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references. From a practical standpoint, this is not a big difference. On shutdown times, Windows 7 had the fastest time of nearly eight seconds faster than XP. XP outperformed Windows 7 in terms of Picasa video encoding by nearly four seconds.

The researcher then used PCMark05 Benchmark to run eleven system tests, each of which represents a certain type of PC usage. These benchmarks included hard disk access, 3D and graphics physics rendering, webpage rendering, file decryption, multithreading with video, audio, text editing, and image decompression. This test then renders a number that equals to a performance index. Using this index, XP outperformed Windows 7 in almost every category. This test found that XP would be better for running games, but the author noted that newer games that require DirectX 10 or 11 will not run on XP.

Of course, some newer software will not run on XP at all such as Windows Live Movie Maker. It would be unrealistic to expect newer software that was developed long after the operating system to run. Therefore, the user who is interested in newer software should not even consider XP. The research are also used Geekbench, a test developed by Primate Labs that includes a number of proprietary tests. The set of tests is hardware intensive and improvements were seen from XP to Windows 7 (Muchmore, 2009).

The author then tested all three systems using Sunspider Benchmark. The most astounding difference was in Javascript performance in Windows 7. This operating system outperformed the other two dramatically in this area. The researcher then ran Firefox 3.5 on all three systems and found that Windows 7 it is a striking improvements over the other two. However, performance was considerably lackluster on Firefox 3.6 across the board (Muchmore, 2009).

Muchmore's assessment did not show that Windows 7 was a drastic improvement over XP. Windows 7 has more features and an advanced interface, but these improvements would be expected in any operating system upgrade. The question is which features are more important to the client. For instance, do they care more about startup or shut down times and will the few seconds difference being noticeable to the average user? Windows XP performed better for power gamers, but is more likely that this segment of the market will be more interested in having the newer games, which will not run on XP. XP is starting to show its age, according to Muchmore, they will have to work on their reputation for suffering from code bloat. Windows has finally realized that they cannot rely on Moore's Law provide them with the ability to cram code. Current market trends are towards lower power, which means that windows will have to learn to write leaner code. Muchmore's was one of the most empirically conducted studies that was found in the literature review.