[PYenner]

Vista Home OS uses 1Gb of ram, trading platforms use nearly 1Gb so a 2GB Vista computer is just too small to run a single platform.

Recently got a 4GB computer with Vista Home and a faster than average processor and it runs MT4 at least 4 times faster (visually) than the 2GB XP computer.

Up to a few months ago I could run the live account plus two MT4 demo accounts on the 2GB XP computer but the MT4 rebuilds seem to be making it more and more resource hungry. It is now so slow that I get "invalid price" when running just one MT4 demo plus the live account when prices start moving fast.

Hence the shift to 4GB plus fast processor and I actually like Vista despite a very long term loathing for M$ and Win, bottom line is that it finally seems to work for me. Never thought I would be saying that.

I think with Vista, you have to spend the money, budget computers will not be good enough anymore.

Task Manager does not seem to fully report ram usage, I get the impression it ignores swap file and handle impact on memory usage. Charts use handles and handles use memory. XP seems to run out of memory when Task Manager says it has 1/4 to 1/2GB spare. "Disk Full" is the message XP gives me when it runs out of ram and can no longer allocate file handles for the word processor that serves as a journal, good old M$ sigh.

Incidently a 20" widescreen monitor set to high definition is brilliant if you use lotsa charts but you need a graphics card with its own ram, avoid the budget approach that has graphics sharing system ram.