ie8 fix
madison

Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Home / News & Blogs / Hardware 2.0

Windows 8 Consumer Preview vs. Windows 7: Benchmarked

By | April 24, 2012, 6:00am PDT

Summary: Can Microsoft’s upcoming operating system keep up with — or even beat — Windows 7, or does Microsoft still have work to do?

It’s time to see how Microsoft’s Windows 8 Consumer Preview stacks up against Windows 7. Can the upcoming operating system keep up with — or even beat — Windows 7, or does Microsoft still have work to do?

This is my second attempt at benchmarking the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. I attempted to benchmark the operating system soon after it was released back in February, but ran into troubles with graphics card drivers issues, and problems getting consistent results from a couple of the benchmark tools I was using. It seems that these issues have been ironed out, finally allowing me to complete the testing.

The hardware

The following hardware platform was used for benchmarking the two operating systems. The system was purpose-built for the job of benchmarking:

  • Intel Core i7-2600K processor
  • Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) RAM
  • EVGA 01G-P3-1460-KR GeForce GTX 560
  • GIGABYTE GA-Z77MX-D3H motherboard
  • Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB hard drive
  • CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W power supply unit

Everything on the system was set to stock speeds, with no component overclocked.

For the tests I used two Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB hard drives from the same batch to eliminate the possibility of an update causing one drive to be faster than the other. One drive had installed Windows 7 Ultimate (SP1) 64-bit, and on the other I installed the Windows 8 Consumer Preview 64-bit. All drivers and updates were installed, along with all the software that would be needed for the tests. The drives were then defragmented using the Windows tool before the benchmarking was carried out.

The benchmark tests

Here’s a rundown of the tests that were run on the two operating systems. I’ve chosen a mixture of real world and synthetic benchmark tests.

Each test was run three times and the results averaged.

  • Boot time
    Measured using a handy tool called BootRacer. This measures both the time it takes to get to the logon screen and the time to boot to the desktop.
  • Audio transcode time
    Transcoding an audio test file from WAV to MP3 format using iTunes. A measure of the operating system’s ability to handle multimedia.
  • Video transcode time
    Transcoding video test file from DVD to MP4 format using Handbrake. A measure of the operating system’s ability to handle multimedia.
  • PCMark 7
    A benchmark run with PCMark 7. The industry standard PC test for CPU, HDD, SSD, memory, and graphics performance.
  • 3DMark 11
    A benchmark run with 3DMark 11. This is a set of six demanding benchmark test measuring the graphics performance of gaming PCs.
  • FurMark
    A benchmark run with FurMark. This is a VGA stress test, GPU burn-in test and an excellent OpenGL benchmark. This is a very stressful benchmark and can damage or even destroy hardware if used incorrectly, and therefore I do not recommend running this tool on a system unless you know exactly what you are doing and fully understand the risks associated with it.
  • Cinebench 11.5
    A benchmark run with Cinebench 11.5. This is a real world cross, platform test suite that evaluates a computer’s CPU and GPU performance capabilities.
  • Heaven 3.0
    A benchmark run with Heaven 3.0. This is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on the advanced UNIGINE engine. Not only does this tool give us the maximum frames per second (FPS), it also records minimum frames per second, which is handy observing dips in performance during heavy load.
  • Alien vs. Predator
    A benchmark run using the in-built benchmark tool available in Alien vs. Predator. The benchmark is run at 1920×1080 screen resolution with DirectX 11 enabled. This is a real world gaming test.

Results –>

More from “Hardware 2.0”

Topics

Benchmarking, Microsoft Windows 8, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Video Cards, Software, Hardware, Components, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

Disclosure

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

84
Comments
Add Your Opinion

Join the conversation!

Top Rated

In FACT ...
bitcrazed 2 days ago
??? Windows 8 is a substantial re-working and re-factoring of the entire OS from the bootloader up.

Whilst, yes, the core underpinnings of the OS remain substantially the same, the entire OS has been completely deconstructed and reassembled in a FAR more modular fashion, with clean layering replacing the ball of string that the Windows code-base used to be.

Not only this, but thanks to the effort MS put into re-factoring the OS, it now consumes less memory, requires less CPU cycles and IO can now be built for different platforms (i.e. ARM) and many of the OS' previous limitations and issues have been eliminated, resulting in Windows being FAR more scalable, agile and efficient across the board.

All this whilst not breaking any existing software or apps.

