Reengineering the Windows boot experience - Building Windows 8

[Fred A. Miller]

This answers some questions about BIOS based boxen and 'Bloze 8.

Fred

Windows 8 will also enter the market in a time when the industry is
shifting to the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) for BIOS on
all new client systems. We will continue to support the legacy BIOS
interface, but machines using the UEFI interface will have significantly
richer capabilities. For instance, UEFI systems can render rich
graphical experiences in native resolution via the Graphic Output
Protocol (GOP) driver. With UEFI, the OS can finally communicate with
boot firmware in a standard way; this work is strongly supported by
standards work in UEFI and the TCG (Trusted Computing Group). This
enables such features as secure boot, where the OS and firmware
cooperate in creating a secure handoff mechanism. It also enables a
seamless visual experience from the time you hit the power button – one
experience owned by two distinct components.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/09/20/reengineering-the-windows-boot-experience.aspx

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