Windows 8 Consumer Preview vs. Windows 7 Start-Up Comparison (VMWare Workstation)
Windows 8 Consumer Preview vs. Windows 7 Start-Up Comparison(VMWare Workstation)
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System Specifications:
QuadCore Intel Core i7 Extreme 975, 3466 MHz (26 x 133)
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 v1 (1 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 4 PCI-E x16, 6 DDR3 DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Intel Tylersburg X58, Intel Nehalem, Intel 82801JR ICH10R
24576 MB (DDR3-1333 DDR3 SDRAM)
4 GB DDR3-1333 DDR3 SDRAM (8-8-8-22 @ 609 MHz) (7-7-7-20 @ 533 MHz) (6-6-6-17 @ 457 MHz) 5:1
4 GB DDR3-1333 DDR3 SDRAM (8-8-8-22 @ 609 MHz) (7-7-7-20 @ 533 MHz) (6-6-6-17 @ 457 MHz) 5:1
AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series (1024 MB)
Dedicated storage for test: CRUCIAL_CT128M225 SSD Rev 2030 SATA-II
Host memory: 24576MB
Host OS version: Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit 6.1.7601, Service Pack 1
Virtual Machine Settings
VMWare Workstation 8.0.2 build-591240
Memory: 8GB
Processors: 1 processor 4 cores
Hard Drive (SCSI): 60GB (not preallocated, stored in multiple files)
CD/DVD: Not connected on start-up
Network Adapter: Bridged
USB Controller: Present
Sound Card: Present
Display: Auto-detect
Mean Times
Windows 8 CP Start-up Times (in seconds): 38,38,40,37,37 (mean) 38 (average)
Windows 7 w/Service Pack 1 (in seconds): 22,21,21,21,21 (mean) 21.2 (average)
Summary
The start-up test was conducted five times on each system in a virtual machine, running on a 64-bit Windows 7 VMWare Host. During the time of this test, Windows Resource Monitor shows limited to no activity on the host system for disk I/O on all drives, including the system drive, the dedicated program drive, and the drive that hosts VMWare Workstation files. All drives are running CRUCIAL_CT128M225 Rev 2030 SATA-II 128GB SSD.
The Windows 8 CP and Windows 7 64-bit SP1 guest systems ran without any Windows Updates applied. In the case of the Windows 7 64-bit SP1 system, this ran with a slipstream of Windows 7 SP1. Both were clean installs, running VMWare Tools 8.8.2 build-590212. Neither system has had any additional programs installed outside of VMWare Tools. The Windows 7 Consumer Preview installation uses a local account to access the desktop more quickly. Preliminary tests were performed with the Microsoft-connected Live account, which resulted in 40-47 second start times before the virtual machine was recreated.
Result
The test shows an average start-up time of 38 seconds for Windows 8 Consumer Preview and an average start-up time of 21.2 seconds for Windows 7 Service Pack 1. The test was performed five times.
The test shows Windows 8 Consumer Preview loading 16.8 seconds slower than Windows 7 on average under a complete clean install scenario in 64-bit virtualization. This is a 79.245% increase on average. In the best case scenario estimate of a 33 second start time for Windows 8 Consumer Preview, the difference is a 11.8 second slower boot time. This dramatically effects the results, indicating a 55.66% increase as opposed to a 79.245% increase in start-up time. At no time did the test show a decrease in start times on cold boot for Windows 8 Consumer Preview vs. Windows 7 Service Pack 1.
Conditions on the host system did not change in any measurable or substantial way during the test, and neither system was run simultaneously on the same host.
Limitations of Test
It is believed that the VBScript used for this test may be limited: While Windows 7 launched results almost immediately on start-up, Windows 8 Consumer Preview still took around 2-3 seconds after the desktop was displayed to present the results. This could indicate an error rate on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview part of the test, of at most, 5 seconds. It did appear, however, that Windows 8 Consumer Preview was still initiating start-up components of the operating system, even while the desktop was fully rendered, which could have led to legitimately slower start times. In comparison, Windows 7 appeared to be fully loaded and ready to launch any application instantaneously on start-up. It appeared that some processing was taking place while the VBScript results launched (for around 5 seconds) in Windows 8 Consumer Preview. This would give the Windows 8 Consumer Preview test, at most, a 33 second average start-time, when accounting for this difference. The Windows 7 test utilized the same VBScript and encountered no such performance delay.
All hardware and virtual machine settings on both benchmarked systems contained identical settings which did not change at any time during the test. The VMWare Tools for Windows 8 Consumer Preview are the same as the ones installed for Windows 7 Service Pack 1.
These tests utilized identical host-driven hardware and both the host and guests ran under 64-bit architecture. For all intents and purposes, the conditions of the systems were basically identical. VMWare Workstation 8.0.2 build-591240 does not officially support Microsoft Windows 8 Consumer Preview with custom drivers or virtualization enhancements for this system, and runs the operating system as a Windows 7 virtual machine. This is likely to be the closest possible virtualization start-up test for the Windows 8 Consumer Preview at the time the test was conducted on March 13, 2012 with the given software available.
Because the test was performed in a virtual environment, it can not be considered a reliable indicator of real-world results on non-virtualized hardware. unless similar results can be correlated, in terms of percent differential on start time, on similar real-world hardware.
At the very least, Windows 8 Consumer Preview takes 11.8 seconds (55.66%) longer to boot than Windows 7 Service Pack 1, under an entirely clean install, using the latest VMWare Workstation virtualization software. This test is not comparable with non-virtualized hardware or software.
VBScript used (RebootTimer.vbs - 24 lines of code):
Code:
Option Explicit
On Error Resume Next
Dim Wsh, Time1, Time2, Result, PathFile, MsgResult, MsgA, AppName, KeyA, KeyB, TimeDiff
MsgA = "Please close all running applications and click on OK."
KeyA = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RestartTime\"
KeyB = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\RestartTime"
AppName = "ReBoot-Time"
Set Wsh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
PathFile = """" & WScript.ScriptFullName & """"
Result = wsh.RegRead(KeyA & "Times")
if Result = "" then
MsgResult = Msgbox (MsgA, vbOKCancel, AppName)
If MsgResult = vbcancel then WScript.Quit
Wsh.RegWrite KeyA & "Times", left(Time,8), "REG_SZ"
Wsh.RegWrite KeyB, PathFile, "REG_SZ"
Wsh.Run "cmd /c Shutdown -r -t 00", false, 0
else
Wsh.RegDelete KeyA & "Times"
Wsh.RegDelete KeyA
Wsh.RegDelete KeyB
TimeDiff = DateDiff("s",Result,left(Time,8))
MsgBox "Your computer reboots in " & TimeDiff & " seconds", VbInformation, AppName
end if
wscript.Quit
