How-To Geek

After I was able to overcome this stupid problem with the Windows7 installer on the USB stick, the installation from the CD went like on rails. It took about 20 minutes for the installation – but that included my “manual intervention” to set for the German Keyboard and to enter the product key.
In preparation I had formatted the SSD with a 64 alignment. This is how to do it:

1. diskpart (in cmd)
2. list disk
3. select disk X (being the SSD)
4. clean
5. create partition primary align 64
6. active
7. exit

Once I had W7 on the SSD, I made the recommended settings in W7. Those are the functions that need to be tweaked:

• Windows Indexing Service
• Use Large System Cache
• Ntfs Memory Usage
• Disable 8.3 Filenames
• Disable Date Stamping
• Disable Pagefile Use (Large RAM Systems)
• Windows Prefetcher
• Windows Vista Superfetch

I was not looking forward to do all those by hand. But fortunately some good soul has written a program to do that. You find this program here: http://www.ocztechnologyforum......hp?t=49779

There are a lot more handy tips on the OCZ Forum e.g. on this thread: http://www.ocztechnologyforum......hp?t=50376

After all this was said and done, I did not make any new performance tests because I have nothing to compare it to (unless I compare apples and oranges). It is, however, amazing, that windows7 now boots in 10 sec to desktop and an additional 2 sec to bring up the startups. It should, however, be said, that I have only Kaspersky and 3 gadgets in addition to the vanilla W7 Beta (build 7000). My “old “ Vista installation with 179 programs installed and 3 virtual partitions needed 300 sec from the HDD and my current Vista with 87 programs and no virtual partitions needs 80 sec from the HDD.
As far as Windows7 goes, I am not a big fan yet. I have been using it quite a bit already in the virtual partition and I am unimpressed. Maybe that will be better when they give us the RC version. Right now there are a lot of functions missing as compared to Vista and the user interface was not changed for the better. Some of the gimmicks they put in, e.g. for the desktop, do not impress me. But then again, it is just a Beta and there is hope.

whs, a 10 second boot is amazing! Even for the Win7 beta which is already faster than Vista. So, you have no pagefile at all, or just moved it to another drive? Windows should always have a pagefile.

This may seem ironic, but you are not the target audience for Win7. With the installed base of XP users up near 70%, and Vista users around 20%, the XP people are the bigger target.

LH, that is an exellent suggestion for the "uninitiated". But having spent half of my life in Software development shops, I know where this stuff lands. It goes thru 3 layers of screening and when it gets to the real developers, it lands in the bin. Those guys don't want to be bothered with "customer requirements". For them, a customer is nothing but a nuisance. Believe me, I have been there.

ScottW, you are exactly right. All the moves they make with W7 are geared towards moving the XP base. That is very obvious. I note little things like "My Documents" and bigger ones like dragging them in with an announced availability of the RC until mid 2010. All this is designed to raise the "comfort level" for the XP guys. When I was a system manager for a major large system operating system, we played the same games. Nothing new under the sun.

Rick, I like the "baited breath". That's exactly it.

Just an additional word concerning the page file. This seemed strange to me too, but that's what the OCZ people recommend (with large RAM - and I have 3GBs). I am not exactly sure what the (programmed) tweak did, but task manager does not show any page file any more. And it runs like on rails. Just installed 5 updates (some 45MBs) and the "configuring updates" in shutdown and restart went so fast, I could hardly read the message: "do not shut down the system" before it was already done. But maybe I am a slow reader - LOL

I will observe it for a while as is. For the time being it could not be any faster. I hardly lift the finger from the clicker, and the stuff is on the screen. But you are right - no heavy load yet. Just browsers, Spybot, updates and alike. The acid test will be when I put the virtual partitions in.