XP No Longer Being Supported by SP ... Windows 7???

As you may have heard, Windows XP will no longer be supported by Microsoft, which is recommending everyone update to a newer OS. I use XP and am very happy with it, but I do frequently use my computer to order things online. My understanding is that, without security updates, it will become much more likely that XP can be hacked. I think I can install Win7 without having to upgrade any hardware, but my SIL says she's heard horrible things about people trying to play Sims 2 on Win7. So far, absolutely everyone I know, in person or online, hates Win8.

So, is anyone here playing Sims 2 on the Windows 7 OS? Were there problems, or are you aware of potential problems?

I have been running Windows 7(Home Premium edition) 32 bit version on my main machine for about 3 years now and up to this point I've had no problems getting TS2 to run properly. The only real problems I have had was with newer technology like video cards not running TS2 properly, But that's really not Windows's fault. Matter of fact mostly likely the problem most are having with TS2 and Windows 7 is hardware related. Windows 8 on the other hand from what I heard is nothing but trouble when it comes to TS2. It doesn't help it's menu system was completely change from previous versions of Windows, As in it's much more like menus from cellphones and tablets.

Thank you for such a quick response. So it sounds like if I don't need to change any of my hardware to run 7, I should be fine.   That sounds much nicer than all the permutations I was running in my head for how to leave XP on my computer, but upgrade DH's to 7, and having to do all my actual business on his, and how annoying that would be especially since we can't print from his right now... and on and on.  

I concur with Aaroneous. It's funny, Microsoft seems to alternate between really good OS and turkeys. Windows 98 was good, Windows ME was frightful, then Windows XP was remarkably good, followed by the quirky Vista. Windows 7 seems to work fine once you find everything you were used to in XP. The less said about Windows 8, the better! When I got maikkij a new computer from Dell a year or so ago, I had to jump through hoops to get Win 7 and not Win 8. There are still some vendors (Newegg, Amazon, and TigerDirect among others) that may still ship computers with Win 7.

You may find Windows 7, the Missing Manual by David Pogue (O'Reilly publishers) to be useful.

BTW, I've been running Win 7 and Sims 2 without any problem.

I'm beginning to suspect my SIL was trying yet again to lure me into playing TS3.   

I'm sure I can install 7 on my computer with no problem. I'll have to check Randy's (DH) tomorrow. We both like to play on the internet too much to risk an unsecure OS.

Thanks for the book recommendation; I'll check it out.

Cher64 wrote:

I'm beginning to suspect my SIL was trying yet again to lure me into playing TS3.   

You'll find a few TS3 players on this site, but most of us were greatly disappointed     and continue with TS2 even though EA no longer supports it!    TS4 is coming, but I would guess that the main reaction is to be very, very wary.

TS4 sounds too much like TS3, with some nicer features. Since I don't do much fancy building or sim creating, I'm not that enticed by it. I still have years of TS2 playing in me, and I keep finding even more things I want to do before I'd ever consider myself done.

Mac wrote:

When I got maikkij a new computer from Dell a year or so ago, I had to jump through hoops to get Win 7 and not Win 8.

That's one of the reasons I build my own machines. I realize not everyone can do that, But it does make it easier to get the OS You want. Not only that but there's less bloatware to deal with, Companies like Dell are notorious for doing that.

As for TS3... It had promise, But fell flat on it's face. I am sorry if I am simming I don't want to do any questing, If I wanted to do that I'd go play a RPG video game or D&D. And don't get me started on Story and Age Progression.

TS4 I am still on the fence about. It looks interesting, But it's going to take more then pretty graphics to get me to play.

I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and play all 3 versions of the game with no issues.

Cher, you beat me to this post!
I've been meaning to throw some questions out, too, since I am one of those who have XP in both of my puters.

Mac wrote:

There are still some vendors (Newegg, Amazon, and TigerDirect among others) that may still ship computers with Win 7.

