Does 32/64-bit, Home/Pro Windows 7 (10) run better on older machines?

[xcr]

As titles cannot be longer than 70 characters (I don't know why), here is the long form, proper title, longer than 70 chars:

Please help me to determine whether 32 or 64-bit, Home or Premium variants of Windows 7 and 10 runs better on some older machines!

Both Windows 7 and 10 is interesting. I can provide 32 and 64-bit, Home and Premium versions for both. I have these two older ThinkPads, both with 64-bit Core 2 Duo processors, one with 2 GB of RAM, the other with 4 GB. The 2 GB one came with XP Professional 32-bit preinstalled, the 4 GB came with Vista Business 32-bit preinstalled. Let's forget both XP and Vista (once, and for all). As you can see, both machines, regardless sporting 64-bit CPUs, came with the 32-bit Windows. Both had the Pro category of the older OS.

I don't need any premium OS features, net, media, light office, nothing special. I noticed the Windows 7 install ISO is larger for the Pro version, while the Windows 10 ISO is the same size for both Home and Pro. I heard it 10 Pro gives you more tweaking power, so while you might be better off with the Pro version for the 10 for performance, while, my hunch is (though I have no evidence), you might be better off with the Home version for the 7, for performance. 32 or 64-bit? I have no idea for this.

To sum it up, I'm asking for your recommendation, BOTH for 7 and 10 for both machines. That is, best Windows 7 version (32/64-bit, Home/Pro) AND best Windows 10 version (32/64-bit, Home/Pro) for the 2 machine with 2 GB of RAM, then best Windows 7 version (32/64-bit, Home/Pro) AND best Windows 10 version (32/64-bit, Home/Pro) for the 2 machine with 4 GB of RAM, respectively.

All in all, that would be 4 recommendations. I can furnish a valid license for all these Windows versions, for the sake of this experiment. Thank you!

 

[AddRAM]

I have always felt that Home Premium ran a bit faster then Pro, but that could have all been in my head

One thing we`ve always told people though, is if you have 4 GB or less, install 32 bit, and anything above 4 GB install 64 Bit.

But I`ve always felt that if you have a 64 bit capable cpu, then I always install 64 bit.

And if your motherboard is capable of more then 4 GB of memory, but that `s all you have in it, then definitely install 64 bit. You can always AddRAM

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Older machines have older hardware and what will work very well on win-7 32 or 64 bit might not be at all compatible with win-10

Fast startup for instance on win-10 is not compatible with my 6yo Acer mother board although I've used win-10 on it
So the end result was a bricked hard drive during testing.
Sort of a simple workaround was to disable hibernation
not too much of a big deal since I use an ssd = solid state drive where most would disable it anyway.
But hibernation in win-7 is harmless

I'd agree with 4gb or more 64 bit no matter if you're referring to 7-8.1 or 10 you might be able to AddRam

 

[LMiller7]

I have always felt that Home Premium ran a bit faster then Pro, but that could have all been in my head

And there are people who believe the opposite.

Subjective performance evaluations of an individual are highly subject to their own biases, preconceived ideas, and other factors. Minor performance differences must be considered as highly questionable and of little value. From a theoretical standpoint I would consider any difference to be too small to be noticed. Performance measurements are very difficult to do right and often aren't.

Base your decision between Home and Pro editions on factors other than performance.

 

[xcr]

Thanks for your insights. To add a little perspective: no way I'm gonna add more (old, overpriced) RAM onto these old machines. What for? For my use cases described above (net, media, light office, nothing special) it doesn't make sense to me. Rather I buy a brand new machine, but that's a different story. Still, I want to figure out the best version of Windows for the given configurations (both 7 and 10, and either 32 or 64-bit, Home or Pro), thank you!

I have to add, I also felt 32-bit Home was the fastest, at least for Windows 7, not only with the 2 GB, but with the 4 GB machine as well. No other considerations here for Home or Pro, besides performance. I have SSD for what it's worth, that's always a reasonable upgrade!

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Only reason for Pro is group policy for other users on the machine.

I used 64 bit on 4gb's of ram for a long long time and on 7 home premium and it worked perfectly well.
Also upgraded 7 H-Premium to win-8.1 Pro worked just fine
Also upgraded that to win-10 Pro although by that time I have gone to 8gb's of ram

Although I got rid of the win-10 Pro on it and rolled it back to 8.1 Pro for it's stability and to basically undo the changes made by the win-10 anniversary build that actually marginalized Pro version by removing some group policy settings I actually used.

That is one of the best things about win-10 items might be there yesterday but gone today