Windows 7 or 8 needed

[cheese1566]

Just came across an old laptop. It's in good shape but would like to move it up from Windows Vista to either 7 or 8 for operating system ( not 10).

anyone have an old system disc with a valid key ?

:coffeecom

[ozarkhillbilly49]

cheese why not try linux?? it's free and runs faster than winders!! pm me and i'll help you get started with it if you want. may take a bit to sort a problem IF you run into one. i ain't got much education! (note screen name).

[DougGuy]

+1 for linux mint 18 Cinnamon. Easiest to install and run IMO. You could go from win9x or win7 to Linux Mint with absolutely zero introduction. There are 4 distros of Linux Mint 18, each has the same core, but bundle various components into the desktop. The Cinnamon desktop is the most user friendly and intuitive.

It comes with the full blown office suite and can handle any M$ document, and of course it is FREE. All of it. And if you need or want more things all you have to do is tell it to search in the software manager, it will find it and install it plus the dependencies.

It will also let you uninstall stuff you don't want, for instance the music player that wants to take over your music colletction and organize it like itunes, which I quickly uninstalled and installed a package called "DeadBeef" which is a simple player with EXCELLENT quality audio.

You can install WINE, an emulator that will let you install and run programs you used in windows. If you install STEAM, it will let you play windows 3D games.. I don't game but it's pretty cool how far linux has come for desktop.

[RayinNH]

Doug the only problem with Mint 18 or Ubuntu 16 (I think is the newest) is that they run slow on older hardware. I have an XP computer or should I say XP less as it's no longer there. I have Mint 18 and while it's very polished looking I don't use it often as things just move too slowly. I am using MX15 and it runs pretty well on my system just not as glitzy as Mint but fully functional for most things that anyone would do on the computer. I have both operating systems on the computer so I can choose which system to use.


But to the OP, forget Windblows and go Linux. You'll be happy you did. Here's some to choose from
http://distrowatch.com/

[Fordcragar]

You might check on EBay, I think that I bought one for about $12. Actually, you aren't buying the key code, you are buying part of a computer and the key code.