There’s been an awful lot of hype building up around Windows 8 and how Microsoft are looking to finally enter the tablet market properly with it. Everyone seems to have forgotten that the vast majority of people still actually use laptops and desktop PC’s, and while that trend is slightly changing, I think it’s still important to remember the current traditional way we use Windows.

Sticking to the subject of tablets though. ARM’s CEO Warren East recently spoke about how Windows 8 will have an advantage over Android when it comes to tablets once it hits the market. While Android has been an incredible success in the smartphone industry, the pick up rate hasn’t been quite as good in the tablet market. He called Android tablet sales “disappointing” .

He cited a number of reasons as to why Windows 8 will have the advantage over Android tablets:

• Microsofts Brand
  Microsoft have a big advantage over Android since everybody knows, recognises and trusts their brand. Microsoft is much better known than Android amongst the general consumer and it’s a company that everyone can relate to.

  I think we can be pretty certain that Microsoft are well aware of this fact and will probably do their very best to exploit that fact. They’d be foolish not to.

• Intel Needs To Catch Up
  While Intel may be dominating in the PC and Laptop market, the vast majority of tablets are actually running ARM processors. Intel are trying their hardest to break into the tablet market, but at the moment Android tablet manufacturers prefer the cheaper ARM alternatives. Windows 8 will support both ARM and Intel processors which will give it another slight advantage over it’s predecessor – Windows 7 which only supported Intel’s x86 architecture.

• Android Needs More Time
  Android is doing very well in general, but it’s the smartphone market where it’s currently excelling. A few years ago when Android first came to the market there was very little enthusiasm around it. However 2 years later and it had suddenly taken off.

It will be interesting to see how Windows 8 tablets are received in the market and how quickly they’ll take off, if they do of course.

What do you think? Will Windows 8 powered tablets have the advantage over Android?

Let us know in the comments below

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An article in Zdnet Windows 8 is a big risk to the consumer PC industry made some important points about the status of the PC industry as a whole and Windows 8 specifically. The gist is that the PC industry is in trouble, and Windows 8 may not help it recover.

“The consumer PC industry is in the doldrums, with sales down at uncomfortable levels and a near-tangible lack of enthusiasm in the air.”

Consumer Business is Down…But Enterprise Business is Up

2011 was the year of the tablet. Anyone, following this industry will tell you that. The revolutionary approach to computing with the invention of the Apps, changed how people used computing devices. Specific operations, and there were thousands of them, changed what people did with their devices. The spillover, moreover, to the smartphone market, one that didn’t even exist 10 years ago, was remarkable. This was like watching how the US changed after Edison introduced the light bulb. You can’t go back, and don’t even want to.

So yes, the PC is down, because it’s model goes back to 1975. It was time for a change. And consumers clearly saw it. They wanted computers, just not the PC.

Yet Microsoft and hundreds of other companies continue to produce software for the business market, and doing well. What that says is that the PC is not dead, but continues and will continue to have a life that will survive the tablet onslaught.

Will Windows 8 Help or Hurt?

The existing computer operating system model goes back to the days of DOS. And it has not changed. Sure enhancements occurred and it became faster, slicker, and more powerful. But even with the GUI interface, and the GUI operating system, it was still a DOS based model. Windows 8 is supposed to change that.

New boot ups, a new interface, new CPU technology is supposed to change how the computer operates. This will lead to new types of applications. And some of these changes clearly come for the tablet concept.

Will Windows 8 help or hurt? Obviously, that answer won’t be finally given until a year after it has been released and consumers and experts make their findings known. But is the PC industry dead or dying? We can say, let’s hope not, but more realistically, we can say, it isn’t.

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Windows 8 is still nearly a year away from being released and we’re hoping to get a good look at it in the first public beta in about a months time. But many people who haven’t actually downloaded and installed the developer preview don’t know what’s new in Windows 8.

Well today I stumbled upon this great little infographic from thetechlabs which explains it all and makes it very easy to see the top 10 new features that are going to be in Windows 8. Personally I think some of these features aren’t necessarily worthy of a top 10 spot, but none the less it’s still a handy little infographic.

Do you agree with this list? What would you add or remove?

Let us know in the comments

Here’s the list:

1. Windows to go
2. Windows Store
3. Metro Style UI
4. Better Security
5. Internet Explorer 10
6. Faster Booting
7. Apps always on
8. Minimal Ram
9. Single Platform

Windows 8

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One of the coolest things that we’ve seen come from Windows 8 is the new picture password log on feature. For those of you who don’t know, this is a new method of logging in. All the user has to do is draw a pattern and tap in a certain location and sequence to unlock their PC. It’s quite a cool feature if you ask me, however it’s been slated be some security experts.

Kenneth Weiss runs a three-factor authentication business called Universal Secure Registry and is the inventor of RSA’s SecurID token. Here’s what he had to say about it

I think it’s cute, I don’t think it’s serious security

Well that doesn’t say too much for it now then does it. Kenneth actually described it more like a Fisher-Price toy than a serious choice for secure computer access.

Read this post to find out more about the picture password

The concept is good, but from a security perspective there is some flaws. For example, if anyone sees you input the pattern it’s quite easy for them to remember. Unlike a traditional password where the pin/password that you enter is displayed as “*”, you’ll be able to see exactly what the user’s entering. Also it’s a bit of a pain trying to right down what your pattern is in case you forget it. It would have to be quite long winded to make sure that you get the pattern right.

However, because it’s so quick and simple to set one up and enter the password, I think we may find that more people will start using this. There’s plenty of people who don’t use a password what so ever so if they used this picture password it would be better than nothing wouldn’t it?

Also all you have to do is make sure that the wrong people don’t see you entering in your pattern and you should be ok. But I’d be interested to hear what you guys think of the picture password.

Is it a good feature that you will use? How secure do you think it is? What are it’s major flaws?

Let us know in the comments below

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There’s been much talk over the new Windows 8 App Store that’s set to be released alongside Windows 8 sometime next year. Microsoft hasn’t given us a chance to have a proper look at it yet, just shown us a few brief demo’s. However they have released a few bits of information to us over the last few weeks. One of the biggest things we discovered is that the Windows 8 App Store will be accepting open source apps.

It also looks like the Windows 8 App Store will be a great deal for app publishers as well. For a start, Microsoft will apparently allow publishers to keep all subscription money, which is unlike Apple’s policy on their app store. What’s more, Microsoft has also undercut Apple when it comes to the percentage of revenue that they will be taking over developers. Apple currently takes 30 percent of  an apps revenue, while Microsoft will only be taking 20 percent after an app has had a net of $25,000.

Another bonus is that Microsoft will allow developers to offer time and featured limited trial software which Apple does not currently allow on its store. Microsoft will also allow developers to choose a payment option of their own as well.

We have full platform support for free apps, trials (both time-based and feature-based trials) and paid apps, including in-app purchase…developers can also choose to manage their customer transactions directly, for example, with newspaper subscriptions, or to adopt a business model with offline fulfillment, such as for auctions,”  We don’t mandate a specific transaction engine and developers can use their own. They can also choose the ad control that works best for them.”

While some people have said that Microsoft is far too late to the game with Windows 8 and the Windows 8 App Store, there is one thing you need to remember. Over half a billion Windows 7 licenses have been sold and there’s over 1.25 billion Windows users around the globe. This dwarves the few million iPad’s that have been sold. Apple may have had a good head start in the tablet market, but with Gartner estimating that 400 million new Windows machines will be shipped next year, you can be pretty sure that a lot of them will tablets once Windows 8 is released.

Of course, the one major thing that could hold back the Windows 8 app store is that it probably won’t work on machines other than those running Windows 8. And since a lot of Windows 7 users probably will not jump to Windows 8 straight away, we could see a pretty slow pick up rate for Windows 8

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There was lots of hype coming up to Microsoft’s Build conference which was held in September this year. We knew that we would all be getting out first real look at Windows 8, but the main reason we were so excited was because it was rumoured that the first developer preview of Windows 8 would be made available to us all. Our wish came true, and every Windows enthusiast immediately started downloading it.

In fact it was so popular, that over 3 million copies of the developer preview have been downloaded to date. I think it’s fairly safe to conclude that all the people who downloaded the developer preview went and installed it, but the question is:

Are you still using the Windows 8 developer preview?

Personally, I can’t remember the last time I fired it up. I know this probably sounds bad since I’m an editor for a Windows 8 website, but bare with me.

When I first downloaded the developer preview, I immediately installed it in a virtual machine (see my guide here on how to do that). Of course I played around with it for a few days but I quickly got bored. First off, because I was running it in a virtual machine, the performance wasn’t that great and secondly because my laptop doesn’t have a touchscreen to take advantage of the Metro UI.

I got fed up with the slow response times and really just left it at that. I’d had a look around the menus and tried to launch a few of the apps, but a lot of things kept crashing on me. I really wasn’t too bothered with it.

At the moment the Windows 8 developer preview is sitting idle in a virtual machine on my hard drive, and to be honest it will probably stay there until the Windows 8 beta comes out. I think the developer previews are good for getting an idea of what the OS will be like, but it’s not until the beta builds and release candidates that it’s actually worth using them. Microsoft have said that there’s a lot of changes to come between now and the Windows 8 beta.

I’ll probably start dual booting my system with the beta builds and definitely with the release candidates when they come out. But until then I’ll be sticking with good old Windows 7.

What about any of you guys? Are any of you actively using the Windows 8 developer preview these days?

Let us know in the comments

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I know there has been mixed reactions for the tech community over Windows 8, but for the most part it has been pretty good. Since it’s still so early in it’s development stage there’s no point in making a decision on it just yet, but Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini seems to be over the moon with the developments Microsoft has made with Windows 8. He called it “one of the best things that’s ever happened to our company”, now that’s a pretty bold claim.

There’s been a couple of myths and rumours floating around that Windows 8 won’t be great for Intel since apparently they can’t make mobile chips very well. But Paul threw these rumours aside and had this to say about Windows 8.

We are very excited about Windows 8. I think it’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to our Company. And it’s a very good operating system, not just for PCs, but we think also will allow tablets to really get a legitimacy into mainstream computing, particularly in enterprises that they don’t have today. A lot of the enterprise managers are worried about security, they’re worried about the difficulty affording their legacy applications over to an Android tablet or to an iPad.

He emphasized how the new development environment that Microsoft had developed Windows 8 on, makes it much easier to develop apps for the new Metro UI and since you can flip back to the current Windows UI seamlessly, it’s very easy to keep applications and drivers backward compatible.

