Windows 8 Targets Boot Time in War With Apple

Here is a typical scenario many of us deal with… While waiting for our laptop or PC to boot, we take out our smartphones or tablets to check email and work until the Windows-based machine ends it’s leisurely boot process. Often we have a few choice words for our Windows machine as we realize the lunacy of having to deal with such a slow start-up process.

Even more ironic is the fact that an iPad 2 not only boots lightening-fast, it has a full day of battery built-in meaning you don’t need to worry about shutting the system down that often.

About ten years ago I recall Microsoft working on an instant-boot technology but obviously this never made it into production and boot times continue to be a major Achilles heel of Redmond’s OS.

So the news that Windows 8 will boot 30-70% faster than Windows 7 is music to the ears of people who are sick of having to use a spare device while the other boots.

This is how it works… The system processes or kernel hibernates when you shut down. If you have had to deal with the slowness of hibernate mode in current or previous Windows systems, rest assured this will be faster as the applications and their memory does not need to hibernate so it goes a lot faster.

According to Microsoft’s Gabe Aul, systems that are built using Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) are more likely to achieve very fast pre-boot times when compared to those with traditional BIOS. So the bad news is you will need a new machine to experience the fastest performance and obviously a fast SSD helps even more.

Moreover to speed things up even more, the system is designed to restore while taking advantage of your multi-core processor meaning in general that the more cores a user has, the faster the start-up.

This technology seems very trivial and it’s a wonder why it took decades for Microsoft to release it. Obviously the competitive onslaught for the desktop coming from Apple is the main driver here with probably a little concern for Google’s desktop efforts.

So in all, this is a win for consumers as having access to instant computing – whenever and wherever we are is the new normal.

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