It feels kinda confusing that Microsoft intents to ship two different versions of Internet Explorer 10 with the Windows 8 system. First the plugin-less Metro UI variant, and then the standard desktop variant that supports plug-ins. The company is driving towards a plug-in free web in Windows 8. The core reasons for doing so are battery life, security, reliability and privacy.

While battery life is certainly an argument for mobile PCs running Windows 8, it is not convincing for desktop users. Security, reliability and privacy on the other hand could convince desktop users as well.

Instead of going all in like Apple did, Microsoft has decided to implement a backdoor into Windows 8. Users who open a website requiring plug-ins to function properly, are presented with options to launch that website in the desktop version of Internet Explorer instead.

Webmasters and developers can add http headers or meta tags to their websites to force Metro UI Internet Explorer 10 to display the plug-in prompt to the user. Microsoft furthermore maintains a compatibility view list of popular sites that are requiring plug-ins for all or some of their site’s functionality.

HTTP Header

X-UA-Compatible: requiresActiveX=true

META Tag

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="requiresActiveX=true" />

It is interesting to note that Microsoft sees those options as a short-term mitigation.

This mechanism provides a short-term mitigation. The desktop browsing experience and most plug-ins were not designed for smaller screens, battery constraints, and no mouse. Providing an easy way to the Windows desktop is the last resort when no comparable plug-in free fallback content exists.

Is this a hint at what Internet Explorer 11 might look like, or how Microsoft envisions Windows 9?

There is another issue that has not been addresses yet. Internet Explorer 10 is tightly integrated into Metro UI, and it is likely that Microsoft won’t offer options to switch the browser to an alternative. This would close out browsers like Firefox, Google Chrome or Opera from the part of the operating system that Microsoft is putting all their development power into.

While it is still possible to install those third party browsers on the desktop, it could feel awkward for those users to use Internet Explorer on the system again. (via)

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File management is and always will be an essential task for all computer users. It includes file storage, accessibility and visibility among other things. Microsoft in a new blog post on the official Building Windows 8 blog has highlighted file management changes of the upcoming operating system. You probably know already that Microsoft intents to improve file management processes in Windows 8. This includes a better way to resolve conflicts. Conflicts occur for instance when you try to copy a file into a directory where the file name is already occupied by another file. Windows 8 adds visual information, e.g. thumbnails if you are moving photos to a new file conflict screen to give users more control over the process.

Windows 8 systems benefit from faster network throughput, for instance when you start a copying job over Wi-Fi and later on plug in a network cable. Jobs furthermore will automatically pause if the computer enters sleep or hibernation modes. The job can be resumed once the machine wakes again.

One of the many changes to Windows Explorer is the file manager’s ability to respect EXIF orientation, which means that you will always see your photos in the right orientation on the screen.

The padlock icon has been removed from Windows Explorer as it was causing delays in the file manager. They have been replaced by a sharing status column that is now displayed in the file browser.

Another new addition is the ability to pin folders to Start. This feature is accessible under the Easy Access menu in Windows Explorer’s new ribbon interface. It is furthermore possible to pin executables to the Start menu as well.

Please note that when I say Start, it means the Metro UI interface and not the original Windows Start Menu.

The announcement that Windows Explorer would ship with a ribbon interface has caused quite the controversy among users of the Windows operating system. Microsoft as a response has decided to minimize the ribbon interface in the Windows 8 beta release by default.

Ribbon minimized by default: With the ribbon maximized in the Developer Preview, we’ve been able to learn a lot about how people interact with it, which has enabled us to tweak and fine-tune it. With the beta, we will be making a major change that brings Explorer in line with our design principles for Windows 8. As in our copy dialogs, Task Manager, and Metro style experiences, we will be reducing distractions and trusting users to discover functionality on their own, by minimizing the ribbon by default.

According to an internal non representative study “heavier” Windows Explorer users make use of the Ribbon more often than lighter users. Users who prefer to work with a minimized ribbon interface on the other hand had a strong preference for hotkeys. To further encourage the use of hotkeys, Microsoft has added tooltips to many functions in Windows Explorer that highlight their hotkey.