That's quite the feat in my book.
View in thread

Just In

not so good
amj2010 13 hrs ago
We have an Graphical Game IT designer in the house, and he found it (I spell it here ):

S H I T ..........
View in thread
5 Votes
+ -
Minimum FPS
LiquidLearner 2 days ago
I'm not sure if you marked your graphs wrong or if you read them wrong but the Windows 8 DX11 min FPS is higher, albeit only by 1, than the Windows 7 DX11 min FPS in Heaven 3.0. Since Heaven is really a DX11 benchmark I'm not surprised that their DX9 test would show some odd variations.

Other than that this is line with what most people have found. Also, you should compare the Windows 8 hybrid shutdown to normal Windows 7 shutdown on a mechanical drive. From end of post to login on my Core i5 laptop it's about 11 seconds on 8 and it was about 20 or so on Windows 7.
13 Votes
+ -
Windows 8 Consumer Preview vs. Windows 7: Benchmarked
Loverock Davidson- 2 days ago
Microsoft Windows 8 is better in almost every way, that's a good sign of things to come. The most impressive part is that this is still beta code so its not optimized yet meaning when its release time you will have a much more improved OS.
-24 Votes
+ -
Disagree completely
wiredchicken 2 days ago Below threshold | Show anyway
Windows 8 is Windows 7 with an added interface! What is improved for desktop, and laptop users??? Give me 10 reasons why people should upgrade and spend 200 on windows 8!!! Perhaps the reason it is better is you do not have anything installed on win 8 compared to windows 7. Windows 8 is a major step back, in windows designand evolution!!! You are probably a newbie to windows os, and never used windows XP!!!
17 Votes
+ -
Top Rated
In FACT ...
bitcrazed 2 days ago Top Rated
??? Windows 8 is a substantial re-working and re-factoring of the entire OS from the bootloader up.

Whilst, yes, the core underpinnings of the OS remain substantially the same, the entire OS has been completely deconstructed and reassembled in a FAR more modular fashion, with clean layering replacing the ball of string that the Windows code-base used to be.

Not only this, but thanks to the effort MS put into re-factoring the OS, it now consumes less memory, requires less CPU cycles and IO can now be built for different platforms (i.e. ARM) and many of the OS' previous limitations and issues have been eliminated, resulting in Windows being FAR more scalable, agile and efficient across the board.

All this whilst not breaking any existing software or apps.

That's quite the feat in my book.
6 Votes
+ -
Actually...
jeremychappell 1 day ago
This whole exercise is rather pointless in trying to gauge Windows 8's performance. We have no idea how much debug baggage Windows 8 is carrying, these results might have VERY little in common with the true performance.

In short we have little to no idea how much Windows 8 was handicapped in these tests. It could easily be that just recompiling the OS would yield better results.

Additionally PC hardware continues to evolve, and not at an even pace. Windows 8 is, in all likely hood, optimised for tomorrows' PC, not todays'.

The trends I'm thinking about are: More CPU cores, and multi-GPU setups, moving from spinning disks to SSDs.
3 Votes
+ -
I expect that the W8CP is doing a lot of telemetry logging
Patanjali 1 day ago
MS probably will be tweaking the OS a lot, especially the Metro stuff, as a result of all the telemetry they have gathered from the CP.
1 Vote
+ -
Debug baggage
honeymonster 1 day ago
Usually Microsoft releases dedicates "checked builds" with debug information in the kernel. The Consumer Preview is not such a build, so it carries very little "debug baggage". True, it does report telemetrics back to MS and it may also log a little more.

But such overhead is negligible compared to kernel optimizations, parallelized startup processes and - above all - driver optimizations. I think this benchmark is a good indication of the final perf. of Windows 8. It may improve a little due to optimization efforts still going on, but don't expect it to jump.
-16 Votes
+ -
After seeing these benchmarks... we need Windows 8 why?
croberts 2 days ago Below threshold | Show anyway
(nt)
1 Vote
+ -
Great Reply Bitcrazed.
T-Wrench Updated - 1 day ago
Hopefully, my company will take and spend some money in the 1st quarter of 2013, and upgrade to Win 8 from XP...It really is getting to be old...

Now, that said, I don't believe on a personal note that I'll upgrade from Win7, on my desktop to Win8. The two laptops we have are still running good, so we'll have to wait and see.

We still have Win Vista on these, and IMHO, they've been working very well and we're happy with them. So it might come down to how much for the upgrade, and if I can locate all the drivers for them...

