XP to Windows 7 or 8

I know nothing about buying it that way. I've always just gotten it off Newegg on a dvd.

But if the download is legit and you know how to burn the .iso to a DVD then it should be easy enough.

 

i always do my imaging offline.
it always work fine that way.

i doubt there will be much difference between Windows 8.1 and Windows 9.
one of the difference mentioned is the old Start menu, but mixed with a little bit of Metro.

i don't really care about that to tell the truth.
i have configured my Metro screen to launch my programs and it works pretty damn good.
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/attachments/untitled-1-jpg.243039/

 

That'd be a nightmare desktop for me. I have only 2 icons on my desktop. One is the trash & the other a folder (customized icon) with a bunch of shortcuts.

 

but that is not the desktop.

it's the Start/Metro program launcher.
have you even tried Windows 8?

 

Yes but I forgot it asap.

 

I dual boot both of them
There are a bit too many 32bit programs that i use that are running in emulation which slows w7 64bit down.

 

One thing to watch out for in converting from XP to a later Windows OS: the System Restore feature of XP is incompatible with later editions of the operating system. When a later Windows is installed over XP, any existing XP restore points are orphaned and cannot be expunged except by extreme measures. Ain't no way, no how to do it with Windows. So, make sure to clear out all rescue stuff before converting. After in-place conversion of a couple of machines, I had to use a Linux boot disk to delete XP orphans from System Volume Information.

 

The major consideration for XP to 8 conversions is to make sure that your legacy hardware satisfies 8's minimum requirements* (I believe the OP is good to go in this regard):

• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with support for PAE, NX, and SSE2
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
• Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• Graphics card: DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver

* (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/system-requirements)

Important are the NX bit (No eXecute) which is a security feature to disallow the execution of certain software commands (PAE, a memory address extension, is normally included in NX capable CPU's) and SSE2. SSE2 is a subset of graphical instructions needed for the Windows 8 display.

Cruise