XP vs Vista

Posted at: Tuesday 2nd October 2007 by James Morris

James Morris puts Windows XP and Vista head to head in a gruelling set of benchmarks to see which Microsoft operating system runs your games and applications the quickest.

However, the ring fencing of dangerous code is a source of one of Vista's more annoying features from the user's perspective. As software signing is now deeply ingrained in the OS, when Windows Vista's User Access Control senses an executable from an unknown source, it blocks access and halts the system to ask you if you want to run it - which is about as reassuring as having Don Corleone tell you he's looking out for your best interests. This is the Software Protection Platform, and it's here to keep your computer safe - honest.

Other quibbles include the dumbed-down disk defragmenter, which gives you no idea of its progress. Yes, you can now schedule it to run at a convenient time, but having no idea when it will be finished is definitely a step backwards. The super-fast Windows Instant Search is also a double-edged sword. It may be very quick but, until Vista Service Pack 1 arrives, it essentially forces you to use it. Although you can install desktop searches from third parties, Instant Search remains fully functional, hogging resources. You end up paying the performance penalty for indexing twice.

Annoyances even crop up before Vista starts working. The numerous different versions are confusing and unhelpful; Ultimate costs as much as a premium graphics card, yet offers scandalously little in the way of extra features, while Vista Home Basic's title stresses the 'Basic' part so much that it doesn't deserve the Vista name. PC builders will also be irritated by the fact that the upgrade version of Vista requires you to have a previous copy of Windows installed, and has to be run from within that (although you can still install Vista as a dual-boot configuration after this if required). Previous versions of Windows simply asked to check the install disc from your previous version, or the associated serial number.

There are positive sides to Vista though. The Aero interface is undeniably pretty, the desktop gadgets can be handy and having a search bar available at every turn is extremely user-friendly. You'll wonder how you lived without it. The interface also feels more responsive than XP, despite the weight of having a 3D-rendered front end. Programs you've recently used load in a flash, thanks to SuperFetch.

Testing times

Looking good doesn't automatically mean that a program handles well, and with every new OS from Microsoft comes the accusation that it's clunkier, slower and more bloated than the last. In order to find out how fast (or slow) Vista really is, we put a test PC through an exhaustive range of benchmarks, which were designed to cover every area of usage a Custom PC reader might encounter on a daily basis. We ran an identical set of tests under Windows XP and Vista Ultimate. The basic rig was the kind of system you may have just built, or which has been sitting in your study for the past six months - basically, a system that's neither an insane state-of-the-art PC that only a few minted enthusiasts could afford, nor an old clunker that only a homeless Mac addict would consider.