Personalized Windows Explorer settings, like a maximized ribbon bar or actions in the Quick Access Toolbar, are now synchronized via Windows 8′s roaming feature.

The majority of changes make sense from a user perspective. Especially the ability to synchronize Windows Explorer customizations with other PCs running the operating system is an excellent option. What’s your take on the changes?

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Windows has always come in different versions known internally as Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) that currently include the names “Home Premium”, “Professional”, “Enterprise” and “Ultimate”.  Historically, when the consumer and retail versions of Windows were developed separately the SKUs included titles such as “Windows for Workgroups” or “Windows 98″ and “Windows NT 4.0″.  It’s accepted then that each new versions of Windows will come with multiple SKUs.

There are some legalistic reasons for doing this as well which include the N editions that are make available within the European Union and are full versions of Windows but without Windows Media Player, and special editions for emerging markets.  This is very different to the approach taken by Apple where there are only two versions of each OS X release, “Desktop” and “Server”.

This week though somebody within Microsoft told me that we should expect just a single SKU for Windows 8 which came as a surprise to me.  Now I’m not taking this snippet of information as authoritative as it wouldn’t be the first time a Microsoft employee has misinterpreted some snippet of news from within the company and given me the wrong information, or perhaps even disinformation, who knows.  Therefore I wouldn’t assume that this information is gospel, but it does raise some very interesting questions.

Technically there could just be a single version of Windows 8.  It would be excellent news for home users who would gain access to useful features such as the Hyper-V virtualization client, as XP Mode was only supported in Windows 7 Professional and above.  It would also make it clear to people what features they were getting with the OS.  Any Systems Administrators might not be so happy though to have to hide the games, Windows Media Centre and the like in Group Policy, a task that would just be time consuming.

Also the aforementioned special editions that are sold within the EU wouldn’t be a problem either, as you would either buy “Windows 8″ or “Windows 8 N” (not that anybody ever does!).  But what about Windows 8 on ARM-powered tablets and what about cheaper editions for emerging markets?  For the latter they are commonly limited to running three programs at a time and don’t include many of the more business-oriented features.  If there was a single version of Windows 8 then it would either have to have a massive price-drop worldwide to match the price in these emerging markets, or Microsoft would have to abandon these markets completely.

There is also no word yet on whether Windows on ARM will even support the desktop.  After all the current desktop software for Windows would need to be re-engineered and nobody’s going to do that given the small size of the overall market and the low maximum price people are prepared to pay for tablets software.  The ARM version of Windows would have to be its own SKU anyway in practice, being completely incompatible with Intel architecture and probably only available to OEMs as well.

For these reasons and more I find it difficult to believe that there will only be one SKU for Windows 8, but my source in Microsoft seemed pretty determined that this will be the case.  We may have to wait several months for the announcement of what will really be happening with Windows 8 editions.  Until then it would be interesting to hear your views on this.  Why not tell us below!?

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One of the biggest changes that’s coming with Windows 8 is the fact that it supports ARM processors rather than the traditional x86 Intel/AMD processors.While Microsoft have given us a few glimpses at tablets with ARM processors running Windows 8 in the past, we’ve never got a proper demonstration as Windows 8 was still a bit unstable on ARM machines.

But now it’s been reported that Windows 8 is running “quite stable” on ARM processors at the moment and will be sent to developers sometime in February. The source of this news is from a high profile PC manufacturer according to Cnet. Microsoft have not officially confirmed this news.

“In October of last year. [Windows 8 on ARM] scared the industry because it was unstable. But what we are seeing now is quite stable,”

said another source, they also confirmed an expected February developer release.

“We haven’t heard this directly from Microsoft, but we’ve heard this from the hardware partners that [Microsoft] is working with. We’ve been promised something in the February time frame,”

The big deal with these ARM processors is that they are a lot cheaper than the current Intel/AMD chips that we all use. It’s expected that tablets running ARM processors will be significantly cheaper than their x86 counterparts. Intel are currently marketing their latest chips as being thinner and faster, with a much longer battery life. But ARM processors also provide all these benefits, at a lower cost.

