Hi,Can't help but wonder whether Microsoft is about to shoot itself in the foot yet again:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2350740,00.aspI, for one, see no pressing need to change to Windows 7 in the foreseeable future. XP Home (32 bit) works just fine.I am guessing there will be many like me who are unlikely to be tempted unless Microsoft are prepared to rethink their policy on this one.Who needs the hassle? Very few, I'll wager, when the effort involved to move a highly complex and customized stable XP based installation to Windows 7 is just too much effort. I say wake up Microsoft and get your market research teams to earn their keep. Things are not the same as they were in the days of Windows 98 and 2000.Edit:As an aside, if Microsoft really want to do something useful for their legions of reluctant supporters then how about developing a utility which would guarantee problem-free motherboard upgrades without the need to reformat and reinstall everything. I would have thought the time has now arrived when this could be accomplished.Mike

Hi,Can't help but wonder whether Microsoft is about to shoot itself in the foot yet again:-----------I, for one, see no pressing need to change to Windows 7 in the foreseeable future. XP Home (32 bit) works just fine.Mike

Mike- I'm in full agreement- no plans at all beyond XP Home. In fact, I have blocked XP updates after 2.0 on the grounds that updates may cause more problems than they solve.Same goes for FS9 which sits at 1.0 on my 'puter! Everything runs smooth as glass- nary a hiccup with AVG running interference. And no plans to update my 5+ yr old AMD XP2200 'puter! Still on the original XP & FS9 install. Disc 4 just keeps on spinning!Alex Reid

Personally, I would rather see MS develop a emulation layer to allow any MS windows based program to run flawlessly on linux.I see win7 as a huge improvement over win vista, however I can not help but feel that I would rather do a full swap to linux. Linux just seems more capable to me, and I would much rather be able to just run straight linux than having to dual boot or use a VM.

Cruachan: Microsoft is great at that. For a company that's 'committed to education' (of which the Flight Simulator programme plays no small part), they seem to only be concerned with all this 'profitable' FPS bullsh**. Seems all they care about anymore is money. As far as shooting themselves in the foot: that's what happens when greedy nerds play with guns.

Cruachan: Microsoft is great at that. For a company that's 'committed to education' (of which the Flight Simulator programme plays no small part), they seem to only be concerned with all this 'profitable' FPS bullsh**. Seems all they care about anymore is money. As far as shooting themselves in the foot: that's what happens when greedy nerds play with guns.

I'm going to respectfully request that you discontinue the use of asterisks to mask foul language. If the forums don't permit the language in the first place, than using symbols to still get the word(s) into your post is disrespectful to AVSIM and those who don't wish to be confronted with such language.

Cruachan: Microsoft is great at that. For a company that's 'committed to education' (of which the Flight Simulator programme plays no small part), they seem to only be concerned with all this 'profitable' FPS bullsh**. Seems all they care about anymore is money. As far as shooting themselves in the foot: that's what happens when greedy nerds play with guns.

I agree with you except actually Nerds were replaced long ago by professional managers who do not have a clue about anything except the old sack of tricks of bulling customer to buy their way.I upgraded to XP-Home way back in 2003 from Windows 98 to this day. But that was when Nerd#1 was still in town. There were only two choices back then. Home and Professional and that was that. Now there is Premium, Ultimate, this and that which are nothing more than pure BS just to charge more.I am not oppose to making money as fast as you can in principle but do the homework and put real things in place that are worth the trouble of paying more. Do not treat customers like imbeciles or something you just harvest.MS wants to make money in these last quoter's???1.- Fire the guys that cancel FS-11.2.- Make Windows 7 Home and Professional (for business).3.- Let Windows 7 upgrades even from DOS if there is anyone still that far behind. Even from Apple OS!!! Does anybody really believe Google will just do an OS for the net??? I would do one that even my fridge and laundry mat can run it. Even Apple's. Why take a piece if I can get the whole pie. Windows is the plate were food is served on top of it. I hope MS doesn't mind to learn how to eat food directly from the table without table cloth. They just got to be ... kidding me. Give me Nerds anytime of the year over professional managers, spitting. :( Monopoly only works for Hasbro, for ... sake,IMHO,MAB

I must disagree. As much as I hate to say it, eventually, we're all going to have to upgrade. And this is coming from the guy (me) who runs Windows 2000 on his ThinkPad and XP Home SP2 with FS9 on his desktop. I hated Vista--overblown crap, I think everyone will concur. I'm considering buying Windows 7, though, because it's stable, compatible, and (I admit) looks kinda cool. Right upgrade at the right time. I know most on AVSIM will stick with XP (I will, too, for FS9, simply because it works--well), but at 8 years old, I think it's the right time to move on.The different versions--Ultimate, Premium, etc--is still stupid, though. ;)

As much as I hate to say it, eventually, we're all going to have to upgrade. And this is coming from the guy (me) who runs Windows 2000 on his ThinkPad and XP Home SP2 with FS9 on his desktop.

Hi Zach,You are, of course, correct. However, my contention is that Microsoft's current upgrade policies aren't exactly encouraging the vast numbers of existing XP users to do so now. I might be tempted if they had taken the trouble to provide an upgrade route that I could accept. As things stand, I feel I'm being offered the proverbial two fingers which, paradoxically, has helped my decision not to upgrade. Why? Support for XP continues until April 2014. Fortunately Microsoft have little choice in the matter but to continue support as the resistance to upgrade from XP (SP2/3) to Vista (SP2) remains very strong and the current economic climate precludes irrational spending on a new operating system which, quite clearly is not needed by business concerns running software quite happily on a stable version of XP.My feeling is that their mistake was to release too many operating systems over too short a time span. It might have been better if they had invested more effort in the development of Windows 7 and skipped Vista altogether. Time spent ensuring Windows 7 would last well into the future, provided upgrade routes for 2000, XP and Vista users and, above all, had an architecture which supported further development and evolution. Sadly, as always, the need to generate more revenue appears to be overriding any other considerations. Yes, Windows 7 appears to be well accepted by those early adopters and reviewers (who may or may not have a vested interest in promoting the success of Vista's successor). It appears to be showing great potential in many areas. Unfortunately, the continued existence of two other perfectly good operating systems is likely to hamper its success for many years to come and this could be disastrous for Microsoft.It seems perfectly obvious to me that they should be providing ways for XP users to upgrade their existing installations without the need to dual boot or format and reinstall everything. Things have moved on since the days of Windows 98/ME/2000. When you have a stable operating system the likelihood is that much time and effort has been spent installing and configuring diverse complex software to satisfy each end user's specific needs. Why would that user want to destroy that investment when clearly there is no pressing requirement to do so? It just doesn't make any sense.What we need is an operating system that protects itself in every sense of the word and consequently will rarely need to be reinstalled; an operating system that provides a guaranteed solution to Motherboard upgrades; an operating system that allows further development and evolution. Impossible, I hear you cry! I wonder. I suspect the technology and creative spirit and programming skills do exist today. All it requires is the willingness to go that extra mile.Meantime, I say again, Microsoft you do need to look again at providing an acceptable upgrade route for all the XP users out there. Failure to satisfy that requirement may be your latest and greatest misjudgement of the global marketplace.Mike