I tried it on a new computer (Haswell desktop with SSD). But Windows 8.1 is still slower than XP.

Even though I disabled all animations I can feel some lag between clicks and response. Probably it's because of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay-gqx18UTM ("Windows 7 GUI slowness")

I'm going back to XP, but I needed to buy a dedicated graphics card because Intel HD doesn't have drivers for XP. And there's also 3GB RAM limit.

Does that fact that you prefer a 12 year old OS to the latest from Microsoft not make you consider switching to Mac or Linux? There's bound to be security issues using such an old OS (have they not dropped support for it yet?).

Support drops in April 2014.

I'll use XP until Chrome and Firefox drop support. At least until April 2015.

That's interesting. Cannot say I can reproduce. I have a Windows 8 machine here with an SSD, and much like Windows 7 & Vista it is highly responsive ("instant").

However I do have 8 GB of RAM so maybe that has a lot to do with it? Anything Vista or later really requires 4 GB minimum (I don't care what Microsoft's official minimum requirements are).

Any less than 4 GB and even with an SSD Windows struggles a little. Particularly with a 64 bit installation which requires more RAM anyway. XP definitely consumed less RAM.

So how much RAM does your PC have?

FYI, animations are there to hide the lag between click and response. They do not slow the computer, they are there to hide the perception of slowness. (The computer does something immediately, but it may not have all data needed to finish it, because it is waiting for i/o to complete).

Also, just because the animation is 60 fps, it does not mean that the computer or device are fast. It just means that the animation is smooth and the systems has certain time (0.5 - 2 sec, depending on animation) to do, whatever it is supposed to do.

Connect the machine to Internet and let it install graphic drivers.

Are you actually installing the Intel driver or just using the Microsoft Windows 8.1 preloaded one?

Yes, of course I installed drivers.

Alternative: 10 inch Android tablet for 70$.