I've been messing around with Windows versions for the past few years, notably Win7 SP1, LTSC, 1709 and 20H2 v2. Being primarily a gamer, I want the best experience possible in terms of framerate and latency. I do tweak the OS as well to a degree with things like NTLite and various guides out there as well as being apart of communites that discuss this kind of stuff. As much as I really want to use Windows 7, it's just not good for modern / recent games anymore. Counter-Strike and other Source / DX9 Games run very well on it though having +8-15% more framerate and overall feeling smoother. 1709 - The earliest build I can use due to Nvidia drivers. I have stripped this with NTLite and use about 750mb of RAM at idle. Perfect for Source games + Recording (OBS) as Windows 7 doesn't support NVENC (new) LTSC - A good middle ground especially for beginners that want a cleaner OS. 20H2 v2 - Arguably the best OS to date for modern games, after some minor tweaking that is. Overall smoother feeling games + various optimizations Microsoft have done over time. Now "feeling" over "fact" is definitely debatable as one latency community I am apart of has split into two after somebody livestreamed *everything* using LDAT tools etc. so we have the "feeling" crew vs the "fact" crew. Test it yourself and choose! TLDR: Use 1709 (or 1607 LTSB if your hardware supports it) for older games, 20H2 v2 for newer games. If you want a stable and functioning OS that isn't (as) bloated, LTS versions are a good middle ground. Awaiting the next LTS version, hopefully should be good.