Michael Kimb Jones

Windows Startup Showdown: Windows 7 Beta Boasts Sub-30 Second Boot Time

LifeHacker just did some testing of the new Windows 7 beta to try and gauge its boot time response:

That all said, the numbers:

Operating System	Average time to reach desktop
Windows 7 Ultimate (Beta, Build 7000, 32-bit)	28 seconds
Windows 7 Ultimate (Preview, Build 6801, PDC edition, 32-bit)	32 seconds
Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit, SP1)	33 seconds
Windows XP Professional (SP3)	40 seconds

Here you can see that for the first time, Windows is offering a sub-30 second start time on pretty standard modern hardware, for the first time in at least a long time (if ever, I don’t have a copy of Windows 95 or 3.1 to test).

Now, 20-30 seconds is deemed “impressive” by anyone testing a Windows system. In fact, its decent for ANY OS.

The thing is, I’m not that impressed, let me explain.

Sit down for a moment and count to 20, in real time, use your watch to help.

Now do the same but count to 30. No distractions, just counting.

Trust me, it takes AGES. A 30 seconds boot sequence is just NOT good enough for a modern OS. If your TV or games console took that long to boot up you’d take it back!

If I were Microsoft I’d give up on the fast-boot-time boast. Its just not worth the backlash.