Thanks...
1 Vote
+ -
What about resume from sleep ?
Alain in Qu?bec 2 days ago
Adrian, you say :

We don???t reboot out PCs anywhere near as often as we once did, but a fast boot up time is still appreciated.

That' OK. But we do resume from sleep mode a lot more than we reboot - my Win7 laptop takes quite a while to come back from sleep zzzzz !

Have you measured anything related to coming back to life after sleep mode (the computer that is wink
6 Votes
+ -
Mine wakes very quickly...
kb5ynf Updated - 2 days ago
I basically only reboot when necessary; normally after a MS update. I use sleep mode everyday and mine wakes up almost instantly. Have you checked to make sure your problem isn't related to a particular program or device driver?
4 Votes
+ -
My resume from sleep is almost instantaneous... 0.5 to 1.0 sec.
The Danger is Apple 2 days ago
{NT}
7 Votes
+ -
Ditto
bitcrazed 2 days ago
FWIW, both my Sony Vaio Z Series (v1) and MacBook Pro running Win8 CP both resume from sleep within 1s - usually before I even get to touch a key on the keyboard.

If I've left the machine asleep for an extended period, the computer will hibernate (allowing it to stay asleep for weeks). Before Win8, resuming from hibernation usually took 60-90s. Resuming from hibernation in Win8 takes about 15s - a VERY significant improvement over previous versions of Windows.
4 Votes
+ -
Wakes up fast
mswift@... 2 days ago
On my Acer Aspire with SSD it takes under 7 seconds for Win 8 to be back. It may take another 10 seconds or so before wi-fi is live
1 Vote
+ -
Connected Standby compliant hardware will make WiFi and 3/4G instant
Patanjali 1 day ago
CS is what will make W8 more like a phone/tablet OS as far as connectivity responsiveness goes.
4 Votes
+ -
Am I dreaming
DJK2 2 days ago
A positive AKH article related to MS ? Maybe someone is feeling a tad ill ? I expected my on shedule Windows bashing article! wink
-3 Votes
+ -
Perhaps it's a question of finding something positive
Richard Flude 1 day ago
Here Adrian found a marginal improvement in OS speed and was able to write an article about it. Enjoy;-)
2 Votes
+ -
And he had to put his iPad down!
Patanjali 1 day ago
Perhaps it was in for repair or he realised he had to regain his tech cred.
6 Votes
+ -
Just wait...
babyboomer57 2 days ago
until all the debugging and error reporting code is removed. There should be an even bigger difference between the two.

Also, my bootup experience is MUCH faster than Win7, as someone else mentioned. happy
0 Votes
+ -
Boot Time
Freddy McGriff Updated - 2 days ago
Just curious if you tested boot time with WIN 8 connected to an AD Domain and then compared boot times in the presence of a domain controller and then by relying on cached domain credentials.

I find that boot times are great until you connect windows to a domain and then they start going up.

Since a lot of people connect to domains from work, that would be a useful boot time test.

Also, are you testing boot times logging in locally? Or with the Windows LiveID that Win8 prefers?
0 Votes
+ -
Explorer???
puppadave 2 days ago
How about you take on Explorer???
2 Votes
+ -
well how about that
sarai1313@... 2 days ago
you finaly got it right A.K.H. peace dude
-9 Votes
+ -
Windows 8 will be a failure!!
wiredchicken 2 days ago Below threshold | Show anyway
Windows 8 is windows 7, I had enough with people flipping out when facing reality with Win 8! The start menu was the best thing Microsoft ever created and was the reason for windows 95 success along with other thing! They should call windows 8, windows 7 tablet edition. Imagine windows XP without a start menu, with a 2002 touch interface. Windows 8 is decades of steps back in Windows evolution and design. In order to open the calculator in win 8, you have to open the enormous clunky metro and find it. With the start menu, it is right there. There may be a few new things but, Windows 8 is really like windows me compared to windows 98. Windows 8 will be one of Microsoft's biggest failures of this decades. They totally forgot about the desktop users who have been using windows since 95 and 98!!!
-2 Votes
+ -
Yep ...
bob-bob-bob 2 days ago
I run everything that way - much easier and faster than clicking through a bunch of windows.
6 Votes
+ -
That's funny ...
bitcrazed 2 days ago
... in 1995, many current Windows 3.x users were complaining that Windows 95's start menu was a PITA to use and that Microsoft was abandoning their current users' needs and wishes.

