Best OS for x200 ?

[shak3800]

Hello everyone!



So my x200 came preinstalled with vista business , which i don't like since its slow . I have installed windows 8.1 and everything worked great out of the box , except fingreprint and pci communications simple controller which needed the AMT management engine . My question is , which OS is best to use with x200 ? Win 7 x64 or win 8 x64 ? Which is more complatible and will perform best with my laptop ?

One last question , after installing windows 8.1 and leaving the recovery partitions intact , they can't be used. My guess is that there is no way to use them on windows 8/8.1 since rescue and recovery is not compatible . If I install windows 7 x64 will I be able to use them , or the mbr is changed because I removed vista and installed other os ?




Thanks in advance

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

How much RAM do you have in that X200? A properly-set-up Vista Business should not feel slow at all.

It's hard to advise anyone on what "the best" OS is, but I've ran W7 Pro 64 on these machines - with 8GB RAM and an SSD - and it ran exceptionally well.

Obviously, YMMV.

[shak3800]

Welcome to the forum!

How much RAM do you have in that X200? A properly-set-up Vista Business should not feel slow at all.

It's hard to advise anyone on what "the best" OS is, but I've ran W7 Pro 64 on these machines - with 8GB RAM and an SSD - and it ran exceptionally well.

Obviously, YMMV.

Windows 8.1 runs well but i'm thinking of downgrading to windows 7 x64 since is the last supported os for our laptops (drivers) . They also have rescue and recovery for windows 7 which might come in good use.

I'm using 4gb ddr3 , vista is a good os but I have had bad experience with them in the past

[brchan]

Windows 8.1 performs better than than windows 7 in general, but as was said before, windows 7 has all necessary drivers. However, windows 7 drivers often work with 8.1 as well. If you want the absolute best hardware support, speed, and customizability, linux will probably be the answer, though configuration can be a bit tricky, and it is quite different than windows.

[pianowizard]

Windows 8.1 runs well but i'm thinking of downgrading to windows 7 x64 since is the last supported os for our laptops (drivers) ...I'm using 4gb ddr3 ,

I have an X200s running 64-bit Vista Business, on a 5400rpm HDD. I am happy with the performance though I suspect 64-bit 7 would be a little faster. If you can obtain 7 at a very low cost (legally I hope...), give it a try, but if you need to pay more than 30 euros or so, I say don't bother since the performance gain wouldn't justify the cost. The whole laptop is now worth only about 100 euros.

vista is a good os but I have had bad experience with them in the past

We all had bad experience with Vista in the past, but things have changed. If you do put Vista back, and if the HDD is fairy small, be sure to clean up the HDD thoroughly because the system slows down significantly when the HDD has only several gigabytes left. Go to the command prompt as an administrator, run CLEANMGR /SAGESET:1 and check all the boxes, then run CLEANMGR /SAGERUN;1 , and finally restart the machine. That can free up as much as 10 GB. Afterward, apply a bunch of tweaks such as choosing "best performance" within System Properties, making the lower and upper limits of the virtual memory match, turning off all eye candy, turning off system protection, etc. And of course, defrag the drive.

[shak3800]

Windows 8.1 performs better than than windows 7 in general, but as was said before, windows 7 has all necessary drivers. However, windows 7 drivers often work with 8.1 as well. If you want the absolute best hardware support, speed, and customizability, linux will probably be the answer, though configuration can be a bit tricky, and it is quite different than windows.

Yes windows 8.1 performs better especially in boot speed . I think I will stick with windows 8.1 and just don't use the recovery partitions . They are pretty useless at the moment . I'm a pretty Linux guru so that won't be a problem . I've been using archlinux for a couple of years now so I do believe that dual booting windows 8.1 with arch will be the best combo for my x200

[shak3800]

Windows 8.1 runs well but i'm thinking of downgrading to windows 7 x64 since is the last supported os for our laptops (drivers) ...I'm using 4gb ddr3 ,

I have an X200s running 64-bit Vista Business, on a 5400rpm HDD. I am happy with the performance though I suspect 64-bit 7 would be a little faster. If you can obtain 7 at a very low cost (legally I hope...), give it a try, but if you need to pay more than 30 euros or so, I say don't bother since the performance gain wouldn't justify the cost. The whole laptop is now worth only about 100 euros.

vista is a good os but I have had bad experience with them in the past

We all had bad experience with Vista in the past, but things have changed. If you do put Vista back, and if the HDD is fairy small, be sure to clean up the HDD thoroughly because the system slows down significantly when the HDD has only several gigabytes left. Go to the command prompt as an administrator, run CLEANMGR /SAGESET:1 and check all the boxes, then run CLEANMGR /SAGERUN;1 , and finally restart the machine. That can free up as much as 10 GB. Afterward, apply a bunch of tweaks such as choosing "best performance" within System Properties, making the lower and upper limits of the virtual memory match, turning off all eye candy, turning off system protection, etc. And of course, defrag the drive.

Yes there is even a joke where I come from since we have a word "svista" which means delete , and often people make that joke when someone has vista . But I do believe that vista are still not as good as windows 7/8 . I'm not a fan of the visual effects as well , i' m more of the guy that loved the simplicity of windows xp and windows 8 do remind me a little of win xp .

