Notes on the Charts

Results are cumulative and vary over time

While we do perform some in house benchmarking, nearly all of the results in the charts are computed from the data sent to us by users of the PerformanceTest software. Approximately 500 new benchmark results arrive daily and each update of the charts, we incorporate all the new results into the graphs. This means that the percentage values for the installed software will vary over time. If you are planning on using the results as for reference, then take a print-out of the graphs on the day (to avoid the values changing over time).

Minimum Sample Size

For the software applicaitons to be included on the charts it needs to be in the top 50 of installed software and installed on at least 1% of all computers.

Different Operating Systems and different environments (e.g. 64-Bit and 32-Bit)

The PerformanceTest software is designed to run on several different versions of Windows. There are also 64bit operating systems and 32bit operating systems. 64-bit Windows support running 32-bit applications, but 32-bit Windows is not able to run 64-bit applications. Majority of these results were submitted by our users. The list of Installed Software is obtained through the machine SOFTWARE registry hive, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall. While the list of Windows Apps (Windows 10 and above) is obtained through HEKY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModel\Repository\Packages instead. Applications that do not appear to the above location will not be included in the charts. This may include stand-alone applications or applications that don't register themselves in the registy.

Naming of Software Applications and Possible Duplications of Software Applications in the Charts

There is on going work to group applications into a single listing on the charts, but there may be instances where the slight naming differences causes the application to appear twice. This is due to the fact that these charts are automatically generated, the names of the applications are taken straight from the Registry entries themselves. The software application may vary in version numbers or name may vary via locale , e.g. Mozilla Firefox (x64 en-US), Mozilla Firefox (x64 en-GB), etc. As such, we will try to clean up the charts when/where possible and group the multiple entries into single listing, e.g. Mozilla Firefox.

Version of PerformanceTest

The Installed Software data have been collected using results obtained from PerformanceTest V10.1 Build 1005 and up. The Windows Apps data have been collected using results from PerformanceTest V10.1 Build 1004 and up.