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I recently upgraded windows XP Service Pack 3 to Windows 7 Home Basic. After the up-gradation I am experiencing very slow PC performance. It's Dual Core 2 GB Ram 120 GB Hard disk. My friend insisted me to upgrade to windows 7. The windows startup time is increased. When I open Mozilla Firefox for Browning it takes more time to load. There is no security application is installed on it. Should i downgrade to windows XP or continue with. This is actually home PC i use to connect with my friends using facebook and other media.

Upgrading to 7 with only 2GB RAM was probably not a good idea. I think that is the bare minimum required to run Windows 7, and I think at least 4 GB is recommended.

You probably don't want to revert back to XP because there won't be any more support, so see if you can upgrade your RAM.

32-bit Win7 should run adequately on 2GB of RAM.

I think you'd get better results if you back up your data and do a clean reinstall of 32-bit Win7. Upgrading from previous versions of Windows can leave junk that slows your machine down and/or impacts stability.

You really don't want to go back to XP now. XP no longer receives security updates.

Upgrading your disk to a SSD would help with the performance a lot. Upping the RAM as superjawes suggested would probably help some as well.

This late in Windows 7's life cycle you would've probably been better off going straight to Windows 10.

Assuming you stick with Windows 7, for security you'll want to install Microsoft Security Essentials; it's a free download from Microsoft. (If you upgrade to Windows 10 security software is included in the base OS.)

It's not the greatest experience, but I've run a handful of machines on Windows 7 with 2GB.  You'll want to use 32-bit, as it seems to have less RAM overhead. If you don't have 32-bit media, you can download it from Microsoft.   Your key should work for either 32 or 64.

superjawes wrote:

Upgrading to 7 with only 2GB RAM was probably not a good idea.  I think that is the bare minimum required to run Windows 7, and I think at least 4 GB is recommended.

You probably don't want to revert back to XP because there won't be any more support, so see if you can upgrade your RAM.

So I should stay on Windows 7 Instead reverting back to XP. What if i add 1 more 2 GB slot. Upgrading Ram to 4GB will it sufficent enough to handle win 7

bthylafh wrote:

32-bit Win7 should run adequately on 2GB of RAM.

I think you'd get better results if you back up your data and do a clean reinstall of 32-bit Win7.  Upgrading from previous versions of Windows can leave junk that slows your machine down and/or impacts stability.

Ok i backup my data and clean reinstall 32Bit Win 7 along with up gradation of Ram

just brew it! wrote:

You really don't want to go back to windows XP professional free download full version  now. XP no longer receives security updates.

Upgrading your disk to a SSD would help with the performance a lot. Upping the RAM as superjawes suggested would probably help some as well bootable usb.

This late in Windows 7's life cycle you would've probably been better off going straight to Windows 10.

Assuming you stick with Windows 7, for security you'll want to install Microsoft Security Essentials; it's a free download from Microsoft. (If you upgrade to Windows 10 security software is included in the base OS.)

Upgrading Harddisk to SSD is better or upgrading Ram? What about Microsoft Security Essentials isn't it resource intensive

The Egg wrote:

It's not the greatest experience, but I've run a handful of machines on Windows 7 64bit with 2GB.  You'll want to use 32-bit, as it seems to have less RAM overhead. If you don't have 32-bit media, you can download it from Microsoft.   Your key should work for either 32 or 64.

I guess i already installed 32Bit 

harrison77 wrote:

Upgrading Harddisk to SSD is better or upgrading Ram? What about Microsoft Security Essentials isn't it resource intensive

You'll probably see more of an improvement with an SSD (assuming the current drive is a mechanical HDD).

MS Security Essentials is relatively lightweight compared to most security software. You'll see some performance degradation, but it isn't too bad.

I know Windows Vista got a massive improvement when I moved from 2 gigs to 4 gigs back in the day. I had a Pentium Dual-Core 2160 or 2180(I forget the exact model number) at the time.

I.S.T. wrote:

I know Windows Vista got a massive improvement when I moved from 2 gigs to 4 gigs back in the day. I had a Pentium Dual-Core 2160 or 2180(I forget the exact model number) at the time.

Vista was slightly more RAM-hungry than 7.  To the original poster:  RAM is pretty cheap, so I would try to do both 4GB (or even 8GB) plus an inexpensive SSD.  If you have 4GB or more use 64-bit, if you have 2GB use 32-bit.

I'd think they'd get a decent perf boost just by running defrag.  Windows post install can have pretty nasty fragmentation.

On that kind of system though a small hard drive is usually a bad thing (the perf on those already leaves much to be desired.)  But I'm fairly sure they need to defrag either way.

The Egg wrote:

To the original poster:  RAM is pretty cheap, so I would try to do both 4GB (or even 8GB) plus an inexpensive SSD.  If you have 4GB or more use 64-bit, if you have 2GB use 32-bit.

Depends on what kind of RAM.

harrison77 wrote:

It's Dual Core 2 GB Ram 120 GB Hard disk

Typical computers of that vintage likely featured DDR2 (or perhaps DDR3 if it is during the later C2D days). Not to mention the homework required to see if the board can take more RAM sticks and compatibility between the old and new sticks (back then compatibility across brands is not as good as today now). It all depends on who much time, money and effort that OP wants to invest in this.

That system could be old enough that the CPU and/or motherboard might not support 64-bit memory addressing, and may be limited to accessing ~3.5GB.

To the OP: Can you post the exact model numbers of the system/motherboard and CPU?

Please start a new topic.