Windows XP or Windows 7 on My Mom's Eee PC 1005HA? (With Pollage)

[Adam8281]

For Christmas I'm getting my mom an ASUS Eee PC 1005HA. I had it shipped to my house and I'm in the process of configuring it so that it's ready to go when I give it to her on the 25th. The netbook came with XP pre-installed, and I'm trying to decide whether to install Windows 7 instead. I have some extra copies of Windows 7, so the cost of the OS is not a factor. Any opinions on what I should do? My mom is not very tech savvy, and her only computer experience is with Windows XP. That tips me towards sticking with XP, however as a geek it is kind of painful for me to give her a computer with a 9 year old O.S. ^_^ From the bit of research I've done it seems that the battery life difference between the 2 O.S.s is pretty small, so that doesn't really seem like a concern. Any more compelling reasons to switch to Windows 7?

 

[lothar]

Keep her on XP.
PM me your Windows 7 keys.

Problem solved.

 

[IlllI]

My mom is not very tech savvy, and her only computer experience is with Windows XP.

this is all we need to know. keep it with xp. trust me. old people + new technology = massive headache

 

[Washoe]

xp all the way

 

[Ayah]

Way too much pain to deal with Windows 7 if you're going to be the one to teach them.

 

[Parasitic]

Just stay with XP. Make sure you have antivirus definitions up-to-date and Windows update enabled.

 

[corkyg]

I teach both XP and Vista to seniors, Either one is about the same if they are starting from scratch. But, any prior experience with one OS or the other is a strong factor. Since your mom is already familiar with XP, stick with it. If she wants to upgrade later, then consider it.

 

[Adam8281]

Thanks commenters - XP it is. Thanks Parasitic for the tip on enabling automatic updates. I disable it on my own systems, and I probably would have forgotten to enable it on my mom's.

 

[MadScientist]

If you have Win 7 already then install it. I purchased for my wife, who it not very computer savvy and over 50, a Dell mini10v and replaced XP with Win 7. She also has a Dell Inspiron 9300 with XP on it. She liked Win 7 so much better than XP that I put Win 7 on her 9300 too. Her net book also runs much better with Win 7.
Don't know what the definition of senior is. AARP starts sending you invites when you reach 50. Some motel chains require you to be 60 to get a senior discount, others and restaurants it's 55. You can start drawing SS at 62.