I have been excited about Windows 7 because it overcomes many of the issues with Windows Vista and has many other improvements. It certainly feels (and is) faster than Windows Vista, but generally you can’t see the improvements unless you use it on the exact same computer with similar programs/drivers installed. I installed Windows 7 on both my computers a few days after it was released on MSDN, but didn’t measure the improvements because I was already convinced 🙂 Today I decided to upgrade my brother’s HP Pavilion dv6 to Windows 7, but this time I decided to take a few measurements to see the difference. So, let’s take a look at the results.
| All values are times in seconds, and both Operating Systems are the x64 versions. | ||
| . | Windows Vista Home Premium | Windows 7 Professional |
| Hibernate | 98.48 | 25 |
| Wake up from hibernate | 54.66 | 32.9 |
| – | ||
| Sleep | 18.46 | 9.9 |
| Wake up from sleep | 4.77 | 5.39 |
| – | ||
| Start up | 60 | 48.56 |
| Shutdown | 29 | 25.79 |
These numbers might not be so significant for desktops, but for laptops I think they do make a difference. With Windows Vista I was hesitant to hibernate the computer (still did it at night), but now with Windows 7 it isn’t really an issue.
I realize that the editions are different (Pro. vs. Home Premium) and that this is a very unscientific test (sample size of one among other things), but I think it still gets the general idea across. Bottom line? Get Windows 7 if you have a laptop with Windows Vista and aren’t happy with the performance 🙂
FYI: If you have access to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN, or MSDNAA) then you can already download the final release version, but you will have to wait till October 22 if you don’t have access to MSDN.