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Microsoft promises fast boot times for Windows 8
SOFTWARE OUTFIT Microsoft is talking up fast boot times for its next PC operating system, Windows 8, and the first demos are impressive.
Microsoft tested Windows 8 startup times in comparison to Windows 7 on 30 computers. The results showed that Windows 8 won every time, with at least a quarter of boot time saved, if not as much as three quarters.
In fact, the boot time was so fast in a video demonstration that it took only about seven seconds from the push of the power button until Windows 8 was fully booted. Of course, this will depend on the specifications of a computer, but it seems that the next version of Windows could give the fast booting Linux operating systems a run for their money.
Part of the reason why Windows 8 boot times are so fast is because Microsoft has taken a different approach than it did with previous versions. For example, Windows 8 hibernates the kernel session instead of closing it, which is significantly faster than the Windows 7 approach. On startup the processes are also divided so that the hibernated files are loaded simultaneously with driver initialisation, which means multi-core processors can be put to good use for quicker startup.
Faster boot time will be particularly handy considering how often a Windows machine needs to be rebooted, but Microsoft is also promising that Windows 8 computers will not need to be rebooted as often.
"We designed Windows 8 so that you shouldn't have to boot all that often (and we are always going to work on reducing the number of required restarts due to patching running code). But when you do boot we want it to be as fast as possible," said Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows division at Microsoft.
Windows 8 is expected to be released some time next year. µ
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I don't get the "it takes too long to boot up cold" fascination. Why not just put it to sleep? I close the lid on the laptop, it goes to sleep; I open the lid, it wakes up in about 2 seconds ready to go. Battery life is several days while sleeping.
My only gripe has been spotty Windows and driver support for sleep modes. 2 of my 3 Windows 7 machines wake themselves up constantly.
I guess I'm just oversimplifying it?
A hibernated kernel, on a windows system, I'm sure viruscoders will be relieved by that convenience.
not only is it possibly a good spot to inject but also once a system is infected it'll stay nice and cozy.
But to be honest, most OS's get better (and cheaper) if you have a way to hack them.
Its always so exciting when new windows OS is released but thanks to apple windows are getting better and better.
So, no one is asking the obvious question regarding the video.
Was this a 'standard' laptop, or one with an SSD?
I'm pretty sure this was an SSD-equipped lappy, which is not the norm now, nor will it be the norm in 12-18 months when W8 is released.
Maybe the article's author can get in touch with the MS PM and get some clarification? Oh wiat, that would be journalism...
Always nice, but not a huge deal. Windows already boots very quickly on an SSD which should become the standard for system drives soon.
I am getting a Windows 7 laptop within a few months and now I want to wait for Windows 8. Well, let's hope overpriced Apple computers will lose their popularity soon after Windows 8.
MS pushed for faster BIOS. Now coreboot can boot in 600 ms or so. A fast UEFI can boot in 2.5 seconds. Windows loads so many MB from disk only SSD can help. At least with Win7 and older. I hope the 100's of MB read during boot can be drastically reduced. SSD cannot completely replace HD for years.
Jacob667 is right about post time. A 2.5 second UEFI can be found only in a few HP commercial ProBook models. My Asustek P67 UEFI takes minutes to boot. The money I spent on SSD was wasted as a result.
The real problem is us the customer. We should demand published post time for anything we buy. Review sites could kick start this by publishing post time for everything they review. I saw an ipad- hp touchpad side by side boot test. ipad boot is just plain slow. HP touchpad boot is broken. I would have given up and RMAed it waiting for video to appear. Slower than a server boot.
We have seen some drastic improvements over the years from Microsoft for faster booting. Windows 7 is far better than Windows XP in booting and shut down time. Hoping Windows 8 to be far more superior. Still there will be some dependencies.
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The only problem for me is finding hardware that has a short POST time ( power on self test )
Sometimes it takes 15 seconds and it's hard to find motherboards with short POST times. I thought that UEFI which is the replacement of the very old BIOS would bring faster boot times. This is not the case.
The guys at Lenovo has done some work on one of their upcoming laptops. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLwaKb6pLrc But I miss other manufacturers trying to reduce the boot time. It's not enough that the OS boots fast, the hardware also has to have a fast POST.
This will be the version I plan on buying. I hope it's just one simple disc based on 64-Bit that can be installed in anything. Let's hope we get solid support for all RAID SSD setups for full TRIM support, so I can finally pick some up for PC gaming....