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Table of contents
1. Start Up Faster
Windows 8 is nearly finished. A near-final version called the Release Preview will be available to try out in the first week in June. There’s been a lot of discussion about the new Metro Start page, the missing Start button and what will and won’t work on new Windows RT tablets with the same ARM processors that are in iPad and Android tablets. But there are a lot of improvements in Windows 8 that should make a difference on today’s PCs.
In preparation for the Release Preview, we ran a battery of tests comparing the current Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Windows 7 on the same PC. We deliberately didn’t pick a particularly high end machine; this is an original Core i5 HP notebook from 2010 with UEFI firmware, basic Intel integrated graphics, 3GB of memory and upgraded with a fast SSD from Kingston (the 128GB SSDNow drive).
Not only is Windows 8 not finished, but this version has ‘debug’ code in to gather information if there are problems. It’s far too early to know what the final performance of Windows 8 will be like, but even this early on it’s clear that Windows 8 is faster than Windows 7 on the same hardware. If you try it on your own PC – setting up both operating systems side by side so you can dual boot rather than trying it in a virtual machine which makes it run more slowly – you should be able to notice the difference yourself.
The first difference you’ll notice is boot time. Booting from SSD is fairly fast in Windows 7; it’s much faster with Windows 8. Partly that’s because instead of shutting down services and drivers when you turn off your PC, Windows 8 saves a copy of the current state of services and devices to disk; like hibernating your PC but without saving the details of applications and open files. Reading that copy and reinitializing the drivers is faster than loading it all from scratch, and if you have a processor with more than one core Windows uses all of them to boot with, not just one. Even with the time it takes to launch the desktop from a Metro tile, your PC is ready to do something faster.
When you boot using this new fast startup in Windows 8, Windows doesn’t take the time to discover and start up every device attached to your PC; it assumes you have the same devices as the last time you used it. Reinitializing the drivers checks that all the devices are still there. Windows can unload drivers for any that are missing and any new devices will be detected and set up, but you’re not waiting while Windows finds all the devices connected from scratch every time.
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Still rockin Vista SP2 - gaming hard, no problems at all
I do like all those optimizations thay're making, but Metro seems like a toy UI..
On page 5 you have a slight mistake.
According to Microsoft, file copying in Windows 8 isn’t specifically faster than in [B]Windows 8[/B]
And...
I am a little disappointed in MS not fully supporting Vista(IE 10, not that I use it, but many users DO). It was not even that bad, and it is just like then fully admitting the messed it up. Either way, I still have a system with Vista and would in no way swap it to what is effectively a service pack upgrade to 7(unless the price was right) just like I did not jump out and upgrade my XP systems to Vista.
LOL, making excuses for Metro on the very first page? Doesn't sound promising for Windows 8. I recall similar excuse making for Vista.
And...I am a little disappointed in MS not fully supporting Vista(IE 10, not that I use it, but many users DO). It was not even that bad, and it is just like then fully admitting the messed it up. Either way, I still have a system with Vista and would in no way swap it to what is effectively a service pack upgrade to 7(unless the price was right) just like I did not jump out and upgrade my XP systems to Vista.
Um... if you didn't upgrade from XP to Vista right away, why did you upgrade to Vista at all? All the negative press just made you want to try it out? Shoulda waited till 7.
I installed Win 8 CP on my main Rig. I stuck with it for over a week and I have gotten used to finding my way around it. In many respects I liked the OS but yesterday I could no longer help but notice my Rig was suffering a decrease in performance. Boot up times were less than impressive and applications were taking longer and longer to load at start up. I believe this may be due to the fact I am running a SSD on this Rig. Now I have gone back to Win 7 Pro everything is fast and responsive again. It is the CP after all but even so.
If your still on Vista you need to come back from the stone age.
If you have vista and you like it you deserve a donkey as your way of transport instead of a car.
Have you ever used Vista before? Its actually quite a good OS, and mostly identical to Seven btw. It does take a little longer to boot and consumes slightly more RAM, but i can spare a few secs - and hell, RAMs not an issue nowadays. Besides that I see no performance difference.
Vista was crappy when initially released (no SPs) and installed in laptops/old pcs. Now, in fact, i see no good reason to upgrade. No plans to buy a dx11 card either
This is all well and good but none of these improvements will mean a damn thing if the avg consumor doesn't take to the radical changes with the Metro UI and the missing start menu button. This is where MS is going to make a huge mistake with Windows 8. No option to disable or get rid of Metro UI and no option to enable the start menu. if they did that Windows 8 would be a nice upgrade, but as of now it's like looking at a woman from behind and going wow she is pretty until she turns around and your're like um..nevermind.
