Advice Request Why Windows 8 Boots so Fast?

[MrExplorer]

u know that Windows 8 booting speed is fast, but have you ever considered “why it is so” and how Microsoft did it to give you the great PC experience ever. Microsoft engineers have done a great job on reducing the Windows booting time at its lowest by making several transitions and that’s why you can get into the Windows 8 and ready to use it in as less as 7 seconds.

In no time, Windows 8 can pass the power on self test (POST) screen, render BIOS to Windows and loads graphical window while keeping you at the manufacturer start screen or logo. Once you get into Windows, can choose the desired OS to start with if the system have dual copy of Windows or configure other settings from the same menu like system recovery options, command prompt, system image recovery etc.

Windows 8 is remarkably fast and you might have no chance to interrupt the boot. Means, you may don’t see options like ‘Press F2 for setup’ or other similar options which can be seen and used in previous versions of Windows. You can see this video by Emily Wilson, program manager at Microsoft on the fast booting of Windows 8 in a laptop containing SSD but with no external hardware support. Below is the comparison graph to have clear idea about how fast you can boot in Windows 8 than Windows 7.

In most modern PC’s containing Windows 8, all you can see is the manufacturer logo for a very little time and then immediately taken to the Windows 8 desktop screen without seeing any BIOS message or Windows booting screen as in its predecessors.

What methodology Microsoft engineers employed or what has been removed/added to make Windows 8 so fast? Have a look on the below facts to explore the ideas behind Windows 8 fast booting.
Why so fast?

Windows 8 booting systems were moderated and redesigned in a way that it takes minimal set of hardware resources and battery energy or power drain. As a result, minimal set of input/output requests are made to access the required boot parameters.

In traditional Windows OS i.e., Windows 7, firmware interface tends to close the entire user sessions, kernel sessions and broadcasts messages to devices, windows services, drivers, printers and running applications to close down any running handles as Windows station is shutting down. If any running applications couldn’t be turned off properly, windows forcefully closes them down after saving any unsaved data on hard drive to make sure that they were not lost.

Where as, Windows 8 turn off only the user session and keep the kernel session running in hibernate mode. Unlike full hibernation, only the exact system state and memory content is stored on disk using ‘hiberfil.sys’ system file and Windows can easily restore them and reinitialize the drivers at very next time you begin using your PC.

Below are the graphical differentiation between normal boot and Windows 8 boot model, hope you’ll have some clear idea from it:

Though, you can take more benefits of this great boot time by adding an SSD and placing windows on it as SSD reads and access data more fast than traditional hard drives. This great improvements in Windows 8 can draw many other benefits too and make you able to keep Windows running in standby mode over a week or so without having any speed difficulties.

Source

 

[Deleted member 178]

does it means that disabling the Hibernation totally will slow the boot?

 

[MrXidus]

Though, you can take more benefits of this great boot time by adding an SSD and placing windows on it as SSD reads and access data more fast than traditional hard drives.

Another method anyone can do either on a SSD or a normal HDD is too disable un-needed startup items.

Many new PC's that come with a pre-installed OEM operating system will generally come full of crapware and the start up items will be clogged full of rubbish that slows down your startup.

You can use Task Manager > Startup tab to disable items you don't need.

Spoiler

And if you have CCleaner installed, You can use the Startup manager via Tools.

Spoiler

Originally I had many start up entries I did not need and I've removed them completely and that's improved start up times even more.

I recommend you know exactly what you're disabling incase it's an important system item or program, Such as the images above show my Audio driver and Touchpad drivers which are needed.

If the program itself isn't needed at all, Un-install it to recover storage space.

Thanks.

 

[llama]

I'm not needing to rutinely rebooting my system since NT4 eon, around 1996, so...
Anyway organizing startup of services and programs in a more efficient way like 8 did makes the system seem (partially) up and running in a more snappy way, which makes sense for some users.
And I also appreciate the work done for removing the whole Aero fuss, in 7 bells and whistles were already downtoned compared to Vista.
The 8 desktop seems (no pun intended, I really like its desktop) my all-white theme for Windows 2000 I missed since nefarious times of XP and its cartoonish overlay.
Less bells and whistles certainly have its part in making 8 more responsive and less resource hungry.