What Microsoft is doing is making that seamless for them. And they have a new experience, which they call Metro, that’s the interface up there. But for Intel-based machines, there is also one button that basically takes you back to your classic Windows experience and that’s a software button essentially.

So you’re just running one manifestation of the operating system with two different GUIs, if you will, it’s not running on virtual machines, it’s one manifestation. So this gives us, x86, in particular, I think a unique advantage as Windows 8 comes to market, because we can take advantage of all the legacy that was ever written, and all of the fact that all the drivers for the mice and for printers and every other USB device in the world. For example, getting photos off your camera and onto a tablet.

Because all these tablets running Windows 8 that pretty much every manufacturer under the sun has promised us will be running the core Windows operating system alongside the slick Metro user interface, it means that everything will work just as it does on a normal Windows PC, ensuring backwards compatibility with pretty much everything.

Intel say that the PC has become stale, but that the industry is working to fix that problem. The range of Ultrabooks which are thinner,sleeker,faster and more responsive than PC’s with brilliant battery life and decent pricing are part of that movement.

Source:

Zdnet

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While Windows 8 is designed to run on many different devices, the developers at Microsoft seem to be focusing heavily on tablet functionality.

This may be because tablets present hundreds of new challenges and opportunities for the new operating system, but is probably also because tablets are more and more becoming the new laptop, and in some cases, even desktop, computers.

As such, the Windows 8 team has spent considerable time researching the ways people intuitively use tablets to optimize the operating system for the dual-orientation capabilities of the tablet platform.  Tablets are unique in that they offer a very personal user experience, both in the tactile interaction with content, as well as in the ability to allow users to choose their preferred viewing orientation (landscape vs. portrait).

Rotating a tablet from landscape to portrait is not a new concept; this feature has been a stable in even the earliest tablets (eg, the iPad).  Tablets that support Windows 8, however, tend to stress more the widescreen-landscape dimension of the device, and are often longer and narrower.

On the one hand, this might seem like a disadvantage for Windows 8, because it constricts the page width in portrait view.  But considering the page dimensions of a standard book page, it also could be an advantage over other, squarer tablets, because it distinctly differentiates between the two orientations, and allows developers to make the most out of two very different design schemes.

With a tablet, different screen orientations are better suited for certain activities than others, a fact that is corroborated by experience, and by test results from some observational research Microsoft conducted while working on screen orientation design.  Reading the news or email, for example, one would probably prefer a longer, narrower screen, to closer approximate a print page, whereas while watching video or playing games, one might prefer a widescreen, landscape orientation.

Because users can do all these things and more on a tablet, Microsoft focused much of their development on the rotation process between landscape and portrait orientations.

Two impressive process elements that the team has released are the rotation transition duration, and the orientation lock.

When a user turns the tablet from landscape to portrait, the accelerometer in the device registers the motion and sends a signal to the processor, triggering the rotation process.  Windows 8 features an incredibly smooth rotation animation, to gently transition users from one orientation to another — and all under 500ms.

The other feature, the orientation lock, is a response to a common problem in almost all hand-held computers: overly sensitive rotation trigger.  We’ve all experienced the frustration of a tablet that unpredictably changed from one orientation to another.  Windows 8 tablets will have an orientation lock button that prevents this kind of annoying setback.

It might not be the most exciting news we’ve heard yet, but that Microsoft is paying attention to even the smallest details such as this, definitely bodes well for the success of Windows 8.

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With Windows 8 Microsoft are moving the goalposts in user interface design considerably and there has been much debate over the relative pros and cons of taking this approach.  With Windows 8 though if you don’t like the new Metro touch UI then you’re out of luck switching to the ‘traditional’ desktop as well.  Here the ribbon is being implemented in Windows Explorer and is being pushed throughout the operating system.

The ribbon, first introduced in Office 2007, has split opinion and many people still dislike it if they are forced to use it or not.  In fact the ribbon has been around for so long now that a great number of people who are now using it at home or at work, have decided firmly that they can’t find things, they don’t like it and that it’s not for them.  This isn’t a snap judgement on the parts of these people, this is their considered view after a great deal of use.

The people who like the ribbon, including myself, have similar arguments that they couldn’t find anything before it came along and as new interface that can standardise things across multiple operating systems, software applications and platforms, it’s a very welcome addition.

With Windows 8 though Microsoft will be fighting not against naysayers and ribbon haters but Human nature itself.  Human beings are resistant to change.  It’s in our nature.  It’s the reason why cars all have three pedals in the same place and why television news broadcasts are still structured the same as they were in the 1950s.  Bringing so much change to the table with Windows 8, with both the Metro UI and the changes to the desktop, could be a step too far for many people.

When Apple introduced the iPhone they didn’t change the traditional UI that we’ve all come to know and love too much.  Google’s Android too is a success in no small part because it isn’t changing the way we do things too much.  Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system however, good as it is, has been criticised by many people for being too different and too unlike what people expect and are used to.

The Metro UI in Windows 8, which we will still see major changes to in January, has been broadly well received though personally I’m not so keen on it.  The acid tests will be how consumers react to it and if a consumer backlash forces PC companies to continue offering Windows 7 as a downgrade option with new PCs in the way they had to with Windows XP.  The big test however will be how business reacts.  Metro will require the retraining of, let’s face it, millions of staff worldwide.  No matter how easy, simple and intuitive it may be to use, there is still a learning curve and many people will instantly shy away from something that’s such a departure from what they’ve been using for the last decade and a half.

The last time there were major changes, with Windows 95, there was similar uproar, but back then the changes weren’t anywhere near as significant as they will be this time.  Windows 8 is Microsoft’s biggest gamble and whatever happens in the next few years it is guaranteed to divide opinion and face resistance from many.

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Those of you who saw Microsoft demonstrate Windows 8 at their Build conference last month will know that Windows 8 uses less RAM than Windows 7. Microsoft used a low powered netbook which had just 1GB of RAM. They booted Windows 7 SP1 and the Windows 8 Developer Preview and after they had both been at idle for a while it was found that Windows 8 was using a lot less CPU and Memory compared to Windows 7. ( 5% vs 1% and 404 MB vs 281 MB)

Windows 7 was applauded for reducing the amount of memory that Windows uses, especially compared to Windows Vista but now Microsoft have gone even further with Windows 8. One of their goals was to make sure that all machines that are capable of running Windows 7, will be able to run Windows 8 without a problem. Microsoft have managed to surpass these expectations by making Windows 8 even less resource intensive.

So how do they do it? Well Microsoft went into great detail over on the Building Windows 8 blog but I’ll try and just give you some of the main points.

Windows 8 make use of a new feature known as memory combining. Basically Windows looks at system RAM use, then it finds duplicate code that could be running for a variety of reasons, it then removes these duplicates from the memory so that you only have one copy of the code running, thus freeing up memory.

The number of background process that Windows 8 uses has also been reduced by 13. This is quite a large amount and should make a big difference and increase performance.

Even the new Metro interface helps reduce memory usage, although it’s only really for tablets. When you’re using a tablet, Windows 8 won’t actually load up the desktop components for the OS because the chances are you’re not going to bother using the traditional desktop if you’re using a tablet. Of course if you do decide to switch to your desktop it will still load them up, but not running these components saves around 23MB or RAM in the developer preview edition of Windows 8.

There’s a whole host of little tricks that Microsoft are using to reduce memory usage in Windows 8 and while I’ve only touched on them, you can read into them in more detail here on their blog

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When Microsoft finally unveiled the Windows 8 Developer Preview edition a couple of weeks ago one of the items included with it was a built in anti-virus solution. While Microsoft does have it’s own antivirus software – Microsoft Security Essentials – it is optional for the PC user. Many people like to use other antivirus companies like Symantec and AVG. So it was interesting to hear that Microsoft are looking to ship Windows 8 with built in antivirus features. However according to a security research firm, it’s not very good at the moment.

The inbuilt antivirus software failed to detect the EICAR test virus which is a well known test to people in the security world. It’s a harmless virus but it should trigger a response immediately with antivirus systems. EICAR stands for European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research and is a string of characters which causes pretty much all antivirus programs to respond.

However ironically it was Internet Explorer which has long been seen as the weak link in Windows that detected the threat this time. When the user tried to download the EICAR test file from eicar.org using IE 10 it informed him that it was a malicious download and wouldn’t allow him to save it to the computer.

Then he pasted the 68-byte string into notepad and that should have set alarm bells ringing but it didn’t. He also tried copying it from a memory stick to the documents folder and Windows 8 yet again had no problem with it.

Even when trying to run the EICAR file it doesn’t identify it as a virus. You do get a error message though because EICAR is a DOS program and cannot execute on Windows 8, but in theory you should still get a virus warning.

The new antivirus was also tested out with sample viruses that were 6 to 12 months old and apparently Windows 8 only managed to pick up 50 percent of them. However it did successfully pick up a good few fake anti-virus samples for Mac and Windows.

I guess it’s probably still to early to make a call on this one. Windows 8 is still in its developer preview stage so I’m sure there’s still a good bit of work to be done with this. I’m sure they’re all busy at Microsoft as we speak developing it further.

Source:

nakedsecurity

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For years now experts (and Microsoft) have said that one of the main reasons Windows has proven so popular is the familiarity people have with the OS (aside from other reasons such as flexibility, available software etc.) and we’ve happily accepted this as a reasonable explanation.  However, many IT Pros have also said that this is a poor and shallow excuse for foisting on users an interface that is fundamentally inappropriate for them.

The ‘traditional’ desktop of minimize, maximise and close buttons, the dragging of the outside of windows to resize them, the pull down menus were all designed for the computers of thirty years ago, when computers were used for exclusively business, academic and scientific purposes.  For the average user then most of this wasn’t appropriate.  The learning curve was too high, it was too fiddly for many users to use comfortably and for the majority of simple tasks people wanted to do; get online, check email, manage photos and communicate with people, it was simply far too much to faff around with.

When the iPad appeared people didn’t really think of it’s new iOS operating system as being one for general purpose computing, as it was designed from the ground up for tablets.  The same happened with Google’s Android OS which, while far more like a traditional ‘desktop’, was still not shipped with desktop computers.  When Google’s ChromeOS finally appeared it too conformed to the uniformity of the modern desktop as observed by every desktop operating system since the 1980′s.

Now though Windows 8 is breaking the mould.  For the first time since the modern desktop OS was invented, Microsoft are innovating with something completely new, radical and unusual.  They are the first company taking a mobile OS and translating it onto the desktop.