Nvidia Tablet With ARM Chip Running Windows 8

Some sources have claimed that Windows 8 devices powered by ARM chips will ship later than those on traditional x86 chips because Windows 8 wasn’t running stably on ARM chips a couple of months ago. But if Microsoft have managed to sort things out and are preparing to ship out an ARM suitable copy of Windows 8 to developers next month, then they must have things sorted out.

However ARM chips do have one major drawback. They are unable to run legacy Windows applications and that’s where Intel and AMD chips still have the advantage over ARM manufacturers like Texas Instruments, Nvidia and Qualcomm. That’s one of the major snags that Microsoft have to try and sort out before Windows 8 hits the market. There’s nothing more frustrating than having programs that won’t run on newer devices.

Source:

Cnet

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If you thought that Windows 8 would improve the personalization features of Windows 7, then you are only half-right. While the operating system certainly offers its fair share of customizations, it has now been confirmed that Windows 8′s new Metro start screen will not offer as many customization options as users may have hoped for.

Instead of allowing users to pick the color scheme or background image they want, selection is limited to eight different styles currently. While it is fairly certain that we will see custom hacks to overcome the limitation, it is likely that many users will be disappointed by the lack of options.

Windows 8 director of communications Chris Flores mentioned in a Tech Radar interview that users would not want photographs as the background, as the photo would not stretch or scale with the start screen, and that it would be covered up mostly as well so that it would be barely visible.

He is basically saying that Windows 8 users lack the intelligence to make this personalization decision on their own, and that Microsoft has to step in to protect their Metro interface from ugliness.

We here at Windows 8 News do not like this restriction at all for a number of reasons. There is certainly nothing wrong with offering official styles that users can switch to. But offering eight styles, and maybe more when the final version comes out, is not enough from a personalization perspective. What if I want to have a photo as the background and do not care if it is repeated or stretched out? What if I have configured Metro for a set amount of apps that won’t change in the near future? Why would Microsoft block the use of a fitting wallpaper image or photo?

What Microsoft should do to resolve the issue? Add a switch to the Control Panel so that users can remove the restrictions, or even better, remove the restriction completely and let users personalize their desktop the way they want to.

What’s your take on the issue? Lets discuss in the comments.

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Kinect is certainly one of the best products that Microsoft has at the moment. They’ve shipped an impressive number of units over the last year or so and also recently announced that they were going to be releasing a desktop edition of it as well. The desktop edition of Kinect ships from February 1st and has a slightly smaller sensor which has more accuracy at close range. But what if Microsoft built the Kinect sensor directly into laptops or monitors? Even tablets?

Well apparently Microsoft are looking into just that. According to the Daily, there’s some prototype laptops which are currently being tested which incorporate Kinect sensors into them.

The devices appear to be Asus netbooks which are running what we assume to be the developer preview edition of Windows 8. There’s an array of small sensors covering the top of the screen where the webcam is normally found and at the bottom of the display there appears to be a set of LEDs.

They’ve also said that a source at Microsoft has even confirmed that these devices are indeed the official prototypes of laptops featuring a Kinect sensor and Kinect technology.

Microsoft recently revealed a lot more information on an array of new sensors that they were incorporating into Windows 8 which you can read about here. They never actually mentioned anything about Kinect sensors so this must still be a prototype project.

If you think about it, there’s loads of ways that Kinect could be used in a portable device like a laptop or even a tablet. Of course gaming is an obvious one since that’s what Kinect is currently used for the most. But Kinect supported laptops could offer great support for people with disabilities and improve the accessibility options.

Of course Microsoft will more than likely not be making it’s own laptops with Kinect built in,  they’ll probably just license out the Kinect technology to interested manufacturers.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft does bring this up at some stage. I ‘d imagine that they’d like to keep it quiet for the moment so as not to hamper sales of the new desktop version of Kinect.

