If you are running Windows XP on your computer, you have a few choices about whether you should upgrade to a new operating system. Here are a few choices to consider:

1. Stick with XP. After all, it’s what you’re used to. Many people still have Windows 98 on their computer and will probably never upgrade. You might be considered stuck in your ways and missing out after a while, but it will be several years before XP is considered obsolete. Microsoft will continue to support XP until April of 2014, so it’s not impractical to keep XP until then. Even after Microsoft no longer supports XP, you can still use it. Web applications and new programs may not be compatible with your computer and your computer will eventually perform significantly slower than newer ones, but if you are comfortable with what you have and don’t use it much, you might not have any problems. If you do, you can always upgrade then.

XP currently holds over half of the market share of all operating systems (including Mac and Linux) combined. As you can imagine, no one’s going to try to get rid of XP quickly, so you should have to rush either. Keep in mind though, that it might be helpful to at least learn about Windows 7 and how to use the new layout and features. You might learn that it’s not so bad and decide to upgrade. Even if you don’t, other people and businesses, like libraries or your workplace will start using Windows 7, so you don’t want to be clueless when using those computers.

2. Upgrade to Vista. If you think it would be better to upgrade one version at a time, it might sound reasonable, but it might not be worth it. Although buying a Vista operating system is less expensive than Windows 7, you will end up spending more when you eventually upgrade to Windows 7. Vista and 7 are almost identical, except 7 has improved Vista in many ways. So why switch to a new, but faulty operating system when a better one is available. If your goal is to save some money, just wait a year or so to buy Windows 7, and most likely the price will have reduced some. XP is still supported by Microsoft for three more years, so you have time.

3. Upgrade to Windows 7. This is what Microsoft would of course prefer for you to do. They even offer an “XP mode” that will allow you to run older programs that were designed to work with XP. This way you don’t have to miss out on everything you used before. On the other hand, switching to Windows 7 also means your computer will be compatible to all the newest, coolest gadgets and applications that are currently available. Once you make the switch and get accustomed to the new layout and features, you rarely miss the old versions.

Keep in mind that many computer technicians warn against immediately upgrading to the newest version of anything from Microsoft right away, like the operating systems or Internet Explorer. Many times, hackers create viruses and bugs to attack Microsoft systems, because far more people use Microsoft than any other operating system. This means that Microsoft products tend to have more security vulnerabilities. Also, Microsoft often has bugs and kinks to work out of a newly released product, so many techs will recommend waiting a year after the initial release date until you use the newest version of Microsoft products.

4. Switch to a different company. You may not have realized this, or not given it much thought, but there are many operating systems other than Windows. Although a very small number of computer users use anything but Windows, Macintosh (Apple) being the next largest user group, it’s certainly a possibility. Keep in mind, though, that some applications and websites are not compatible with operating systems other than Windows, although marked improvements have been made recently to change this.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net. Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

If you are still using Windows XP or an older version of a Microsoft Windows operating system (OS), you will be in for quite a change when you upgrade. While Windows Vista is well known for its drastically different layout, there’s a lot more about Vista to discover.

Released to the public in January of 2007, Vista set out to make some needed changes to the previous OS’s. Windows XP, the predecessor to Vista was highly criticized for its safety vulnerability. All user accounts are automatically set up as an administrator, giving them full access to all the programs, files, and system information. Vista set out to combat this and other security issues with a high level of security measures in place.

User Account Control is the primary security feature built into Vista. When certain changes are attempted to be made, a window will pop up asking for your permission to continue (you have probably noticed this many times if you have a Vista OS) and even ask for your password if you have one set up. Ironically, this is one of the highest complaints Vista gets from users—the ubiquity of User Account Control popup windows.

Another major change in the operating system is the graphical user interface (GUI). The sleek new layout, called Windows Aero, actually somewhat resembles the Macintosh OS’s design, according to many users. The new look is sharper and offers many “user-friendly” options, renames a few Control Panel options, and a few other things that are great for computer newbies, but confusing to people accustomed to older Windows OS’s.

