We already know Windows 8’s bootup time is wicked fast. Now we know it’s going to be wicked attractive too, with the same minimalist glory of Windows 7 Mobile and Metro. Goodbye, horrible decades-old DOS eye murder. Hello, beautiful booting.
Windows 8 will use the new BIOS-replacing Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) — which means a seamless jump from your computer hardware to the OS. This means that the days of ghastly scrolling text, like something from a Cold War missile guidance system, are over forever. Instead of BIOS gibberish, you’ll get a high-resolution logo that leads straight into a graphical boot menu. Not only is this tablet-friendly — a must for Windows 8 — you can use it without having your eyes gouged by white-on-black text in an endless list, triggered by obscure commands.
Want to boot a different OS? There’s a simple graphical menu for it. Want to boot from a disc or USB drive? There’s a simple graphical menu for that too.
The only thing that still has both feet in a fugly previous decade is the command prompt — but at least the menu leading to it is simple and graphical.
Due to the aforementioned, wonderfully brief boot times, you won’t spend very long in this world. But if you need to, it’ll be more proof that Microsoft has, perhaps for the first time in Windows’ long history, really given an enormous damn about being fantastic. [Microsoft]