Change happens. Deal with it. Apple first migrated from 6809 processors to 680x0 chips. Then they migrated from 680x0 to PowerPC. Then they abandoned their entire platform, hardware design, CPU arch etc. for OSX on x86/x64. You wanna talk about "abandoning" customers? I think you need to examine how poorly some other platform vendors tread paying customers.
-4 Votes
+ -
What a load of garbage
deusexmachina  Updated - 1 day ago
Apple continued to support the PPC (a superior chip architrecture to Intel's, even including the Core series) for years after they made the switch. The same was true when they switched to PPC from the 68000 family.
And their hardware architecture went almost entirely unchanged when they moved from the G5 to the Core, so that claim is just absurd.
And considering their consumer rankings, the market also rejects your whining.

Oh, and Apple NEVER produced a machine based on the 6809. The Apple II/III was based on the 6502, and the Mac and Lisa, which succeeded it, used the 68000 series. So once again, your thinly-veiled attempt at Apple-bashing crashes to pieces on the rocks of your ignorance.
2 Votes
+ -
STOP DIGGING FOR STUFF!
mswift@... 2 days ago
Either hit the Win button or click in the lower left and type calc

The search is much better than in Win 7, just stop looking for the place to enter your search, it develops automatically when you hit a key.

I know Windows has never been logical, but Win 7 started moving the needle. Win 8 is logical, just start to type what you want and you will find it. In win 7 I ocassionally had to dig into stuff so I set up the GOD folder. With Win 8 I have never had to go deeper than the basic search to find what I needed. Not saying that will always be the case, but so far so good.
0 Votes
+ -
What do you mean?
IzzuThug 1 day ago
What do you mean? In win7 all you have to do is hit the 'win key' and then start typing and it will search. Also, you can index any file you want in search you just have tell windows to index the folder or file.
6 Votes
+ -
I'm glad to get rid of Start.
CobraA1 1 day ago
"Windows 8 is windows 7"

Windows 7 is Vista. Vista is XP. XP is NT. If you really think there isn't a difference between them, go ahead and start running Windows NT 3.1, and enjoy the days of Program Manager wink.

"The start menu was the best thing Microsoft ever created"

Personally, I hate it. Didn't like it in Windows 95, still don't like it today. The mess that is "All Programs" is the most hideous form of organization I've seen to date. It's also an extra step to launch apps, as I need to open it first before I actually launch the app itself.

With Windows 7, I bypass that extra step by pinning apps to my taskbar. And I use third party software known as "Bins" to create groups of apps on my taskbar. 1000% better than the Start menu.

The Start menu is junk. I'm glad to see it go away.

"In order to open the calculator in win 8, you have to open the enormous clunky metro and find it."

As opposed to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories? Three levels deep just to crunch some numbers? I'd rather open the "enormous clunky" Metro, thanks.

"They totally forgot about the desktop users who have been using windows since 95 and 98!!!"

I've been using Windows since 3.1, and no I do not think that Start menu is actually an improvement, and yes I look forward to finally having something that makes more sense.
0 Votes
+ -
Start Menu
ramnet@... Updated - 1 day ago
Disagree entirely - you can have your opinion (thats all it is) - lots of people all around the world liked and appreciated the Start Menu. Removing it is WHY 60% of the world are still clinging to XP and NOT upgrading - well they can't upgrade anyway Microsoft made sure of that by refusing to provide an upgrade path for XP Users. I am willing to bet that a lot of money could be made by updating and re-releasing XP instead of all this W7-W8 crap because those two operating systems cater only to a loud voiced minority . Thankfully I am getting to the end of my IT career and I don't have to chase the dragon of change for the pure sake of change and I also have an IT Project Managment perspective where it is equally important to look at cost versus benefit - so far I see nothing of real world value and absolutely zero need to change.

Ken
IT Director
Melbourne
Australia
3 Votes
+ -
Fact is, people have been deprecating Start menu use since W7
Patanjali 1 day ago
MS designed W7 to provide more functionality in the taskbar, and their telemetry from millions of users has shown a substantial mass shift in usage from the Start menu to the taskbar.

The W8 Start screen is meant to be the expansion of the taskbar, rather than the menu.

I suspect that what all the fuss with the loss of the Start menu button is about is the inability of many posters here to adapt as readily as most people to change.

Most W8 users may well get along with the new interface pretty well, especially as MS have been testing each new increment of each new aspect of the UX with diverse mixes of users.
0 Votes
+ -
"MS designed W7 to provide more functionality in the taskbar"
petin_y@... 1 day ago
Absolutely right! I use the taskbar in W7 more than the Start menu because I pin all my favorite sites there. I'm retired and advance in years so I find it easier to locate things in the taskbar than in the start menu.

