Posted by the editor on December 09th, 2009

After Microsoft launched the latest version of their OS, Windows 7, people started to be curious about what the advantages or disadvantages that they will get from this OS compared to previous ones, Windows XP and Windows Vista. The user of Windows XP might think to migrate to Windows 7 because the reports say that Windows 7 is a great OS. Therefore, to help users have a good reference for the three Oss, here is a performance test of Windows XP, Vista and 7. Who will be the winner? You can see the result below.

As a start, the test will be on Toshiba M45-S269 laptop with the specification of 1.73-GHz, a 100BG hard-drive and 1GB RAM. Since most queries are on the immigration from Window XP to Windows 7, the test will use Windows Vista Pro and Windows XP Pro. All of these will use the 32-bit version and all tests will undergo several formats.

After that, the test will include installing Windows Live Essentials (Movie Maker, Mail, Messenger and Photo Gallery), Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate,  and Picasa 3.5. It is necessary because we can see a real result compared to the test without any application at all. Then, the test will undergo the on and off OS process as good as the windows performance. There are three tests in a row and the average results will be the one valid.

Starting-up and Shutdown Process
The result of this basic test is quite surprising. For the start-up comparison, the test is pressing button of the power and shut downing the laptop once the start-up process finished, the result is Windows XP is the quickest, but we need to remember that the laptop used is the product from XP era. The new engines will undergo some adjustment for Windows 7. However, the purpose of this test is to know what will the user get from replacing their OS with Windows 7.

Windows 7 equalized the position by having the best shutdown time, exceeding XP with 5.5-second difference or 32%. In the previous test, Windows 7 was even surpassing Vista for both Start-Up, and Shutdown. The main critic for XP is on its too long shutdown time, in which Vista is even faster this time. However, in term of Start-up time, XP is the winner.