Will Windows 7 improve performance

Souljacker

Souljacker

Souljacker

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I have a spare copy of Win7 thanks to the student offer and I was thinking about installing it on my parent's PC, as it chugs under vista.

It doesn't handle running firefox and itunes at the same time, let alone adding Word into the equation. I've disabled even the aero basic theme and I am using the windows basic theme.

So, will I see a performance increase if I upgrade to win7, or would it be a waste?

The spec:

Athlon x2 4000+ 64
2Gb Ram
xfx 8400gs 512Mb
320 gb HDD
 
Over Vista you won't notice any great difference with Windows 7 unless you bunged a couple of Gb of RAM in and a pendrive for readyboost.

Personally I wouldnt' bother.

Check your AV isn't one that hogs system resources.
 
Souljacker said:
About 40.
Click to expand...

LOL That's a fair few. I have run Vista on a machine just like the one quoted by you, except my CPU was an Athlon 64 3200+ x2. It flew along no problems, and while not comparing to my E8600 4GB RAM rig, it certainly multi-tasked, encoded and did everything I needed just fine.

As above I suggest you eliminate AVG from the equation and perhaps ensure you have all the latest drivers. No way should that rig be unable to run a browser and iTunes at the same time - mine did four times that WHILST running a virtual machine at the same time with no bother under Vista.

At any rate, 7 is lighter than Vista and works much better on older hardware. I'd upgrade to it at any rate... Just don't enter a serial so you can use the 'trial' for 30 days in case for some reason you or they dislike it. At least that way you haven't "wasted" your serial/COA. BTW I'd strongly recommend you do a thorough scan for malware using a decent (hint: not AVG) antimalware suite. Malware could also be hogging resources. Kaspersky 2010 in trial mode would do admirably.
 
That was using firefox and itunes with its helper too.

Might well get rid of AVG - it has about 5 processes of it's own! I use Nod32 on my PC, I believe there is a trial version.

Show me a list of your 30 processes please? I'm interested as to how you have so few - I usually boot up with 36 on my PC (win7), and 37 on my parent's PC (vista).

EDIT: 12 svchosts. Why?
 
Souljacker said:
That was using firefox and itunes with its helper too.

Might well get rid of AVG - it has about 5 processes of it's own! I use Nod32 on my PC, I believe there is a trial version.

Show me a list of your 30 processes please? I'm interested as to how you have so few - I usually boot up with 36 on my PC (win7), and 37 on my parent's PC (vista).

EDIT: 12 svchosts. Why?
Click to expand...

Tbh start here - http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Once you've done that come back and tell me how many you have ;)
 
7 will be a big improvement over Vista on that system, trust me :)

Also, ditch AVG and use Microsoft Secuity Essentials
 
Vista/7 isn't about having as few running processes as possible, improve your CPU (overclocking) or increase your RAM capacity to improve performance.

Unlike XP, Vista and Win7 won't get bogged down by running processes that don't use any CPU time. On average 60~ processes are running on a day to day Win7/Vista machine anyway.
 
Well, I don't think I will be overclocking my parent's PC - I am just concerned at how slow the thing runs under vista.

I will perform a malware scan using kapersky and have a look at blackvipers site.
 
That system shouldn't be too slow on Vista. It should run acceptably well. Uninstall AVG. Also, check how much RAM is in use, and if there's anything hogging the CPU. It would benefit from the 7 upgrade but it shouldn't be absolutely necessary.
 
Sorry to slightly hijack, but has AVG fallen out of favour? I remember it used to come highly recommended on here?
Whats the best free AV to use now?
 
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