"The W8 Start screen is meant to be the expansion of the taskbar". Now that you've mentioned it, you're absolutely right! And this is the reason I love Windows 8 because it makes it easy to find things compared to fiddling in the Start menu of XP and earlier OSes!
0 Votes
+ -
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!
Cayble 1 day ago
Goodbye Windows hater.

Here is something else for you to hate if you already dont; people who love Windows 8 even though you hate it.
-5 Votes
+ -
Garbage
bob-bob-bob 2 days ago
I've had it loaded twice and it crashed - wouldn't even recover. This is no big deal to me (an IT guy) but would probably scare the heck out of the average user at home. Now I've got Linux on my netbook and won't waste my time with Win8 anymore.

All I "see" is a phony interface (template) that emulates a telephone interface for the average teeny-bopper. I can't see the use of it in any corporate environment - it's simply a waste. Another DOS 4.0 with it's "shell".
4 Votes
+ -
So you Say????
windozefreak 2 days ago
As soon as I saw "Garbage," I predicted what you would say. So I'm going out on a limb. "Dude" you have never used Windows, but that's okay. Stay with Linux!!
3 Votes
+ -
Thanks for the laugh.
Jayton 1 day ago
Cool story bro!

I've tested it on a variety of hardware inc a 6 year old AMD 64 3000+ single core, 5 year old Intel Core duo laptop as well as Virtual machines from hyper v to Virtual box. All been absolutely fine. No crashes. No dramas.

Guess Microsoft just don't like you, eh?
5 Votes
+ -
What???!!!
petin_y@... 1 day ago
How can you, an IT guy, not able to download and run Windows 8 when I, a retired non-tech guy, was able to do it without a problem!!! Maybe you should go back to school... or maybe you can ask me and I, a non-tech guy, can teach you, an IT guy, a thing or two how to do it!
1 Vote
+ -
It should really really worry you. A lot.
Cayble Updated - 1 day ago
You need to sit down and think slowly and logically for awhile.

For years now, even decades some might say the Windows haters in the Mac and Linux camps have been saying over and over again the only reason Windows succeeds is because Microsoft has dominated the market and Windows is what Microsoft has shoved down the consumers throat.

Either your right or your wrong, if your wrong then thanks for admitting it.

If your right then sorry to wake you up to the fact that Windows 8 IS where its going to be for operating system for more then the next few years to come and the fact its Windows 8 and not Windows 7 or XP or Windows 2000 or ME or 98 or 95 or whatever doesn't change anything. It IS now going to be Windows 8.

If you cant get with the times your going to be left behind and all the "teeny-boppers" around the world, from the ones just starting high school to the CIO's and CEO's of the multi national corporations around the world are going to know a lot more about Windows 8 and how great it really is then you do.

Get with the times old man, do not fear change.
0 Votes
+ -
An IT guy?
tonymcs@... 16 hrs ago
An IT guy with Linux, so you're obviously not catering to the vast majority of the world that run Windows. Perhaps software archeologist would be a better description wink It appears you aren't in corporate either as corporate has been requesting and using dashboard style apps for some time, so Win 8 is what they have been moving towards.

Even a quick read of posts here will show you lots of average users who have had no trouble installing Win 8, so perhaps it's time to start questioning why you have problems (or if you actually tried it at all). Might also be time to consider retraining to modern OSs rather than Unix clones and mods wink
0 Votes
+ -
older hardware?
shadfurman 2 days ago
I think it makes more sense to bench on the hardware that was most commonly available when Windows 7 was being developed. Core 2? As Windows 8 may have been optimized for features that were not available when windows 7 was being developed. (thats weird ending two sentences exactly the same o_O) I'd also like to see older hardware, how does it match up to windows 7 and XP on a pentium 4? 95% of the computers I work on are pre-core-brand models, the people who own them don't need a new computer and will probably use them until one of them dies. But its nice to know if updating their OS will be of any benefit.
-1 Votes
+ -
older hardware yes and no
mswift@... 2 days ago
as long as hardware meets minimum requirements, 7 and 8 are faster than XP on the same hardware and 8 is faster than 7. I've been running 8 on an Atom and 1.5Mhz and 3.06 Mhz P4s. The P4s were previously retired as too slow, now adequate for use as workstations for SQL Server apps. The Atom on XP was "usable" as a travel device. Changed to an SSD XP was then okay. With 7 and now 8 it actually became a decent machine. Traveling I run our proprietary app, SQL Server 2008 R2 Express, IE 9/10 and Crossloop to provide support dealers that need me.

