Windows xp battery life vs windows 7

That would be due to better use of the graphics chip during tasks such as DVD playback, and improvements in the kernel so that CPU can more quickly switch to an idle state when not in use, and generally run more efficiently, says Microsoft see video from Microsoft's WinHEC keynote last November. A Microsoft spokeswoman declined to comment about the recent reviews and reports, but did point to a white paper , last updated June 23, , describing to driver developers and hardware engineers how to optimize hardware and components for better battery life under Windows 7.

Of course, battery life for Windows Vista was widely perceived to be worse than under XP, due to its bloated codebase, which prevented Vista from running well on netbooks, as well as the poor availability of Vista drivers for many months after its launch.

Hardware drivers and how they interact with an operating system are key for battery drain. For instance, a driver that fails to let Windows turn off a Wi-Fi chip when users aren't surfing the Web could accidentally result in poor battery life.

Jack Gold, an independent research analyst, says that it's still too early to condemn Windows 7. Drivers are not written by Microsoft, but by the component makers themselves, he said. Rather than simply recycling their Vista drivers, the hardware vendors need the final release of Windows 7, which only arrived last month , and "a little time to perform their magic.

While existing Windows XP netbooks may miss out on some of these optimizations, future models that ship with Windows 7 pre-installed may eventually have the same or longer battery life than XP that Microsoft has promised.

With all the resources Windows 7 will use on a device, optimization will take a little while to complete," Gold said. Graphics and hard drive performance show the largest performance deltas.

Again, all we can say is that more optimized drivers should improve performance to some extent, providing Intel invests the time and actually releases them.

Topics Microsoft. See all comments I'm a running a Tux on me netbook. I pity da foo' running either da decrepit or da unwashed behind da ears OSes on them netbooks.

The Starter edition should be able to perform better and last longer on netbooks because it is supposedly optimized for them. Also, it will have far fewer services running in the background compared to the Ultimate edition. Windows 7 is much improved on Vista. Windows 7 on the other hand in a real world test, say opening up like 10 internet explorers, photoshop and other things Our friends at Liliputing and JKOnTheRun — both of whom use the aggressive Battery Eater test to measure longevity — also noted that endurance on Win 7 netbooks has been lackluster.

So should consumers make the switch? In the case of the NB, the difference in our test was small enough not to matter, especially given that you're still getting over 8 hours of juice.

Microsoft may want netbook owners to leave XP behind, and we dig new Windows 7 features like taskbar previews, but those who cherish their long battery life are going to be tough to convert.