Test of six generations of Windows: 8.1 turned out to be the “fastest”, the latest 11 did not really make a name for itself

As for the results, Windows 8.1 turned out to be the overall winner: it booted up the fastest and was convincingly first in the test with tabs in the browser. In that section, Windows 11 finished last, with 8.1 reportedly managing to open 252 tabs before the system reached its default memory consumption limit, while Windows 11 stopped at 49.

Windows XP, as expected, was the most frugal: it used about 0.8 GB of RAM at rest, while Windows 11 averaged about 3.3 GB and could jump even more. XP was also the smallest in terms of disk space with installed programs (about 18.9 GB), while Windows 11 finished at about 37.3 GB.

Windows 11 did poorly in “everyday” things as well: in the test of opening applications (File Explorer, Paint, Calculator, Adobe Reader and VLC) it was last in all five. In video montage, the editor also finished last, while Windows 10 was the first, with the fact that XP and Vista could not run the editor used, so they were not even in that race.

Interestingly, the differences in battery life were minimal: Windows 11 admittedly “died” first, but the difference between the systems was about two minutes, which in practice is not a big deal.

So is this proof that Windows 11 is “slow”? Not really. The test is more of a fun experiment than a serious benchmark because Windows 11 is compared on an old laptop and still on a hard drive, which is the worst possible scenario for a newer OS. The author of the video himself says that the point is more historical than practical. All the same, the video is very interesting and somewhat confirms the attitude of those who are tech nostalgists and remember the days when the Windows system followed our PCs much more loudly.

If you are among those who still run old Windows because they are “faster”, a reminder is in order: Windows 8.1 is no longer supported. almost 3 years, from 2023, and Windows 10 was left out of support on October 14, 2025. In other words, it may work “easier”, but you are more and more vulnerable to security as time goes on.

If you have an older laptop and Windows 11 is dragging on you, the most practical move is usually trivially simple: an SSD (if you can install it) and a little more RAM often make a bigger leap than any “magic” with settings. And if the hardware can’t keep up, it’s better to think about a more modern solution than going back to systems that don’t get patches anymore.