Now you can debate for ages the pros and cons of making such a move but I’ve now had some time to get over the initial shock and surprise and I’m coming round to the idea that what Microsoft are doing is actually a very good idea.  However in doing this they could be heading down a road where they might find themselves in trouble and losing market share.

The reason for this is that, if Windows 8 proves genuinely successful; and by this I don’t just mean raw sales, I mean people enjoying actually using it, then it will prove conclusively that it no longer matters what operating system you use.  Now all operating systems perform the same tasks is broadly the same way.  What sets them apart is how they work with applications and how they integrate with other services.  In this we can see Microsoft building their cloud ecosystem tightly into the operating system.  This is a good move as Microsoft’s cloud-based products, which include SkyDrive and Office online are much more polished and integrated than anything the competition has yet been able to offer.

So we now find ourselves at a point where the operating system has truly become something that disappears into the background, a claim Microsoft rather prematurely made for Windows 7.  Each operating system now won’t stand on it’s merits for being product X from company Y anymore, but will instead be judged on how integrated it is with other services and how well  it offers app integration too.

Windows 8 leaps ahead of the competition here by providing APIs that permit programmers to hook their applications into all manner of services for sharing and socializing, a nice move.  In doing this there can be little doubt that Windows 8 will launch as the most progressive operating system available.

But where does this leave iOS, Android and other operating systems?  I believe now we may see a push for these operating systems to begin appearing on the desktop too.  After all, if Windows 8 can completely change the Windows paradigm and people can be happy with transitioning to a new interface and a new way of working, why can’t they just as easily move to Android on the desktop or perhaps even WebOS?

Where the operating system market has opened up in the last few years is nothing to where I believe the same market will be taken in the next few years to come.  We’re heading into exciting times where the OS is simply a facilitator for the things you use.  This is the way it really ought to be.

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Yesterday Robert wrote about what many of use were expecting, that Metro apps in Windows 8 would only be available through the new Windows Store.  Windows 8 will support, as we know, both the new style Metro apps and also the traditional desktop software too.  But will this dual-software approach cause confusion and division with Windows users?

It can safely be said that the new Metro apps will be predominantly used by users of Tablets and smaller form-factor computer users with touch screens.  There will be some other useful applications for Metro apps however, especially with young children, the elderly, people with learning or physical difficulties and disabilities and whole sections of society classed as computer novices.  Metro therefore can have an extremely wide reach straight out of the launch door.

It can safely be said however that all PC users, no matter of what ability, will occasionally need software of greater power and flexibility than Metro can currently offer; especially with the Ribbon interface being an odd omission from the Metro developer tools.  This software can include photo and video editing and production, disc burning and office applications, primarily a word processor and spreadsheet.

For these types of applications people will almost always need to drop back to the traditional desktop and this leaves me wondering if the differences between the two, even if the desktop is Metro’ified by the RTM release of Windows 8, won’t cause confusion and divisions with both users and programmers alike.

Who really wants to have two distinct interfaces on their computer anyway?  Most people have enough difficulty just dealing with one and the learning curve associated with having two residing side-by-side could force users to decide what they’re going to use their computer for, and to stick to just that.

This means users could decide to just use Metro and not to bother with software that drops them down to the desktop, or they could choose to avoid Metro altogether and only use the desktop for running programs.

This is where the seeds of division are planted and it could cause people to lose confidence in the platform if it is seen as too confusing and fractured.  Could the public begin to turn away from Windows in favour of other operating systems such as Android which can offer them greater simplicity while perhaps not the full power and functionality of Windows?

It also raises questions about how software developers will approach Windows from now on.  We can expect the major developers to, with very few exceptions such as the Adobe Reader, to shun Metro completely as it simply doesn’t (currently) offer the interface flexibility to run Photoshop, Vegas Pro or Cubasis.  It doesn’t even have the interface flexibility to run Microsoft Word, a very worrying prospect.

Windows users could then end up split distinctly into one of two camps and Windows 8 itself will essentially become two different products, each with its own identity; something that many people have said should have happened from the beginning.  For Windows 8 to flourish and survive in the consumer space then we will probably need to see much greater interface flexibility, I would imagine via the Ribbon UI, added to Metro.  If not, the future and popularity of Windows as a consumer platform, where people enjoy having the power to run full desktop apps, could falter.

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Microsoft are set to formally unveil Windows 8 in just two days at their BUILD conference in California, but what are we expecting them to announce.  Some details of Windows 8 have already been unveiled but others are sketchy, concealed in mist so far.  So, settings aside what we actually know about the product so far, what are we expecting it to be, and what are expecting it will do for us?

The Kinect Connection

First and foremost Microsoft are pushing a new interface paradigm on the end user based primarily around the tablet / touch screen, but also the Kinect.  This is something that many people have missed so far.  A while ago now Microsoft showed off the new tablet interface, based on their Metro interface from the Zune / Windows Phone.  Most recently Windows Chief Steven Sinofsky implied that this would be the ‘default’ interface for Windows 8, with users dropping down to the traditional desktop should they want it.  No I’m going to wait and see just how true this is on Tuesday because it’s likely that the new tablet interface won’t be integrated any more deeply into Windows 8 than Media Centre currently is with Windows 7.

The exciting part of all this will be tight integration with the Kinect.  Microsoft’s biggest announcement, and probably their most impressive display on Tuesday will be this new tablet interface being operated on a standard desktop machine with a Kinect, possibly built into the bezel of a monitor.  This interface type has been sought after by geeks everywhere since Tom Cruise popularised it in Minority Report.  Microsoft have deliberately kept quiet about the Kinect integration with WIndows 8 but, you mark my words, this is will be a headline feature.

A new virtualization

Microsoft will take virtualization to the next level with Windows 8.  It’s already been leaked/announced that the Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate versions of the OS will include the company’s Hyper-V technology.  This will allow them to completely strip away all the legacy support that has been Windows’ achiles heel in terms of security and stability problems for years.

Where this will leave home users remains to be seen, but the inclusion of Windows 7 Mode will probably rectify this.  At the moment you need the professional version of Windows 7 or above to use XP Mode.  This isn’t something that’s going to change but XP will be out of support while Windows 8 is still in it’s active product cycle.  It’s very likely then that Microsoft will use it’s Hyper-V and MinWIn technologies to provide a downloadable, and completely locked-down copy of XP Pro SP3 (possibly even SP4 just for this virtual machine).  This and Windows 7 Mode will enable them to completely strip out all the legacy support, making Windows smaller, leaner, faster and far more secure.

Will Microsoft’s Share Price Dip?

Because of just these two things, which I am convinced will be the headline announcements on Tuesday, Windows 8 will alienate a huge number of computer users who like the traditional way of doing things, perhaps don’t want a new learning curve, and especially in business will be greatly concerned about the support for their legacy programs and how any new interfaces will play with their workplace productivity.

Suffice to say Windows 8 will be bold, a statement made by Steve Ballmer over a year ago.  There is every possibility that business users will turn away in frustration, at least initially, as they see the consumerisation of Windows take hold.  There will be concessions to them which will include tight integration with Microsoft Lync and Office 365, two more inevitable features and possible integration with Skype; though Microsoft’s purchase of the company came too late in the development process this time around.  But I suspect that Microsoft’s share price will probably dip on Tuesday as businesses take a step back to assess the impact of Windows 8 on their own bottom line.  This situation will soon rectify itself though and the share price will bounce back, and even rally further as businesses realise the full potential, especially with security, of Windows 8.

Windows 8 is indeed going to be bold, and I’d love to find out just how true you think my predictions here will be.  Please feel free to comment here.

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According to the boss at Nvidia, there is every possibility that Windows Phone apps could well run on Microsoft’s next operating system- Windows 8. I think you’ll agree with me and say that that’s very good news not only for app-makers but also for Windows Phone itself.

Even Microsoft know that Windows Phone 7 is going to have to fight pretty hard if it want’s to gain any traction in the smartphone world. At the moment it’s only hanging in there at around 2% of the market, while Android and iOS are battling it out for the top spot. One of the main reasons why Windows Phone 7 is struggling is because of its lack of apps, and because of that lack of apps less people are adopting these devices. Since less people are using these devices, app-makers aren’t really bothered to develop new apps. This vicious circle is a right headache for any company.

But just imagine if Microsoft included support for Windows Phone apps directly in Windows 8. This would immediately open up the size of the market available to developers, especially when you consider that there’s around 400 million Windows licenses sold every year. This would see a huge increase in the number of apps being developed for Windows Phone 7 and as a result you’ll undoubtedly see an increase in Windows Phone 7 devices being sold.

So would it be possible to bring these apps to the Windows 8 desktop?  Personally I think it will. First off, we already know that Windows 8 will have an app store and I’d like to think that Microsoft will take advantage of the apps already developed for the Windows Phone platform, rather than going and developing another new platform to annoy developers.

Secondly Microsoft have said in the past that they’d like to bring desktop and mobile software into one at some stage. Apple are also aiming this way, just look at how close their operating systems have become. If Microsoft can bring Windows Phone apps to Windows 8 it will give them a head start on Apple and put them in front.

Finally, Nvidia’s CEO pointed out that applications developed for Windows Phone 7 would happily run on Windows 8 once it’s running on an ARM core as Windows Phone 7 apps are developed using Silverlight and XNA. Also if you look at the Tablet UI that Microsoft unveiled for Windows 8, it’s quite obvious that it’s derived from Windows Phone.

So we’ll just have to wait and see, but I think it would make sense for Microsoft to bring support to Windows 8 for Windows Phone 7 Apps. What do you guys think?

Let us know in the comments below

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We’ve already been given several glimpses at the new tablet UI for Windows 8 and we hope to get our first proper good look at Windows 8 later on this month at Microsoft’s Build conference. Now of course the tablet UI is more of a skin over the current Windows desktop which we are already familiar with. At the moment it looks like users will be able to switch between the regular Windows 8 Desktop which has had a few tweaks made to it and the new Tablet UI which is more finger friendly and specifically designed for touch.

Now personally I think that Microsoft have done a pretty good job with this new Tablet UI. I think it’s quite aesthetically pleasing from what I’ve seen and it looks like it certainly will be more finger friendly. But today I was wondering : Will Microsoft offer different skins for this new Tablet UI?

Windows users love to customise their desktop experience. There is countless themes available for Windows 7 and we are already working on getting a collection of Windows 8 themes and wallpapers together for you here at Windows8news. But I wonder, will we have to add a Tablet UI Skin section soon?

