Battle Low-end PC : WinXP or Win7

[Deleted member 178]

ok guys,

My touchscreen mini-laptop here : Asus X102BA review | TechRadar

Cpu : Atom A4 1Ghz ,
RAM: 2Gb (1.44 available)

it is not powerful enough to run Win8/10 smoothly enough; so i have to downgrade it to an older OS.

my requirements:

- Fast performance , i want it to run smoothly, no lags, no hangs.
- Security: the architecture have to give me enough security , however, i can boost it by adding softs to complement it.
- Compatibility: remember , i have a touchscreen (but i can live without it)

so my choices are:

WinXP : obviously the faster choice , but in security , i lose a lot, however i have enough skills to secure it as a fortress.

Win7 Ultimate : seems to be the best choice. but im not sure 1.44 RAM would be enough to handle it.


What do you think?

 

[antreas]

If you don't run exclusive windows softwares i recommend linux for low end device.

 

[hjlbx]

I just picked up a Toshiba Satellite L655 with Pentium and 3 GB RAM.

• 1st project is deep surgery to rid it of the incredible amount of OEM "value package" garbage.
• 2nd project is even deeper surgery to rid it of everything else that isn't needed.

Once you figure all that out, then you develop system to create it, make image backup, and you are good to go...

Happy trails with a clunker, beater for breaking beta releases and malware testing.

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

Man come on
Win 7 x64 tweak it till it squeals and call it secure.
That laptop can run windows 7 nicely, your porn will lag but you will be ok lol

 

[hjlbx]

@Umbra will make system faster than when it left factory... that much I am sure of...

 

[Deleted member 178]

ok there i go:

- wiped the disk, made it MBR so i can install Win7U SP1 x64 (now im 100% sure it is malware free )
- installation on the way

to do list:

- update OS
- remove useless Win7 components
- disable useless services
- tweak the OS
- do some Security Tweaks
- Clean the OS
- make it glassy
- install Rollback RX
- Play with Applocker

 

[Deleted member 178]

This is not difficult... if I recall correctly @Umbra wrote a guide or something similar to tweak W7.

yees here: How to increase responsiveness of your Windows system

old article but still valid.

 

[ravi prakash saini]

I am confused ,given his knowledge,if Umbra is really asking for help or wants to test our knowledge.

 

[Av Gurus]

Win 7 update will take forever...
Maybe You can use WSUS offline update.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

Win 7 update will take forever...
Maybe You can use WSUS offline update.

it taks forever because of ngen update
if you manually run ngen update before windows 7 update, it would start immediately

 

[Deleted member 178]

I am confused ,given his knowledge,if Umbra is really asking for help or wants to test our knowledge.

asking to confirm my opinion, long long time i didn't use XP or Win7...

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

I am confused ,given his knowledge,if Umbra is really asking for help or wants to test our knowledge.

lol thats why my reply started with "come on man" rofl

 

[CMLew]

XP is your way to go... Win7 pose no challenge for you... So....

 

[Solarquest]

I also would install win 7. I have it running on a system with 2gb ram with no issues.
Win xp is not supported anymore by many SW vendors, nor by MSFT.
Good luck.

 

[Ink]

Windows XP should not even be an option. Are there any lightweight Linux distros?
What did it ship with?

I run Windows 10 AU on a netbook, better than 8.1 and 10 RTM.

 

[Deleted member 178]

Windows XP should not even be an option. Are there any lightweight Linux distros?
What did it ship with?

there is but i need a Windows OS; it was shipped with Win8

 

[Ink]

there is but i need a Windows OS; it was shipped with Win8

What will you be running that needs Windows?

 

[JakeXPMan]

I'm gonna take a shot and VOTE: Windows 7.
I'm currently using 7 on my laptop with Comodo Firewall and 1GB RAM + Ready Boost USB Drive. It's pretty quick, very few laggy moments.

Windows 7 should be just fine. I found out Windows 10 is much more taxing in RAM and CPU. Had to downgrade laptop to 7 again What's weird is even adding another RAM 512 + 1GB with windows 10 32bit, it wasn't any faster or smoother, just ate more RAM.

So I'd pick 7 then XP, then Linux... Linux is ok if you don't need windows programs like CCleaner etc. but since its not on the vote list.... bye penguin.

(Update) I read Umbra has selected Windows 7, good pick!

 

[Kuttz]

There is no point in using an XP for sightly more speed. For best experience out of that low power notebook, I recommend going with Windows 7 Home Premium + upgrading to an SSD drive. Upgrading from HDD to SSD drive offers substantial performance upgrade even on a low power hardware.

 

[Aura]

Cpu : Atom A4 1Ghz ,
RAM: 2Gb (1.44 available)

it is not powerful enough to run Win8/10 smoothly enough; so i have to downgrade it to an older OS.

I can tell you that this laptop will handle Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 smoother than Windows 7. This is why I always install 8.1 or 10 on low-end PC and not Windows 7.

Also, Windows XP is already discarded for being outdated, vulnerable and a huge security hole.

 

[Aleeyen]

You actually may not be able to run XP properly because of driver problem. Its also nearly impossible to install XP on some newer machines as XP is not able to recognise newer hardware components.