The most lightweight version of Windows?

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dpdsbd

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May 15, 2013
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10,510
I'm looking the most lightweight Windows operating system for modern use.

I want to run it as virtual machine and want it to be as small and reliable as possible but at the same time to be efficient and quite safe (i dont really want to reverse to snapshot too often).

I thought that choice is either WinXP or Win7 - but in both cases - which version would be the less ressoure consuming? Of course I dont mind turninf off all the graphic sparkles - I just want it to be as fast and effortless as possible.
 
Solution
USAFRet


Either Home Premium or Professional.
Starter is braindead, Ultimate has stuff you will never ever need (and costs way too much).

I've had both XP and Win7 as virtual machines in VirtualBox, and the difference is much like running them natively. Win7 is more reliable and faster.
Turn off all unnecessary services and startups.
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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Win7 is the more reliable of the two.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Mar 16, 2013
171,460
17,920
184,590


Either Home Premium or Professional.
Starter is braindead, Ultimate has stuff you will never ever need (and costs way too much).

I've had both XP and Win7 as virtual machines in VirtualBox, and the difference is much like running them natively. Win7 is more reliable and faster.
Turn off all unnecessary services and startups.
 
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Solution
D

dpdsbd

Honorable
May 15, 2013
5
0
10,510
What do you consider by braindead? What i basically need is to ran few applications (I only need .NET framework for them) and to be able to browse websites quite securly. As far as I've manage to read - Starter will be much smaller then either Home or Premium what is an important thing for me. Would you say it's not the case?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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Crippled on the amount of RAM usable. Win7 Starter is limited to 2GB of RAM. And I believe only 3 actual applications running at once.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978610
 
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D

dpdsbd

Honorable
May 15, 2013
5
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10,510
Thanks for the info - I googled it (just to double check) and this 2gb is really true - guess I'll stick with Home then. Also - this 3 application limit is a hoax - they wanted to limit it but dropped the idea later :)

Anyways - I'll go with Win7 Home and strip it from all unnecessary services and performance wasters.

Thanks for help :)
 
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