I'll take a slight performance hit if I don't have to look at metro, ever.
We just need to hold out until Microsoft fails in the tablet and smartphone markets, when they'll kick Ballmer to the curb and release a service pack that allows users to disable Metro completely.
I am using xp, so need to update to Visat
This is all well and good but none of these improvements will mean a damn thing if the avg consumor doesn't take to the radical changes with the Metro UI and the missing start menu button. This is where MS is going to make a huge mistake with Windows 8. No option to disable or get rid of Metro UI and no option to enable the start menu. if they did that Windows 8 would be a nice upgrade, but as of now it's like looking at a woman from behind and going wow she is pretty until she turns around and your're like um..nevermind.
Totally agree... perhaps not with that last bit...
Looks like a nice upgrade. The missing start button still s**ks, but i trust stardock (or someone else) will do something nice about it (with a little better start8).
About people using Vista: i respect them. Aflter all, i was a Vista user for time (Windows 7 changed it all). However, they must understand something: they are a minority, so it's logical to see Microsoft excluding them from new software updates. I'm not saying it's fair, i'm just saying it's logical.
About XP users: well, they have their reasons. After all, for basic work, it's still a good OS. However, we all have to be honest: That OS is around 11 years old (i think it was released on August 24, 2001 to manufacturers. not really sure). I don't need to say more, because, in 11 years lots of things happen, and we had lot's of things happening.
Some people say: "If it does the job, then don't change it". But i say "if it can do it better, let's try it. And if it's really better, let's see it we can have it".
In other words, i'm gonna try this new Win8, and if it's really better than Win7, i'll download it (err... i mean, buy it).
All MS has to do is allow people to disable Metro and give people a start button option and Windows 8 would a quality upgrade.
All MS has to do is allow people to disable Metro and give people a start button option and Windows 8 would a quality upgrade.
They don't want to do that because they want to move everything to Metro and ditch the desktop entirely. That's why being able to find workarounds doesn't mean anything in the long run. Microsoft wants to move everybody to Metro so they can get that 30% cut from software sales, ad revenue from ad-supported apps, and decide which apps can be sold in the first place. Meanwhile, we get to have a tablet OS on our 27" non-touch screens and are supposed to be happy they included a deliberately crippled desktop mode at all.
i had vista for 3 years and has no issues even before any service pack. all the bad press was just from the morons trying to install it on their 10 years old PC's. although i did have vista i am on windows 7 now because i got a free upgrade from my workplace.
but seriously if you are still using XP you are still in the stone age.and if you are able to upgrade but refuse to you are a fool
My Windows 7 boots faster than the Windows 8 listed.
Windows 8 isn't a desktop-class operating system, though.
No one will be using Windows 8
for Win 8 and see for yourself
Just search the mighty pirate bay
Also the performance differences are absolutely negligable and you are using an expensive SSD and you havent noticed the decrease in performance after just one week
And search is still broken unlike on Macs and so on..
I'm still happy that in 2012 computers are ranked by the speed of writing 2d text on the screen
looks like 1980
seems most "consumers"are still in that era...
Well if win8 will survive and be popular in tablet environment it is just fine for MS. These speed ups are ok, but they have nothing to do with UI.
I have to get at least 3-4 weeks to get used to this and if everything works fine I may skip the win7. If there are clithes, win 7 will be fine for next 18 years? to the year 2020. So long enough for most normal usage.
What win 9 will be? Most propably it will have "metro 1.1" (so minor chances like between vista and win7 UI) It will have full support for that new disk operation system that will gets its deput in win8 server version. DX12? or DX11.2 or something like that. The most propable configuration is tweaked win8 in anyway. The UI scaling may be the big and important issue that win8 has advantage. There seems to be coming (at last I have to say) some improvements in display resolutions. But win9 should come out at about the same time as this will happen for normal users. It will be interesting to see.
Now compare Win8 performance to a nicely tweaked XP or XP64 so we can be assured Win8 is junk in both usability and performance.
I have a WIn7 m17x R3 with SSD and from pushing the power button to fully loaded desktop is 25seconds flat. If I don't count the second or two before the bios screen appears and the second or two when the desktop is loaded but a couple of icons on taskbar haven't loaded, then the time is about the same. Also if Windows 8 saves driver state, how will this respond if a bad driver is loaded when Win8 keeps it preloaded and you need to remove it?