@Glickclik (Troy) I will still be posting the results, it is relevant to EZ Builds.

The main thing I have been trying to get across is that Windows 7 needs to be optimised. A new installation of Windows 7 with no patches and all of the junk Microsoft assumes we need (Aero etc.) will have huge battery drain due to an issue that more than just me mentioned.

I'll also post instructions on what to remove, which power settings to use and what's switched off to maximise the battery time. I'm tempted to throw in a Windows 8 test too as Windows 8 is super cheap (25 over here for the upgrade that works for fresh installs) and built for portable devices so should be light, and ARC works on it (as far as I've read).

@fred it isn't a mistake for posting the thread offering information, hard data and/or personal insight. That's the end of it in my book and I hope DJ Sures does not delete this thread because there is information to be had relevant to the thread topic.

@RichMR2 We always assumed that windows7 would require a lightweight install but with your expertise we can learn the best way to do it.

I'm sure both of you and some of us were frustrated at how the thread developed but lets remember our holiday cheer and refocus on the intent of the thread topic. I, for one, am interested.

@Robotmaker I don't think this thread was a mistake to put up. It is a useful discussion that just got out of hand because many of us get passionate about the things we care about. I am still interested to know if your system was fully patched when you tested, because there absolutely was a battery life bug in Windows 7. Josh's battery issue was clearly because the machine did not have enough memory to properly run Windows 7. At only 1 Gig, his memory would be constantly swapping to disk, causing the disk to run at full speed all the time, and that would chew through the battery very fast. Doubling (or better yet, quadrupling) the memory would have provided a very different experience. Probably 10% higher battery use at worst.

As far as robot companies sticking with XP while Microsoft still allows them to resell it in embedded systems, there are many reasons for that, not all related to performance. I still have XP on my work computer because of compatibility issues with some even older legacy software we use. We have spent several million dollars upgrading our back-end software over the past year so that we can migrate to Windows 7 this year before Microsoft stops providing security patches. A lot of companies will take an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" attitude for as long as they can because making changes can be expensive. Until very recently, most bank ATM's still ran IBM's OS/2 Warp, which is now 18 years old and hasn't been supported by IBM in at least 8 years, but it cost so much to re-write the software, and Windows was comparatively so unreliable and vulnerable to hacking until Windows 7 that they were unwilling to change. Now that Windows 7 is a highly stable and secure OS, the banks that didn't switch to Linux as making the change to Win7.

Alan

TROY good idea Its just i tried it at home on my computer and gave me bad results, i mostly use computers in all my robots to make them very real and doesnt need a seperate computer to control them.

Another good reason is no WIFI OR BLUETOOTH is needed and no RFI problems or short range or metals causing interference problems

I tried many operating systems except MAC,

RICH makes his test it may not be same as mine and maybe it may give better results.

AND same with JOSH it did almost the same as mine and got poor result just like mine

Maybe another person have the same results or maybe not

Merry christmas and happy new year TROY On removing the thread i did not want this to be like a fist fight

All i did is put what i found of the test i did

ALAN you may have some good points but tell me this WINDOWS 7 been out for a very long time and this is maybe only club that using WINDOWS 7 IN THIER ROBOT,i have search so much on the internet and have so many many links and had to find the link Of others like us building robots,one seen one with windows 7,every robot builder is using only windows XP and many from colleges that i know they have windows 7 software ,it doesnt cost that much so why do they use it in thier robot designs ? love to see the the answer for that and a very new design that just came of a professional robot design uses windows xp and i know the company can very easy add windows 7 without any added cost , I seen where some designs use UP TO 3 ITX BOARDS running windows XP in one robot one for brain,one for navigation and one for hardware

I think the test results on the stripped down win7 will give the best answer. XP has been around longer than win7. In my opinion, if I had a bot running on xp why would I upgrade? That would be a hassle. It could explain why some haven't done it. Lets just see what the results show first.

to me its super easy to upgrade and mostly like the colleges if they want to use windows 7 then you dont need to upgrade also you just swap a hard drive out with another and install windows 7 on it when you buy windows 7 you need to install it on a new drive or format a old drive i have about 6 drives with different operating systems on each and able to clone any drive too on stripping down windows 7 ,it can be done with windows xp results are sometimes not good,maybe not the same system or same memory or 32 bit or 64 bit a 32 BIT windows is not that bad if stripped down,but most of us dont know how to do it widows 7 has so many extra features on it takes up a lot of resources

i stripped my windows xp to use almost no resources but thats not the one oi test windows 7 with it would not be fair test,when you do a test everything has to be the same ,no changes also i found out that windows 7 needs more memory then windows 7 and JOSH proved that like ALAN SAID,also on windows 7 you need a much faster machine too

@Robotmaker

I don't deny that XP was the best OS Microsoft put out until Windows 7. Vista was a disaster and I would never recommend it over XP. My main points in recommending it now is that you can't buy it, although for a very limited time Microsoft will still authorize "downgrade license" if you buy Windows 7, at least for corporate purchases. Not sure if you can still get that on individual purchases, so for someone just starting out, it is probably not the best advice to suggest XP. The other point several of us have made is that with the right hardware and tuning, Windows 7 can be as good as XP. The extremely poor battery life you saw is something that can be corrected with the right hardware and the right tuning.

If Microsoft would still sell XP, and provided security patches, I would have no disagreement with you (as long as the voice reco and text to speech do in fact work... haven't looked through the release notes to see if DJ fixed, but I believe you if you say it is working). However, Microsoft stopped providing free security patches in 2009 and will only provide paid patching through April of 2014, so if you plan on allowing your robot's computer access to the internet, or access to networks with potentially unprotected machines, you are putting your system at risk. See Windows Lifecycle

Alan