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Vista file copying showdown: RTM vs SP1

Copying files is the Achilles’ heel of Windows Vista, “calculating time remaining…” the blue screen of death equivalent. If anyone tells you Windows Vista isn’t slow at copying files, then they obviously haven’t downloaded any DVDrips and tried to move it onto another computer. It was anticipated Windows Vista Service Pack 1 would fix this problem amongst other things.

As announced this week, the first beta build of SP1 (6001.16659) has been released on Microsoft Connect. The initial reaction from most tester has been largely positive noting improvements in file operations such as moving, copying and deleting files. However I haven’t seen anywhere post any benchmarks or evidence to prove it is indeed faster.

I composed this side-by-side video comparison of Windows Vista with and without SP1 copying a 44MB file across a wireless network. I should point out the SP1 machine was running as a virtual machine in Virtual PC 2007, however I don’t believe it has any substantial impact on disk or network performance. For those playing along at home, the file I used was “Project Gotham Racing 4 Live Action Vs In-Game video (HD)“.

Whilst this benchmark is hardly scientific, it is obvious Vista SP1 has fixed the “calculating time remaining” bug. As soon as the dialog box appeared, it immediately began copying the file. The copying progress is also more accurately indicated with updates approximately every second in both the text and progress bar. It took approximately 30 seconds to copy the entire file.

But it wouldn’t be a good story without a twist. Vista RTM may have started slow and appeared slow throughout the file copying operation, it actually only took 3 seconds longer to copy the file. Unexpectedly the progress bar just zooms to the finish line in the final seconds.

Of course this is only one test with a relatively small file so it is hard to judge the difference, but I wonder if our mind is just playing a trick on us. What happens if Windows Vista wasn’t slow at copying files? Maybe file copying was never broken, just the progress bar? No matter what it is, now the progress bar moves and numbers change, and that’s all it matters.