I think it would be pretty cool if Microsoft built in support for changing the skin and theme of the Tablet UI. I don’t see why they wouldn’t because it people are already used to being able to customise the desktop, so why not the tablet interface? It should be pretty straightforward for them to do it but we haven’t heard any mention of it yet to date.

In the past Microsoft didn’t really give us much of an option when it came to customising our desktops ( Windows XP ) but Windows Vista and certainly Windows 7 have become much easier to customise with themes and wallpapers.

Of course even if Microsoft don’t build in support for changing the Tablet UI skin or theme, we can be fairly certain that the Windows hacking community will definitely find a way to customise it at the end of the day!

So what do you think – Will Microsoft build in support for changing the Tablet UI skin or will the hackers have to work their magic and do it instead?

Let us know in the comments

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We now know that Microsoft will be introducing an app store with Windows 8 and will indeed be the last of the major operating system companies to offer this, with Apple having joined the party earlier this year and GNU/Linux having had an app store since the time Stonehenge was built.  What will it be like though and will companies actually want to use it?  Here I thought I’d chew over some of the pros and cons of having an app store built into Windows at a time when you can still install software the traditional way, you know, from discs and things.

The Pros

On the face of things, the inclusion of an app store in Windows is, not only long overdue, but also a fantastic new way for people to find and distribute software.  For over a decade now the primary software website has been downloads.com from Cnet.  This is a tried and trusted resource that millions of people have learned to trust.  This is very important because the Internet is now so big, and malware is so prevalent that people need trustworthy websites through which they can distribute their software.

If you look at games patches and even software from the major companies, Adobe, Microsoft and the like, you’ll find it all hosted on Cnet.  Part of this will be Cnet wanting to bring in more advertising revenue from the site, fair enough on that score, but there will be an element of software houses placing the software there themselves.

They know that people trust Cnet and even smaller software companies with their own merchant services on their own website will be aware that visiting an unknown website may in itself, be enough to put off a download or a software purchase.

Then there’s accessibility.  One of the reasons downloads.com, and other similar websites, have been so successful in the past is because of their ability to aggregate millions of software packages in a helpful way.  There are reviews, star ratings and these websites can make it considerably easier for you to find the software you need, that does the job you want, at the price you need.

Both of these are what an app store will bring to Windows.  They will give users of not just Windows 8, but Windows 7 and Vista as well, quick and easy access to a trusted location where malware is filtered out and where the right software can be found, downloaded and installed.  For consumers this is a huge plus and for software houses, especially smaller software houses, this will be a huge bonus for them in trying to get the word out that their software even exists.

Cons

It’s not all good news though and much of the success of the new Windows app store will depend on how Microsoft choose to manage it.  The standard app store model was created by Apple, who are frequently criticised for creaming a whopping 30% off the top of a sale.  This criticism has stopped them from doing so however and neither has it stopped Microsoft from doing the same with the Windows Phone store.  It’s just accepted now that this practice, no matter how irritating and seemingly greedy it may be, is the accepted way of doing things and the price we have to pay.

This will inevitably mean that the big companies stay away.  Sure, all of Microsoft’s software will be sold through it and the fact that every other company can submit software if they want to will protect the company from anti-competition lawsuits.  We can be sure though that Apple, Adobe, Autodesk and companies who’s names begin with other letters of the alphabet, will all shun this app store for everything but their free basic software.  Why would they want to give up 30% of their revenue on a package they sell for $600?

On the downside the smaller software houses will have less of a choice.  There’s much less money for them to make and they need to exposure.  This means that smaller software houses will have little choice but to pay any fee.  This could mean that they have to increase the cost of their software to cover their costs or, more likely, they will be yet further squeezed in order to remain competitive.  This could force some software houses out of business if their apps don’t sell in sufficient quantities.

All in all a Windows app store is clearly six of one and half a dozen of the other.  It remains to be seen what the uptake will be, exactly what terms and conditions Microsoft apply and whether the big players also jump on board.  What do you think about a Windows app store?  Would you use it and do you even think it’s a good idea?

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Today I was getting curious as to when Microsoft would release Windows 8. I was wishing they would just hurry up and get on with it. Microsoft employ nearly 100,000 worldwide,surely it can’t take them too long to put together a new OS? Microsoft proved that they can get a good OS together in no time with Windows 7. They released that several months earlier than they had previously scheduled it. There’s plenty of people out there who are wishing that Microsoft would release Windows 8 tomorrow, so why don’t they just hurry up already and get Windows 8 out there?

Of course we know that that isn’t going to happen, but it also won’t happen this year, and probably not until well into next year. Many people want Windows 8 because they just want to play with something new, however the majority of consumers and certainly businesses are more than happy with Windows 7. They don’t want to go through all the hassle of updating their operating systems again. There’s no need to either. Windows 7 is doing pretty much everything it says on the tin and more. The vast majority of users are more than happy with it, and you know the old saying “if it ain’t broke,don’t fix it”

And that’s exactly what Microsoft are thinking as well. Let’s face it, it’s only the limited tech minority who are eager to get their hands on Windows 8 so soon. There’s always going to be a group of hardcore enthusiasts looking to get their hands on the next edition of something as soon as the current one is released. But I’m sure Microsoft have identified that their largest market is the general consumer and corporate enterprises. They know that these people aren’t shouting out looking for something new. This wasn’t the case with Vista. Everyone was complaining about it so Microsoft had to get their act together quickly and get Windows 7 out there. Now that people have it they are more than content, and so are Microsoft. It’s got constant steady growth and good stable sales figures and is closing in on finally putting Windows XP to bed. At the moment there is no real reason that Microsoft need to rush and get a new OS out there to put things right.

Or is there?

If you look at the other side of the coin there’s a different story. While Windows 7 sales figures are going strong, some enterprises are going to put off upgrading to Windows 7 in anticipation of Windows 8. It takes nearly a year for large organisations to roll out a new operating system so they might as well just wait for Windows 8 before updating all their systems. Even some consumers are thinking like this as well.

But the other main reason is because of the rapidly evolving tablet market. Apple, even with Steve Jobs gone from the helm of their ship, are still the dominant player in this market and will be for quite some time unless somebody big like Microsoft comes up with a viable option for consumers. The one thing lacking from Windows 7 is it’s tablet support – while it is there, it just isn’t good enough. A whole host of manufacturers have got plans to release Windows 8 tablets, but what’s the point in promising releases for late 2012 when we all want tablets now?

If Microsoft want to get a foothold in the tablet market before it’s too late, they need to get onto to it now. This is really the only reason why Microsoft would need to rush along Windows 8. Apple have a much higher refresh rate with their iOS operating system and it’s letting them increase their lead a bit more every day.

Personally I’d just be happy with a beta edition of Windows 8 for the moment to play around with as I’m not really into owning tablets myself. However I know plenty of you guys are itching to get Windows 8 now.

So tell me, should Microsoft rush Windows 8? If so, why? Is it not better that they take their time and do it properly to avoid another Vista disaster?

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Although we try our best to keep readers up to date with the latest Windows 8 News, we’d like to announce that we’ve created a new Windows 8 Forum to make it easier for readers to connect with other readers and to start their own topics and discussions.

The forums are fully integrated into the site, making access easy.  To visit the forums, just click on one of the links in the header or the sidebar. Registering is just as easy – you can connect your facebook, twitter, google, wordpress, yahoo or OpenID account.  Or, you can create a fresh account with this site:

So, go on register now and join the Windows 8 Discussion.

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When Windows 8 comes out it’s bound to cause a great deal of excitement in the tablet market.  For the first time there will be an excellent and truly viable Windows tablet operating system and it’s bound to shake up the market.  It’s also very likely to cause a great deal of confusion though and this is because Windows 8 on Intel chips and Windows 8 on ARM chips will be very different beasts.  They’ll operate in different ways, run different software and be updated differently.

So what will be the main differences and how can you decide which one will be best for you?  I thought I’d detail what the expected differences will be here and give you a quick guide.

The Main Differences

The main differences between the two platforms are as follows…

Intel

• Like a traditional PC, able to run all your existing applications
• Probably a worse battery life than ARM tablets
• Will be updated regularly through Windows Update
• Could still be prone to viruses and malware as it’s still ‘traditional’ Windows
• Problems in the OS can still mean you’ll have to reinstall Windows occasionally

ARM

• Cannot run any existing PC apps, will only run apps written or compiled for ARM and available in the Windows Marketplace
• Excellent battery life
• Will probably receive less regular updates
• Will be very resilient to viruses and malware being ‘not traditional Windows’ and with tighter app control from Microsoft
• Windows on a Chip means it will never need reinstalling

Content Creator or Consumer

The first question to ask yourself is if you are a content creator or a consumer.  Traditionally PC users are content creators because we all use them at work.  Applications commonly used for this include Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite and so on.  If you are primarily a content creator and this forms the bulk of what you will do with a tablet, then an Intel chip would seem the best option.  If however you would just want a tablet for down hours and a little light web browsing a gaming, then ARM would be the best option.

Tech Head or Technophobe

If you are a tech savvy person, used to installing and troubleshooting problems with Windows then you probably won’t mind using Windows 8 on an Intel tablet.  You’ll probably already have a USB DVD drive or the Windows installer on a pen drive.  For these people then Intel would be something that you wouldn’t notice any difference with.  Most people these days have got used to an operating system on a chip in devices such as smartphones and the iPad.  These people don’t want to have to waste time fixing the OS when things go wrong.  They want a consumer electronbics device, and why shouldn’t they get it?  For these people then Windows on ARM would be the only option.

Using External Hardware

If you will want to use external hardware with your tablet though then you can probably forget the ARM devices as the chances these will support that hardware is slim to none.  You can expect USB Pen Drives, external hard disks and DVD drives to work, but printers will probably be off the menu.  I have a Windows 7 tablet that has a TV tuner plugged into a dock in my bedroom so that I can use it as a small TV.  You can probably rule this particular usage out for ARM devices.

General Flexibility

There can be no doubt then that tablets running Windows 8 on Intel chipsets will be far more flexible and adaptable than Windows 8 running of ARM.  It will also take a while for ARM apps to appear on the platform too.  There are downsides to this though which include a far higher vulnerability to viruses and malware, and an non-embedded operating system that can easily crash and need repair.

