Hi David (from David)
I am not sure if my response is appropriate to your query, but I am snatching the chance to get , what you could call a \"blog\" of my mind.
If you tune up a Vista installation, taking out superfluous programs from the (MsConfig, for example) startup, and then use an expert, who has already done the homework for you, such as Black Viper (
www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm) you can achieve the same startup speed. One of the \"smoke\" effects that MS has evoked, is not to load some of the services
at all, until needed. I think they probably referred to Black Vipers suggestions! Another trick is that they are using the onboard memory, from boot, to load processes in parallel.
If you look through the configuration opportunities in Gpedit, you will find that all of the items, without exception, refer to Vista or even XP. Not a single one mentions 7.
Again, examine the files in the Windows folder, particularly System32. You will not find many changes, apart from the dates, from Vista.
As I stated in some posts months ago, at the first available tries of 7, I honestly believe that 7 is a tuned up Vista.
This is not a bad thing! Vista wrongly received bad publicity. It is a magnificent program. It failed very much by lacking compatibilty with a lot of hardware, and some software. The manufacturers, working with MS, have now had a chance to catch up. 7 has added a couple of new items and moved a few others around, which gives it a fresh appearance. All of these could have been incorporated into Vista, through another monster SP. The only way that Microsft were going to move on from the alleged Vista disaster, was to create something that had a good reception. The 7000 Public release was an outstanding publicity boost. If you go back to the earlier days of posts, you will see that 60% of the acclaim was for the boot up time. (250 posts on another site I visit, alone) What a stroke of genius from Microsoft!!
Memory useage, with, as I allege, the Vista tuneup and removal of superfluous items, is naturally more impressive in its use.
I do not point a suspicious finger at Microsoft. They are, at the end of the tech day, a business organisation. The Vista black shadow had to be removed. What they have done to achieve this, whether my view is right or wrong, is to be applauded.
I will certainly be moving on to 7, as it will save me the weary task of recustomising my Vista OS on every reinstallation.
For your query, at last, you will find the 7 will run, \"out of the box\" as efficiently, and more, than Vista, without the much needed tuning. I can see you have a 64 bit machine, so I would reccomend that would be your direction. Most 32 bit software will run on 7, but of course, without the 64bit advantage. I am not able to discuss the acquisition of pirated downloads, but there is an exception here. It would be to your advantage to try 7, before purchase, to ascertain that your machine is totally compatible, hardware wise - there have been some problems in this area. I would give earnest consideration to what you test with, however. Some of the pirated builds have had bugs. 7048 is, at the moment, the most stable and feature complete.