Win7 Enhanced Experience, have you actually experienced it?

[khtse]

I am getting a X200 with Windows 7. Usually when I buy a new computer, I would format it and do a clean install of Windows to get rid of all the bloatwares. In the case of Thinkpad, I may install back part of the ThinkVantage softwares, but definitely all of them.

I have been seeing Lenovo keeps saying this Enhanced Experience thing, which involves some tuning to make Win7 runs faster so on and so forth. But what exactly are these tunings? From viewing Lenovo promotional videos, I understand that these "tunings" include custom drivers and BIOS optimization... but is that all? Do they modify anything of Win7 itself, at all?

If I clean install my X200 with a retail Win7 DVD, and then download all the latest BIOS and drivers from Lenovo website, do I get the same thing? Or do I have to install the Win7 in their recovery image to "enjoy" the experience? Perhaps more importantly, should I care? Has anyone really experienced the "enhanced" experience?

[johnp126]

I never do that. I leave the build on but remove things I don't want or need, access connections, touchpad utility etc. the new builds don't really have a lot of junk. the EE does help in some times such as boot, suspend, resume and hibernate. i only do clean builds when it did not come with win 7. we have even done some upgrades from vista 64 and that worked well but took a long time (unattended of course)

[khtse]

I never do that. I leave the build on but remove things I don't want or need, access connections, touchpad utility etc. the new builds don't really have a lot of junk. the EE does help in some times such as boot, suspend, resume and hibernate. i only do clean builds when it did not come with win 7. we have even done some upgrades from vista 64 and that worked well but took a long time (unattended of course)

I'm wondering whether those speed improvement of EE that Lenovo claimed are coming from driver+bios tweaks alone, or they also modify Win7 itself too.

[Harryc]

I've never seen detailed specifics as to exactly what the EE tweaks are, so I think you'll be waiting quite awhile for an answer.

[xene]

I recently purchased an x200 for a client that had Win7 Enhanced installed. To see how "enhanced" it really was, I booted my x60s (running Win7 Ultimate with a clean install)and the new x200 simultaneously. The x60s was faster. Then again I also have 3GB on the x60s vs. 2GB on the x200. And I also wasn't loading all of the extraneous software that is usually installed on a new PC. I only have Power Manager & Active Protection running.

[khtse]

I recently purchased an x200 for a client that had Win7 Enhanced installed. To see how "enhanced" it really was, I booted my x60s (running Win7 Ultimate with a clean install)and the new x200 simultaneously. The x60s was faster. Then again I also have 3GB on the x60s vs. 2GB on the x200. And I also wasn't loading all of the extraneous software that is usually installed on a new PC. I only have Power Manager & Active Protection running.

Doesn't X60s use low voltage Core (1) Duo CPU? That should be much slower than the 2+Ghz Core 2 Duo on X200, and I would expect the X200 to boot up much faster... even without the so called "Enhanced Experience". What are the hard drives on those laptops? Does the X200 use a 5400rpm?

I guess when Lenovo said their machines boot up much faster than competitiors machines, they are simply referring to competitors whose latops come with lots of bloatwares.

[xene]

Oooh. Good point about the hard drive. I totally forgot that I upgraded the x60s to a 7200rpm and the x200 is definitely a 5400rpm.

I think the fact that I'm not loading the entire ThinkVantage suite upon booting has a lot to do with the speed difference.

All in all I'm happy that I didn't spend the money on a new laptop since my 3 year-old one is faster out of the box!