7, people will tell you 8 is so much better, and they'll tell you that the people who say it's bad haven't used windows 8...I've used it....I don't like it. I mean, when you open up a video file or picture, it opens up a whole new window that fills up the whole screen (and you no longer see the taskbar), and when you close it, IT TAKES YOU BACK TO THE FRIGGEN METRO! It's not just the metro either. It feels more clunky. Mixing the windows and tablets has a strange result. Many will disagree with me, so be it, but I shall not use it. Perhaps windows 9 will be better. tl;dr: If you're upgrading from xp, just go for 7, it's similar to xp, better, stable, and easier to use. ("Well with 8 you can still download the start menu"...I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO DOWNLOAD THE FRIGGEN START MENU, THEY SHOULD HAVE JUST LEFT IT THERE!!!!!)