Windows XP is ancient, ugly, unstable and embarrassing.
Do you want to burn a DVD? OH WAIT WINDOWS XP CAN'T NATIVELY BURN DVDS. AHAHAHHAHAHAH.
Enjoy your start menu which takes up the entire screen, and your lack of instant search.
Enjoy the limitation of 4GB of RAM, including your GPU's RAM. XP 64bit you say? Completely unstable and no support.
Enjoy your hideous control panel with a huge block of options to scroll through, with absolutely no categorising or sorting.
Enjoy your lack of a wallpaper slideshow. Stare at the same wallpaper every day.
Enjoy your constantly crashing programs, and an 'end task' button in the task manager which actually doesn't work.


You know error reporting in Windows XP? You know how it's useless, so you always click 'Don't send'? Well, in 7, you are actually given solutions.
Enjoy your lack of Aero snap. Want to see 2 windows side by side? You have two choices. Either painstakingly click and drag minimised windows into position, or end every single program except the two you want side-by-side, then right click on the start bar and select some option hidden somewhere.
Enjoy your lack of jumplists. How do you instantly go to a frequent website from your desktop? Use a bunch of saved bookmark files in some unsorted folder? Well, I just right click on the Firefox icon, and click on the site I'm interested in.
Enjoy your lack of items on the start bar which give useful information. If I have a download in Firefox running, or a copy-and-paste job in explore, the icon becomes illuminated with a status bar.
XP doesn't even have Homegroup support.


How do you go to your desktop which is beneath several windows? Click that little desktop button which is like 1/8 the distance from the left to right of the screen, and about 10 pixels up from the bottom? Make sure you aim carefully! On Windows 7, I swing the mouse to the absolute bottom-right and click. No aiming necessary. Fast and easy.
Want automatic, clean, safe, and up-to-date backups? Not with XP! I see over 15 steps on the Microsoft support page to get a backup on XP. How many steps on 7? 5 for the first time, and none from there.
Let's have a race. Open something you'd never use, like Paint (Which is better in 7, by the way). I press the start key, type paint, then press the enter key. Done. 2 seconds. Hmm, since you're using XP you'll need to click start > All programs > Accessories > scroll scroll scroll search search search > Paint. 15 seconds.
How do you access all of your recent word docs? Well, I click start, hover over the word icon, and see all of my recent docs to the right. Easy. XP? You probably have folders upon folders of out-of-date shortcuts.


DirectX 10? DirectX 11? XP has neither. Support is dwindling. Enjoy not being able to play 50+ games at their best quality.
Oh, something deleted your boot.ini. Oh dear. Well, Windows 7 doesn't have anything that archaic, and one automated and easily accessed Startup Repair later and you're good to go, with no loss of files, full reinstall and faffing about with command prompts.
Hmm... Your display driver crashed for the billionth time today, giving you a BSOD? What a shame. Windows 7 can automatically reboot your display driver. Yes, often without even crashing the game.
Want to connect to a wireless/VPN/mobile broadband/etc network? Like 2 or 3 clicks on 7. XP? Well, did the internet even exist in those prehistoric times? No wonder it takes like 10+ dialog boxes to do things so menial.
It's time to use Windows Update on your XP computer! Let's see, was it Microsoft Update or Windows Update? Oh, I forget, I'll just click one. Ok, here opens Internet Explorer and OH GOD THE TOOLBARS ARE EATING MY FACE. Yep, now we just wait 10 minutes for the search and...oh... no updates. Sadface. Windows 7? Automated. If you want to go over advanced or optional updates, just type Update into your inta-search, press Enter, and a dedicated, in-OS UI appears. Which searches for updates in seconds! Sweet mother of all things holy, UPDATING IS EASY.


Oh dear, you have several notifications. Look near your clock. THOUSANDS OF ICONS ALL FLASHING ARGH MY EYES. THEY STRETCH OUT SO FAR TO THE LEFT MY TASKBAR IS GONE NOW. Windows 7? Click the arrow, and a little box appears above. It's 2D rather than 1D, so it fits a huge number of icons in a small space. Oh yeah, furthermore, some of these notifications are now added to the action centre. Got an OS update, security warning, maintenance process and more begging for attention? It's all in one icon rather than dozens.

Windows 7 is both shinier AND more usable. XP consists of huge lists to achieve the same thing with 4x the clicks and mouse movement.
System requirements? Don't make me laugh. 2GB of RAM costs $25. Wait a minute. You can't upgrade anyway, because you're using a 32bit OS.

Your PC is the operating system you use. If your OS it out of date, then your entire system is, too.


Anyway, that's my rant. Update today. It's so much better and it affects every day of your life.