Windows PC Fundamentals: Resources to Improve System Performance

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The following sections contain information about new features and functionality in the Windows Developer Preview release of Windows 8. “What’s New for Windows 8” is a compendium of all new hardware-related content published by Microsoft in support of the Windows Developer Preview release.

Systems Technologies

Firmware and Boot Environment

For Plug and Play and power management support under Windows operating systems, the system and its firmware must comply with the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification.

Hardware Design for Windows

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 have introduced breakthroughs in user experience, security, and reliability for end users. Hardware vendors, system manufacturers, and driver developers can use these advances to build next-generation products.

Hardware Management and Security

Windows Server 2008 introduced Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) as a common infrastructure for handling hardware errors. WHEA uses richer error reporting to reduce mean time to recovery for fatal hardware errors and uses hardware health monitoring to reduce system crashes. These advances supplement support in Windows for solutions that use system management BIOS (SMBIOS), Web Services for Management (WS-Management), and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).

Performance

We design Windows operating systems to perform well out of the box. However, many factors affect actual performance: firmware design, applications that load at system startup, memory and I/O components, and the built-in capabilities of system components such as graphics, storage, and networking devices. To help system designers and manufacturers, we provide tools and information for the design and tuning of systems for best performance.

Plug and Play

Properly implemented, Plug and Play provides automatic configuration of PC hardware and devices. For modern versions of Microsoft Windows, the system and its firmware must comply with ACPI. The driver architecture for Windows supports comprehensive, operating system–controlled Plug and Play.

Power Management and ACPI

A comprehensive approach to system configuration and device power control is built into Windows operating systems, based on the ACPI system interface and other new bus and device specifications. Windows supports capabilities that drivers and applications can exploit to improve the user's computing experience.

System Internals

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 provide kernel subsystems that support modern processor, memory, I/O, and other core technologies.

Virtualization

Windows takes advantage of virtualization assistance in hardware that is based on Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT) and AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) technology. By doing this, Windows virtualization enables workloads such as server consolidation, efficient software development and testing, resource management for dynamic data centers, application rehosting and compatibility, and high-availability partitions.

Windows Server Platform

Windows Server 2008 advances control and manageability, increases flexibility, and provides a solid foundation for more secure, more robust server environments.

Windows PC Fundamentals: Resources to Improve System Performance

Featured Content for Windows 8

Systems Technologies

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