't target Win2000 as there are too few of them to bother." When XP gets past its end date, same will be true for it.) Since MSFT won't be supporting after the end date, one should be more diligent about backups to restore should virus or other malware be encountered. So yes, I'm just fine "using software over a decade old" so long as it functions properly. And yes, W7 is slower on every way I have to measure performance against XP...
Not a Republican, but I still don't like Odumbo's "change"... the kind that is destroying America. And worse yet, HE'S DOING IT ON PURPOSE!
Suggest getting a couple of SSDs on sale next week and try both... a fresh install of XP and W7. (Every trader should have adequate backups... that includes an extra drive or two.. not only for restoring their system but for troubleshooting.... "shit happens", you know. I can almost promise you that at some point you will be glad you have 2 spare drives... and they don't have to be expensive SSDs... cheap spinners for backup are just fine.) A fresh install will likely speed things up as will the use of an SSD vs spinner drive.
If your computer already has XP on it, meaning it is probably pretty old, leave it alone unless you have a very compelling reason to change. Anything recent (last 2 to 3 years) I would suggest Win 7. I don't know what slowness the others are talking about. I find Win 7 far more stable than XP and plenty fast. Disable animation and some other stuff not needed for the core operation. As for Win 8, really didn't like the UI, at least not on a system without a touch screen. Reviews seem to corroborate that.
once again-that's your(customer) problem,isn't? take a pick on probably thousands of different antiviruses\suites-they all will work with XP. as for me-trading is a business. that's why my trading PC's sitting on separate cascaded network and NO browsing is allowed. good luck breaking thru it.
Thanks for the advice. I was planning to get 2 SSDs next week for my main trading rig. Currently, I have 2 spinners in each of two desktops plus external drives. I clone to the secondary internal spinners each weekend and to the external ones every few months because they're stored off site. To me, it's worth the expense to save the hassle of reinstalling everything if a drive goes bad.