Will Windows 7 Speed Up Your Computer?

What Makes Windows 7 Speedier

Historically, Microsoft has struggled with the boot up routine for Windows. Despite their many different approaches, Windows has always had an agonizingly slow boot time. In Vista, Microsoft’s sleight-of-hand meant that certain well-used parts of the OS loaded first, giving the impression that the OS was ready to go when it really wasn’t. Dealing with a computer that appeared to be ready yet was as slow as molasses while the remainder of the OS loaded was among Vista users’ top complaints.
Well, Microsoft has taken another crack at the boot routine to see if it can load a functional OS faster. When a PC starts up, the computer hardware needs to run a series of self-tests before it attempts to load the OS. These self-checks take some time and there’s little that Microsoft can do about that. The company has discovered some efficiencies however that translate into actual performance increases for Windows loading.
First, device drivers, which had been loaded serially are now loaded in parallel. That way, one driver that’s slow, corrupted or missing doesn’t hold up the loading of other drivers that are ready to go. The number of services that loads at startup has been reduced, and those that remain are loaded more efficiently.
Cosmetically, Windows 7′s opening animation has been downsized and the familiar Windows boot-up chime will play when it plays. The chime will no longer hold up the boot process while the sound drivers load so the sound can be synchronized with a particular animation.
Windows 7 also has the ability to optimize its startup based upon the specific hardware you have installed. This will limit the number of useless services and drivers that get loaded at startup. In addition, some services will load only when they’re specifically called for, saving time and memory as the computer operates.
Don’t expect too much razzle-dazzle from Windows 7. Instead, expect the performance that Windows Vista should have delivered.

Photo Credit: Phil Brown, via Flickr