Is that a full boot or a resume? W8 doesn't by default do a full shutdown - it either suspends or hibernates. W7 could of course do the same but most people probably shut it down by default.

You have correctly summarised why Windows 8 boots so quickly. This is not normal hibernation, as in previous versions of Windows, but a very sophisticated system of caching relevant information to allow near-instantaneous booting. Hibernation, as in previous versions, would not be nearly so fast, mainly because it has to store more data to resume the state that the computer was in when it was hibernated.

How the mechanism works matters little to most people - you just switch the computer off and then switch it on. Paradoxically, this is quicker than choosing "hibernate" and almost as fast as "suspend" (which has its disadvantages). As when running Vista the laptop took well over a minute to boot, Windows 8 is worth it for this alone.

Rest assured that none of the known laws of physics are broken; it is just very clever software.

In reply to a post by AEP:

Windows 8 is worth it for this alone.

Vista here. Boots up in under 10 seconds from sleep. Reboot once or twice a month if necessary, and I'll keep the Win 8 money.

Sleep does allow for fast boots. I don't like it, on a laptop in particular, because

1. It uses up the battery.
2. It resumes the machine with a user logged on. That's a security issue in my book.

My laptop coming out of resume requires the password to be reentered for the user - so still secure. I have one W7 laptop that I use sleep on (always plugged in to the mains), a W8 tablet that works much like an iPad where power is concerned and other W7 machines that I always shut down fully.

My work laptop has sleep disabled because for some reason they just don't like coming out of sleep properly - about 30% of the laptops had issues with resuming so we turned it off completely.

Desktop, single user, with WOL disabled. Only other person here is my techno-hating girlfriend.

Being a mean Scot (you are obviouly the other variety) I still object to wasting money by using sleep mode.

Is that with the stock cooler? My bros PC also has an i7-3770k and it also doesn't get very warm, but he is using a ThermalTake Frio (that thing is huge!).

Edited by deleted (Thu 02-May-13 19:24:49)

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Go for Windows 8 and save yourself some faff in the long run. Buying new hardware and putting Windows 7 on it is silly, as much as Windows 7 is an excellent operating system. Windows 8 takes it to a new level with boot times, responsiveness, graphics, etc.

Hardly silly, you boot up once it doesn't matter how long it takes particularly if you have to spend a fortune on new software or spend time looking for drivers for USB hardware. Windows 8 is fine for touch screen computers where you are doing one thing at a time.

In reply to a post by AEP:

Being a mean Scot (you are obviouly the other variety) I still object to wasting money by using sleep mode.

The other variety being grumpy?

sleep mode uses no electricity at all. I've measured it with my meter thingummy. Quicker to come back up, saves time on wasteful boot cycle electricity.

/mean and grumpy