Boot time Windows XP and Windows 7

 

I know that ‘people’ game the statistics on boot time, they don't join a domain, disable lots of services, use SSD drives, disable POST etc… Well that looks good on stage but in the real world, computers are upgraded, have PXE turned on, BIOS is out of the box, run anti-virus and are domain members.

I needed a real working set , so in extensive testing (2 identical and mid-spec computers – hey I did it twice). Here is the comparison.

So on the same hardware (Dell OptiPlex 790)

Windows XP:	Windows 7:
BIOS: 20 seconds OS Boot time: 40 To the logon screen: 1:27 To the desktop (logged on): 2:11 To power off: 2:47	BIOS: 20 seconds OS Boot time: 54 To the logon screen: 1:22 To the desktop (logged on): 1:42 To power off: 1:58

So the Windows 7 computer is not faster to boot however it is however faster to the users desktop and ready to use about in 1/5th of the time of the Windows XP machine.

Faster still is to stop using power off, shutdown and power on, sleep takes 9 seconds and to wake up take 4 seconds. The power consumption in sleep mode is 5% of the running power when compared to being fully powered..

Notes about this:

1. Same hardware, RAM, disk, network etc
2. WXP and W7 current and fully patched (both new builds)
3. Similar apps (office 2003 v office 2010 etc)
4. Both with SAV AV
5. Same logon to domain (folder redirection)