With Windows Vista, Microsoft aimed to deliver the evolution of the Boot and Resume processes. Essentially, enhancements in this area are synonymous with the speed at which a computer would perform boot and resume tasks. With Vista, the Redmond company's bet was to make the machine behave more like alternative pieces of technology, such as television sets when starting up. This is why, in an effort to reduce boot and resume periods, Microsoft revealed that it was not the adept of a full shutdown, but of putting the machine in an intermediary state designed to deliver a fast regain of functionality. As such, the company introduced a hybrid between Standby and Hibernate.
"Even this short wait happens less frequently than before, because instead of shutting down the computer to save power, users can use the new Sleep state, the default state
for turning off computers running Windows Vista. Sleep combines the resume speed of Standby mode with the data protection and low power-consumption characteristics of Hibernate. When entering the Sleep state, Windows Vista records the contents of memory to the hard disk, just as it would with Hibernate. However, it also maintains the memory for a period of time, just as Windows XP maintains the memory in Standby mode. Windows Vista enters and recovers from Sleep state in seconds, and while the system sleeps, power consumption is extremely low," Microsoft explained.
Windows Vista SP1 will not be delivering anything new in this respect. The shutdown/standby options of the operating system will remain unchanged, but Microsoft did manage to deliver some extra speed with performance tweaks. Vista SP1 comes with improved power consumption associated with scenarios in which the display is not active, virtually enabling the processor to remain in sleep state and as such consume less energy.
But, Vista SP1 also "improves the effectiveness of a Windows ReadyBoost device in reducing the time to resume from standby and hibernate by increasing the amount of data stored in the ReadyBoost device that can be used during a resume cycle. [And] improves the time to resume from standby for a certain class of USB Hubs by approximately 18%," Microsoft explained. This on top of the overall performance boost promised with Vista SP1.
"With a clean install [of Vista SP1 RC] on an laptop, it takes only 20 seconds to recover from Hibernate, and less than five seconds to recover from Sleep. A DVD inserted in the drive is playing in less than 20 seconds," M3 Sweatt, Chief of Staff of the Windows Core Operating System Division (COSD) at Microsoft.
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