Windows 8 to Focus on Faster Boot Times, Logins

[mcvf]

Do they realize that biggest boost is actually having super large fast-access cache (read SSD)? They should just prepare all drivers and such for next boot into one non-defragmented file and load it at once next start. Then, do the job from memory. That would be really boost for standard computers.
Otherwise, parallelizing, as they suggest, will just kill HDD speed as it is the worse thing to do - load files from different parts of partitions at once. SSD has proven that we are definitely not waiting for CPU while starting MS Windows ...

 

[Lutfij]

lets wait and see what Win8 has in store

 

[cookoy]

faster boot times - that's the key improvement to Windows 8? need to prepare my cup of coffee. so little time now.

 

[Guest]

It probably took an idea that came from linux, coming from the newer BIOS ideas one person once came up with!
Instead of booting a bios in series, it can boot files in parallel. This idea was worked out in Linux (and Ubuntu 10.4).
Now it's just copied amongst all OS manufacturers. The first thing Linux was ahead of MS!

 

[rantoc]

Do they realize that biggest boost is actually having super large fast-access cache (read SSD)? They should just prepare all drivers and such for next boot into one non-defragmented file and load it at once next start. Then, do the job from memory. That would be really boost for standard computers.
Otherwise, parallelizing, as they suggest, will just kill HDD speed as it is the worse thing to do - load files from different parts of partitions at once. SSD has proven that we are definitely not waiting for CPU while starting MS Windows ...

I disagree, even on a slow computer the possible gains from starting for instance drivers in parallel could be substantial. Both network and graphics for instance usually take several seconds to initialize fully while loading the driver itself is less than 1/10 a second. If they then add a smart "cache" feature that loads all those drivers/services combined as just one big file and then initialize all in parallel you could have one insanely fast boot even on a slow computer.

The ideas are really sound, the implementation will be tricky but I'm confident MS will handle it nicely.. its not without reason they are the market leaders with no other os even remotely close (even tho some wants to appear that way too fool more customers)

 

[hannibal]

Well in Anandtech they also mentioned new version of DX (again)... 3D support, USB3, and blutooth 3 support... Well the old news is that win8 should be first pure 64 bit windows version (so no 32 bit version this time) What does this all mean in practice will reamains to be seing.

 

[figgus]

[citation][nom]Weegee64[/nom]For me, the worst thing about Windows is how it manages applications. On Mac and Linux, I can easily install and uninstall from either the applications folder, or the package manager. With Windows, I have to make sure my registry isn't messed up, and I can't move the application files around and still have them work. Some Windows programs are already working as just one file that I can move around, so it definitely is not impossible to do on Windows.[/citation]
The registry was an added "feature" that MS put in place because other operating systems were running Windows applications better than Windows was. They added the registry to lock software into Windows and lock competitors out. I find it rather amusing that this one anticompetitive act has caused them so much headache in the following years...

 

[jazn1337]

What about Midori?

 

[Guest]

In order to get Windows anywhere close to 'instant on,' the PC market needs to ditch BIOS. Heck, they should be doing it anyway now that hard drives bigger than 2TB are on the horizon.

 

[Gin Fushicho]

Hibernation? Screw that! I want true shut down! speed it up in other ways...

 

[razercultmember1]

centralize all pc components into one standard that will work with everything

 

[requiemsallure]

some of these ideas make me squirm, i don't know why... except maybe because it seems like bloat ware... please don't make another windows vista...

 

[dEAne]

Finally I know it will happen soon.

 

[BPT747]

So now I am sure Microsoft will image your desktop and have it displayed at post to make you think their bloated programming boots faster, Every time they claim faster I find that they have just made it look faster and the cost is that actual functionality doesn't occur for much longer than the original boot.

It doesn't count as booted until I can load a high end game and play it slide-show free, and everyone that has tried to run any kind of strong program right after the computer has "booted" has found. Every copy of windows and every update makes this problem worse.

PS... Still better than using a MAC

 

[JOSHSKORN]

How about we find a way to boot PCs faster in general? It doesn't matter if you're using Windows, Linux or whatever, it still takes the same amount of time for the computer to GET TO the operating system (TOO LONG!). Really though from a functional standpoint, I hope they don't deviate too much from what Windows 7 has brought us. I was pretty unhappy with the changes from XP to Vista in terms of the "Documents" layout but that just took some getting use to. Windows 7 was basically Vista made better, like it should've been in the first place.

 

[ravewulf]

What bothers me the most (in terms of boot/login/shut down times) is the time it takes to restart when Windows Update requires the restart to finish. Sometimes I have a blank screen for nearly a full minute at boot before it's done applying changes and cleaning up after the updates.

 

[mcvf]

[citation][nom]rantoc[/nom]I disagree, even on a slow computer the possible gains from starting for instance drivers in parallel could be substantial. Both network and graphics for instance usually take several seconds to initialize fully while loading the driver itself is less than 1/10 a second. If they then add a smart "cache" feature that loads all those drivers/services combined as just one big file and then initialize all in parallel you could have one insanely fast boot even on a slow computer.The ideas are really sound, the implementation will be tricky but I'm confident MS will handle it nicely.. its not without reason they are the market leaders with no other os even remotely close (even tho some wants to appear that way too fool more customers)[/citation]

I agree that parallelization can speed up. But, you missed point that switching SSD for HDD decreases boot time already down to half or less which shows that this is the way to start and then parallelize drivers loading. Some drivers cannot be loaded in parallel though, as OEMs not necessarily support this feature or some devices just have to wait for others to initialize first.
and BTW, Microsoft is not the market leader for the quality if its products.

 

[beayn]

[citation][nom]260511[/nom]?????? how old are you? ignornt people thesedays. Microsoft haven't used FAT for paritions since almost decade since Windows XP, in which they introduced NTFS, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are all native NTFS. you don't even have the option to change the option to FAT32 during installation. (yes you still have the option to format things like flash drives and secondary drives into Fat32 format, however, that is not recommended by microsoft either way. you have to really thick to believe people still use Fat32 thesedays.[/citation]

I think he just means our current file system is not optimized for SSDs. I don't think he was referring to FAT32 specifically. Wasn't Microsoft to include a new file system called WinFS way back? I don't thin they had SSDs in mind with WinFS but I'm sure they could design a new file system that is more SSD friendly.