What do you think, would Kinect work well in a laptop or portable device?

Let us know in the comments

Source:

Thedaily 

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Microsoft today revealed information about sensor support that the company plans to integrate into the Windows 8 operating system. Before we start, I’d like to point out shortly that sensors are not a new feature, as they have been integrated into Windows 7 as well. You can check out Windows 7 Sensors explained for an overview of what sensors were about in Windows 7.

Sensor support in Windows 7 however goes beyond that, which makes it an interesting feature again. That’s likely the main reason why Microsoft has put the adaptive brightness feature at the very top of the article. Adaptive brightness was included in Windows 7, but limited due to the quality of available display panels.

A sensor basically adjusts the brightness of the screen based on ambient light conditions. the right screen shows a tablet with adaptive brightness enabled, the right screen one with the feature disabled.

Windows 8 supports automatic screen roation, another new feature that tablet and mobile users will benefit from mostly. When a user rotates the device, the screen will automatically rotate with the user.

Data from an accelerometer allows the device to determine its basic orientation. By automatically rotating the screen, people can use their devices (primarily slates and convertibles) in a more natural and intuitive way, without needing to manually rotate the screen with software controls or hardware buttons.

One of the interesting new concepts that Microsoft integrates into Windows 8 is Sensor Fusion, which combines the strengths of multiple sensors to overcome weaknesses of individual sensors. Microsoft demonstrates the concept in the second part of the video below.

The remaining parts of the article are all aimed at developers, and how they can use sensors in their applications. Microsoft has created a sensor API that developers can use as part of the new WinRT.

Through these APIs, developers can access the power of sensor fusion from any Metro style app. These APIs are clean and simple, and at the same time give developers access to the data needed to support everything from casual games to virtual reality applications. Of course these capabilities are all available as Win32 APIs for game developers or other uses in desktop applications.

What is your take on sensor support in Windows 8?

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We’ve had the “Developer Preview” of Windows 8 and now that the beta is due in the next month we could find it being called the “Consumer Preview”, at least according to Janelle Poole, Microsoft’s director of public relations who in a statement at CES was found to have said…

We haven’t talked about the release date and we generally don’t. We are talking milestone to milestone, so for us right now, we’re talking about the next milestone being the Consumer Preview happening in late February.”

ZD Net blogger Mary Jo Foley reported the phrase yesterday for the first time and is wondering if this will indeed be the official title for the beta with perhaps the release candidate being the “Enterprise Preview”.  In her blog post she said…

Such a name also could help Microsoft’s PC partners who need a way to make new tablets and PCs that they’re bringing to market from now until the time that Windows 8 is shipping seem more up-to-date and palatable. (”This runs the Windows 8 Consumer Preview — so you know it’ll be able to run the final Windows 8 with no problem.”)

Let’s have a look at what this might mean though if it happens.  So far Microsoft have been promising somewhere near 300 features for IT Pros that were not ready in time for the Developer Preview release last September.  We still don’t know what most of these features are but some have leaked including new multi-monitor support features and the ability to pool the storage on your computer in a RAID-like system.

IT Pros are still very concerned about Windows 8 however, I’m giving a talk this Thursday to a large group of them in Manchester which is one of the UKs biggest technology hubs, and this isn’t the first such talk I’ve been asked to give.  What will they take from the name “Consumer Preview”?

It’s mostly likely I think that Microsoft are desperate for Windows 8 to be popular with consumers and that they want to reassure the general public that while they might be very late to the tablet game, by some three years or more, that they’re ready now and Windows 8 tablets are what they should be buying later in the year.

It’s true that Microsoft are pinning a great deal on this release and if it fails to gain serious traction in the consumer space, IT Pros will probably feel as though they were left behind for a pipe-dream.  The fact that Microsoft will want to focus very hard on consumers then will not come as a surprise to anybody, especially with major businesses only now migrating to Windows 7.

