Windows 7: Boot time under 15 seconds?
When Microsoft was developing Vista, or Longhorn, as it was known way back when, company officials were fond of making promises about ways that Microsoft would improve on Windows XP with its next-generation Windows release.
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3.9.2008 How To: Reduce Disk Space Used By Windows Vista System Restore
So you just bought a new notebook with Windows Vista and a roomy 120GB hard drive. But after using it for just a couple of days, you notice that youve only got about 90GB free.
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24.4.2007 How to Reduce Windows Animation Speed in Windows Vista
When you minimize, maximize or close any windows/applications, the animation speed to perform these tasks is a default setting and you cant really control it.
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10.2.2009 Reduce the Load MSNBot Delivers to Servers
Microsoft is currently rolling out a range of improvements to its Windows Live platform of services and applications.
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21.4.2008 How Office SP2 manages to reduce interoperability
Microsoft recently released service pack two (SP2) for their flagship office product, Office 2007.
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21.5.2009 Windows 7 (15-Seconds-Boot) No Match for Windows Instant On (8-Seconds-Boot)
Microsoft revealed that it is targeting a 15 seconds boot time for Windows 7 in laboratory conditions, but the fact is that the Redmond company is cooking even something better.
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16.10.2008 Minimem - Automatically Lower, Optimize or Reduce the Memory Usage for Any Running Program at Interval
Nowadays modern computers comes with high memory, from 1GB to 4GB and some even up to 8GB!
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6.8.2008 Vista Boot Screens
Thanks to desperados who report Vista bootscreens download in our forum and to Rick van Dijck (iemanduitnederland) author of the Boot Screens. Some nice boot screens for Windows Vista.
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12.3.2007 0wning Vista from the boot
Federico Biancuzzi interviews Nitin and Vipin Kumar, authors of VBootkit, a rootkit that is able to load from Windows Vista boot-sectors.
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26.4.2007 Vista: Whatever happened to fast boot?
Anyone else remember when Microsoft used to talk about making Windows Vista (or Longhorn, as it was then known) a fast-booting operating system.
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12.4.2007 Vista scoots to new boot, but its still kinda rooted
While Microsoft would like the world to believe that anyone running Windows has no need of any other operating system, that attitude doesnt cut much mustard with many of its users.
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28.9.2006 How to Change Windows Vista Boot Screen
Some of you remember how it was possible to change the boot logo screen of Windows 95/98. I'm not sure why anyone would go into the trouble of actually doing it, but it seems that it is possible to do the same for Windows Vista.
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19.11.2007 Vista Loader 2.1.3 - Windows Vista Activator 2008 Support SP1 with No Boot String
Vista Loader is one of the most successful Vista activation crack available to date, second only to physical modify (hardmod) the BIOS to include SLIC table to make BIOS Vista activation-compliant.
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15.5.2008 OSx86 project offers $1 bounty for a Vista boot
The ink is barely dry on narf/blanka's checks, and already the OSx86 project has launched a new contest for getting Microsoft Vista to dual-boot on an Intel Mac (although it seems copies of that particular OS may be rather scarce for awhile), but this time the prize will be a bit smaller- thousands of dollars smaller, actually.
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22.3.2006 High quality image Vista boot screen
Some people found a way to change that black boot screen of Windows Vista RTM to a high quality one, the one that was supposed to be in before it was cut from the final version.
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19.11.2006 Windows Vista Boot Logo Generator Beta
I know a lot of people were disappointed by the lack of a decent boot logo in Vista, so Ive thrown together a tool that should simplify the process of creating the new high resolution boot logos!
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16.1.2007 Apple Releases Boot Camp 1.2 with Vista Support
Apple has posted a new version of Boot Camp today. Boot Camp 1.2 brings several updates, including Windows Vista support.
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29.3.2007 New Vista OEM Activation Hack - Vista Boot by gkend
Thanks to Steve Jobs for this article on his blog and to our forum members to clecha, Nighthief and fitterphil120 for most of the findings. One again the Chinese come up with a new method to trick out the Vista Activation. We have seen Softmode and VistaLoader, however Vista Boot by gkend does promise even more.
