One of the features that Microsoft has been long touting for the new Windows 8 platform is its secure boot, which is meant to be a powerful tool against malware. Powered by the new UEFI bios, the platform can easily protect users against malware such as rootkits and other similar malicious software.
At the TechEd EMEA 2012 conference in Amsterdam, Microsoft provided a demo of the feature during a Windows 8 workshop. The secure boot was designed so as to check the OS to see whether it is valid or not. If not, it will prevent it from loading up. During the demo, Bill Karagounis, the group program manager of Microsoft's Performance team, took a USB drive infected with a rootkit and plugged it into a Windows 8 tablet.
During the boot sequence, the platform checked the software that wanted to load, decided that it was unsafe, and automatically entered into repair mode. This is the manner in which Windows 8 will act each time it does not validate the boot loader or a drive that contains malware.