“Windows 8 has a problem ^aEUR“ it really can boot up too quickly. So quickly, in fact, that there is no longer time for anything to interrupt boot. When you turn on a Windows 8 PC, there’s no longer long enough to detect keystrokes like F2 or F8, much less time to read a message such as ‘Press F2 for Setup’. For the first time in decades, you will no longer be able to interrupt boot and tell your PC to do anything different than what it was already expecting to do. Fast booting is something we definitely want to preserve. Certainly no one would imagine intentionally slowing down boot to allow these functions to work as they did in the past. In this blog I’ll walk through how we’re addressing this ‘problem’ with new solutions that will keep your PC booting as quickly as possible, while still letting you do all the things you expect.”
Only semi-related to the matter but I want to ask about it anyway… What happened to the spacebar and meta-key (“windows”-key for you others)? Vista’s solution for not being able to detect F8 was to use spacebar since it’s detection was much more reliable on wider range of systems. And Microsoft boasted the meta-key for Windows 8 even few months ago still. Now they’re doing that menu thing which has it’s good sides and probably a welcome change in itself for many.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsvistanow/archive/2008/12/05/the-spac…
Meta = Alt, Super = Windows.
I can’t really see why they are not detecting a pressed key while booting (modifier keys). It doesn’t slow anything.
Edit: probably has to do with the fact that Windows 8 is targeting non keyboard devices, like tablets.
Edited 2012-05-24 17:24 UTC
Holding something pressed on powerup should work fine on tablets as well, just place your thumb firmly on one of the four corners and power it on. Each corner could have a different function.
From the boot option screen pictured in TFA:
I see Microsoft still wants you to think that *they* produce the only operating systems in the world.
It is the majority (and supported) case, and their loader only detects other Windows installations. Non-Windows OSes would need to be added manually to BCD.
Edited 2012-05-24 04:46 UTC
With 90+ % I don’t see a reason why not. Considering Linux sits well under 1% and MacBooks being different beast….
The language used will make people *think* that the only other operating systems out there are… Windows. As if most people didn’t already think that. And, of course, there is only ONE official provider/licensor of Windows operating systems. Just an extension of their monopoly, which apparently even they believe they have according to their wording. Well, I guess the wording really *will* be true on all ARM machines that come with Windows 8… since to be certified for Windows 8, they must disallow the computer itself from ever booting any other OS, even if the computer owner wants to, unless it is blessed by Thy Almighty Microsoft’s Sacred Key. Linux? BSD? Solaris? Haiku? MINIX? ReactOS? Syllable? Nope, move along–only Windows can play within these walled playgrounds.
Windows 8 is reeking more of vendor lock-in than any version of Windows before it.
Edited 2012-05-24 22:15 UTC
As well-known as Mac OS/iOS, and Android are, anybody interested in booting another OS (and many who aren’t) know there are more OSes than Windows available.
It’s a niche use case for which most consumers have no interest. For those that need the capability, they already know there are more options than Windows, and as far as MS’ role, they are only going to officially support their OSes.
your favourite OEM adds all the crapware to the install. Then it will take an age (relatively) to boot. Ample time to hit a few keys to interrupt it.
But really, in the grand scheme of things, what is a few seconds(say 5) where a message on the screen says ‘Press F8 to interrupt this boot’.
This is the wrong answer to a question that has yet to be asked (IMHO)
That still assumes that things will go wrong in a sufficiently high number. In the majority or use cases that is not or will no longer be the case, because of many self-healing improvements in Windows 8 and an improvement in general stability.
Still, there will be use cases ^aEUR“ albeit a very, very small minority ^aEUR“ that do need the boot menu, and for those there is still this possibility.
On the topic of OEMs adding slow programs, it wouldn’t surprise me if Microsoft were to be disallowing this, for the sake of speed. But that is a speculation.
I get that the startup process is so quick that there’s not much to be gained from flashing up a press F8 to blah blah, but i would have thought an extra handy option might be to press and hold a button on startup / switch on, they are already working with the BIOS/UFEI operators .
and with a 8 second bootup there is enough time to tell the user to press whatever key during startup
but i guess an animated windows-logo is more important…
How can this be a problem? Just hold something down while powering on. It’s worked on Amigas and Macs for decades, why shouldn’t a PC be able to do the same trick?
Some keyboards are too stupid to detect if a key is pressed when they’re powered on. I verified this myself years ago in an electronics project, but they were all AT/PS2 keyboards (12+ years ago). Perhaps USB keyboards are smarter, who knows…