Windows 7 Update Can Take 2 Days

As is always the case with a new operating system, many different performance tests were run by Microsoft to make sure Windows 7 was actually something better than anything else on the market. One of these tests had a focus on upgrade performance. Microsoft technicians used the metric of total upgrade time across different user and hardware profiles. And according to the test results that a Microsoft Software Engineer posted on his blog, Microsoft met their goal of bringing Windows 7’s upgrade time to a place faster or equal within the five percent threshold to the Vista SP1 upgrade time.

The broad range of upgrade times in the test is the most interesting characteristic of the data. From 30 minutes on a system with high end hardware and a lower amount of programs installed to 1,220 minutes on a less ideal model. That second extreme seems a little high, but it is accurate. On a middle to low end system with 650GB of data and 40 applications, a 32-bit Windows 7 upgrade took 20 hours and 20 minutes.

Just for posterity, everyone should know that a clean installation is always preferred to performing an upgrade installation. It’s the best way to avoid any problems with a new operating system, and now it seems there’s another reason to be making make this recommendation. Knowing this could save you a lot of time. Courtesy of arstechnica.com