Conclusions

In all I see the choices between Windows 8 on Intel and Windows 8 on ARM to be as complex for consumers as the different versions of Android are for them now.  Both platforms will have their benefits and both will have their problems.  Before buying a Windows 8 tablet then you’ll need to think very carefully about exactly what you will want to use it for, when and where you will use it before making your choice.  Don’t let the sales person sway you, think carefully because if you don’t and you get it wrong, you could be making a very expensive mistake.

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Many people are getting very excited about the new Tablet interface for Windows 8.  Based on the Metro UI first introduced for their Zune media player, and then enhanced for Windows Phone, it seems to have received almost universal praise.

Some current research is showing that Windows is the operating system most people want on their mobile devices too, perhaps because of the ability to run their favourite programs, perhaps out of familiarity.  We can be certain whatever the outcome that the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next January will be awash with Windows 8 tablets, Microsoft will make sure of that.  Windows 8 tablets will then go on to be a very strong challenger to Android, RIM and HP if perhaps not Apple.

Or will it?  You see I’ve always found it interesting that people say they would rather have Windows on a mobile device than any other operating system.  People have apps on their computers and they not only get used to using them, but all their data is there too, usually locked into a proprietary format.  So is it really true that Windows 8 tablets will take off, or is it more likely that Windows 8 will be more popular on convertible devices?

There are many of these already, some running Windows 7 and some running Android.  The different form factors involve flip round screens and tablets that plug into keyboard docks.  They include tablets, laptops and netbooks in their ranges.  In all there’s a tablet here for everyone already and Windows 8 is going to come in a shake this market up.

Using Windows 8 on a convertible device will make much more sense to many people than just on a flat tablet.  There will be huge numbers of ‘consumers’ of information who will want a tablet for web browsing, email and watching and listening to video and music.  Windows users though tend to be ‘content creators’ who could find this form-factor limiting.  What’s the point, many people will argue, of having Windows on a device if I can’t use Office or Photoshop?

I can agree with this myself, I have a Windows Phone that I’ve recently upgraded with the beta version of Microsoft’s new ‘Mango’ operating system update.  It was essential to me that I got access to this, and fortunately my job permits such extravagances.  This was all simply so I could get access to SkyDrive in the Office hub.  Here I keep valuable spreadsheets and other documents that I need regular and frequent access to.  When Windows Phone shipped last year, not only could you not access or open documents stored anywhere in the cloud other than a company SharePoint server, but you couldn’t sync documents from your PC to your handset either.  Now I have full access to these Office documents on the move Windows Phone has become genuinely useful to me.  I can therefore completely understand what these people are saying.

There is still a big difference between using a program such as Microsoft Office on a touch interface and with a full keyboard and mouse / trackpad.  Only on the latter will you have access to the full power and feature set of the product.  While I can access these spreadsheets and other documents, I can’t do much with them other than change simple data fields.

So what would be your preference?  Microsoft are soon going to start demoing a variety of different form-factors and new devices showcasing Windows 8.  We’ll see some of them at  September’s BUILD conference when the new OS is officially unveiled.  It’s impossible to predict what new and imaginative form-factors hardware companies may yet have to announce but for the moment the list sits like this…

• Traditional Laptop
• Traditional Netbook
• Traditional Tablet (with option of Bluetooth keyboard)
• Convertible Laptop
• Convertible Netbook
• Tablet with Keyboard dock

It would also be interesting to know if you are a ‘content creator’ or ‘content consumer’ on your Windows PCs.

Please let us know in the comments below what type of Windows user you are and what type of tablet device for Windows 8 (if any) you’d like to be using, it will be very interesting to hear your views.

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It’s been well known for ages now that research consistently shows that the mobile operating system most people want to see on their devices is Windows.  This doesn’t come as any great surprise given that people like familiarity and Windows is, for many people, as comfortable as an old shoe.  It was interesting to read my colleague Jason’s article yesterday on our sister site, Windows7News, about how tablet manufacturers are becoming disillusioned with slow sales of Android tablets and are now looking to Windows 8 to boost their profits.

This raises a very interesting and important question.  Can Windows 8 do for Microsoft on tablets what Windows 7 did to the netbook market?  When Windows 7 launched if you wanted to buy a netbook, and let’s face it almost everybody did, you had two choices.  Windows XP or Linux.  Despite XP’s popularity Linux hung around for some considerable time, but less than a year after the launch of Windows 7 you could not buy a single netbook, not anywhere, with either XP or Linux preinstalled.  Everything came with Windows 7.

This was an astonishing achievement for Microsoft.  The company had stated clearly during the development of Windows 7 that the operating system was being specifically engineered to run on low-power, low-performace netbooks and that’s exactly what it did.  We’re now regularly seeing Windows 7 laptops with 8 or 9 hour battery lives, double what you’d find in the average laptop.

Clearly Microsoft stormed straight into the netbook market and won overnight.  Now though can Windows 8 do the same with tablets?

There can be no doubt that Apple is the tablet king, and will remain so for many years yet, but Android is not without its problems.  There are so many variants, some specifically suited to tablets and some not, that are currently residing on tablet devices that consumers can get confused.  Why go for all this choice and complexity when the iPad is so much simpler and straightforward?  Then there’s the malware problem, and it’s a major problem that Google have so far completely failed to address.  While the general public won’t be too aware of this, they will become more aware in the time before Windows 8 launches, of this we can be sure.

So this leaves Microsoft with an opportunity.  They’re talking up Windows 8 on tablets in exactly the same way they talked up Windows 7 on netbooks.  The new Windows 8 tablet interface too, which is based on their Windows Phone Metro UI, has been universally well-received and with more than a year to go until it’s launch, Windows 8 is already generating enormous amounts of hype, press coverage and consumer interest.

Microsoft won’t need to do much to keep this momentum going either.  The ball is now rolling and people are excited.  The news that tablet manufacturers are now eyeing up Windows 8 keenly will come as welcome news to most and is sure to keep the hype going.

The major test will be next year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) where all the hot computing products for 2012 will be unveiled.  There will be a whole raft of Android tablets there I’m sure with a new version of Android.  It could be though that Windows 8 tablets don’t just take centre stage, but that it completely steals the show.

All in all, future prosperity in the tablet market is by no means certain for Google.  In Windows 8 they’ll have a competitor that’s polished, competent, popular and coming out fighting.  We could then see a massive shift in the tablet market in 2012.

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It’s just been a couple of days since Windows chief Steven Sinofsky unveiled the “next version of Windows’” new tablet user interface.  It’s been almost universally well received, primarily because Microsoft have done the sensible thing and based it around their already popular Metro UI from Windows Phone and the Zune desktop software.

The new interface has raised some questions though and until people can actually get their hands on it (no pun intended) we’ll just have to make educated guesses.

One of these questions is how prevalent this new interface will be in the overall OS.  Will it be something that you have to switch on?  I ask this because on a desktop system it would be all too easy to accidentally open the tablet UI elements that are pulled in from the far left and right of your computer’s screen.

One of the biggest questions that’s being asked is why applications need to be pulled in from the left edge of the screen to switch between them.  The system will be able to multi-task as it’s still Windows, but having to switch between apps by cycling through all of them seems, frankly, a bit of a faff.

One area of concern is over the apps themselves.  Microsoft have said that these will need to be written in either HTML5 or Javascript and that they’ll run full-screen in a browser.  This makes the interface much like Chrome OS from Google but does it make sense?

You would imagine that if the interface is going to really take off then it needs apps, and lots of them.  Surely then would it not be sensible for Microsoft to tap into the already extensive developer community for Windows Phone who already have tens of thousands of apps ready that could be modified for the new interface?

This decision does puzzle me, as I would have expected Microsoft to allow Windows Phone app developers to use the same languages and tools they create their mobile apps in now, for also creating apps for Windows 8 tablets.  Most of you would probably agree that this would be logical and sensible.  That Steven Sinofsky, who never says anything he’ll have to back-track from, has said this would imply that a final decision has indeed been made.

Even though all we have to go on are a few screen shots and a couple of short videos, there’s still plenty for us to digest and it will take a while for us to do this properly.  Until then I thought, as you’re all clearly as excited about this product as we are,  that I’d throw the question out to you… “Just how would you change Windows 8′s new Tablet UI?”

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Yesterday the senior vice president of Intel ‘leaked‘ and I use the term loosely, information about Windows 8, claiming that when running on ARM chips it wouldn’t be able to run legacy apps.

I take issue with this leak for several reasons and not because it may turn out to be factually accurate.  It’s a pretty foolish thing for anyone to say and especially so for a company vice-president at Microsoft’s biggest hardware partner.

So why am I saying this?  Well it’s not for any defending of Microsoft, even though the company has officially rebuked the claims.  It’s simply because we don’t know enough about the product at this point and fanning the flames of speculation such as this could turn out to be exactly the wrong thing to do.

We suspect that Windows 8 will include a virtualisation client, such as XP mode.  Indeed this was one of the things mentioned by Renee James at Intel in her statement.  This isn’t going to be very exciting news for most people as it’s just to be expected.

What will this mean for legacy apps?  It’s not hugely likely that Windows 8 will run merrily with a virtualised OS also running in the background and apps on top of those on just a low-power ARM processor.  It’s not beyond the realms of possibility however as we already have dual-core low-power processors, quad-core chips should be with us by the time Windows 8 ships and memory is getting cheaper.

Then there’s the fact that Microsoft are also rumoured to be creating an app store.  Should this turn out to be true, again not making any assumptions, then we would expect the company to clamp down on the install anything scenario we currently have.  On a desktop PC this may or may not be welcomed but for a low power device such as a tablet it would be pretty essential to have somewhere for people to go to get apps.  The simple existence of such a store would be the catalyst to get the ball rolling on app development.

Then there’s the interface whatever the tablet version of Windows will have.  Just about everybody has said that every program in Windows would need to be rewritten to take advantage of the new interface anyway, this would imply that it wouldn’t matter in the slightest if you couldn’t use your existing software on an ARM-powered Windows device.

Microsoft should be applauded for moving away from the legacy problems that have haunted them for years and that people are crying foul because they can’t run app X or Y in a scenario that’s not even known to be true is nothing short of alarmist.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again.  It won’t be until we get the technical and public betas of Windows 8 that we will know exactly what is and isn’t included.  With every single edition of Windows some features are dropped during the development cycle and others can be added in at a late stage.  This was the case with XP, Vista and Windows 7 and you will all know of features that you’d have liked to have been in Vista or Windows 7 that weren’t.

