We proceeded with measuring the impact of Windows XP and Vista services by deactivating all these mentioned in the lists in the previous pages. These results can’t be applied in every case. All computers can’t sacrifices all the mentioned services and the users must instead adjust their configuration in function of what they want to achieve with their machine.

Easy start

We also wanted to remove all the applications contained in the “start” folder from the “start” menu. We made sure that the keys “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run”, “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run”and “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce”

Of the registry base were empty. Knowing that having installed only Office, Firefox and Thunderbird on our test computer, there wasn’t much apart from a few drivers and the OneNote 2007 launcher. This mean that any gain will mostly be attributed to the deactivation of the Windows services and applications. On a computer bought in a retail shop, this cleaning up can have a larger impact as many more programs are launched on start-up

The impact of services

Vista is the only OS that really benefits from this measure, as it launches and possesses far more modules than its predecessor. On top of that, certain of the editor’s choices concerning the style are quite surprising. Why does the application dedicated to Tablet PCs launch automatically no matter what the machine? We remain dumbfounded. If the deactivation of the applications is not very useful in XP, it reveals to be necessary with Vista which suffers from a surcharge of applications on top of a lack of optimisation of the programs and drivers.

The numbers confirmed first of all how dependable our tests were and the sum of all the power saving measures regrouped. Vista is technically 15% more efficient than its default setting. In the previous pages, we saw that the reduction of services gained 4.6% while the “power saving mode” gains 10.4% (15 = 10.4 + 4.6). One thing is for sure, the latter result gives some colour back into Vista’s cheeks which is now only 16.8% less autonomous than its predecessor instead of 28% at the beginning of the article. It is better, but not enough for those who need their battery.

Conclusion

If battery life is your most important priority and that you don’t rely on Vista, XP remains the best solution. The new Microsoft system possesses some appealing advantages. This new management of standby modes justifies its adoption by laptop users by itself. Aero is also a breath of fresh air after too many years spend with Luna especially as it does not have an impact on the global consumption. Unfortunately Microsoft hasn’t managed its applications well as it renders its system heavier. Finally, Vista has nothing to be ashamed of yet it seems that it will suffer from XP for a while, which remains its main competitor.