Book for XP users transitioning to win7?

April 8, 2016 9:48 PM

I'm not deploying Win7 on a large scale. I only have it on, I think, three of my newest computers.

I'd like to find a good book on transitioning from XP to Win 7. I'm guessing a reference type book would work best, but I'm open to anything that will help.

I have no need for upgrade advice. The PCs I have that have Win7 installed on them are all set up and running. I'd simply like something that explains how to do things in Win7 that you used to do in XP as a user/administrator. And I don't have any servers, just regular old Win7 clients, Pro and 1 ultimate.

I'm sick of stumbling around in Win7. I don't do enough things frequently enough that I remember them well. That will probably change since I'm migrating from an older XP machine to a much newer PC with Win7, but I'd be willing to buy a book if it will help ease the transition. A free, uninfected PDF would be even better, obviously.

I think I have a copy of "Windows 7 Annoyances" somewhere, but I've found those series of books to be largely unhelpful for me.

I'm guessing every book will mention Vista as well, which will suck because, while I have a copy of it, it annoyed me so much I blitzed the install back to XP. BTW, if anyone knows a way to make Vista less annoying, that would be very welcome advice because I have a 64 bit version of it vs. my XP machines which are all 32 bit XP.

Thanks in advance for any help.

posted by InsertNiftyNameHere to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Best answer: Have you tried switching views in the control panel? The search in the control panel is also very helpful.

What specific tasks are you doing that need research?

And last I checked there was no way to make Vista less annoying besides an upgrade to another version or OS.
posted by KMB at 11:33 PM on April 8, 2016

Best answer: I can recommend Windows 7: The Missing Manual, as very helpful when we made the transition.
posted by gudrun at 6:00 AM on April 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I appreciate the info on switching views (I had no idea) as well as the recommendation for Win7: The Missing Manual (I just ordered a used copy online.)

Thanks very much folks!

BTW, this is common for me. I remember the transition from NT 4.0 to XP was a bit painful for awhile also. Anyway, on an unrelated note, Win7 is my last MS OS, I think. I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and make the switch over to Linux. I'm thinking Debian, but maybe Mint. Too damn many bugs in Ubuntu.

Thanks again for the help.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 9:04 PM on April 9, 2016

Can you clarify what kind of things you're trying to do that you have trouble accomplishing with Windows 7? Even one or two of the most recent examples?
posted by anaelith at 4:40 AM on April 11, 2016

Response by poster: Well, one glaring example is the Homegroup vs. Workgroup thing. How does that help? What does it buy me, as a paying user? And why is it so hard to share a drive with an XP machine and a Win7 PC?

I also struggle with simple things like configuring the static IP address of my Win7 PC's NIC. It takes me forever to find it.

Another example is that I have a PC running Win7 that keeps telling me that my network cable is unattached. It's done this twice before (it only gets used once a week for using Skype). I made the mistake of not documenting what the solution was the two previous times, but I'm getting sick of having to babysit this OS every few months. I plug the ethernet cable into the jack on the mobo, and I see a solid link light and a flickering activity light. Why does win7 insist that there is no cable connected? I deleted the driver for the NIC and reinstalled and configured it again, but it still refuses to recognize that an ethernet cable is connected.

Very sorry to vent so much.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 11:36 PM on April 11, 2016