[p_ing]

Peak in what way?

Windows 2000 had sequential service startup. It took /ages/ to boot. The boot screen was pretty, though.

XP was a security nightmare and out the gate was BSOD city, much of that thanks to 3rd party drivers, but the OS had fundamental kernel bugs, too.

7 was okay, but it isn't something you'd want to go back to with modern hardware. It lacks many features we find essential. TRIM being a big one. I'd argue that the Windows 7 iconography wasn't very nice.

I'm more of a fan of NT4 for it's utilitarian look, though service management was no where near as nice as what the MMC brought.

From a stability perspective, it really wasn't until Windows 8/10 where we got to the "PEAK" Windows versions, where stability was not an issue at the OS level with Microsoft-shipped code, but rather at a driver or hardware level. No longer were we seeing some fundamental kernel bug halting the system, instead it shifted over to garbage 3rd party drivers (largely fixed thanks to Windows' unique ability to restart the graphical subsystem/removal of kernel mode print drivers) or failing hardware. You won't find that level of stability in Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows 7.

[kasabali]

> You won't find that level of stability in Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows 7.

Nice try but you won't deceive any attentive readers. Everything you've told in that paragraph was applicable to Windows 7, it had all the stability and none of the user hostility of later versions.

[p_ing]

I think you strung together a bunch of words that don't jive with real world experiences.

Windows 7 still had some fundamental kernel quality issues. WDDM 1.1 wasn't mature to the point of providing a stable experience across the board and vendors were still adapting to the WDDM model; kernel mode printer drivers were still common, both a stability and security knock for those older versions of Windows.

So no, Windows 7 did not have "all of the stability" of Windows 10 or 11.

[kasabali]

> I think you strung together a bunch of words that don't jive with real world experiences.

I know the real world experience I've had, thank you very much.

> Windows 7 still had some fundamental kernel quality issues.

No it didn't, it was solid as a rock.

> WDDM 1.1 wasn't mature to the point of providing a stable experience across the board and vendors were still adapting to the WDDM model;

Display drivers adapted by the time Vista SP2 was released, and 7 was a solid release from start without even needing a SP.

> kernel mode printer drivers were still common, both a stability and security knock for those older versions of Windows.

First time I've heard a printer driver crashing the system, are you sure you're not making it up? ( print queue hanging is annoying but it isn't a BSOD)

> So no, Windows 7 did not have "all of the stability" of Windows 10 or 11

Okay I give up, Windows 11 is the bestest release, Satya is the broest tech CEO and you're the number 1 fan boy