Windows 8: Cloud Sync and Hybrid Boot for Faster Startup

Now that Windows 8 has leaked on the web, more and more reports about the forthcoming operating system are trickling out. The latest report comes from Windows 8 Italia blog which suggest Windows 8 will embrace a new feature called “Hybrid Boot”

Hybrid Boot is more like a cross between shutdown and hibernation. Typically, when you hibernate your computer all the contents of the RAM are written to non-volatile such as a hard drive. Hybrid Boot will do the same, but only for crucial system service which need to be started every time Windows is booted-up.

Hybrid Boot will seemingly reduce the boot-up phase and speed up the operating system considerably. Reports from Windows 8 Italia suggest they were able to boot-up Windows 8 within 20 seconds. We cannot really go by the figures here because boot-up time varies depending upon the system configuration.

Hybrid Boot is enabled by default, and can be turned off from the control panel in Windows 8. System restarts are not affected by Hybrid Boot, and it would function like traditional reboot.

Windows 8 to feature Cloud Sync at the heart of the OS?

Another discovery suggests Microsoft could be working towards integrating cloud-based services for file synchronization and other cloud computing tools straight into the heart of the upcoming operating system.

This could probably be just Windows Live SkyDrive integration to sync files and folders or hopefully third party access to the core functions of Windows 8’s cloud sync feature via SDK. If the latter is the case, then it’s definitely a step in the right direction as cloud computing is the future of computers as we know it. This would open-up the possibility of Dropbox-like services for Windows 8 file/folder sync. The possibilities are endless when you start thinking about it.