The fact that a certain build of Windows 8 that this individual from Intel may or may not have seen might not run standard apps on ARM doesn’t mean that it isn’t going to happen as there are all manner of ways to make this work.  If it doesn’t happen though that also doesn’t mean its a disaster and people should be screaming at Microsoft and waving placards.  This could turn out to be the very thing that the tech community has been crying out for the company to do for many years.

So before any more corporate vice-presidents chip in with their own ten-penneth worth I wanted to at least try and be the voice of reason.  Let’s just wait and see because I’m certain the future of Windows will be exciting no matter what it turns out to be.

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Renée James, Intel’s software chief, mentioned at Intel’s Investor Meeting 2011 at company headquarters in Santa Clara that Windows 8 traditional would ship with a Windows 7 mode. Traditional in this regard refers to the desktop version of the Windows 8 operating system.

Users who are currently running Windows 7 will be reminded of Windows XP mode and wonder if it will be anything like that mode. The chance is that it will use the same virtualization technology to offer access to Windows 7 in a virtual machine.

This raises the question why such a mode is included in Windows 8. If you look at Windows 7 and its Windows XP mode, you could say that it was added to give customers and companies options to run pre-Vista software on Windows 7.

Windows 7 Mode in Windows 8 on the other hand does not seem to make lots of sense on first glance, considering that the two operating systems will be closely related to each other.

There are two explanations for this. First, Microsoft might introduce a feature in Windows 8 that breaks compatibility somewhat, so that some applications may no longer run on Windows 8. Windows 7 mode would then be used by users and companies to get those applications running on Windows 8.

The second option is purely marketing, that everyone can go ahead and buy Windows 8 without waiting for the first SP1 to arrive or to test application compatibility extensively. Why? Because you can run all your apps in Windows 7 mode on the system right away. If you have tested them under Windows 7, you can run them in Windows 8 as well thanks to the virtual mode.

What’s your take on the Windows 7 Mode? (via)

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Recently my colleague here Robert Boland asked the question of do we really need Windows 8.  I wanted to add my own thoughts to this debate as I was thinking about this yesterday.  Am I personally feeling ambivalent towards Windows 8 and what does this mean in the wider scheme of things?

Let’s look at the facts from Microsoft’s perspective first.  Windows is by far the company’s biggest money-spinner, they need regular and popular releases of the operating system to keep shareholders and industry watchers happy.  Windows brings in billions of dollars every year for the company.  If you let this stagnate then you’ll inevitably see a significant drop in your income.  This is something Microsoft won’t want to let happen.

Then, and if you think about this you’ll realise it’s an odd fact.  Windows actually now has the longest development cycle of any OS in the world.  OS X, Ubuntu, iOS, Android and even Windows Phone are getting at the very least one major update every year.  That’s three times the updates that Windows is getting at the very least.

This makes Windows seem slow and almost prehistoric in development terms when compared to other operating systems.  Putting in this context means a new Windows release every three years seems perfectly sensible and perhaps even a little long.

This all brings me back to the need for Windows 8 though.  Windows 7, as I’m fond of saying, was a very tough sell for Microsoft because XP felt as comfortable as an old shoe.  Microsoft had some tricks they could use to help ease people off XP though.  The lack of hardware acceleration meant that some software, IE9 and Live Essentials 2011 won’t run on it.  The fact that XP came out nine years before Windows 7 greatly shortens its support life and the sheer insecurity of the OS have all been great sales pluses for Windows 7.

People desperate to get away from Vista helped too with Windows 7 seeing greater sales of retail copies than any other version before it.  Windows 8 won’t have any of these advantages though, so it will have to find new tricks and features to tempt consumers and businesses to upgrade.

Clearly there are already a few that we know of.  There’s the tablet functionality and the ability to run on ARM chips.  Okay so this means we’ll see a lot of Windows 8 tablets released for the 2012 Christmas holidays but so what.  We’re talking here about a very small (single figure in fact) proportion of the total Windows market, even factoring in the increased uptake for tablets.

We’ll also inevitably see a new breed of low-power netbook so this will help too but again we’re still less than 10% of all Windows sales.  So what will Microsoft have to do to make Windows 8 compelling?

For now the answer to this remains elusive, though we might find out in September at the Professional Developer’s Conference.  This all got me thinking about Windows 7 on my own computer.  Yes it needs improvements, I’m not keen on the old Start Menu vs new Taskbar approach being in the same OS and I hate the inflexibility of Libraries but if that’s the only major gripes I have with the OS then it’s actually pretty good for me.  It does everything I need it to do here, at least on the desktop, and does it speedily.

So if even I’m thinking whether I’ll need to upgrade to Windows 8 what will the average consumer or business IT head be thinking?

With luck, Microsoft have already considered these points are will be rolling out something really compelling, but the time has come for the next big thing on the desktop, iOS and Windows Phone have proven that to us conclusively.  I know what I think it might be, but alas, after Windows 7 has already been out for a year and a half it’s still far too early to say for sure.

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This weekend I was just casually browsing up and down the aisles at one of my local computer stores. All the usual  array of  promotional banners and offers were on, but there was one in particular that caught my eye. It was a Windows 7 banner, (no surprise there) but what caught my attention is that it was advertising Windows 7 as a “NEW” just released operating system. Of course it was followed with the usual “quicker, securer, etc..” marketing, but it got me thinking. If stores are still advertising Windows  7 as “new”, do we really need Windows 8 so soon?

I know you’re going to argue that Windows 8 isn’t due to be released until early 2012 at the earliest, but realistically the average consumer wont be ready for it. Windows 7 has been out for just over 18 months at this stage, and while it is making good progress in terms of market share, I still don’t feel that the vast majority of people have even upgraded to it yet.

Microsoft had a fairly valid case for getting Windows 7 out as quick as they could (to make up for Windows Vista). Not only the average home user, but also many businesses and enterprises around the world were shouting for an update, so if Microsoft wanted to keep them, they had to deliver. And they did, Windows 7 has received the thumbs up from pretty much everyone and they all seem quite content with it. At the moment there is nothing more that they want than an operating system that’s quick, clean and reliable.

Realistically the average consumer isn’t going to buy a new computer every 2 years. You’re probably looking at more 3-5 years. Of course the more techy ones will upgrade their operating system without updating their hardware, but for the most part people don’t update their OS until they get a new computer that’s running it. Windows 7 came out at the end of 2009 so by the time Windows 8 comes out in 2012, barely 2 years will have elapsed. Consumers won’t be willing to update their systems then, especially if they buy them between now and then.

Look at the enterprise scene too. For large enterprise’s it’s taking nearly 12 months to roll out Windows 7 and update their current systems. It’s costly and expensive for them to do it, generally you won’t find them updating again for at least another 5 years. If you look at it, Windows XP can still be found in many businesses, and that’s been on the go nearly 10 years now. Many of them haven’t even started the roll out yet, but plan on starting it during this year. They’ll have barely got Windows 7 running and staff trained by the time Windows 8 comes out, do you think that they’re going to go through the costly upgrade and training process so soon? If they’ve any sense they wont.

Of course there is a smaller minority of users like ourselves who are always keen to keep up to date with all the latest technology and who are gasping for something new all the time. But I’m afraid we’re not where the vast majority of Microsoft’s sales go to.

I’m interested to hear your views on this, feel free to express them in the comments below…

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There has been huge volumes of excitement around leaks of Windows 8.  Screenshots and builds have been poured over by bloggers around the world with even some of the most popular websites such as Engadget and NeoWin posting new features as fact!  The truth is very different and I’d like to try and bring some sanity to the debate.

Microsoft have been directly involved in some leaks websites closing down in recent weeks.  That has left other websites nervous but others continue unashamedly.  Windows8News tries to take a more grown up approach to the development of the company’s new operating system.  Indeed when I visited Microsoft’s UK headquarters just before Easter I spoke to them directly about Windows 8.  In the time since, I’ve been in regular contact with friends at the company’s head office in Redmond and I’ve gained an extremely good understanding of why the company is progressing with the next version of Windows in the way it is.

Internally, the next version of Windows is still being referred to by its codename, Windows Next.  This is because there’s no final naming been taken place.  This is something that won’t be finalised until closer to the company’s Professional Developers Conference in September when it’s widely expected the company will unveil the OS and announce the timescale for technical and public betas.  Although the name ”Windows 8″ does seem likely, it’s by no means in the bag.

The company is annoyed about leaks and rumours posted by third-party sites.  Microsoft have refused to comment on the sources of the leaks, though they are clearly coming from hardware vendors who need test-builds to make sure that hardware drivers will work.  This does make it much harder to determine the exact source(s) of the leaks  but you can be certain that Microsoft are having ongoing discussions with those hardware vendors.

This isn’t a problem faced by Apple where the hardware is all managed in-house.  This company therefore isn’t susceptible to the same manner of leaks as there are no, or at least very few, third-party hardware manufacturers to work with.

But, why is it that Microsoft are trying to squash the rumours and leaks about Windows 8 / Windows Next so venomously?  The answer to this one is quite simple, and this is because they want to be able to try and manage the expectations people have about the OS.

So what does “managing expectations” actually mean?  Well let’s have a look at the last two Windows betas, for Vista and Windows 7.  Vista was a very complicated product, indeed direct parallels can be drawn between Vista and Windows Next because they were both incredibly bold departures for the company, the only other one of this type being Windows 95.

Windows Vista introduced many features that never made it into the final version of the operating system that, during the beta process, many thousands of people got very excited about.  The most prominent of these was WinFS, a relational file system to replace NTFS.  WinFS, short for Future Storage, would have allowed any type of information to be stored along with the relationships that data had to other things.  You can still find information on WinFS online here.

Indeed, WinFS was a feature that many people are still calling for today.  Microsoft pulled it from the release candidate of Vista because they couldn’t get it to work reliably but it was never forgotten.  The end result of this was that a great many people were disappointed in the end release because of the lack of inclusion of this, and many other features that were also pulled because Microsoft simply ran out of development time.

Then the beta of Windows 7 came along.  This was much more tightly managed and there were far fewer leaks than we’re seeing now.  Even so there were features that never made it to the final build that got a great many people excited.  Top of my list for Windows 7 was Guest Mode.  This was a special feature that Microsoft never got to work successfully, in fairness Apple pulled an identical feature from OS X around the same time as they couldn’t get it to work reliably either.

Guest Mode would have allowed people to use your computer but would have rolled back any system changes and software installs they made when they were logged on, and would have deleted any files they’d have put on your computer.  It was a brilliant idea, Apple thought so too.  It never made the release candidate for Windows 7 though and when Apple implemented it, it began deleting the main user’s files as well so they pulled it with an update.

