Windows 8 to Boot Faster

Windows 8 will feature changes to speed up the process of starting the OS (referred to as booting). Previous changes, such as not starting OS services until they are needed and starting device drivers in parallel, contributed to a faster start time for the current version of Windows, but new changes in Windows 8 will mean that users can be productive faster if they have to boot their computers. But demos of Windows 8 booting faster rely on a new firmware standard and solid-state disks—so the improvement most users see will vary significantly.

Why Booting Fast Matters

Booting a Windows-based computer involves a long and complex sequence of steps designed to initialize the hardware, load and initialize the OS, and prepare the computer to run applications. Microsoft indicates that boot speed is important not only because users must wait to begin productive work but also because boot time correlates with overall system performance to most users. Because Windows boots significantly slower than the newest mobile device operating systems, such as Apple’s iOS or Windows Phone 7, users’ overall impression is that Windows performs poorly.