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#31
Compared to XP:
7 is just as fast if not faster.
It's also a huge upgrade in the user interface and experience department.
Out of the box support for devices is also vastly superior.
I'd like to see you install XP and immediately after, open world of warcraft.
You can't. You must first install motherboard chipset drivers, Graphics card drivers, and most likely sound and wireless drivers as well.
Both:
The underlying core of the OS being coded for better multi-cpu awareness provides speed improvements to multitasking or multi-threaded applications.
The new taskbar is awesome.
Vista:
Tweaks have been made to the user interface to make those hard to find options; easier to get to.
Better device support.
The aero desktop effect is much less likely to disable itself at any given time.
This is most apparent when playing a video game.
This greatly improves UI consistency going from task to task.
Due to the improved aero code, Multi-Media-Tasking also has much better support.
On vista; Play a video on your second monitor, then load a game on the main. Aero is kicked down to basic, screwing up the playback of the video on your second screen. It's not very pretty and is the main cause of me not using vista.
Vista is still slow.
The service packs did fix a some bugs, but when it came to speed, they were more a placebo then an improvement.
7 is FAST FAST FAST FAST FAST FAST FAST.
General perception.
Vista was viewed as bloated, slow, incompatible, headache inducing piece of garbage. And still is today.
When 7 reached public beta, It was already viewed as being worlds better in every department. The public perception on 7 is highly favorable.