ASRock Allows for Record Windows Vista Boot Times

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 17 Nov 2008

One of the main improvements that the Microsoft team is trying to achieve with the upcoming Windows 7 operating system is the time it takes the software to boot up. In the laboratory, the pre-Beta Windows 7 versions managed to boot in the record time of 15 seconds. ASRock can’t be bothered with anything less than a final version, so they left Windows 7 aside, focused on Vista, and managed to get a boot time that puts Windows 7 to shame.

How fast does Windows Vista boot? In 4 seconds of less, thanks to the Instant Boot feature. According to ASRock, achieving this performance was made possible by surmounting several obstacles of a technical nature and by crafting special, new technology. By getting the Windows OS to boot in such a record time you will save energy, not to mention that the technology will have a beneficial effect on the system’s speed. It must be noted that ASRock’s Instant On also works on Windows XP, which is great news for those of you that decided to skip Vista.

The catch is that getting your machine to boot up in 4 seconds or less is not as easy as downloading and installing a software program. It is a bit more complicated in that you have to use one of ASRock’s motherboards (AMD 790GX, AMD 780G, Intel P43, Intel P45). Once you get one of those motherboard models you must update the BIOS – without the driver update the system will boot in a regular time of 20 seconds, not at the breakneck speed of 4 seconds.

In related news, a recent study has shown that on the same hardware configuration Windows 7 is 20.6% faster than Windows Vista in terms of how quickly the operating system boots.

If you would like to see for yourself how the ASRock Instant Boot feature works, a video has been posted on the internet. You can watch it if you click here.


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