What Do I Do With That Old Windows XP Computer

  One question I hear since windows xp will no longer be supported by Microsoft coming up April 8. Well one idea is to just plain recycle the old computer and save the hard drive for the data on it. You can also take the old hard drive, place it in an External Enclosure and make it into a back up drive. You can also use it to save data on such as pictures and documents. Another item you can usually use out of the computer is the optical drive ( DVD Burner) as long as it has a sata connection to the motherboard. If it is an ide connection, there are ide to sata adapters out there, but they may no be too reliable. I would reuse the SATA Hard Drive if it is 80 gigabytes or larger. if the old system is a laptop, then all you might be able to use is the old hard drive, depending on whether it is big enough.

By photo: Qurren (talk), with IXY 10S compact digital camera. (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

By Asim18 (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

  The second idea is if the computer is between two to three years old you may be able to just install Windows 7 Home Premium or Pro 32bit or 64bit on it. I would advise you to run the windows 7 compatibility checker to find out if there are any problems with the computer. If it looks like it passes then you can either install a fresh load of windows 7 or purchase a Windows 7 Home Premium or Pro Upgrade Package of software. I would check at the manufactures website to see if there are software drivers available for windows 7 32bit or 64bit. If you are trying the upgrade choice I would save all your data first. You never know when disaster will strike.

By AZorin (Zorin OS Developer) (The Zorin OS Developers, I asked them.) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

   The third choice is to go with a different operating system all together. By this I mean going with one of the Linux distributions. If you are new to Linux I would suggest doing some reading on the internet about Linux first. There are some distributions that will run some windows xp programs. If you do decide to go with Linux I would look at either Linux Zorin, Linux Mint or Ubuntu . You can download the iso file and burn it to a dvd disk. You can then boot off the dvd disk and run Linux from there. This is called a live cd and most function will run. It is a good way to see if you like it. I myself have Zorin, Mint and Ubuntu running on some of my computers. One is my old dell 8400 desktop and zorin runs in a 32bit system and has no problems. It is much faster than windows.

By Zorin soft (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

By Ubuntu (Ubuntu 13.10) [GPL (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

  The last idea is to just save your data, recycle the computer and buy a totally Windows 7 or Windows 8 New Computer. Also remember that Windows 8 is different than Windows 7. There are refurbished computers out there, but check on the warranty. The good part about a new computer is that you will have a new updated system with a warranty. I would just check and make sure your other devices such as the monitor,  printer or scanner will work in windows 7. If you use your old speakers, just make sure they have their own ac adapter to power them. There are older ones that were powered by the system such as Hewlett Packard polk speakers. These kind of speakers will not work properly.
  Thank You for reading and stay safe.