>>I figured that MS must have used that technology elsewhere in Windows 8
>>and therefore, sped up the whole experience.
>
>
>It would be interesting to learn what improvements Microsoft made in this regard. From what I've read, by disabling many of the same features that are disabled in Win8 by default (removing Aero, window decorations, various services, etc.) the boot times for Win7 can be similar if not identical.
>
>FWIW, my 2.2 GHz AMD 6-core desktop box running 64-bit Linux Mint 14 boots up in about 45 seconds from power-off, including 20 seconds in BIOS. Once it begins loading the OS, about 25 seconds before I'm at my desktop ready to work.
>
>That's something else I can't say for Windows. In Linux, once I get to my dekstop I'm literally ready to do work. But in Windows, it is still continuing to load services in the background which makes Windows-based things (Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, etc.) unresponsive for many more seconds after the desktop comes up.
>
>Best regards,
>Rick C. Hodgin

Hey Rick

Check out Soluto.com. Besides having an interesting UI, you can use it to delay or pause the applications that launch. So you can start windows, load MS word to write a letter and then load the apps you designated as 'delayed'.