These are just two of the many features in Vista and Windows 7 that never made it to the final builds that generated a great deal of attention at the time (I’d be very interested to hear your comments about what other features in the betas you were looking forward to as well).

It’s a simple case of managing people’s expectations for the OS then and making sure that when you do finally deliver a product, you can also deliver all the features you want to.  This has always been the case with Microsoft and they don’t make any official announcements about features they can’t deliver.  This is why we’ll hear nothing until September this year at PDC.

I’m not making any excuses for Microsoft here and I’m certainly not on the payroll (just to head off those comments) but I do have contacts fairly high up on the inside of the company and I can assure you that what I’ve written here is exactly the strategy that they’ve currently got in place.  I can understand it too.  If a major new ‘feature’ in the next version of Windows, such as the inclusion of the Metro UI or the kernel reinstall, doesn’t work properly, it won’t be included.  That will result in a great many people feeling very disappointed and the economic, promotional and corporate ramifications of that could be huge.

Microsoft isn’t a group of enthusiasts in a basement remember, it’s a multi-billion dollar worldwide business with shareholders who want a sound return on their investment.  All of this is why when the technical beta of Windows 7 came around, the product had been ‘feature locked’.

As regards the build and image leaks themselves I urge you to remember this.  The hardware manufacturers only need very early builds where the kernel and driver model are finalised.  They do not need any access to the UI or other features, and the builds that Microsoft have internally will without doubt be very different to anything we’ve seen leaked so far.

What I can say with absolute certainty is that some features will be dropped from Windows 8 in the coming year.  Which ones though remain to be seen but not everything will turn out as Microsoft hope.  Here at Windows 8 News though we’ll continue to bring you the latest news about the OS and with a hotline to the people inside I can assure you that the moment there’s anything official to say, we’ll say it!

You can now catch up with more of my writing and events (including competitions and giveaways) at my new Facebook Group.

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Yesterday Mike put together quite a convincing argument against all the Windows 8 Leaks that have found there way to the web over the last couple of weeks. He was quite clearly against them all, and had several well thought out points to back himself up. As he also pointed out in his post, I’ve got the pleasurable task of countering his argument and to convince you all otherwise.

So without further ado, here’s why I’m in favor of the leaks of images, information and screenshots of Windows 8.

Creates Hype

While Mike argued that all these leaks will diminish the product somewhat, I beg to differ. I can speak from first hand experience in relation to this. I run a blog Nextiphonenews which covers every single rumor and leak about the next generation iPhone. It’s similar to this Windows 8 blog, but just for the iPhone. What I’ve discovered over the past year or so of running it is that people love any little gossip that they can get. People will be intrigued by any leaked images or rumors that have come from these unnamed “reliable sources”. I see a huge influx of traffic every time a new rumor or leaked image hits the web, and I’m fairly certain that if you head on over to Twitter you will see that the next gen iPhone is trending there.

These little tidbits of information send people into a frenzy, looking for more information on that product. The same goes for Windows 8, just a quick look at Twitter now has showed me that there’s a constant stream of tweets coming in about Windows 8. If we rewind a month or so, I can assure you that stream was non-existent. Everyone is now suddenly talking about Windows 8, wanting to know more, savoring every single screenshot or rumored feature they can get their teeth into.

Teases People

If there’s one way to tease people, all these leaks is just how to go about it. When you think about it, companies deliberately leak things to us all the time. Every movie trailer you see, is just another little sneak preview to tease you. Every time you see a new commercial for a new smartphone “coming soon” that’s hidden in the shadows, you’re being teased. In fact I think you’ll find that some companies deliberately “leak” information to specific sources in order to create this hype. Once you give someone a taste of something they like, they’re going to go looking for more information on it.

Can Lead Us Down The Wrong Path

Quite often you’ll find that most of these leaks never actually turn out to be real. For example, on my iPhone blog, there was rumors and leaks of projectors, 3D cameras and several other wild and outrageous features. All these were claimed to be from “reliable sources” which I’m sure as you all know never made there way into the iPhone 4.

What happens with all these leaks and fuzzy screenshots taken from afar is that it gives us a false expectation of what is going to be in the final product. Hence we can then be slightly surprised when it’s officially released. Take Windows 8 for example, so far these recent screenshot leaks have it looking a lot like Windows 7. But for all we know these screenshots could just be photo shopped and Windows 8 will look completely different when it’s released. In this way, leaks can still preserve that element of surprise.

Doesn’t Take Away From General Consumer Buzz

One of the points Mike made was that all these leaks take away from the product’s official launch since everyone already knows about it. I’d argue against that though. Let’s be realistic, the only people who will be looking up information about all these leaks and rumors will be the techies like you and me. We’re the group of early adopters who are always looking to find out what’s coming next. We’ll be looking for Windows 9 before Windows 8 even hits the shelves! But the general consumer, who represents the vast majority of Windows users, will probably not even know that Windows 8 is even being developed, let alone being leaked on the web.

The first time a lot of them will hear about Windows 8 is when Microsoft start running their advertisement campaigns, and even then it will take some time to sink in. All these leaks and screenshots are never going to make it to the mainstream news channels, they’ll be kept among the various tech sites, blogs and forums.

So that’s just about it from me, I feel I can do no more to convince you. It’s up to you to decide. Who’s side are you on? Mine or Mikes?

Let us know in the comments, as well as why you’re in favor (or not) of the leaks

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There have been a great deal of leaks about Windows 8 in the past few weeks that have resulted in a lot of publicity and excitement being generated about Microsoft’s new operating system release but that have also resulted in the sudden closure of several leaks websites.

I’ve teamed up with my colleague here Robert Boland to bring you our thoughts on Windows 8 Leaks, taking opposing viewpoints and we’d love to hear your points of view on this subject. I’ll go first with the argument against.

There are several arguments as to why there shouldn’t be leaks of images, information and builds of Windows 8. I’d like to deal with each one in turn.

Corporate Secrecy and Staffing

The corporate reasons for preventing leaks are something you might not consider to be at all important, there are all manner of ramifications here beyond the obvious that need to be considered however.

We’ll start with the more obvious reasons though and work from there. Leaks of this kind can be very damaging to companies. They can create doubt about the company’s ability to control its products and its staff. These concerns can shake the value and stock price of the company. Ultimately, many people who own stock in Microsoft could suffer. “So what?” I hear you ask. It’s possible, nay likely, that many of those stock holders will include pension funds and other investment funds. This is money that’s been invested by ordinary people for their savings and retirement. Hurting the companies in which this stock is invested can also hurt those pension funds, and the futures of the people who have invested that money.

Then there are repercussions not just within Microsoft but outside it too. The very first leaks about Windows 8 can in the form of documents that were traced back to HP. Obviously an employee at that company wanted to leak them but what are the repercussions there. In this case they would be more severe at HP and all or many staff could find that freedoms they have long enjoyed are curbed, perhaps unnecessarily. This can create all manner of bad feeling between employees and staff. Then there are other companies who will look at Microsoft and HP’s inability to curb leaks and implement their own measures, which could in some cases be fairly extreme, to protect sensitive data and information. Staff throughout the world could find the workplace a less inviting place if this happens.

Diminishing the Product

So how do leaks affect the individual? Well for me it’s my job to write and report news about Windows as it happens. I’m uncomfortable reporting the latest leaks about Windows 8 though because I believe such things diminish the product considerably by the time we get to its official launch.

Why do we want to know everything that’s new and improved about a product so many months, even more than a year and a half in advance? By the time Windows 8 ships there is certain to be nothing in it that will be a surprise, nothing at all to a great many people that will make them go “ooh, aah” with surprise and delight. This makes being a technology enthusiast rather dull.

To best describe this I should point to my own experiences as a technical beta tester for Microsoft. I had access to Windows Vista and Windows 7 early on and expect to get full download access to Windows 8 shortly. I could see all of my non-tech-geek friends getting excited about Windows 7 when it launched but by that point I’d already been using it for a year. I’d had the fun part but been unable to share the excitement with anybody. It just wasn’t fun to me any more, instead it was just an OS I’d been using for ages.

It’s nice to be part of other people’s fun and even though there will still be an element of this for people who read about Windows 8 but won’t actually get a copy until release, most of these people will still know everything about it. Can you really still join in with everyone else’s excitement?

The Diminishing Web

In the last week we’ve seen several high profile leaks websites shut down. Though Microsoft have not said they were responsible several of the websites have specified infringement of the company’s copyrights as the reason. Do we really want to see the big boys stamping all over the little guy, especially when we know that the only people who will benefit are the lawyers? Websites like Windows8News help spread excitement but we’d never infringe someone else’s copyright. Copyright is important, we don’t want content from Windows8News and its sister sites pilfered, though indeed this still happens now and again, so why should we infringe the copyright of anyone else or Microsoft?

Well those are my arguments against. Maybe you’ll find them reasonable and arguable, maybe you won’t. Please leave your comments below. In the next day or so my colleague Rob Boland will, try, to hit back at me with the arguments for Windows 8 leaks.

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Microsoft came under heavy fire with the launch of Windows 7 for not offering a direct migration path from XP. The older operating system, which is now ten years old, is something Microsoft and many other technology firms are keen to move users away from because of its inherent problems with security.

There were perfectly legitimate technical reasons for not offering a direct upgrade path. The underlying technologies in Windows XP and Windows 7 are very different and it was clear to testers early on that many software packages would need to be reinstalled. This didn’t help Microsoft however as all copies of Windows, and they’re still doing this for reasons I can’t fathom, store the user’s files and folders on the same partition or physical hard disk as the copy of Windows. These ‘shell user folders’ have become significantly easier to move in recent years but even so most users would never be aware of how they can do this.

Thus, the vast majority of Windows users are left with their files and folders sitting in the same physical location as Windows and then facing, potentially, the cost of an external hard disk to move them. That is of course assuming they even know how to perform an operation such as this.

The Windows Easy Transfer program supplied on the Windows 7 installation DVD could perform this task for you, but even that wasn’t obvious to find for most users and thus the upgrade path from XP to Windows 7 was problematic at best.

Read the full article at our sister site gHacks.net

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In the last week we’ve had a few juicy leaks about forthcoming Windows 8 features such as the inclusion of the Ribbon interface into Explorer. We’ve seen new screenshots that offer tantalising views of new features, and we now could also see a fair few lawsuits being prepared by third-party companies.