Since my desktop is kaput, I've decided to just buy a new one, rather than try to have the old one repaired and Windows 7 installed.
Our Staples has a Dell Windows 7 desktop PC with Intel Core i3 Processor.
It has 8 GB of RAM and 1TB Hard Drive.
I am assuming Sims 2 will have no isssues playing on it?
And can I take my Nvidia graphics card from my old desktop and put it in the Dell?  
(I just read that the Dell I am looking at comes with Integrated Intel HD Graphics. Will that do?)

I am definitely not interested in Windows 8.
I've heard bad things about it & that Sims 2 can not be played on it at all.    

Aaron, what do you mean Dell has a lot of "Bloatware"?

I want to thank everyone for their valuable input on this subject.
The clock is ticking and decisions have to be made SOON!  

Sugah wrote:

And can I take my Nvidia graphics card from my old desktop and put it in the Dell?  
(I just read that the Dell I am looking at comes with Integrated Intel HD Graphics. Will that do?)

You need to check the slots available on the new computer. Typically, video cards use something called a "PCI bus", which is a specialized slot. Most new computers come with one, but you'll have to check your video card as well.

The Integrated "Intel HD Graphics" tend to be pretty bare-bones vanilla graphics. Probably would run Sims2 but not the best.

That's my take, but wait until you hear from Aaroneous!

That computer should be able to play TS2 with max settings, But I would highly recommend not using Your integrated video card. Most integrated cards were not made for gaming and so You wouldn't have good performance with TS2.

Most likely Your Nvidia video card will work with the new computer. All really depends how old Your current desktop is, What I mean is tech older then about 10 years used a AGP port for video cards. Where as newer tech uses a PCI-E port. Your new computer I am pretty sure will use PCI-E. The only other thing You might want to watch out for is what version of PCI-E the video card and the new computer use. The computer it's self probably uses version 3(the latest version), Depending on the age of the video card it probably uses version 2 or 3(version 1 has been retired for some time). If the video card uses a version of  PCI-E that is equal to or less then what the computer uses then they will work together. I mainly mention this because version 4 is set to come out soon.

Bloatware is something all the major prebuilt computer makers install on their computers. Put simply bloatware is software they put on their computers to supposedly help the user. But more often then not it just eats up resources(memory, CPU, and so on) on the computer

So I'm not the only one still using XP, lol. I hadn't upgraded primarily because of TS2, but since I've heard that Win 7 can run it, and since XP is no longer supported, I'll likely upgrade.

But I do have a computer question. (Sugah, I don't know if this should be in a new thread, feel free to move it.) These are the specs of my current system, which built a few years ago for the game:
-- Intel Core 2 Duo E8400@3.00 GHz
-- 4 GB RAM
-- ATI Radeon HD 4850 (512MB)

After installing Win 7 I was planning to install additional RAM, but was wondering if this configuration will work well for the game and Win 7.

Alternatively, I'm thinking of getting another system and keeping my current one, offline, just for the game, although I think I'd benefit from the additional RAM, which XP doesn't support, in which case, I should upgrade to 7 anyway.

I'm glad others have questions, too! I was wondering whether to discuss my options and concerns here, or start another thread about computer configurations.

I won't go into my questions here in case Sugah wants the discussion somewhere else. Besides, my computer's in the shop today; I think it has a virus.   I run McAfee and SuperAntiSpyware all the time, and once a week do a full system scan with both of those as well as with Malware Bytes. All my scans came up clean, but I know from the behavior of my computer that it isn't clean.

Luckily, Randy's at work today so I hijacked his computer.  

I appreciate this topic too. I need to do something about my laptop since the screen is shot and it won't connect online wirelessly. I'm trying to decide if I want another laptop or a desktop or maybe a tablet (probably in addition to something else.) So I'm looking forward to reading any advise or opinions anyone has to share with everyone.

By the way, I've been playing The Sims 2 with Windows 7 (Professional) for a few years now without any major problems. I do have some occasional weird graphic glitches that come and go. I wouldn't think that would be because of the OS though.   

twerplina wrote:

But I do have a computer question. (Sugah, I don't know if this should be in a new thread, feel free to move it.) These are the specs of my current system, which built a few years ago for the game:
-- Intel Core 2 Duo E8400@3.00 GHz
-- 4 GB RAM
-- ATI Radeon HD 4850 (512MB)

After installing Win 7 I was planning to install additional RAM, but was wondering if this configuration will work well for the game and Win 7.

