Vista 32-bit and EFI

[batmanuel]

I was looking around in the file system of my Vista Beta 2 install, and noticed that there was still an EFI-related folder in the OS. It was my understanding that MS had abandoned EFI for Vista x86.

Is the folder a leftover of that abandoned work, or are they planning to turn on EFI support in a later service pack (presumably when EFI-enabled motherboards start shipping enmasse)?

 

[skreet]

What is EFI? :\

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: skreet
What is EFI? :\

EFI

Supposedly Vista won't support booting from EFI. Of course, EFI systems with BIOS compatibility will still work with Vista, though in my ignorance on these issues I suppose that it won't be able to take advantage of whatever nice things EFI can do that BIOSes can't.

 

[SunnyD]

Why would they remove EFI support from x86? They then lose the possibility of doing a native install on the new Mac's... sortof.

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Why would they remove EFI support from x86? They then lose the possibility of doing a native install on the new Mac's... sortof.

I dunno. I think they are just jettisoning every non-critical new feature they are having issues with so that the ship date doesn't slip any further. In also think that they aren't too concerned with getting EFI to work because no hardware vendor except Apple seems to be in a hurry to implement it. Now that Boot Camp is available for the Macs, there is even less of a need to try to get EFI support completed.

I bet they'll hang back, wait for Dell/HP/Gateway to transition over to EFI-enabled machines sometime next year and then add EFI support in a service pack (like they are going to do with WinFS).

 

[Brazen]

So even with a dedicated, stickied Vista thread, are we still going to vista threads running amok?

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: Brazen
So even with a dedicated, stickied Vista thread, are we still going to vista threads running amok?

Why dont we have just one XP and one ME thread too? :roll:

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: bsobel

Originally posted by: Brazen
So even with a dedicated, stickied Vista thread, are we still going to vista threads running amok?

Why dont we have just one XP and one ME thread too? :roll:

ask the guy who made the sticky.

 

[Rilex]

Originally posted by: batmanuel
I was looking around in the file system of my Vista Beta 2 install, and noticed that there was still an EFI-related folder in the OS. It was my understanding that MS had abandoned EFI for Vista x86.

Is the folder a leftover of that abandoned work, or are they planning to turn on EFI support in a later service pack (presumably when EFI-enabled motherboards start shipping enmasse)?

Just like 2000 had files to support Alpha-installations in RTM....

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: Brazen
So even with a dedicated, stickied Vista thread, are we still going to vista threads running amok?

Well Vista is a huge topic of interest right now, with many distint facets to be discussed in depth as it will likely be the last major consumer OS release from MS this decade. It would get incredibly confusing with a single thread discussing every single aspect of the OS and it would be harder for people to find info about the specific topic they are interested in.

The stickied thread was intended to be a one-stop shop for support with finding compatible drivers and software, so there wouldn't be a million "help, how to I get my audigy to work in Vista?" threads, but I don't think it was intended to be anything more than a support thread to help people get up and running.