We can all relate to one common ground no matter which operating system we are running on our personal computers these days, and that is the amount of time that it takes to boot it up. Some of us tech savvy individuals regularly see blazing fast boot times on our personal computers, however the average consumer is not so lucky.
Prefab systems out of the box regularly see longer boot times out of the box, and this is something that Microsoft appears to be concerned with. Microsoft takes the user experience seriously, and being able to walk to your kitchen and at least start a pot coffee while waiting for your desktop to arrive on the screen is not a good user experience.
Although not specifically a projected boot time of 15 seconds, Microsoft has said the following:
« For Windows 7, a top goal is to significantly increase the number of systems that experience very good boot times. In the lab, a very good system is one that boots in under 15 seconds.
Boot time is meant to reflect when a machine is ready and responsive for the user. It includes logging in to the system and getting to a usable desktop. It is not a perfect metric, but one that does capture the vast majority of issues. On Windows 7 and Vista systems, the metric is captured automatically and stored in the system event log. »
Of course at this point we have no idea what their specs are for a ‘very good system’, however it does look as though they have set some sort of internal bar for development when it comes to boot times. This is a good development bar when compared to what end users currently get with Windows XP and Vista however.
Although there are not any target boot times mentioned for either operating system by Microsoft, they both vary in start-up times greatly. Two main factors in boot time are hardware and software. More specifically, what the end user has in the way of drivers and system services over and above the defaults.
I have seen Windows Vista boot in 28 seconds, and I have seen it boot in 280 seconds. The same goes for Windows XP as well. I have a Windows XP system at home that goes from power button to desktop in 9 seconds, but I also had a notebook that went from power button to desktop in 62 seconds. I keep my systems relatively clean and in some instances, tweaked a little.
Nonetheless, Windows 7 leaves a lot to the imagination at this point and a lot of hopes and dreams, both from the consume side and from the developer side. I would assume more details are to follow in the coming months.
Some machines work great out of the box (laptops), then after I load all my apps and am ready to actually do things it slows down to a crawl. I remember working with one XP laptop that took 4 minutes to boot because some driver/service conflict at startup froze the damn thing for almost 2 minutes. I never could figure out exactly what it was.
I've seen rogue software wreak havoc with the registry to the point where it would require a reinstall or backup-restore to fix the problem.
Microsoft has yet to revolutionize the windows registry, give users tools to easily diagnose and repair problems with it or keep it running at top speed. Just eliminating the registry altogether would solve A TON of problems.
But hey, 15 seconds still beats having to take a dump after you hit the power button...