Dear CNET members,
Happy Friday to you all! This week’s topic of discussion may sound familiar to some of you. You have an older laptop that is running Windows XP, and you want to see if you can bring it up to date by upgrading it to Windows 10. However, you’re not sure how to go about the upgrade — but more importantly, you’re unsure if it can be done because of possible limitations of the hardware. Does it sound familiar? Well, this scenario is what your fellow member Hakan is finding himself in, and he has asked you for help to see if it’s possible.
As I read through the members’ responses for Hakan, I’d say most people who offered advice said that a successful upgrade to Windows 10 is dependent on how old your laptop is, and for the few folks who have already been through this trial, it will be a hit or miss. The older the laptop, the more unlikely it will be to successfully finish this upgrade, mostly because of hardware drivers not being available for your machine. As member renegade600 mentions, before doing anything, check with your computer’s manufacturer’s website to see if it has the drivers for the operating system you want to upgrade to. If none are available, don’t proceed. However, don’t be discouraged, as there are members who have had success in upgrading their old laptop to Windows 10 — it’s all a matter of trying. Member richj120952 shares a video of a person who was even able to upgrade a old NetBook running XP (remember those?) to Windows 10!
Anyway, with these type of operating system upgrades, it is difficult to determine if your old computer will be a success or not. And given that the cost to buy Windows 10 is $120 USD (no free upgrade is offered for Windows XP), you may want to consider if it is even worth the attempt to upgrade an old computer and simply move on to a new one. If you are in Hakan’s shoes, please give this week’s advice from your fellow members a read. I’m sure by the time you are done reading, you’ll have a good idea of which direction to take. And for those of you who have old laptops and were able to upgrade to Windows 10 successfully, please swing by the discussion and share with us what you had to do to successfully do the move! Thanks for your time and contributions, everyone. Have a wonderful weekend!
Have suggestions or a topic for discussion? Send me an email.