 

[arsenaloyal]

yes, I agree with the above post completely. windows 8 is indeed much more responsive than windows 7... atleast on my system. apart from the start screen which takes some time getting used to, Windows 8 is genuinely better OS than Windows 7.

 

[Ink]

@Umbra, you can still achieve a Full Shutdown without Hibernating, see Source (under "How to Perform a Full Shutdown")

During a Shutdown:

"Essentially a Windows 8 shutdown consists of logging off all users and then hibernating."

For a Restart:

"As a result, the restart process in Windows 8 continues to perform a full boot cycle, without the Hibernation performance improvement mentioned above."

Source : Direct Link

 

[WinAndLinuxTutorials]

It caused problems during shutdown when I was using Windows 8 release preview, so I disabled it. But I don't know if the problem was fixed on the final version, I have never tried it.

 

[Deleted member 178]

@Umbra, you can still achieve a Full Shutdown without Hibernating, see Source (under "How to Perform a Full Shutdown")

i asked that because i disabled totally the Hibernation feature via the command "powercfg -h off" to regain some GB of HDD space.

 

[Ink]

What capacity is your HDD, and how much did you gain from disabling Hibernation?

 

[inspiron]

windows 8 boots a lot faster than win 7 on my PC too but i timed how much it takes to load all startup softwares like antivirus and yahoo messenger and it took nearly same as my win 7

 

[Detection]

I turned fast boot off, it causes more problems than its worth

Usually when things get a bit buggy with windows, they are cured when you shutdown for the night and boot up in the morning

With fast boot, that doesn't happen because fast boot doesn't give a real shutdown, it basically hibernates and resumes meaning when you boot up in the morning, you have to reboot the machine to fix whatever was wrong the day before

tbh I don't notice boot times, I hit power in the morning and go get ready, make a cuppa, brush my teeth etc, when I'm ready, the PC is ready too, and I almost never shutdown again until night

 

[Ink]

Fast Boot is useful for Windows RT or tablets running Windows 8, that need access to the OS after than making themselves a breakfast. So MS thought ahead of the average desktop user.

 

[iPanik]

does it means that disabling the Hibernation totally will slow the boot?

I did some trials with this.

Short answer: Yes

Longer answer: Yes, but the cold boot times of Windows 8 is still impressive, so if you have a good SSD the difference between fast boot and cold boot will only be a few seconds. If you have a standard HDD then you will experience win 7 like cold boot times.

I really like fast boot. Not because it is necessary but because i think it is cool that my system is fully booted before my screen is ready

 

[Deleted member 178]

i don't have SSD, and i always totally shut down Win8 ; it is still preferable for me to re-activate the hibernation?

 

[Akash209]

Windows8 boot fast without any Antivirus or With..??? I think Woithout..!!

 

[Ink]

It could apply to most OSes, the more you have starting up on Boot, the longer the process will take.

So Windows 8 without 3rd-party AV will boot up faster than a Windows 8 with AV. Don't forget other factors such was hardware age etc.

Even with Windows Defender active, boot time for Windows 8 is less than 20 seconds.

 

[jamescv7]

For Windows 8 definitely made boots so fast is due to the hardware components meet and even in my newly Samsung Ultrabook it goes like a 3-5 seconds for booting up even though some applications are running for startup.

Kudos for the formulation of a fast boot even in the cold boot too.

But for anyone who wants a custom machines for Windows 8 just make sure everything is meet on the requirements so that you may feel same like from the manufactured laptops.

 

[Ink]

The only issue with the fast boot is if you modify a service setting (ie. Stop Bluetooth), it's remembered upon next start-up, so a restart is required to wipe any non-permanent changes.