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21.5.2007 Enable New Boot screen in Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2
Tired of the pathetic boot screen in current Vista builds? There is a new trick that will allow you to see what may be the new boot screen for Windows Vista.
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12.5.2006 No Boot Clean Installs Using Windows Vista Upgrade Discs
Although it has been discussed to death here, some official coverage on the front page is needed. Thanks to Ambiance for posting a direct response from Microsoft about the issue.
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28.1.2007 How to boot a Vista system from a locally stored WIM file
The Windows AIK provides excellent opportunities to create custom Windows PE based images. Those images are provided as WIM files and can be easily converted to ISO files to be burned on CD or DVD.
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13.5.2007 How to boot a Vista system from a locally stored WIM file
The Windows AIK provides excellent opportunities to create custom Windows PE based images. Those images are provided as WIM files and can be easily converted to ISO files to be burned on CD or DVD. WIM files can also be used to boot from the network using Windows Deployment Services.
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6.6.2007 Vista Needs More Time: The Entry I Didn't Want To Write
I've been defending Microsoft's ship schedule for Windows Vista (actual build 5483) for quite some time. Up to this point, I've been confident that Vista would be at the quality level it needs to be by RC1 to make the launch fantastic.
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1.8.2006 Microsoft Likely to Ship Vista On Time?
Microsoft Corp. will most likely ship its upcoming Windows Vista operating system on time and meet its deadline for both corporate and retail consumers, a Wall Street analyst said on Wednesday.
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5.10.2006 Next Vista 2099 Time crack
Thanks to selseli who report this crack in
our forum. Thanks to who prepared this crack, too.
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14.1.2007 It is Vista SP1 RTM Time Again
Over two months since it was released to manufacturing, and just a week short of the first month since general availability, Microsoft is now showing strong movement on the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 RTM front.
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8.4.2008 Windows update to reduce the number of filters for Domain Isolation or Server Isolation deployment.
Install this update to reduce the number of filters that need to be authored and maintained in an IPsec Domain Isolation or Server Isolation deployment.
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8.4.2006 Windows Vista Blog: "It's Time" video
A simple two word blog post was made minutes ago, on the offical Windows Vista Blog:
"It's time!" windows -
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9.11.2006 Updated Vista 2099 Time crack
Microsoft released update which disable majority of Vista cracks. The update identification is KB931573. Also I heard that in non-Ultimate Versions of Vista to avoid update: KB929391. Ruski1982 prepare how to install Vista with clear updates.
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31.1.2007 Tell Hasta la Vista to XP - Time to Upgrade to Vista SP1
Like it or not, this is the right time not only to upgrade to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 but also to tell hasta la vista to Windows XP.
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30.6.2008Enable New Boot screen in
Vista Beta 2
Tired of the pathetic boot
screen in current Vista
builds? There is a new trick
that will allow you to see
what may be the new boot
screen for Windows Vista.
This new boot screen
is still not what we have been
expecting but is a move in the
right direction compared to
the white progress bar screen
currently used.
Enable New Boot Screen:
1. Click on the
start orb and type in
"MSCONFIG" in the textbox.
2. Once the
System Configuration tool
loads, click on the Boot tab.
3. Under Boot
Options check "No GUI
Boot".
4. Hit
OK and reboot to see the new
screen
More
tweaks at source!
jcxp.net -
12.05.2006How Vista screws dual-booting
nirvana
Declan Kennedy at APC Magazine
has written an interesting
analysis looking at
Microsoft's suspicious
lack of advancement in OS boot
technique.
Put
simply, Vista will still
overwrite the master boot
record with no regard for any
other boot loader that may be
present.
But
Kennedy also describes how,
with the right boot loader
configuration, you can setup a
dual-boot system that allows
you to switch between Windows
and Linux without having to
reboot either OS, using
hibernation.