Another change in the graphical features is the applications that you can run on your desktop on the new Windows Sidebar.  You can customize your sidebar by choosing from the Desktop Gadgets gallery, including a calendar, clock, weather forecaster, and picture puzzle.

One helpful new feature is located in the start menu. There is now a search bar in the bottom of the start menu that will allow you to type the name of any system component (like Control Panel), personal files, and programs. This will help you quickly locate things if you’re not sure where to find them! To learn more about the features and details about Vista, go to microsoft.com/vista.

Overall, Vista has received many negative reviews by both users and computer technicians for being confusing and/or unstable. As for the confusing new layout, that is to be expected, since Microsoft hadn’t released a new version of Windows in five years when Vista was released. This is the longest span of time for no new versions to be introduced. Needless to say, millions of people have become quite accustomed to XP. Even today, the majority of computer users are running an XP operating system—even more than all other OS ever made, combined!

Windows 7, the latest version of Microsoft OS’s was released in 2009 and is said to resolve many of the security and stability issues Vista had. If you have Windows Vista now because you recently bought a new computer, you might want to check out Microsoft’s website to see how you can upgrade to Windows 7. If you have a Windows XP or older and would like to upgrade to something more recent, try Windows 7. You can find out more by going to www.microsoft.com 

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net. Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

Microsoft has been a leading provider of many computer and Internet products and services. They may be best known for their operation system (OS), Windows, especially XP, released in 2001. In fact, more people use Windows operating systems (as opposed to Mac, Linux, or another lesser known OS) than all other operating systems combined. Windows XP is currently being used by more people than all the Windows OS's combined, not to mention claims about 60 percent of the entire OS market shares.

One of the quickest ways to identify the Windows XP is by the green start button and blue taskbar on the bottom of your computer screen, but it is responsible for much more than that. Microsoft in a way started over with the way they presented operating systems for their users.

Before XP (short for “experience”), there were two strands of operating systems in use by computer users in the late 90's—one was a business/networking friendly version known as Windows NT (which was upgraded to Windows 2000, in the year 2000). The other version was a consumer friendly version known as Windows 98 (succeeded by Windows ME, also in 2000).

Microsoft not only greatly improved the performance and, what they considered to be a vast improvement to usability, XP also replaced the two “strands” of Windows OS's into one operating system. XP is alternatively named “Windows 5.1” because it follows the Windows NT code base and is the successor to the NT based Windows 2000 (or, Windows 5.0).

There are multiple versions of XP, but the two most popular are Windows XP Professional Edition (similar to the Windows 2000 format), and Windows XP Home Edition (to replace 98 and ME), but every version is highly similar in the look and feel of XP. The most obvious difference in XP and all its predecessors is the major changes in the GUI, or graphical user interface. The colors, design, even shadows are significant improvements to the “aesthetic” quality, although this is a “classic” option to revert to the Windows 2000 look.

The most important reason for all the changes in the GUI was to improve the usability of all its features, especially for those who are new to computers. Options from the start menu, to the placements of icons and options were “optimized” to make computing simple to do and easy to understand (of course, these improvements may not be appreciated by those who have become accustomed to using a previous version of Windows, so not everyone agrees on the value of them).

The Control Panel, for example, was changed from previous versions to having two views. The “Classic View” just like the older versions that listed all the options in thumbnails in alphabetical order, and the “Category View” groups similar icons together to help users know where to find the controls they want.

Several upgrades to XP, called a service pack (SP), have been released since the original 2001 release. These are basically security and stability fixes that were available for free from the Microsoft website or as an automatic update. The last upgrade, service pack 3 had over 1,100 fixes! XP SP3 is the only version of XP that is still supported by Microsoft. According to the company, Microsoft will continue supporting (and provides free updates for) XP SP3 until April 2014, even though two newer operating systems, Vista and Windows 7, have already been released.

For information and troubleshooting resources, go to www.microsoft.com/windowsxp. 

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!