There is also the fact, as Mary Jo points out that “the current Windows organization doesn’t show code publicly at all until it’s pretty much set in stone and going to be tweaked very minimally.”  We can be pretty sure that the beta, or Consumer Preview will be very usable day to day in the same way that the Windows 7 beta was.  Microsoft already have a live Windows Update feature working with the Developer Preview (though it won’t update to the beta), but it’s possible that the beta might just update to the release candidate if it’s close enough to completion.

If enough millions of people then update their computers to the Windows 8 beta, then in theory all Microsoft need to do at the end of the process is to sell them a new product key online and people can continue using Windows 8 without having to reinstall.  We still know nothing about this though and it might not happen this way.

It is clear though that Microsoft at this point are focusing much more on consumers than in IT Pros.  This doesn’t mean they don’t care about, or aren’t going to cater for IT Pros.  It just means that the company has decided to put all of its marketing might behind the consumer angle in the same way they have in the last year with Windows Phone.

So next month we’ll see what happens with the beta and what it is called, as soon as we know we’ll report back to you here at Windows 8 News.

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Since Microsoft is looking to get into the tablet market with Windows 8, it’s imperative that they make the OS compatible with mobile networks since a lot of tablets these day ship with 3G capability as well as WiFi. In the latest post over on the building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft have explained how they’ve built in native support for mobile networks in Windows 8.

First off they’ve developed a new control panel which will allow you to turn radios on and off, as well as configure connection settings and get contact information for support. While Windows 7 did support mobile networks, the user was left to install all the appropriate software to manage these things, where as it will all be integrated straight into Windows 8. This will make the process of using mobile broadband much easier for consumers.

The new network settings control panel lets you configure settings for all the various radios in your device, including WiFi, mobile networks and Bluetooth. There’s also an “airplane mode” to disable it all. This has been pretty much standard on all mobile phones but it’s new to PCs.

They’ve also made great advancements with how Windows 8 will manage your mobile data. They’ve managed to reduce connection times and limit the amount of data that’s being transferred when you’re on a mobile network where you could have a monthly allowance. Windows 8 will automatically switch to a WiFi network when available like most phones do.

Microsoft have really made things much easier when it comes to using mobile broadband too. Windows 8 will monitor your traffic usage and keep track of it so you know just how much data that you’ve used. Hopefully this will help stop users going over their data caps and from raking up huge bills without realising it.

What’s more, even if you don’t currently have a data plan with a particular network, Windows 8 will recognise this and allow you to purchase a data plan from the network by directing you to their website. There’s also metro apps being developed for the mobile networks which give you an overview of your account and more.

It’s really quite impressive how much work Microsoft have put into making Windows 8 very mobile friendly. This new mobile network management system is much better than that on any smartphone and I’m sure plenty of tablet users will find it incredibly useful.

There’s a whole load more stuff that Microsoft talk about such as options to reduce data usage, CPU usage and other performance factors that they’ve taken into account. I’m not going into detail on them here because Microsoft have gone into great detail on them over at the blog

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Microsoft will introduce a Windows Store in the Windows 8 operating system that can be accessed directly from within the operating system. Navigation of the store will be consistent with the Metro UI, and the store layout has been designed with touch interfaces in mind. The store on first look looks like a horizontal copy of Google’s Chrome web store. Apps are displayed in rectangles with the logo making up the majority of screen estate, while the apps title, costs and ratings are displayed in a smaller area at the bottom of the screen.

The store landing page will be the first page that users see when they open the store. Microsoft intents to feature interesting apps there, but also app categories that are easily reachable by scrolling horizontally in the store window.

The store has been designed with touch in mind, which becomes apparent in this paragraph:

Navigation is simple and consistent with Windows 8 Metro style UI, so it will be familiar and easy for Windows 8 users to find their way through the Store. Store categories are presented across the top of the screen, with compelling apps featured in each category. To browse, you simply pan to the right or left—with a flick of the finger it’s incredibly easy to see new and interesting apps across all categories and the overall breadth of the Store. If you’re interested, you can also drill down to the apps in a specific category with a single tap on a category name.

