Dell first to deliver fast-boot system for Windows Me

Last month, when Microsoft previewed Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me) publicly at its eXtreme event, it provided a glimpse at a new feature called "Fast Boot" that allows the operating system to more quickly startup on specially designed hardware. In a demo of the Smart Boot feature, Windows Me booted to a usable desktop much more quickly than Windows 98, an Apple iMac, or even a Sony PlayStation. Well, the hardware that makes this possible has arrived, and Dell Computer will be the first PC maker to offer such a system, in a Fast Boot-enabled version of its Dimension PC line. This will enable PCs that support the feature to boot into Windows Me in less than 30 seconds. And while this startup time doesn't yet approach the instant on feature of television sets and stereo components, it's a step in the right direction.

"We have been asked by our customers to improve the start-up time of their Windows-based PCs," says Microsoft's John Frederiksen. "As the PC becomes a more important device in the home, consumers increasingly expect that it will perform as well as their other home appliances. We are pleased to be working with our hardware partners, and Dell specifically, to deliver a great solution to meet the needs of these customers." Dell says that it will release a Fast Boot Dimension PC by end of the year.

Microsoft's Fast Boot technology focuses on "cold boot," when the computer is initially turned on after being completely powered down. The company has basically improved all three phases of the boot-up sequence, including the initial BIOS "POST," or Power On Self Test; the pre-logon phase, which occurs before the Windows logon screen; and the final post-logon phase, where Windows performs the actions needed to supply a usable desktop to the user. And Microsoft is also working on "warm boot" scenarios, such as when a computer returns from Standby or Hibernation modes. In either scenario, Windows Me provides a faster boot-up time by removing support for Real Mode DOS, so that autoexec.bat and config.sys are no longer processed by a real mode command interpreter during the boot process. And Windows Me systems will only load those portions of the Registry that are required during the boot process, further speeding performance. Plug and Play device auto-detection and enumeration is somewhat more streamlined in Windows Me, when compared to Windows 98, and the TCP/IP networking stack has been completely rewritten to be more responsive when network servers are unavailable.

For more information on Fast Boot technology, please refer to the Microsoft Web site, which offers an interesting white paper discussing these advances in Windows Me