Your computer should work with Windows 7, But if You're able to upgrade the Graphics card I would. Also something else to be aware of... That is You should watch whether You get Windows 7 32 bit or 64 bit. 32 bit is limited to 4GB of RAM. Now 64 bit is higher then 32 bit, But how much higher depends on the version of Windows 7. For Home Basic it's 8 GB, Home Premium is 16GB, Professional is 192 GB. Enterprise and Ultimate have the same limit as Professional.

Thanks very, very much, Aaron. I feel better knowing my system will be okay. And I wasn't aware of the memory limitation of Win 7, 32-bit. From what I've heard from others, more RAM is always better with TS2.

The limitation of 32 bit has always existed in Windows, Why I can't tell You. My guess would be just so Microsoft can make You pay more for 64 bit. In most cases more ram is better for TS2. Just be aware TS2 is limited to 3 GB possibly 4 GB of ram, Anything past that TS2 won't see it.

My system:

MOBO:        Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H
CPU:          AMD Athlon II x2 250 3GB AM3
RAM:           2 GB
Graphics:      EVGA Nvidia GeForce 9500GT 1 GB
HD:             320 GB, with about 195 GB free

My computer is glitchy (has been for a couple of years, possibly since it overheated), but runs TS2 without major problems. I have the occasional odd graphic thing happen in the game, probably the same as SimEm, but nothing that lasts very long. I keep McAfee (free from my internet provider) and SuperAntiSpyware running at all times, and run complete scans with both each week. I run a complete scan with Malware Bytes once a month. About once every year or two, I get a virus or something that none of my scanners catches and I have to take it in. I blame that on myself, because I'm a CC download junkie.  

I've read that the official memory requirement for Windows 7 is 2 GB, but I've also read you really need 4 GB. So there's no TS2 advantage in going with 8 GB, even if the 64 bit OS will support it? If I add the memory up to 4 GB, will the rest of my system be OK for Windows 7?

Your system would most likely run Windows 7 I would recommend though having at least 4 GB of ram. I am currently running my machine with only 2 GB of ram(one stick of memory died, used to have 4 GB), From my own experience TS2 will stutter slightly when it's snowing or when a new character is created. Where as 4 GB of ram doesn't seem to have that problem.


You can have as much memory as You want and Windows will use it, But anything above 4 GB of ram TS2 can't see it. If Your computer has more then 4 GB of ram, TS2 will think it's just 4 GB. It's only like that because TS2 was made for 32 bit versions of Windows and 32 bit versions of Windows are limited to 4 GB.

I plan to keep playing on XP, I refuse to be bullied by MicroShaft. One day I will have to upgrade, but I don't see that day anytime soon, as long as there is gear that will work with XP I am fine.

I was perfectly happy with XP. Randy and I hate shopping, so anything we can order on the internet, we do. Now that any new security issues will be unfixed, we feel like we have to go to Win7. We're doing it grudgingly, though.   

Microsoft has a way of dragging its users along kicking and screaming! Although it does allow customization of the appearance of the windows (I hate the 'bubble' format), there seems to be no way to tell Microsoft Office "I liked it the old way."    Have to learn a new interface. Now that they're charging for it anyway, I've migrated to Open Office!    Microsoft no longer supporting XP and EA no longer supporting Sims 2...   

I used XP for many years and was happy with it. But since it never really used multi-core machines that well I was forced to upgrade. I gave up on Office long ago... I definitely don't like the ribbon, I think it's worse then that dang paper clip helper(clippy).

After using MS Office for years, I tried Open Office. I liked it, but eventually had to switch back to MS Office for compatibility reasons (I often edit files for people). I'm not sure what will happen now.

I do wonder what the real risk is for continuing to use XP. I mean, naturally MS is going to claim it's serious, since they still have a lot of XP and it's in their interest to get them onto newer OS. But with antivirus and other security measures, is it really that risky to continue with XP?