Windows Vista vs XP vs 7?

Forget XP. Vista the best windows 7 the best.

XP is to old

Forget XP. Now that Microsoft is not longer selling it and will end support for it after Windows 7 is released, it is no longer a viable option. If any new security holes or bugs are found, Microsoft will no longer be fixing them. Plus hardware makers will no longer be writing XP drivers and software developers will no longer be making their new programs to work with XP. Within six months of the release of Windows 7 it will be a dead OS. Forget it.

Vista, with the release of SP1 (and now SP2) is a good option. Most of the "memory hog" issues are with the Aero and other fancy video features that give Vista its unique look. Turn those off and Vista is a very stable and usable version of Windows. It does use more resources that XP because it runs each program in a separate memory section. But that makes the program more stable, reduces crashes, and makes it much more secure as a virus in one program can not affect others. If you are running Vista with at least SP1 installed there is no reason to leave it.

Windows 7 is Vista with most of the fancy video tricks removed to make it run faster. Like XP and Vista, it is limited to only about 3.5 gb of your memory. The last 1/2 gb is either setting there unused, or can in many cases be redirected for use by your video card. (Normally a setting in the video card set up.) Right now Windows 7 is (still) enjoying a good reputation. Within its general release this fall we will see what happens. It is often forgotten how much people hated XP when it first appeared.

Windows 7 will suffer from the same issues as all new versions of Windows. People will install it on computers not designed to run it, or with ancient hardware for which there are no drivers. They will find games designed for earlier versions of Windows that lack drivers for Win7 and will not be compatible, etc. And there will be a crowd of "I hate Windows 7" groupies, just as there was with all the other versions. And it will take about six months, around the time of the release of the first Service Pack for Win7, for it to become stable and usable. Happens with every version of Windows.

The main thing you can do to keep your computer running as fast as possible is NOT to change the OS, but to follow some common sense guidelines on how you run the OS.

1) Keep the number of programs and services that load every tie you start the computer to a minimum. Use the "msconfig" utility to find out what is loading from the "Start Up" tab and turn off everything you can. Will make a huge difference. Usually half your memory is eaten up by things you do not need running.

2) Make sure that you have enough free space on your hard drive for the Windows swap and temp files. You need a minimum of 10% (or for small hard drives 2 gb) of free space on your hard drive.

3) If running Vista consider adding a USB flash drive and setting it to hold your swap files as they are accessed much faster than a normal hard drive.

4) Keep your hard drive defragged on a regular basis. It really does make a difference in speed if the drive does not have to go to ten different locations every time it wants to read a single file.

5) Consider installing a second hard drive on a different controller from the main drive to hold your data. That way the computer does not have to stop reading the program, and move to a new location on the hard drive to read, then go back to the old location to read the program again to know what to do with the data. Doing this hundreds of times a second is a waste of resources. Two drives allows it faster access to both program and data.

I am running Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit) and really like it. The same computer was running Vista Ultimate and it was slow ! I highly recommend Windows 7. Stepping back to XP might not be such a good idea.

You system is the same as mine in terms of base processor and RAM and I've been running Win7 RC since it came out. Note that with vista or XP you are using at most 3 GB of the RAM you have. If you go to Win7 you will use 3.5 GB. If you go to the 64 bit version then you will use all of it.

When I went from Vista to Win7 I found (and continue to find) an amazing difference in terms of speed and reduced demand on resources.

I would highly recommend Win7.

You would see a remarkable difference. My laptop came with the minimum requirements for vista and after putting XP on it the difference was like night and day. As for windows 7, forget it. It is an exact copy of vista. I am a beta tester for it and I have had it for about a year and it sucks. They did a find and replace on vista and replaced it with 7.

You need performance, compatability RUN windows 7 RC.

I have 1.8 Ghz HP lap, with 4Gb and its pretty old in my book.

But once I put Windows 7 it out performed everything. I love Windows 7.

It came with XP preloaded with orginals. And I don't want to go back to XP or Vista again.

Windows XP!!! LOL Look at the calendar dude its 2009