Why do I say this? The other day I wrote here about the apparent inclusion of Microsoft’s SkyDrive and Live Mesh cloud backup and sync technologies into Windows 8. The most recent revelations are of a new program that’s being dubbed Modern Reader. This feature was shown off by blogger Raphael Rivera and appears to be a PDF and eBook reader specifically designed for touch and tablet computing.

Read the full article at Windows 7 News.

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Before Microsoft moved to the Windows Server / Windows XP platform there were two distinct Windows platforms that, while they shared the same code-base had separate development teams and separate aims.

For ten years now we’ve had a single platform and a single code base and the result has been impressive with the complaints about the Windows platform being buggy and insecure now gone and complaints instead aimed at third-party companies such as Adobe.

I’m wondering though if it isn’t time for Microsoft to skim a consumer focus for Windows 8 and future Windows development.  Let me explain why.

A year ago anyone using a Windows Mobile device, which included myself still had to contend with a smartphone version of the desktop operating system, with the Start Menu and traditional pull down menus, dialog boxes and so on.  It simply was never going to work with modern touch screens and so, in a period of only 18 months, Microsoft re-wrote completely from scratch an entirely new and innovative Smartphone OS and the result is, at the very least, impressive.

Now people are having serious discussions about how well this OS would transfer to tablet devices, it really would only need some minor tweaking to get it to work.

Then there’s Windows itself.  Microsoft have tried to innovate with the main Windows interface but there’s really not too much they have been able to do because the vast majority of Windows customers are businesses.  When Microsoft introduced the Media Centre interface (can you believe that was eight years ago?) there were, and still are, hopes to extend that to include more functionality but it still remains a little-used part of the Windows desktop OS.

Now we find ourselves at a crossroads where the whole computing market is changing and I believe that Microsoft and the Windows desktop platform needs to change with it.  Here, ironically, we can look to Linux for some inspiration.

Since the dawn of time, well the dawn of Linux anyway, that OS had always supported a modular OS desktop with a great many different desktop interfaces available for it.  Now the challenge here for Microsoft would be to take this a step further because all the Linux desktops are still, essentially, traditional desktops.

What Windows needs going forward is a series of switchable desktops in the OS, the traditional one for business users, one geared around tablet use (at the moment the standard Windows 7 interface is pretty useless in this regard) and a half-way house that, in the same way Microsoft have now shown us with Windows Phone 7, Apple have demonstrated with the iPad and Google have shown us with Chrome OS, will bring a far more consumer-focused interface based on the way modern home PC users want to interact with these devices.

With Windows 8 we are already witnessing some push towards different business and consumer versions with very business-focused features rumoured to be sitting alongside a new app store and tablet features.

So how difficult would this be?  To be honest it really shouldn’t be that hard because when Microsoft re-engineered Windows Vista they componentised the whole OS, built a main core kernel, WinPE, and allowed other components to be laid out on top of that.

The other way this would work is that for decades now all the main windows interface components, for instance the minimize, maximise and close buttons on windows, have all been managed not by developers but by Microsoft through APIs.

So how’s this for an idea for 2012.  Let’s have two or three sets of these APIs built into the OS, each of which does the same job and looks broadly the same, but which are focused for business, consumers and touch respectively, and a switchable desktop interface to match.

If Microsoft could pull this off, then it would push Windows far ahead of the competition and set a new standard for Apple, Google and the open-source community to match.

Is it time for Microsoft to Split Windows in Two again? is a post from Windows 8 News, Rumors & Tips - The Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumours & Screenshots. Visit Windows 8 News, Rumors & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumors, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Steve Ballmer said that Windows 8, or to be more precise, the next release of Windows, would be Microsoft’s riskiest upcoming product when interviewed at the Gartner Symposium. No additional information where given by Mr Ballmer, leaving a lot of people puzzled by the answer.

If you’d ask tech savvy users before that symposium about Microsoft’s riskiest product, it is almost guaranteed that the majority would not have picked Windows 8. They’d probably have picked Windows Phone 7, or Xbox Kinect, or any of the other products that Microsoft is working on.

But Windows 8? Now, this does not have to mean that the operating system will be bad. It could as well mean that Microsoft finally has decided to add features or make changes that they consider important, but do not know how the public will perceive them.

Could Windows 8 become a second Vista? We are not sure what Mr. Ballmer meant when he answered the question, but he surely must have known something at this point that the public does not. All we know about Windows 8 is from leaks, job postings and other informal sources.

Could it be that Microsoft plans to make a big change in Windows 8? They certainly have to do something to get users to switch to the operating system, especially after the rave reviews that Windows 7 received.

Why would anyone want to switch from Windows 7 to Windows 8, if the latter would not offer something special that the former would not? Take a look at the video below to judge for yourself, and let us know what you think he meant.

On a side note. Mr. Ballmer said the next release of Windows. Not Windows 8. This could hint at the possibility that the next Windows will not be named Windows 8, but differently. Thoughts?

Steve Ballmer, Windows 8 Will Be Riskiest Product is a post from Windows 8 News, Rumors & Tips - The Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumours & Screenshots. Visit Windows 8 News, Rumors & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumors, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Microsoft got a great deal right with Windows 7, there can be no argument about this.  The one thing that constantly strikes me about it is how I tend to leave it largely unmodified.

With Windows XP I’d have all sorts of tweaks and settings programs running.  I’d have to change any number of annoying settings.  Then there came the TellyTubby wallpaper, urgh!

With Windows 7 there are only a very few settings I change and I happen to really like the default wallpaper.  This, as a power user, is an absolute first for me and proof so far as I’m concerned, that Microsoft have got it right.

But then there’s all the stuff that still hangs on from XP and that, frankly we have got to get rid of for Windows vNext (or Windows 8, whatever it ends up being called).

File Open / Save Dialogs

Why are we still using the same file open and save dialogs that we’ve had for over a decade now?  Microsoft Office 2010′s Backstage view gave a tantalising glimpse of what we could have but, alas, even that reverts to the standard boring pop-up dialog.

I’ve got to admit, these file open and save dialogs are my pet hate in Windows 7, even more so that the horrible Taskbar / Start Menu dichotomy (and that’s up against some stiff competition).

 The Taskbar / Start Menu Mess

I didn’t like the new Taskbar when it first appeared, not because it’s difficult to use or badly designed, but simply because couple with the existing Start Menu it’s a messy hybrid of the old and the new.  I understand why Microsoft did things that way, but this really HAS to be sorted out for the next version of Windows.

If Microsoft are moving us towards a new interface then we need a bold jump, not a mixture of old and new styles at the same time.

Improved Updating for Third-Party Products

It’s far past the time now when Microsoft allowed other companies to plug their software updates into Windows Update.  This feature has had such promise for years, and it’s long past time Microsoft did something positive with it.

The Libraries Fiasco

I’ve gone on about Libraries for ages now.  Theyre another half-baked idea that needs serious attention.  It’s not difficult Microsoft, come on, give us the ability to build libraries of file types (PDFs for instance), that would be a start.  It also takes Windows far too long to build its indexes, we need the return of the WinFS file system to the OS.

Strip out the remaining XP Legacy Settings

Why am I still having to manually change the Virtual memory settings when I install Windows 7, or why is the Data Execution Prevention setting in the Visual Effects panel?  Come on Microsoft, get your act together.

Clearly there are still pet peeves with Windows 7 that I believe badly need to be addressed before we get the first beta of codename Windows vNext in about nine months time.  It’s much much closer than you might think!

Microsoft Got Windows 7 right, but so much is still so wrong! is a post from Windows 8 News, Rumors & Tips - The Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumours & Screenshots. Visit Windows 8 News, Rumors & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumors, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Windows7 has been out less than six months, and already there is speculation about the next generation of Windows, Windows8. The Redmond company may not be saying much now, which is understandable, given the success of Windows7. The unspoken, but true, thinking is, why take publicty away from a successful venture and place it on a venture that is still at least a year and a half away. Go with the flow, and the flow right now is Windows7.

But Microsoft is quietly planning the next generation of Windows client and server platforms for the general public. Leaks have been kept to a minimum, but Microsoft is already developing technical documentation for the US Department of Justice, and its own internal documentation on what will be a major project. The DOJ-Microsoft settlement in 2000 added requirements about pending OS projects.

The Microsoft Communications Protocol Program or MCPP is a program which makes available technical features to third parties about the structure of the next operating system, Windows 8 and Windows 8 server. Third-parties use the documentation to leverage their hardware or software development efforts in order to build interoperability with Microsoft’s products. Part of the technical content is related to Windows 8 and Windows 8 Server. There is also documentation related to application products and software development products.

As many as 500 Microsoft employees and staff are involved in producing the MCPP technical documentation. There is overlap with the European Work Group Server Protocol Program, also part of the European Union’s effort to monitor compliance with legal rulings against Microsoft. With both of these watchdogs looking at Microsoft, the individual work relates to both programs or is exclusive to the MCPP.

Some 200 product team engineers and program managers are currently developing and reviewing the technical content to include in the legal compliance documentation. This includes work on Technical Documentation Issues (TDI) resolution as well as producing new content for the next version of Windows Client and Windows Server.

Source: http://www.codenamewindows.com/?p=1174

Windows8 Technical Documentation Issues (TDI) – In the Works is a post from Windows 8 News, Rumors & Tips - The Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumours & Screenshots. Visit Windows 8 News, Rumors & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumors, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Resident editor Mike Halsey has just published on Windows 7 News, the latest post in his series ‘Looking Forward To Windows 8, What Microsoft Missed In Windows‘.  In part 5, he covers improvements he would like to see to Windows 7′s libraries and search  in Windows 8:

I’ve spoken before about Libraries being an excellent example of this. You can add folders to libraries, even on Homegroup connected PCs, but why can’t you filter those folder by content type, or have a library of all your Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) files? This is a very annoying omission and one that makes the otherwise excellent Libraries feature much less useful than Microsoft would like it to be.

To read the full post, click here.  Below you can find links to the earlier instalments in the series:

• Looking Forward To Windows 8, What Microsoft Missed In Windows, Part I
• Looking Forward To Windows 8, What Microsoft Missed In Windows, Part II
• Looking Forward To Windows 8, What Microsoft Missed In Windows, Part III
• Looking Forward To Windows 8, What Microsoft Missed In Windows, Part IV

Looking Forward To Windows 8, What Microsoft Missed In Windows 7, Part 5 is a post from Windows 8 News, Rumors & Tips - The Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumours & Screenshots. Visit Windows 8 News, Rumors & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 8 News, Rumors, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.