[ad]Dear Computer Lady,
I have a dell desktop computer that has the old windows xp, so therefore I cannot get on to the internet.
If I take my computer in to install windows 7, would my computer be able to handle it, and would I lose all of my files if the repairman is able to put windows 7 into it?
Thank you for your help, Eva
Dear Eva,
If you bring your computer in to have Windows 7 installed on it, your repair person should run diagnostics on your computer first to check for two things. First that the hardware on your computer is in good working order. There is no sense in paying for an upgrade, only to have a hardware component fail in a month or two. Second is that your hardware meets the requirements for Windows 7. Not just the minimum requirements, because your computer will be dreadfully slow if it just meets the minimum requirements for Windows 7.
If your hardware is in good working order and has enough RAM, Hard Drive space, and processing power to run Windows 7, then you will need to backup all your files before you have Windows 7 installed. There no upgrade path available from XP to 7, so a clean install will need to be done. Just have the repairman backup the files first, then replace them after installing Windows 7.
Elizabeth
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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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Let me suggest that it might be cheaper and easier to install a Linux product to run this computer rather than Windows 7. windows 10 is coming out soon and is free as well, so if Eva is willing to wait a little while she could be entirely up to date with Windows 10. I use an XP online every day with AVG Free and have had no problems at all. Yes, it’s slower than my windows 7 computer, but it is more convenient, as it is a desktop while the other is a notebook computer. Or, if Eva mostly just surfs the web and reads email, she could buy an inexpensive tablet, probably for less money than installing Windows 7. My Kindle Fire HD was less than $100, including a case.