Windows Thin PC vs 7lite vs Windows 7 Starter

Post by **Someguy2** » Fri May 06, 2011 3:29 am

Which is the lightest OS from those OSES.I need your votes cause i will install one of them in my old PC to bring it up-to date.

Post by **linuxlove** » Fri May 06, 2011 3:33 am

Thin PC - Based off of Windows Embedded
7lite - It's just a customization tool.
Windows 7 Starter - Full Windows Client

Post by **Someguy2** » Fri May 06, 2011 3:35 am

linuxlove wrote:Thin PC - Based off of Windows Embedded
7lite - It's just a customization tool.
Windows 7 Starter - Full Windows Client

Which one do you recommend?

Post by **reelfiles** » Fri May 06, 2011 3:48 am

You'd be better off with a more complete version of Windows and just disable any unneeded things. It really sucks when you have a nice and tweaked install and you realize there is no way to change the wallpaper, use Windows Search or maybe Remote Desktop for example. Also if you disable the eyecandy and extra crap in Win 7 Ultimate it'll run just as good as starter or basic. I would say go no lower than Home Premium, if you really have to.

Thin PC is cool for older hardware, but it's only in RC state for now.

Post by **giantsteen** » Fri May 06, 2011 4:07 am

linuxlove wrote:Thin PC - Based off of Windows Embedded
7lite - It's just a customization tool.
Windows 7 Starter - Full Windows Client

Actually, 7 lite is a slimmed down Wiindows 7 OS, NOT a customizatiion tool. vLite is its own and 7lite never existed. Look for 7lite torrents and you'll find what I am talking about

Post by **zamadatix** » Fri May 06, 2011 4:08 am

I have found Tiny7 to be fairly decent for this kind of thing.

Post by **Someguy2** » Fri May 06, 2011 4:13 am

Well i think i should get Thin PC but i am still looking for answers and no one answered the poll yet.

Post by **spunker88** » Fri May 06, 2011 4:19 am

I have been playing around with Thin PC and it seems to run a bit faster than regular Windows 7 but I don't think its good for running as your main OS. It runs some extra services for Thin PCs which can be disabled in Computer Management. Its RAM usage doesn't appear to be much better than regular Windows 7 immediately after start-up. After that regular Windows 7 begins to fill the RAM with cache, but this can all be disabled if you want.

I'd say you are better off taking a stock version of Windows and making it light by yourself by disabling services, etc. My assumption that Thin PC would lighten things up in a neat way was somewhat wrong as there are broken links in the OS to removed features such as missing search. Maybe these things will get fixed by the final version.

Post by **Someguy2** » Fri May 06, 2011 4:22 am

Ok,ill just wait for the final release but i still need answers.

Post by **spunker88** » Fri May 06, 2011 4:26 am

Someguy2 wrote:Ok,ill just wait for the final release but i still need answers.

What are the specs of this old PC? You'd be surprised at just how well the stock version of 7 will run on crappy hardware. Many XP era systems can run it just fine, some may need a RAM upgrade to run it smoothly.

Post by **zamadatix** » Fri May 06, 2011 4:26 am

Someguy2 wrote:Ok,ill just wait for the final release but i still need answers.

Not only have you received answers on the poll, you have received answers in text with information as to why those answers where chosen or what will be good for you about them. Asking for more isn't going to get you anything.

Post by **Someguy2** » Fri May 06, 2011 4:30 am

Ok i will use 7lite first then Thin PC and i know how to make 7lite.

Post by **reelfiles** » Fri May 06, 2011 4:49 am

My answer is not an option, hence I didn't answer the poll.

This is a decent little article about Thin PC you might find interesting if you decide to got that route.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4281/wind ... immed-down

Post by **korvin1333_2** » Fri May 06, 2011 5:00 am

Windows 7 Starter is most full and comfortable OS

Post by **zapppa** » Fri May 06, 2011 11:44 am

Which are Thin PC specifications?

Post by **spunker88** » Sat May 07, 2011 4:12 am

Here is some RAM usage tests I did. I tried to keep things constant the best I could. Everything was done in Virtualbox with Virtualbox additions installed in every VM, and there are no other programs running at startup besides the default ones. I disabled all of the Thin PC exclusive services by comparing its Computer Management, Services list with that of regular Windows 7 and disabling anything it had unique. I also edited msconfig to remove some data protection program that comes on Thin PC.

These tests were done using the XP task manager (I copied it over to Windows 7). For some reason Windows 7 reports total memory slightly different than XP. I did them after booting up when RAM usage was near leveled off. After all was said and done, Thin PC definitely uses less RAM than a regular copy of Windows 7. But I have a feeling if you went in and turned off all of the services that regular Windows 7 has which uses this RAM, you'd find it would be near Thin PC. XP still does better than Thin PC, but its a near 10 year old OS and even the stripped down Thin PC has features missing from XP. We could even compare XP to NT4 which will use even less RAM.

Post by **Espionage724** » Sat May 07, 2011 4:18 am

I would personally only choose between ThinPC and Starter, but for the main choice, Starter would probably be my pick (based on linuxlove's post)

Post by **Hunter3000** » Sat May 07, 2011 1:09 pm

I install Windows Thin PC from newest release (ThinPC_110415_EVAL_x86fre) and probably is build on Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 core, aero works perfect, we have protection disk/files, bitlocker, but as someone previously wrote removed search bar on menu start. Previous version did't have like paint or WordPad

My netbook have 1GB RAM and system is much better than Windows 7 Starter (Intel Atom 1,6GHz 1GB RAM Intel GPU)

Post by **reelfiles** » Sat May 07, 2011 10:37 pm

MSPaint etc isn't on the startmenu, but it's there, just look for the exectutables manually and pin them to the start menu.

Post by **Hunter3000** » Sat May 07, 2011 11:22 pm

Yes, i know but it hasn't in menu start, newest release fixed it