If they sold 7 (or 8) starter edition in the US it would be the right choice price wise for older units. Given the expected price points on the ARM tablets, they may be a better deal for people on older hardware that are likely to start having drive problems or the odd piece of hardware that has no updated drivers.
2 Votes
+ -
Great thing about windows
wiredchicken 2 days ago
You can have 512mb of ram, a 16mb video card, 200mhz Pentium processor, and windows 7 and even 8 will still run ok. You could even watch a video lol. I ran windows 8 for a while to test programs, and installed need for speed hot pursuit from 1998. It ran perfectly, however it will not run on windows run time 8. I don't like that name run time, it doesn't sound good. It reminds me of run time error!
0 Votes
+ -
windows rt mystery
wiredchicken 2 days ago
If windows rt cannot run old programs, and x86 programs, what is it capable of doing? The name run time, I just don't like it. It just sounds bad. Are they going to get rid of the desktop then in windows rt 8?
-1 Votes
+ -
WinRT is a really bad name . . .
CobraA1 1 day ago
WinRT is a really, really bad name - it's just Windows on ARM. ARM devices promise to be more power efficient and mobile, but they lack compatibility with x86 software.
0 Votes
+ -
yes and no
jasongw 1 day ago
I agree that the RT in the ARM version's name is...well, silly. It should simply be "Windows 8 ARM" or something.

It's perfectly natural and acceptable that Windows 8 RT won't run x86 code, however. The architecture is fundamentally different. It will run all the same Metro style applications, as well as anything directly compiled for the ARM architecture. I don't anticipate it will present a major problem, but it will offer some very positive things for your average user who doesn't already have a slew of expensive x86 software:

1. Lean code base--all code for x86 compatibility with apps can be safely dropped.
2. Immunity to current x86 compliant malware (not to say immune to malware--ALL systems are vulnerable to it, and it's only a matter of time until Windows RT will see its own variants of viruses, just like Mac OSX now does)
3. A single, unified interface and access to all your data via SkyDrive. That's not a bad thing happy.
4. Ability to run two apps side by side (Android and iOS can't do this still)
5. MS Office included with all ARM versions (that alone will sell tablets and mini PC's powered by ARM CPU's to a lot of people).

Should be an interesting upcoming year!
-5 Votes
+ -
Win 8 is Win 7 which is Windows Vista
eye4bear 2 days ago
MS acknowledges this, Win 8 shows up as version 6.2, Win 7 is 6.1 and Vista was 6.0. Windows 8 is NOT a new operating system, just a new dress on the same old lady.
1 Vote
+ -
inside stuff too
mswift@... 2 days ago
Part of this change also has to do with Microsoft being nice to developers. Many programming tools look for the major release number and require you to buy an upgrade to make something that runs on the higher numbered release. Microsoft has built up MSI to where many people don't need to buy third party installer tools. By keeping the major number the same we didn't have to shell out several thousand dollars in upgrading tools and didn't have to expended programmer time to learn the changes so it we were quicker to market at a lower price than if Microsoft had raised it to number 7 to enrich InstallShield and others.
1 Vote
+ -
Makes sense to me
Patanjali 1 day ago
Must be that some people just want to make things look so bad that they will clutch at any straws to support thier lame arguments.
3 Votes
+ -
kinda like apple huh?
KevinN206 1 day ago
It's kinda like Apple getting stuck on 10.X all these years huh? Or the Linux kernel getting stuck on version 2.6.X started in 2003 and only been moved to 3.0 in 2011. Yup - they are all the same old lady.
0 Votes
+ -
What's funny though...
jasongw 1 day ago
Anyone who claims that ANY mainstream OS isn't built on the foundations of its predecessor is just a complete ignoramus. It would be ABSURD to throw out decades of learned lessons and refinements just to start from scratch, fully breaking all compatibility with prior systems.

I enjoy how the Apple fanboys, however, are now congratulating Apple on their "play it safe, stick to the status quo" strategy while badmouthing Microsoft for taking the innovative road. Typical Apple trolls.
0 Votes
+ -
not so good
amj2010 13 hrs ago
We have an Graphical Game IT designer in the house, and he found it (I spell it here ):

S H I T ..........

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix
Click Here
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix
ie8 fix