Benchmark Report of 133 Windows Optimization Software > Test 3

Test 3: Windows 8.1 Benchmark Tests

Similar to the tests done with Windows 7 and detailed in the Overview of the Benchmark Test Procedures, 15 popular software were installed to a newly uploaded Windows 8.1 operating system and the results were measured.

Test Results

Installing the popular software to the system didn’t have as dramatic of an effect as it did with Windows 7 operating system. However, the effects were still clear: Installing 15 popular Windows software products to the system caused the startup time to go up from just 17 seconds to 38 seconds (with Windows 7, the startup time went up from 17 seconds to 93 seconds).

After this, eight products which had claims to make Windows start or operate faster were tested. These were the same eight products that showed the highest results with the previous tests.

The Windows 8.1 with the 15 popular software products installed was cleaned with each product, after which the system rebooted once, shut down and then started up. After this process, the startup time measured with a stopwatch. After the system was cleaned with each product, a system snapshot was restored to ensure each product was tested with an identical environment. No software was uninstalled from the system and the system was only cleaned with each product’s default settings.The results are as shown in the bar graph: As can be seen from the results above, most results fit within the margin of error. If the Windows startup speed before using the products is 38 seconds and afterwards it is for example 36 seconds, it’s impossible to say whether the 2 second difference is only random variation.

The only product that was able to break the 30 second barrier was jv16 PowerTools X with a score of 27 seconds.

Next, the same test was repeated with PCMark 7 benchmark tool. First, the system was tested before and after installing the 15 popular Windows software products to see if in addition to making the computer start slower, they also lowered the overall speed of the computer.The results are the following: As can be seen, installing 15 popular Windows software had an effect on the PCMark 7’s benchmark score. With a freshly installed Windows, the benchmark score was 2443 points. However, with the popular software installed, the score dropped down to 2182 points.In the next step, the system was cleaned with the top eight cleaning products to see if they had an effect on the overall system speed. No software was removed from the system and only the issues reported by each cleaning product were cleaned.

The results of the tests are: This time the results were quite surprising. The system benchmark score actually went down with many products which would indicate that instead of making the computer faster, many products actually made it slower.

The only two products that seemed to have a positive effect on the benchmark score were jv16 PowerTools X and Baidu PC Faster with PCMark 7 scores of 2415 and 2274, respectively.

Please proceed to the next page of this benchmark test report: Test 4: Windows 8.1 after all software uninstalled

Table of Contents