Windows 7 vs XP on a Vaio TZ - battery life and performance?

I've got a wonderful TZ 31VN which I bought second hand. It's currently running Windows XP, which is giving me some fun juggling drivers, but I am thinking of upgrading to Windows 7. Does anybody know from practical experience what effect this will have on the performance and battery life for a Sony Vaio TZ? From what I've read, it just has the specs (1.3GHz Core2Duo, 2GB RAM) to handle Windows 7, but will it work slower or faster than XP? And I've heard a lot about Windows 7 giving reduce battery life even compared to Vista, never mind XP - but this may be to do with it working hard to do the initial indexing and I've not seen any posts about what happens specifically with the TZ. Anyone actually done this and knows what happens?

I know you can run Windows 7 without the bells and whistles, and I'd be happy to without Aero if it means more juice. I'll post separately about getting a SSD upgrade - such a nice computer...so far.

Thanks!

Cartergonzo

 

I'm also curious the affect disabling windows 7 aero has on battery life (on my z)

 

I am running W7 Pro on my TZ298 from a Fresh Install (never had XP on it) and as far as battery goes I can easily squeeze 7Hrs on a 100./. charge with the following setup my batt already has a 8.6 ./. wear)
*wifi > on
*screen 30./.
*silent mode
*volume off/mute
*bluetooth off
*2nd HDD off
*Intel display power > max batt
*power option > balanced
*windows classic with dark wallpaper (blue eye)
*roaming aggressiveness/transmit power WIFI > 3 medium.

// > I was on Vista before and to tell u the truth I didn't notice and increase/decrease on batt life going to W7.
// > your specs are fine for W7.

Adding an SSD will be a big boost to your TZ.

 

Thanks a lot for the reply Zimbros - that's great to know! Can I just check you are using the standard battery? 7 hours on a charge is more than I am getting at the moment with XP, admittedly with a slightly older battery...

 

Yes I am using the standard batt which I already mentioned has a 8.6 ./. wear.
When it was brand new the most I got out of it was 9.35 hrs of juice.
The extended batt is heavier and bulkier and don't like myself the @.@ of it thus rather have 2 standard instead (imo ).

 

How do you know how capacity your battery has left? I'd like to see how much wear is on my battery.

 

^
Download HW Monitor

 

A question about OS - I work for a large financial services company and our IT folks have not approved Win 7 for just about every company application. Can and does XP Pro work inside a Win 7 installation? Comments and your thought?

Thank you

 

I use Battery Bar Osiris Development - Home of BatteryBar, the most accurate battery meter for Windows