General Chat

Forking out for a new computer just to run IE8 9 or 10 or forking out around £ 30-40 for a Home Version of Windows 7 is truly using an 8 ton hammer to crack a nut.

For those with older P4 and AMD systems happily running under XP there is an excellent solution, free.

Install Firefox.

not very complicated then.

Not everybody wishes to use Firefox

Well if they want to go on using XP then IE7 is not going to cut the mustard.

Here's a a thought

http://www.freezetag.com/mobile-games/etch-a-sketch-android/

Why the fuss about upgrading IE?

FF isn't fussy about its OS so even our ten year old P4 XP computer with a gig of memory will run FF 22 quite happily (yes I know it is a beta version but I am ok with that) and for everyday web browsing performance wise it is no different to either of the W7 desktop and laptop we have, which in theory are much more powerful machines.

Mozilla offers this add-on for Firefox

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ie-tab/

which allows Mozilla to emulate IE either on a site by site basis or globally. It runs as fast as Firefox though which is a good thing as IE7/8 are darn slow.
Also much more secure as it does not emulate IE7/8 1001 security holes.

I was asked by a number of people how to upgrade IE.

This is not a thread about which is the best browser to use.

It is a direct response to people who have asked me how to do something.

If somebody asks me where is the best place to trade up their Ford Focus for a newer model because it is what they are used to and like, I respond to their actual request and don't try to persuade them to buy something different.

If they ask for advice about different browsers then I am more than happy to discuss the pros and cons of the various ones available.

As Inspector Green Pen says there is no point in trying to upgrade Internet Explorer assuming
(a) that the existing computer is running XP assuming and
(b) that it has already got as far as IE8 through Microsoft updates. If perchance it is running IE6/7 then UG to IE8 at once!

The core problem is that no computer sold bundled with XP will really be capable of running any of VISTA/WIN7/WIN8 - that especially applies to laptops.

The only exceptions are a few high end laptops (which even then don't have the graphics grunt) and some gaming machines. I suppose we might see parents taking over their kids' old machines ....

Getting a new version of Windows and new computer just to run a newer version of Internet Explorer i.e. version nine or ten is plain nuts unless you want a new computer anyway. Otherwise as IGP says the sensible answer is to install Firefox and if you like the IE look install an IE theme / emulation.

Windows 7 is better than XP for sure but no longer on sale. I warned people to grab a copy six months ago or take up the £ 25 offer for Win8. Now it is too late.

The trouble with trying to graft Win7 or Win8 onto an older machine which has been running XP is that there is nearly always a big problem in both locating and installing drivers for all sorts of things - printers, scanners, sound cards, webcams and so on. The malware people are having a field day offering "free driver downloads" which may or may not deliver the correct driver but are sure to install a ton of adware and such.

If all you want from a computer is the internet, multimedia and basic text processing then a tablet is a far better bet than any PC. It is Microsoft's misfortune that they do not have a reasonably priced tablet and the performance tablets they do have run red hot.

The reality is that XP machines with a Pentium 4 2.8 or better, 1 GB RAM or better, an up to date browser ( eg Firefox) and up to date AV and firewall ( obviously not Microsoft after April 2014) will go on being web capable and running Office etc until the end of 2015 and probably after that.

It may be worth mentioning to people who don't make backups that the reliability and lifetime of SATA disk drives is nothing like that of the old IDE drives. Sudden failure at any time - even within the first few months - is far from unusual and playing up after 2/3 years very common.

Just because people ask the wrong question does not mean that somebody has to answer it.

Rollo you are doing precisely what I politely requested you not to do.

Can we please keep this thread clear.

As for installing newer operating systems on older machines - it is very simple and I have done it many many times with no problems. Drivers are rarely an issue and it really is easy - as long as you know what you are doing of course.

Now, can we please not turn this into a technical thread.

I did respectfully ask you not to so that it remains in simple, plain English for the people that requested it in the first place.

In simple plain English upgrading the average old XP machine 5 to 10 years old is a waste of time and money.

By far the most cost effective way of getting a modern browser on old kit is to install a new free one such as Firefox, Chrome or Opera. Pale Moon, a variation of Firefox, is especially good with GenesRU.

there u go