[pianowizard]

Yes there is even a joke where I come from since we have a word "svista" which means delete , and often people make that joke when someone has vista

The general public still has no clue that Microsoft perfected Vista back in 2009. Vista was certainly "svista" (thanks for teaching me a new word!) during its first two years, but has been a keeper since that, especially if you already have a Vista COA on your machine.

BTW, I suspect that even though Microsoft perfected Vista in 2009, it actually wanted people to continue to believe Vista sucked so that they would upgrade to 7. This strategy worked very well indeed!

But I do believe that vista are still not as good as windows 7/8 .

Of course it's not. But whether or not to upgrade depends on the cost. If I were you, I would pay no more than 30 euros to upgrade to 7, or up to 70 euros to upgrade to 8. But like you said, 8 isn't perfectly compatible with the X200, so I would probably rule out 8.

Vista's biggest problem is that Microsoft support for it will end in Apr 2017, versus Jan 2020 for 7 and Jan 2023 for 8. Other than that, I have no desire to upgrade any of my five Vista computers. If I still have them in Apr 2017, I will finally upgrade them (by then 8 will be quite cheap), or just keep them off the net.

I'm not a fan of the visual effects as well , i' m more of the guy that loved the simplicity of windows xp and windows 8 do remind me a little of win xp .

Vista looks almost exactly like XP, including the Start Menu. Just close the side bar, disable the eye candy, and use the Classic Theme, and Vista will look simpler than both 7 and 8. Everything considered, including monetary cost, I really think Vista is the best OS for the X200.

[shak3800]

Yes there is even a joke where I come from since we have a word "svista" which means delete , and often people make that joke when someone has vista

The general public still has no clue that Microsoft perfected Vista back in 2009. Vista was certainly "svista" (thanks for teaching me a new word!) during its first two years, but has been a keeper since that, especially if you already have a Vista COA on your machine.

BTW, I suspect that even though Microsoft perfected Vista in 2009, it actually wanted people to continue to believe Vista sucked so that they would upgrade to 7. This strategy worked very well indeed!

But I do believe that vista are still not as good as windows 7/8 .

Of course it's not. But whether or not to upgrade depends on the cost. If I were you, I would pay no more than 30 euros to upgrade to 7, or up to 70 euros to upgrade to 8. But like you said, 8 isn't perfectly compatible with the X200, so I would probably rule out 8.

Vista's biggest problem is that Microsoft support for it will end in Apr 2017, versus Jan 2020 for 7 and Jan 2023 for 8. Other than that, I have no desire to upgrade any of my five Vista computers. If I still have them in Apr 2017, I will finally upgrade them (by then 8 will be quite cheap), or just keep them off the net.

I'm not a fan of the visual effects as well , i' m more of the guy that loved the simplicity of windows xp and windows 8 do remind me a little of win xp .

Vista looks almost exactly like XP, including the Start Menu. Just close the side bar, disable the eye candy, and use the Classic Theme, and Vista will look simpler than both 7 and 8. Everything considered, including monetary cost, I really think Vista is the best OS for the X200.

Thanks for the info . Well i'm lucky to be an msdn subscriber so windows 7 and windows 8 are accessible for free thanks to my job . Anyway the only reason i would use vista in x200 is because you can use the recovery partitions and all drivers and software work like a charm , but the fact vista came preinstalled in 32bit forced me to make the switch . So i 've decided to use windows 8.1 x64 , boot is extremely fast and x200 is very responsive so far. Time will show when i add more applications to it.

[RealBlackStuff]

@shak3800:

there's no need to "quote" every post when you reply.
Just click on the postreply button on the left, under the last post in a thread, and type in your reply.
Thank you.

[pianowizard]

So i 've decided to use windows 8.1 x64 , boot is extremely fast and x200 is very responsive so far. Time will show when i add more applications to it.

As long as all drivers and applications work flawlessly, and as long as I don't have to pay too much for it, 8.1 would be my preferred OS for any computer. It's Microsoft's best OS ever, even if you don't have a touchscreen. On the other hand, I am pretty sure I will like Windows 9 even more: http://money.cnn.com/gallery/technology ... windows-9/ . I don't know when it's available for sale but it's probably within a year. If Microsoft is offering Windows 9 for $15 during the first couple months like it did for 8, I would rather upgrade from Vista to 9 instead of 8.

[topmahof]

I put Win 10 Tech preview on an X200 tablet when it first appeared and everything worked except for the pen and touch. MS just put through an update that made the pen work perfect. The touch is off about 2 inches. Calibration doesn't work yet. No issues in device manager.

I did an upgrade over the factory upgrade of Win. 7 and all my programs and apps came across and worked, including Toolbox and Power Manager. I use a german fan control that only works on Win. 7 and it works on Win. 10. It didn't on Win. 8.1.

If you do install the Tech preview, be careful. There's a keylogger installed which allows MS to see everything you do on Win. 10. I wouldn't do anything that requires a password to do it. It runs pretty quick, I like having the start menu back and all in all, I like it.

Regards,
Dave

[bit_twiddler]

My experience has been that W7 performs significantly better with an advanced format
drive, and especially on a single-spindle system. This may also be true for other
versions of Windows.