Microsoft reveals incredible instant boot feature of Windows 8

[Rainbow Dash]

Microsoft revealed another new feature of Windows 8 on Thursday.

The software giant has been working hard to improve boot times in Windows 8. Boot times is a fundamental metric that is widely discussed for Windows systems. “Few operations in Windows are as scrutinized, measured, and picked apart as boot,” admits Microsoft’s Gabe Aul in a blog post on Thursday . “We all know the boot experience is an incredibly important thing for us to get right for customers.”

Microsoft says that 57% of desktop PC users and 45% of laptop users shut down their machines instead of putting them to sleep. The company has found that most people shut down their machines as they like to use no power when they are sitting idle. Microsoft’s challenge was to design a Windows 8 boot that had a zero watt power draw when off, created a new session at boot and includes fast boot times when pressing a power button on the PC. ”In Windows 7 we made many improvements to the boot path, including parallel initialization of device drivers, and trigger-start services, but it was clear we’d have to get even more creative (and less incremental) if we hoped to get boot performance anywhere close to fast enough to meet all of these needs,” admits Aul.

Microsoft has designed its Windows 8 shutdown to close user sessions but hibernate the kernel session. This reduces the amount of data that hibernation mode needs to write to disk, making it faster to read and resume. Microsoft has tested the feature across a variety of systems and claims it’s 30-70% faster on most systems they have tested. “It’s faster because resuming the hibernated system session is comparatively less work than doing a full system initialization,” explains Aul.

The new startup mode will benefit HDD or SSD systems but Aul admits that with SSDs “it is downright amazing.” Microsoft demonstrates the feature using a system with Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). Microsoft has also built an option in the UI to revert to the standard Windows 7 shutdown/cold boot behaviour.

Microsoft will unveil Windows 8 to the world next week during its BUILD conference. If you’re interested to know what has been revealed so far checkout our “Windows 8: What we know so far ” article that includes all the latest confirmed and leaked Windows 8 news.

Source: http://www.winrumors.com/microsoft-r...-of-windows-8/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcH8n_oFf0c

I have to admit that is really, really impressive

[Crimsonkin]

Yeah i will believe this when i see it! Im kinda looking forward to it!

[Cosmo]

Already been done by Chrome OS.

[David]

I'd like to see how fast it boots up on a regular 7200 RPM HDD instead of a hybrid drive.

[Cosmo]

Originally Posted by David

I'd like to see how fast it boots up on a regular 7200 RPM HDD instead of a hybrid drive.

Hah, that too. Not quite fair to compare the two. Most people don't use Hybrids or SSDs, so it's not a very useful demonstration either.

[Digilodger]

Originally Posted by Crimsonkin

Yeah i will believe this when i see it! Im kinda looking forward to it!

Oh you can see it right now. You seem to be a Mac fan so I'll be assuming that you have a Macbook lying around


Buy an SSD (Solid-State Drive) and install it into your Mac [instruction here, if you need]. SSD price has dropped a lot recently; now you can buy SSD at the rate of $1 USD per GB when they're on sale.

Next, load the OS files onto the SSD. Then re-map all other directories (programs, documents, pictures, videos, musics, etc.) to your old hard drive.

It probably still won't be as fast as the Windows 8 demonstration, but you should see a 40% to 50% improvement in your Macbook's boot time. Stopping apps from loading up at start up and you probably would be able to load your Mac within 15 seconds. (Maybe?)

(That demonstration booted up in about 10 seconds, so you would be pretty close.)

[Amember]

Originally Posted by MonsterCosmonaut

Already been done by Chrome OS.

Well technically, if you think about it. Chrome OS is independent on an internet connection and is no where near useful as a Windows or Mac OS, so in a sense this new boot feature is still pretty unique.

Originally Posted by David

I'd like to see how fast it boots up on a regular 7200 RPM HDD instead of a hybrid drive.

True that, but tech prices will change in a years time.

[Loving Linux Penguin]

Great. Now Linux has a challenge from Microsoft (as in...something to REALLY challenge it). And we were doing so well too!!

[Cosmo]

Originally Posted by Loving Linux Penguin

Great. Now Linux has a challenge from Microsoft (as in...something to REALLY challenge it). And we were doing so well too!!

Let's be brutally honest here: the only advantage of Linux is that you look Alternative. Seriously. Oh and the lack of viruses I suppose, that's an advantage. My problem with OSs like openSUSE, Ubuntu etc. is that they have zero killer features. There's nothing super-unique or innovative, beyond a few nice things like speedy booting.

Hackintosh bro Lion is great!