His
observations open up
interesting possibilities for
Mac users too. Boot Camp would
be considerably more useful if
it didn't involve closing
all applications and fully
restarting the system each
time. If it were just a case
of sleeping one OS to switch
to the other, it'd be the
next best thing to perfect
virtualisation. Will Apple
implement this in time for
Panther?..
windowsvistax.com -
03.09.2006Windows 7 695x boot screen revealed
Chris Holmes, Windows Enthusiast and blogger, has posted a short and somewhat blurry video of the new Windows 7 boot screen in action. The latest
sign of changes for Windows 7 signals a departure from the Vista boot up screen. Microsoft kept the boot screen simple with Vista after asking BIOS
makers, PC makers, and video card makers to remove product advertisement screens at system boot. Microsoft created a simple boot method which it
claimed took 6 seconds off initial boot compared to the more graphical boot that it had originally planned with the Longhorn betas.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
04.12.2008Vista tips and tricks: changing boot options on the fly
There are a number of boot options that can be used in Vista and Windows Server 2008 that can be a pain to modify (or not possible if you are in a
bugcheck loop), that can be done on the fly at boot time. These options are invaluable for diagnosing some problems you may experience on the system,
and modifying them in the OS may involve figuring out the bcdedit syntax, the right BCD store to modify, or rebuilding and burning a new install DVD
(if the problem is happening during install from media).
Some example boot switches you might want to use are...
winbeta.org -
23.04.2008How To Warm Boot Windows XP/Vista
Unless you have to, it is many
times advantageous to warm
boot, or rather warm reboot,
Windows. In a warm reboot,
Windows restarts, but the
computer doesnt, skipping the
whole pre-Windows boot
screen/BIOS/startup sequence.
You an
easily specify a warm boot
in both Windows XP and Windows
Vista. Just hold down SHIFT on
your keyboard before clicking
Restart in Vista, or before
clicking OK in the restart
dialog in XP. Enjoy the extra
20 seconds!
Technically, the use of
the term warm boot is a bit
misused here, but the small
amount of time saved by not
re-running the BIOS can be
worth it.
winbeta.org -
17.08.2007Windows 7 to Improve Boot Times
When I turn on my PC, it's because I want to use it, not make coffee while waiting. Windows Vista is a real pig when it comes to bootup times from
all of the services and drivers that initialize when the system starts. Microsoft has noticed this and is actually focusing a lot on it for Windows
7:
"For Windows 7, we have a dedicated team focused on startup performance, but in reality the effort extends across the entire Windows
division and beyond. Our many hardware and software partners are working closely with us and can rightly be considered an extension to the team.
As an example Windows 7 effort, we are working very hard on system services. We aim to dramatically reduce them in number, as well as reduce
their CPU, disk and memory demands. Our perspective on this is simple; if a service is not absolutely required, it shouldnt be starting and a trigger
should exist to handle rare conditions so that the service operates only then.
As noted above, device and driver initialization can be a
significant contributor as well. In Windows 7, we've focused very hard on increasing parallelism of driver initialization. This increased parallelism
decreases the likelihood that a few slower devices/drivers will impact the overall boot time."
jcxp.net -
30.08.2008Apple Adds Vista Support to Boot Camp
Apple on Wednesday pushed an
update to its Boot Camp dual
booting feature, providing
support for the 32-bit version
of Windows Vista, as well as
updated drivers for various
hardware included with Intel
Macs...
betanews.com -
29.03.2007Ubuntu targets 10 second boot time for 2010 release
In an email to developers of the Linux distribution Ubuntu, Canonical's Scott James Remnant explained how they hope to achieve a 10 second boot
time with Ubuntu 10.04, the version to be released in 2010, after 9.10 is released this fall. The projected speed improvements come with changes to
the kernel, such as making the X.org server, which controls the display elements in Linux, load up quicker. The boot process will divided into
sections with time budgets: two seconds for Kernal and initramfs, Plumbing (drive loader), and X.org server; and four seconds for the desktop session
and other services. "This benchmark time is to a fully logged in desktop (auto-login) with an idle CPU and Disk.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
11.06.2009ASRock "4 second" Instant Boot for Windows
Want a way to boot up your Windows Vista PC from a full shut down in a matter of seconds? ASRock have the answer!
