How to prepare computer for test?

[Packrat1947]

Just what is the proceedure leading up to a test. Turn off everything in msconfig? Any services that need to be disabled.

If we have a lot running in the background, does that affect the final outcome. Just wondering how to conduct an oranges-to-oranges test between two computers. Thanks for any replies.

Ron N.

[passmark]

Anything running in the background can effect the test results (http://www.passmark.com/forum/showthread.php?t=311).

But normally just having a clean install of Windows is OK.

Vista is a bit worse than XP, in that there is more stuff that might be running automatically in the background (e.g. search indexing). But in theory these background services should only run when the system is idle.

Running the tests several times and dropping low results can also help to remove some fluctuation.