"Downgrading" to Vista

Purchased this ASUS UL30A laptop about one year ago and it’s OK. It’s got its pluses and minuses. The one minus I cannot get past is Windows 7 x64. I have a PC with Vista on it and prefer Vista so much more that 7 I am seriously thinking about formatting the laptop and installing Vista knowing that support will become an issue in the future. My system has the following:

500GB HD
4GB DRAM
Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo SU7300 @ 1.30GHz

Given these specs I assume the laptop can handle the “memory hog” or whatever other nasty names Vista has become known as.

I cannot put my finger on the specific thing about Win 7 that I don’t care for except that I prefer Vista. My question is, has anyone else ‘downgraded’ to Vista and is there a substantive reason that I should not do it?

Any and all opinions are welcome from the Vista and Seven Forums.

Thanks!

You may want to use the Vista upgrade advisor to see if you meet all necessary specs. From what you have shown, I do not anticipate a problem.
The only downside is the fact that 7 has better security than Vista. Everything else is subjective an personal. I think that 7 wins hands down over Vista. Seven is compatible with almost all software, but when I used Vista there were problems in that area. Software manufacturers know that Vista is a "has been" and 7 is now and will cater more toward Seven. Seven is Vista under the hood. That is, basically the same with some cosmetic changes.
Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor - Download.com
If you want opinions from our Seven Forum, I assume that you are registered and have posted there.
http://www.sevenforums.com/
http://www.techradar.com/news/softw...dows-compared-windows-7-vs-vista-vs-xp-615167

^ W7 has better security than Vista? I'm surprised to see you say that, as everything I've heard is that the opposite is true. Vista is supposed to be more secure and is thus a little more cumbersome, because you have to manually approve activities that would otherwise go unchallenged in W7.

You then say "Seven is Vista under the hood. That is, basically the same with some cosmetic changes." That appears to contradict with earlier statements about W7 being more secure and more compatible with 3rd party drivers... If W7 is essentially the same as Vista under the hood, doesn't Vista SP2 overcome many of the driver limitations originally experienced?

OOPs I misspoke about security. I dont know where my mind was. Yes, Vista has better security. It was reduced to make it more user friendly.
Regarding Under The Hood
Under the Hood, Windows 7 Is Vista's Twin | PCWorld

^ Ah, OK... just wanted to be sure there wasn't some caveat I didn't know about. ;-)

Very interesting article, Rich. This quote stood out rather prominently for me:
"Bottom line: So far, Windows 7 looks, behaves, and performs almost exactly like Windows Vista. And it breaks all sorts of things that used to work just fine under Vista. In other words, Microsoft's follow-up to its most unpopular OS release since Windows Me threatens to deliver zero measurable performance benefits while introducing new and potentially crippling compatibility issues."

I take such statements with a grain of salt. Before SP1, there may have been some issues that Vista didn't have, but were resolved once the service pack came out. I've also looked at a number of performance tests. They all show W7 doing just a little better than Vista, with metrics varying differently in each category, depending on how the tests were conducted.