I'm going to use MS assisted upgrade to W10 before it runs out on 1/1.

I'll use Aomei Partition Assistant, or Minitool Partition Wizard to create a separate partition on the 500G HD and install W7 Pro on it, since I know I can't upgrade to W10 from XP. After the upgrade to W10, I assume I should be able to then use EasyBCD to decide which OS to boot from till I get W10 completely up to speed.

Do I have this right? If I mess up the XP on her laptop, I'll need to become a carpenter, since I'll need to build a doghouse.

I think the whole exercise will be a big disappointment for both of you and you will have to become a carpenter anyway. If you do this, will Her laptop be capable of running windows 10 well? I would get a nice USB 3.0 external hard drive large enough to copy her hard drive to and a nice new Windows 10 laptop and make a small investment, $5.00, in a standard menu program like Start 10. The new laptop will operate like XP and transferring her data will be a snap while you have plenty of time to do that and find programs that she can use on Windows 10. The only fear in a process like this is fear itself. Within two weeks She will be glad She dropped the boat anchor and moved on.

Thanks. Please elaborate. Can you give me step by step? What is Start 10. Please take me by the hand. Also,when you say copy, do you mean image or clone?

Quote:

Also,when you say copy, do you mean image or clone?

I think he means copy and paste the user data.

I would be glad to lead you by the hand, but more instant communication would be helpful. I started making XP lookalikes since Vista 64 became prime time. The hardest part of it was getting the customers to move along to better computer specks and giving up what they were used to. I had no complaints. My only problem is that I don't have a XP machine and my memory is fading but there is more than enough expertise on this site to help you find all her data. Email might be the biggest problem but she could get a Gmail account and forward everything important so it is preserved if there is not a good way to import it.

GreyFalcon...Re instant communication...My previous message was at 8:34 AM est. I've been out all day and just returned, and only now, just seen your latest message. I will be giving you her complete computer specs shortly. Please stand by. Thanks in advance

SPECS

Dell Latitude 630

Cpu...Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 at 2GHz
Ram...3G DDR2
Graphics
1280 x 800 at 60Hz
Intel 965 Express Chipset
Hard Drive...500 GB

XP installed on 150 GB C partition, with 82% free, and 316 GB available on D partition. Already installed W7 Pro, 32 bit on D, which will be upgraded to W10, courtesy of MS, before 1/1.

Only vital programs she needs to save are Facebook and email, which currently is Outlook Express, which we will change to Thunderbird.

You can try the upgrade but I think the 965 Express chipset is going to give you problems. Even if it does work you are on a dead end path with a pitiful cap on the ram you can use with a 32 bit system. It will take a clean install of windows 10 to convert your system to 64 bit where I believe you can use 8GB of ram in that laptop. So the big question is, Is an upgrade copy of windows 10 worth all of this work. A new laptop comes with Windows 10, has great graphics probably plenty of ram to run Windows 10 nicely and you only have to transfer your data once to have a perpetually updated operating system for the life of the laptop. Facebook is just a log in from any computer or browser. If Thunderbird will run on XP I would install it and import your outlook express into it. Then you could download and run MozBackup so you could transfer the mail to any computer with Thunderbird with the backup file and MozBackup.

Thanks. Good advice on Tbird for XP. Thoughts on a decent lo cost refurbed W10 laptop, if we dump the XP laptop?

Update to W10 completed on this XP laptop. Went OK. What is the best way to transfer stuff from the XP partition?

I agree with GreyFalcon, you can't stretch the life of old computers forever. What are the processor, memory and hard drive specs of this old laptop? How much free hard drive space is there? Chances are that the video hardware in this laptop are not supported in Windows 10 so you will get the generic video driver and limited choices for screen resolution.

I know people are resistant to change, but there have been several releases of Windows since XP and it's definitely time to move on.