Enable / Disable Hybrid Boot in Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 M3

Microsoft has already demonstrated Windows 8 booting in some 8 seconds, which included the time it took to load Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), the evolution from the traditional BIOS.

The accelerated start-up time is the result of what the Redmond company has dubbed Hybrid Boot. 

As the software giant explained it, Hybrid Boot brings the best out of two worlds, namely the old cold boot and hibernation. 

When Hybrid Boot is enabled, Windows 8 doesn’t close kernel session, but just user sessions. In traditional hibernation, both user and kernel sessions are written to the hard drive. 

What Hybrid Boot does is that it stores the kernel sessions on the HDD or SSD, accessing them extremely fast and transferring them to RAM, since they’re supposed to run into memory in the first place. 

Improved aspects of the old cold boot still exist, and work in tandem with the new enhancements based on the hibernation process. This is how Windows 8 machines with EUFI motherboards and SSDs can boot in as fast as 8 seconds, and even less. 

Hybrid Boot is also one of the new options available in Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3).

Users can either disable it or enable it. In order to do so they need to fire up Control Panel and make their way to Power Options. 

Once here, they have to click on the “Choose what the power buttons do,” in the left hand side pane. Right at the top of the next screen, they should select the “Change settings that are currently unavailable.” 

Hybrid Boot should be enabled by default, but if it’s not, this is the place to turn it on. Alternatively, users can also opt to have Windows 8 start-up with the old boot process if they so desire. 

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

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