personally i use vista. it supports direct x 11 and modern games. it also runs most games that runs in xp.
XP is too old to work great. Its 64 bit version was shit (so you can not get the full capabilities of your processor and memeory unless you want nothing to work). It has crap HT support and multi core support (Multi core users (especially I7) have well below expected performance). Its dated Kernal and other components capped the maximum graphic card performance (can not get speed benifits of DX10 and multi threading benifits of DX11). Its memory friendly approach also meant that you do not get the full speed benifit of the caching that large quantities of memory can support nowdays. Its dated windows management system meant that only 1 window could update at any time causing extreemly poor responsiveness with large numbers of windows open.
These are just some of the problems XP had (all of which W7 has fixed/improved uppon).
Especially the crap 64 bit support is a major problem. Most systems come with over 4GB of total memory (usually 4 GB + 1 GB graphics) which mean you need 64 bits to gain full benifit of that memory. Further more, when your processor runs in 64 bit mode it has access to double sized registers (and the accompanying instruction sets) which allow access to greatly faster programs. Although mostly support programs and drivers are 64 bit for now, it will not be long until games come with 64 bit builds and I will not be suprized to see a 64 bit distribution of SC2 before the end of its life cycle.
I am planning on buying Windows 7, and there are two issues.
1. I have never changed my OS yet, and I want to know will my PC be completely re-installed, or will my data still be saved?
2. The PC is purely for gaming purposes. Lots of games made befor the middle of 2009 don't support Windows 7, and I have a couple, and plan on adding more. Is there some sort of a site for tweaking games to be playable on Windows 7?
3. My graphic card supports DirectX 11, will I be able to instantly play DirectX 11 games upon installing 7?
So, it all somes down to "be or not to be". Thanks in advance
i pull off 13 instances of war3 on a slimline using windows 7, i could only do like 3 in xp (skipped vista)
Windows XP's compatibility is the best among all Windows's OS
Windows Vista has the best view but the worst performance
Windows 7 has a good view but it's compatibility is like vista, too hard!
I suggest XP, since i'm using 7 and i don't quite like it very much
Oh, games will run perfectly in windows 7 and just turn off dwm.exe if you have low specs