8 Seconds Windows 8 Boot – The Startup UX Brought into the 21st Century

Windows 8 boots in 8 seconds and even less on new computers equipped with solid-state drives (SSDs) while leveraging the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) to enhance the startup process. 

Users can say goodbye to the Power-on Self-test (POST) phase of boot, as well as to the Windows graphical animation displayed as soon as rendering is no longer done by the basic input/output system (BIOS), leading up to the Windows logon UI. 

“Once we realized just how fast boot was going to be in Windows 8, it was obvious that it was the perfect time to tackle the user experience to deliver something seamless, beautiful, and of consumer electronics quality,” revealed Billie Sue Chafins, senior program manager lead, Windows User Experience Team.

With Windows 8, the reimaging of the operating system impacted boot in a major way, as the software giant focused on bringing the startup process into the 21st century. 

Essentially, not only is Windows 8 tailored to touch devices, but boot has been overhauled for next-generation form factors. 

“We need to deliver a boot experience that is designed for touch, but works just as well for mouse and keyboard. From the beginning, we knew that it would be unacceptable to tell anyone that they’d need to go buy a physical keyboard to set up their machine or to perform recovery in the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) if the PC cannot start,” Chafins said. 

Microsoft’s commitment to supporting legacy hardware and software also covers the good old BIOS, but the company is also looking forward, starting to take full advantage of the UEFI enhancements in Windows 8. 

It’s the combination of Windows 8 and UEFI that has made possible the revamped boot which a few thousands lucky BUILD attendees got to experience last week. 

“UEFI systems can render rich graphical experiences in native resolution via the Graphic Output Protocol (GOP) driver. With UEFI, the OS can finally communicate with boot firmware in a standard way; this work is strongly supported by standards work in UEFI and the TCG (Trusted Computing Group),” Chafins added.

“This enables such features as secure boot, where the OS and firmware cooperate in creating a secure handoff mechanism. It also enables a seamless visual experience from the time you hit the power button – one experience owned by two distinct components.”

Microsoft is acknowledging the fact that the Windows boot has been somewhat stuck in time, user experience-wise.

This is all changing with Windows 8. The software giant worked to accelerate the start-up process to new levels, to introduce new security mitigations, and to optimize the boot experience for touch devices. At the same time, Microsoft made sure that advance users would still have access to all the boot goodies available to them today. 

“The Windows 8 boot experience will reflect the personality of Windows; it will be fast and fluid, seamless, and beautiful every time,” Chafins said.

Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3) is available for download here.

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