The solution is
technology that ASRock call Instant Boot. This is interesting technology because it leverages the S3 and S4 ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power
Interface) features which normally enable the Sleep/Standby and Hibernation modes in Windows to cut boot times down to something like 4 seconds. By
calling S3 and S4 at specific times during the startup and shutdown process, Instant Boot enables you to boot up to your Windows desktop in a few
seconds seconds, even after a total shut down.
winbeta.org -
13.11.2008Apple Releases Boot Camp 2.1 Update
Apple released Boot Camp 2.1 for
href="http://www.macrumors.com/c.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.apple.com%2Fsupport%2Fdownloads%2Fbootcampupdate21forwindowsxp.html&t=1209099301">Windows XP
Service Pack 3,
href="http://www.macrumors.com/c.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.apple.com%2Fsupport%2Fdownloads%2Fbootcampupdate21forwindowsvista32.html&t=1209099301">Windo
ws Vista 32 and
href="http://www.macrumors.com/c.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.apple.com%2Fsupport%2Fdownloads%2Fbootcampupdate21forwindowsvista64.html&t=1209099301">Windo
ws Vista 64.
This update addresses issues and improves compatibility with Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista running
on a Mac computer using Boot Camp. It is highly recommended for all Boot Camp users.
Important: Installation of Boot Camp 2.1 is
required before installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)
href="http://www.macrumors.com/c.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.apple.com%2Fmacosx%2Ffeatures%2Fbootcamp.html&t=1209099301">Boot Camp is a Apple's tool
to allow Intel Mac owners to boot dual boot Windows alongside Mac OS X. Running Windows under Boot Camp provides you with a fully compatible Windows
environment.
winbeta.org -
25.04.2008Vista Performance and Reliability Pack Unofficial Release
Thanks Nekrosoft for the news
on this major update to
Windows Vista that should for
most of us improve the speed
and reliability of Windows
Vista significantly!
Please note: These fixes
break all current methods of
bypassing driver singing
requirements except the good
old F8 during boot (that you
have to do every single time
you start vista)
IF
you are using Rivatuner,
atitool and or Peerguardian on
64bit vista, you will have to
use F8 every single time to
disable driver signing
requirements to use those two
programs. x86 version is
unaffected.
These
updates should go official on
the next patch Tuesday (in one
weeks time). Please read more
for the download links and
information on these
updates.
R
ead full story.....
neowin.net -
30.07.2007Engineering the Windows 7 Boot Animation
Steven Sinofsky: As we connect through this blog and through all of those talking about Windows 7 it is clear that folks have a lot of passion around
many topics. We learned early on about the passion around the boot/startup sequence and how important it was for that to go by quickly! At the same
time, we know that it is really dull to watch a HDD light blink when resuming a machine from hibernate or powering up a machine. To improve this first
connection with people, we set out to improve the boot sequencejazz it up if you will. It sounds pretty easy, but as we looked into solving this we
found it is a pretty significant engineering challenge. Our goal was to have fun while having no impact on the boot performance of the system. To
explain this engineering and describe the boot sequence, Karen Wong, a program manager on our Core User Experience feature team, authored this
post.
winbeta.org -
19.02.2009Changes afoot in Vista SP1 RC0/Windows 2008 RC0 kernel memory dumps
With the advent of Windows Vista there are changes made in how the operating system determines if it can take a kernel memory dump or not. Starting
in Vista the amount of memory allocated for kernel mode could vary dynamically. If the pagefile is not big enough, switching to minidump at dump time
cant be done easily. So the dump stack initialization is happening at the time of boot where this check for the pagefile size is done.
What does this mean? It means if you don't have a pagefile as large as physical memory at boot, and your system is configured for a kernel
dump, you'll end up getting a minidump. If you permit me to opine, this makes sense in the client space where a valid dump is more critical than a
corrupted kernel dump, as the results usually would get uploaded to Microsoft via WERCON or another mechanism. If further triage is needed MSFT could
contact you with the ability to setup a kernel capture.
winbeta.org -
16.10.2007Windows VistaBootPRO 2.0 Beta
PROnetworks announced that
VistaBootPRO 2.0 Beta, the
newest version of the original
program developed by the
PROnetworks Betas Team and the
Beta Testing Forum, is now
available for download.
This is an update to
the original VistaBootPRO 1.0
Beta. There are lots of new
features and improved GUI
interface. Full support for
Windows Vista Beta 2 and Build
5456 has been added as well.
