Does Windows 10 Run Much Faster Than Windows 7 and Why Does It?

JWalker said:

The thing I was hoping for was to learn specific ways that Win 10 was faster than Win 7. Perhaps there are ways that Win 10 operates that are improved. I can say that my boot times on my new computer are more than 10x faster than Win 7 on my old computer. Applications open about 5x faster. Searches are several times faster. I have not tried to document the times of the two computers but that would be helpful for sure.

Yeah, but it's like replacing a Pinto with a Corvette and trying to figure out how much of a difference the new tires made.

NavyLCDR said:

Yeah, but it's like replacing a Pinto with a Corvette and trying to figure out how much of a difference the new tires made.

Agreed. I feel the only real way to judge improvement is to have 2 identical or nearly identical machines and make changes on only 1 then compare the performance.

JWalker said:

Thanks for the replies. I use Macrium now due to recommendations from this forum. It works great for backups and I trust for a restore if and when I need one. Over a few years I have always needed a restore a handful of times in the past. I have thought about making an image of my HD at a time close to when it was new with the OS and installed programs and data. If I go back to that backup after a year or so then I will be missing some new installed programs and of course the new data. The data is not a problem because I have it backed up separately. I will consider making a backup image and keeping it and also making the monthly backups which I normally do. The former would restore the non dirty OS and the latter could just remove some immediate issue.
The Windows as a Service is interesting and it may be a good thing if it can restore Windows to its original state without the clutter slowing it down, and to provide updates. I have a lot of third party and legacy programs and I will be sad to find that some suddenly stop working with an update. I will feel helpless if I am just along for the ride with no control over updates. If Microsoft can mitigate the loss of third party programs the process will be a good one with many benefits and hopefully not a large expense.

I did a test a few months ago by restoring my SSD from a Macrium image. It worked perfectly.

I make a Macrium image every day. I have set it to a max. of 4 such backups, deleting older ones. About every 10 days I copy one of the backups to a separate disc in case I need to go back further.

JWalker said:

Thanks for the replies. The dual boot case is really telling. I am sure that after about five years my Win 7 did get dirty and that seems to be the major reason for the speed change. My new Win 10 computer has the ability to reset which means a fresh installation of Win 10 and I might at least try that after a few years if it slows down. It is a major amount of work and time to reload applications and make settings and I have reserved that for when I buy another computer. It is too bad that there is not a program to clean up an OS.

Many of my programs are stored on my internal rotating drive (my C drive is on my SSD which Macrium backs up). Therefore, if I needed to re-install my Windows using a fresh version from Microsoft's site, those programs would not need to be re-installed. However, at least one program insists on living in the C drive: Adobe InDesign.

Stevekir said:

Many of my programs are stored on my internal rotating drive (my C drive is on my SSD which Macrium backs up). Therefore, if I needed to re-install my Windows using a fresh version from Microsoft's site, those programs would not need to be re-installed. However, at least one program insists on living in the C drive: Adobe InDesign.

Just curious if you have actually tested that theory?