Which version of Windows?

[agarny]

Hi,

I have been using Windows Vista since it has been released and though there are some cool things in it, I cannot help but feel frustrated at its relative sluggishness compared with Windows XP. My (scientific) application runs also slower under Vista than XP, which is somewhat frustrating.

I am therefore considering going back to Windows XP or even Windows 2000. The only thing, though, is that I need a 64-bit system (I want to be able to access the 4 GB of RAM of T61p). I believe this means that Windows 2000 (Pro) is not an option?

Otherwise, has anyone tried Windows XP Pro 64-bit on a T61p? If so, is there anything that I should be aware of?

Cheers, Alan.

[SHoTTa35]

64bit XP is a lot worse than 64Bit Vista. Everyone i know says 64bit Vista runs really fast but if you're looking for faster opening of windows and all that then XP might be faster for basic usage.

Your application probably needs to be updated which would allow it to perform better under Vista. Is your application 64bit anyways or just a 32Bit app being emulated? Eitherway i don't you can go 64bit with Windows 2000 Pro, only maybe the server version.

[carbon_unit]

You don't need 64 bit to access 4gb ram. See this thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=49703

[erik]

server 2003 standard + service pack 2 is the only way to have 32-bit windows and access all 4GB.   the only problem is that a legal copy will cost around $699 USD retail.  

so far i've been happy with vista ultimate x64 after getting 4 GB of memory.   it was painfully slow before that.   it takes more time to optimize than a clean installation of 2003 but the end result is a fast OS.   i've found 64-bit drivers for most of my hardware and am finding less reason to use 2003 these days, especially with the new features and improvements in both the OS itself and IIS7.

[agarny]

64bit XP is a lot worse than 64Bit Vista. Everyone i know says 64bit Vista runs really fast but if you're looking for faster opening of windows and all that then XP might be faster for basic usage.

How do they evaluate the relative speed of Vista? When I say that my application runs faster under XP than Vista, it's probably worth pointing out that XP runs under VMWare on my Vista system. In other words, if anything, I would expect anything running under a VM to be slower than under the main system. Yet, my applicaiton under XP in a VM is faster than under Vista native. Go figure?!

Your application probably needs to be updated which would allow it to perform better under Vista. Is your application 64bit anyways or just a 32Bit app being emulated? Eitherway i don't you can go 64bit with Windows 2000 Pro, only maybe the server version.

It's a 32-bit application, like most Windows applications (apart from those that come with Windows XP/Vista 64-bit), which makes me wonder on what basis those you know claim that Vista is faster than XP.

Otherwise, I seem to recall reading somewhere that 32-bit applications are not emulated under Windows Vista 64-bit.

Finally, a quick search before I posted my original message taught me that only the server version of Windows 2000 comes in a 64-bit flavour.

[agarny]

so far i've been happy with vista ultimate x64 after getting 4 GB of memory.   it was painfully slow before that.   it takes more time to optimize than a clean installation of 2003 but the end result is a fast OS.   i've found 64-bit drivers for most of my hardware and am finding less reason to use 2003 these days, especially with the new features and improvements in both the OS itself and IIS7.

Do you have a T61p too? How did you optimise it? Any URL that you could share?

Also, regarding IIS7, I have it set up on my system too. Something that annoys me big time though is that I regularly get a message that reads "IIS Worker Process stopped working and was closed". I have tried to google for it, but have been unsuccesful so far. Any idea about that? I am using PHP and wonder whether that wouldn't be somehow related to it.

[johnvndnbrk]

Hello: I've used both Windows Vista 32 & 64 bit versions but did not experience and noticeable difference in performance using Vista 64 on my T61p with the 4 Gigs of RAM I have installed. Perhaps the best way to determine if this is the case for you is to give Vista 64 a try.

I've been messing around with Windows Vista Ultimate 32 as well as 64. To assist with returning to "base" installations I've invested in Acronis True Image 10, which does an excellent job of backing up and restoring an image of your hard drive to a USB external device, in my case. If you want to have the assurance of being able to return to either one of these configurations, I think you would find this tool helpful. Even if the Acronis is not supported on a 64-bit OS, you can use the boot disk alone to both backup and restore 64bit or any other OS.

I have heard complaints about too many driver compatibility issues with Windows XP 64, so have not tried this. Windows Vista 64 does not allow for unsigned driver installations and you will not receive a prompt to override this message, as is the case with Windows XP 32 (although I believe the only driver I was missing was the biometric driver used for the finger print reader security hardware). Also, I found that many of my applications installed in the c:\program files(32) directory, so no gain here. Ultimately, the most efficient Windows Client operating system I have found that supports all my software and hardware driver needs has been Windows XP 32, and have reverted back to this 3 or 4 times after trying Vista.

There is some confusion about the 4Gig limit imposed on 32 bit programs, with me being one of those confused. From what I understand 32 bit OS'es can use 4Gigs but only dedicate 2Gigs for a given program with the other 2Gigs shared with other applications/resources. You can add a switch to the boot.ini file (i.e. /3Gig) in which 3Gigs would be used and the remaining 1Gig shared, and there are some other "tricks" out there, but this is well beyond my understanding.

John

[erik]

Do you have a T61p too? How did you optimise it? Any URL that you could share?

Also, regarding IIS7, I have it set up on my system too. Something that annoys me big time though is that I regularly get a message that reads "IIS Worker Process stopped working and was closed". I have tried to google for it, but have been unsuccesful so far. Any idea about that? I am using PHP and wonder whether that wouldn't be somehow related to it.

yes, my current T61p setup is listed in my signature.

i referenced about a dozen different sites regarding vista optimization but didn't bookmark them.   vista rewired was a good one.   i'll post more links when i run across them again.   the main things were to leave weekly/realtime defrag running but disable UAC, indexing, and any other unnecessary services.

my IIS7 has the same error and i'm also running PHP for x64 systems.   sounds like it's a conflict with PHP.   but, even with the error, IIS seems to stay online without any other problems.