VistaBootPRO
has proven quite popular
because it is used to make
changes to the Windows Vista
Boot Configuration Data (BCD)
registry quickly and easily,
doing the job in a fraction of
the time it would take using
the alternative.
To get more info on
this great app, click Read
More!
jcxp.net -
15.07.2006Vista on Mac
AirmanPika posted on the OSx86
Project forums yesterday that
he managed to get a beta copy
of Windows Vista working on
his Intel Mac (one of the
Intel CPU based iMacs). He had
trouble installing some
drivers, which doesn't
surprise me since Boot Camp is
currently made to work with
Windows XP. Beta testers (with
PC's, not Macs) already have
enough trouble getting devices
to work on Vista that would
normally work just fine with
XP installed.
How did he do it? Using Boot
Camp and according to
Cringley: " Microsoft LOVES
Boot Camp and I am sure
they'll say that shortly.
After all, Boot Camp sells
more copies of Windows without
threatening more sophisticated
products like Microsoft's own
Virtual PC.
jcxp.net -
10.04.2006Windows 7 695x Boot Screen Video
Chris Holmes: So last week, winfuture posted about Windows 7 build 6954 having a new boot screen. Ever since then, people have been wanting to see
exactly what this new boot screen looks like. I can tell you it looks pretty nifty. It is basically 4 animating balls that come together and form a
glowing windows flag, making for a pretty cool effect.
I recently had a chance to film this boot screen in action, so without
further ado, watch the video of the new Windows 7 boot screen...
winbeta.org -
04.12.2008Vista: Whatever happened to fast boot?
Anyone else remember when
Microsoft used to talk about
making Windows Vista (or
Longhorn, as it was then
known) a fast-booting
operating system. Fast, as in
cold boots
that were 50 percent faster
than those possible with
Windows XP?
Something obviously went
awry.
As
Computerworld is reporting, a
number of Vista users are
none too
happy about Vista boot-up
times. Some are
questioning whether Microsoft
is advocating that users just
put Vista into sleep mode, as
opposed to shutting down
systems on a daily basis, to
mask the sluggish boot up.
(And it's not just
boot up speeds that are
troublesome. Vista shutdown is
as slow as molasses, too,
Computerworld is reporting
users as saying. And
app-loading times are nothing
to write home about,
either.)
Microsoft
has been touting the
sleep/hibernate modes as the
preferred ways to "shut off"
Vista systems.
neowin.net -
12.04.2007Windows Vista: The Facts
When choosing a new operating system, the first thing many people ask is, "What will it help me do?" In answer, much of this site shows you the
great experiences Windows Vista helps you have. The second thing many people say is, "Prove that it's better." In particular, many of you have
asked about performance and safety improvements. The following information provides specific proof that Windows Vista is faster and safer.
- The
majority of Windows Vista-based PCs boot in less than a minute, which can be an improvement over Windows XP boot times. And the new Windows Vista
sleep and resume features can bring your PC to life in a snapin fact, the vast majority of all Windows Vista-based PCs resume from sleep in less than
6 seconds.
- PCs running Windows Vista that are equipped with 512 MB memory experience a performance boost of up to 40 percent with Windows
ReadyBoost. Just plug a USB flash drive into your computer, and Windows Vista will automatically start using it to speed up memory access to important
data.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
20.01.2008Disabling UAC Slows Vista's Bootup Time?
Blogger Chris123NT is reporting that the LUAFV driver, which controls UAC in Vista, can cause latency issues if the controversial feature is disabled.
Apparently, once UAC is disabled, a registry tweak that disables the driver in question also needs to be applied if the user wants to have solid boot
times back (improved boot times obviously vary from machine to machine). The problem occurs in both Vista RTM and the current beta build of Vista SP1
(6001.17042). This seems to me like yet another reason why it’s not a good idea to disable UAC, but I'm sure UAC haters will have a very
different perspective. It will be interesting to see how fast Microsoft will patch this problem, considering how important security is nowadays.
neowin.net -
15.12.2007Windows Vista Performance
Enhancements
MVP Charlie Russel describes
the new features in Windows
Vista that improve overall
system responsiveness and
reduce startup and shutdown
times...
microsoft.com/windowsvista -
22.07.2006
