i am going to buy new computer what do I put windows vista or windows XP?

buy a Vista, with free windows 7 voucher.

Vista Pwns XP, but you'll probably want to get W7 eventually.

EDIT: the reason your PC is only recognising 3GB RAM is cause you're running a 32-bit OS, you can get XP, Vista & W7 in 64-bit.

Microsoft is no longer selling XP. Following the release of Windows 7 later this month, MS will be phasing out all support for XP. Next time a bug or security hole is found, MS will NOT patch it and all PCs running XP will be wide open to hackers and viruses.

Software makers are no longer rdesigning software that works with XP, and most hardware vendors no longer ship XP drivers. By this time next year you will not be able to purchase anything that will tun on XP.

It is a dead OS, let it die. Do not try to make a zombie out of it.

The reason your computer can not see more than 3.3 gb of RAM may NOT because of the version of Windows you are using, but because it only has a 32 bit processor. Memory is dividing to equal size "chunks" so that the computer can tell where on the memory chip to look for information. A 32 bit processor can only hold a number up to 32 bits (or digits) in length. This means the largest number the computer can hold will only take it to the memory at 3.3 gb. It can not hold a number for 3.4 or more gb. There is no patch that will fix this because it is a physical limitation of the processor itself.

If your computer has a 64 bit processor, than you can load the 64 bit version of either Vista or the new Windows 7 and access all the memory (up to 16 tb or 1600 gb).

Order the PC with Vista. Microsoft is offering a free download to Windows 7 to anyone who purchase a computer after Aug of this year. Try Vista and see how it works. If you decide you can not stand Vista, then UPGRADE to Windows 7 rather than downgrade to a dead XP.

If buying a new computer, your best bet is to buy one that supports the latest operating system from Microsoft (if that is the OS vendor you want to run). After that, you can choose either OS. Regardless of what some folks here claim, Windows XP is still a viable operating system. A majority of corporations are still using Windows XP with little intention of moving to Vista. Microsoft will still support patching of XP simply because it is used in business and government environments. As for applications, even Microsoft is still supporting XP as can be seen by the latest Security Essentials application that is coming out of Beta from Microsoft (link below).

Vista does offer better security over XP, but it is more resource intensive. At some point though, modern hardware has become more than capable of making the performance difference negligible when comparing XP and Vista (just build a "beefy" system and you'll probably want Vista over XP). XP is probably better on lower end systems though since it requires less resources.

Oh, as far as the 3GB of RAM, that's actually a limit of the 32 bit system. XP and Vista both have 32 and 64 bit editions (granted, very few XP 64 bit systems seem to be around) and a 32 bit version of either release is still going to use about 3.25 GB of RAM and reserve the rest for PCI addressing of hardware. If your intent is to utilize the full 4 GB of RAM, I'd go with Vista 64 bit since XP 64 bit was horribly supported by MS and third party vendors.

hi computer, if you already bought your computer then i would recommend windows xp is good and dependable but if you want an adventure then i would recommend vista ultimate vista you need two add software this is the cheapest roxio mymdvd 9 and microsoft office works 9. but let me guide you to a computer that you will be very proud of both for gaming and performance try this on for size; asus M4NT8 pro motherboard &amd athlon 64x4 6000 &processor w/fan bundle it retails for $169.00. two sony 160 gb hard drive graphics card two Nvidia 9500 crossover so far so good dude. two sony cd and dvd drivers now this is a real computer now i will explain good luck hope i was helpful to you

I would encourage you to go with a computer that has Windows 7 on it.

However, most new computers today have Vista Premium 64-bit on them. And that is quite fast.

The other good thing is most new Vista Premium computers include a coupon for a free copy of Windows 7 that comes out this month.

Just so you understand:

In 3 digits, you can't address a number larger than 999. there's no "path" that would enable you to write 1,234,567 in 3 digits. If you have 1,000 pigeon holes, you can "address" any one of them in 3 digits (one if them has the address 0). If you have 2,000 pigeon holes, you can only "talk to" the first 1,000 of them. (And if the last 10 are taken by your video card, you can only use 990 of them.)

Same thing in computers. 32 "bits" is 32 BInary digiTS. 32 bits can address 4GB. If your video card has 1GB of RAM (or used the last 1GB of the system RAM) - video cards need RAM of they can't work - you can only use 3GB of system RAM. (That's why you see varying amount of RAM that you're supposed to get with 32 bits - everyone tells you what his computer says. And everyone is correct. The actual number is 4GB minus the size of the video RAM - which varies from computer to computer.)

64 bits can address a MUCH larger number, so you can have 8GB of system RAM and a video card with 2GB of RAM on it, and you can use all of it.

It's not the operating system, it's the width of the address bus (the number of digits).

64 bit windows 7 save a programmer some trouble in the future and switch now!

XP overall works faster because Vista has more things on it's computer. XP still does the trick but if your looking for the latest computer buddy I'd go Vista. Either way there is no real difference mate.

Window vista the best. windows xp is out of date....

windows 7