Mouse and keyboard users, the majority of Windows users right now, can use those input devices to navigate the store. The experience won’t be that pretty though, considering that scrolling pages horizontally is not that common with these input devices.

The store front categories will feature “a set of apps that are editorially chosen based on a variety of factors, including whether they do a great job on the platform or a great job expressing Metro style design principles”.

It is possible to use the pinch gesture to zoom out of the store interface to get a zoomed out view of the store to pick specific categories right away. You may remember that this is also possible in the Metro UI to quickly get an overview over all installed apps on the system.

Searching the store, unsurprisingly, uses the same mechanics that Metro UI search uses. Just tap on the search charm to display the search sidebar on the right. This feature is available in all Metro UI windows and apps.

If you happen to think of an app while browsing the web or using another app, you can just tap the Search charm, type in your search term, and select the Store to see search results for your query.

Suggestions are displayed while you type the search phrase into the form. Windows 8 will display a search results page in case no app matches what you are looking for.

The very same layout is also used for all category pages in the store. Users can filter results in a variety of ways. It is for instance possible to only display free apps, sort by newest or display only a specific subcategory that is available.

Individual app listing pages follow all the same layout. The pages use visual elements of the apps brand color and logo on the app pages which means that colors will vary widely across the board.

Microsoft notes that it takes one tap on an app listing page to install free or trial apps. A password prompt is displayed for paid apps that acts as a confirmation to go ahead with the purchase. Users are automatically taken back to the previous page they were looking at while the app is downloading and installing in the background.

A progress indicator is displayed and the app is automatically added to the start page, so that you now that everything is going along as planned.

Update checks for new app versions are performed once a day according to Microsoft. These updates are automatically downloaded in the background when the computer is idle. They won’t be installed without user input though. This behavior can be turned off in the Store settings.

All apps can be installed on a total of five different PCs running Windows 8. This sounds as if information about installed apps are synchronized with other PCs of the user automatically.

Here is a short video that offers additional information and details:

You can find out more about the Windows Store user experience on the official Windows Store blog.

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A few weeks ago I reported on a leak that had shown up of the Windows Server 8 Beta. There wasn’t really a whole lot to look at then, but now thanks to WinUnleaked I’ve got a few more screenshots to share with you this time.

The other day Microsoft went into a bit more detail about Windows Server 8, primarily about this new file storage method known as ReFS that is only going to be in Windows Server 8. There’s a few screenshots of that below as well.

Unfortunately the screenshots aren’t of very high resolution so it’s hard to see all the details, but it’s all we got.

The Lockscreen for Windows Server 8 Beta

Below is the current log in screen that we’re familiar with in the Developer Preview

This is the log on screen in the currently developer preview

And below is now the new one that’s in the Beta

Windows Server 8 Beta Login Screen

Again below we have the current Server Dashboard in the developer preview

Windows 8 Server Developer Preview Dashboard

And the one below is from the Beta

Windows Server 8 Beta Dashboard

The next few screenshots are of the new file system and storage manager that I mentioned earlier

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Everybody is eagerly looking forward to the range of Windows 8 based tablets that will be released once Windows 8 hits the market towards the end of this year. There was a whole load of tablets revealed at CES this year, each of them hoping to compete with Apple’s iPad. One thing that was consistent with all the tablets was that they all had pretty decent specs, then again they will have to if they want to run Windows 8 properly.

Over at Within Windows they’ve gone through the Windows 8 hardware requirement documentation and uncovered what the minimum requirements will be for these tablets if they want to be certified for Windows 8.

Here’s what the minimum specs of any Windows 8 certified tablet will be

At least 10GB free space

Wireless and Bluetooth 4.0 + LE

Support for Direct3D 1- device w/ WDDM 1.2 Driver

Resolution of 1366 x 768

720p Camera

Ambient Light Sensor

3 axes Accelerometer

Gyroscope

USB 2.0 (at least one port)

Speakers

Minimum of 5 finger multi touch

Microsoft are making sure that all they’re devices will at the very least support multi touch out of the box, and having a minimum of 5 finger support means that you’ll be able to get at least one hand on the screen to try out all those new touch features.

