Windows 7 might not live up to fast-booting expectations, but opinions vary

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Some computer analysts say that Windows 7's purported performance advantages may have been overhyped by Microsoft in the run-up to the new operating system's recent release. However, others say that their test results show that Windows 7 is every bit the speed demon it was said to be.

Computer optimization firm Iolo asserts that Windows 7 actually takes longer to boot than Windows Vista, claiming a discrepancy of 28 seconds between the two operating systems. After the installation of what Iolo called "several commonly-used applications," the difference was even more pronounced.

However, PC Magazine's tests indicated that Windows 7 was the faster starter, not Vista. That publication claimed that performance on several tests - including startup and shutdown and numerous device driver tests - showed that the new OS was about 12 percent faster than its older counterpart.

White Hat News suggests that the disparate results could be due to differing system architectures used in the tests. Iolo's tests were performed on a 32-bit machine, while PC Magazine used a 64-bit one.