Windows Vista vs Windows 7?

i think widows 7 is better for your laptop.

Windows 7 for laptop

I'm surprised you have not experienced sluggishness all along. 2GB RAM is not enough to run Vista that well without issues and your pentium is also slow.

In theory you should be able to run Win 7 much more efficiently because that's what separated Win 7 from Vista. However, you said you "downloaded a copy of Win 7" so I assume it was a stolen pirate copy. Those are never as efficient as a legal copy and you probably introduced some virus' or malware that slowed your laptop down. So if you go buy yourself Win 7 and install it, you should see better results, but it won't be a huge leap due to the fact your resources are low (not enough RAM and not a fast pentium). My recommendation is that you just wait until the new Windows comes out (possibly will be called "Win 9" but right now known only as "Win Threshold") that will be released some time next year. If it's as good as they bill it, it will be worth it to wait.

Windows 7 for your pc

The problem is that your laptop is to old. You need a newer laptop if you expect if to work. And for future reference I would not put tons of **** on your hard drive. It will slow your **** down.