Windows 7 Called Slower than Vista

Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system boots slower than its unloved predecessor, Windows Vista, a PC tune-up developer said today.

microsoft windows 7The claims by iolo Technologies, a Los Angeles maker of PC software, contradict Microsoft's boasts that Windows 7 starts up faster than Vista.

According to iolo's tests, Windows 7 starts up 42% slower than Vista -- one minute, 34 seconds versus one minute, six seconds -- on a brand new machine when the time trials are run to the point where the machine is usable, at least by iolo's standards.

Windows 7 does seem to start faster than Vista, said iolo, with its time-to-the-desktop measured as around 40 seconds. But iolo measured startup as the point where the computer is "fully usable," with a low load on the processor.

Microsoft has said it's dedicated significant resources to making Windows 7 boot, and resume from sleep and hibernation, faster than Vista, which has been panned since 2007 for starting slowly.

Other tests, however, have echoed iolo, and showed that in some cases Windows 7 does boot slower than Vista. PC World, a sister publication to Computerworld , for example, benchmarked the new operating system as starting about 10% slower than Vista when 32-bit versions of the two were compared, although it was 14% faster on 64-bit.

iolo also said its tests indicated that Windows 7's startup times, like Vista's, degrade over time. After several "commonly-used" applications have been installed on a new Windows 7 box, for instance, its boot time -- again, as measured by the company -- slows to two minutes, 34 seconds, an increase of 64%.

Over an even more extended span, Windows 7's boot times get more sluggish than that: By the end of a simulated two-year period, Windows 7's startup times increased more than 330%.

Boot times have become a hot topic. Last week, Chinese computer maker Lenovo said its new ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops will boot Windows 7 56% faster than when loading XP or Vista, thanks to operating system, driver, and power management tweaks it made.

iolo said it will release more details and results of its Windows 7 boot-time benchmarks on Monday.



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Adding Memory to Vista

I upgraded the RAM on my Windows Vista Home Premium laptop to four gigabytes, but when I check the system information box to see how much memory I have now, it only says about three gigabytes. Could there be something wrong with the chips?

While Windows Vista’s specifications do state you can upgrade the computer’s random access memory (RAM) to a maximum of four gigabytes, the system doesn’t actually report the full amount when you check the amount of installed memory. This is because Windows hoards some of the memory for the computer’s hardware devices, like its graphics card and network components. The full technical explanation can be found at support.microsoft.com/kb/929605.

On many machines, however, installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 will make the system report the full four gigabytes of memory. Microsoft explains how this works at support.microsoft.com/kb/946003.

While the four-gigabyte memory limitation holds true for the most common forms of Vista — the 32-bit versions of the operating system — the 64-bit editions can handle eight gigabytes to 120 gigabytes, depending on the specific Vista version. The 64-bit edition of Windows Vista Home Premium, for example, can support up to 16 gigabytes of memory and Windows Vista Ultimate can wrangle 128 gigabytes.

The terms 32-bit and 64-bit indicate how the computer’s processor handles data, and a 64-bit system can make use of much larger amounts of memory. The 64-bit version of Windows Vista, (which needs a processor capable of managing a 64-bit operating system, as well as compatible hardware drivers) is often used by people who need to have several programs open at once while bouncing among them. More information on 64-bit editions of Vista can be found on Microsoft’s site at bit.ly/GjypQ.

If you ever suspect that the computer’s memory chips could be causing erratic behavior like sudden crashes, Vista does include its own Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool. You can find detailed instructions for using it at bit.ly/2VU59g.



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Take a closer look at Vista UAC prompts

Windows Vista has a built-in security feature called User Account Control (UAC for short) that is designed to reduce the potential for security breaches. UAC forces all users, even administrators, to request permission via the UAC prompt in order to perform tasks that require administrative privileges. Standard users must be able to provide an Administrator user name and password and Administrators must simply consent to the operation.

While this is all pretty familiar territory to Vista users, the fact that there are actually four types of UAC prompts, each with a different color scheme isn’t. Sure we’ve all encountered UAC prompts, but most of us think of them in generic terms. Seriously, who among us has actually taken the time to look at the color scheme of a UAC? We usually just click a button as fast as we can to move past the prompt. However, like the Homeland Security color levels, each of the successive UAC color-coding schemes is designed to convey a greater sense of warning.

I take a closer look at each type of UAC prompt in a TechRepublic Photo Gallery and point out the different color schemes. Check it out.

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