NFC “touch marks”

While NFC isn’t a requirement on Windows 8 tablets, if manufacturers choose to include it they must also have these “touch marks”. Basically a little sticker or indicator of some sort so that the user knows where to point the device to another NFC device. Common sense really.

Driver Upgrades That Don’t Require a Reboot

This is good news for everyone, Microsoft will now require that graphics cards don’t require a reboot when they’re updated.

Must have 5 Hardware buttons
Microsoft are being very strict when it comes to the number of buttons allowed on these tablets. They’re saying that there must be 5 buttons, no more and no less. This applies to all Windows 8 tablets and convertible PCs.

The buttons will be

• Power button
• Rotation lock
• Windows Key
• Volume up
• Volume down

The requirements for the Windows Key are that it will be at least 10.5 mm in diameter and can be in any shape (e.g. sqaure, round, triangular,hexagonal even).

New combination for CTRL + ALT + DEL

Now Windows 8 PCs joined to a domain without a keyboard will have a new option to log on. A new option will be the press the Windows Key + Power. Of course you’ll still be able to use the traditional CTRL + ALT + DEL using the on screen keyboard.

2 Second Resume from Standby
Microsoft won’t require that Windows 8 ARM PCs resume in two seconds or less … only x86 Intel-compatible Windows 8 PCs will have this requirement. This requirement actually is in place for Windows 7 as well so this shouldn’t be too much of a problem for tablet makers, and it can only be a good thing for consumers. The reason Microsoft haven’t set this requirement for ARM is probably because they don’t know enough about how Windows reacts with ARM as of yet. We may see it introduced in the future however.

So there’s the minimum requirements and specifications for Windows 8 tablets. If you ask me any machine coming with those specs is going to be pretty feature packed, especially once you load Windows 8 on to it. However Microsoft haven’t detailed any minimum processor requirements, but they did say that any machine which was able to run Windows  7 will be able to run Windows 8.

The minimum specs for the Windows 8 developer preview were:

1 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM for 32-bit systems or 2 GB of RAM for 64-bit systems.

So that’s probably a good guideline.

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Goodbye NTFS hello ReFS. That is one main element of Windows 8. Microsoft has announced one of the most significant changes that will come with the Windows 8 OS, a new file system. Called ReFS, for Resilient File System, the system will be available through a staged evolution.

Starting as a storage system, ReFS will begin on the Windows Server 8 only. Then  it will become a storage system for Windows clients, and then ultimately “as a boot volume.”

The Internals of ReFS

ReFS will complement the Storage Spaces feature in Windows 8 and Windows Server 8.  This means that that works in many ways like drive extender. It will also help with the verification and auto-correction of data and make it available to a large scale of operations. This last part should make file fragmentation not so big a problem anymore. Consequently, ease of use should increase as well as performance improvements on the system.

In another area, one of Microsoft’s goals with ReFS is to maintain a high degree of compatibility with a subset of NTFS features. Obviously, eliminating NTFS can only be done gradually but that means that incorporating elements of it in ReFS will be necessary so that data files and software programs are still accessible. On the other hand, it will eliminate other elements of NTFS that provide limited value at the cost of system complexity and footprint.

A New OS means a New OS

While Microsoft has been launching operating systems for over 30 years, they have been part of the DOS model. This new operating system is truly new, as Microsoft has been pointing out for some time. As new features are released, we will get a better picture about what the Windows 8 System will look like.

Release time? Still up in the air, but maybe by the 3^rd quarter of 2012.

Source: Microsoft Blog Site

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Before you get all concerned about Windows 8 being doomed and Windows tablets being something that nobody will buy let’s get some perspective.  Monica Chen and Joseph Tsai at DigiTimes have today said that Intel-based Windows 8 tablets could cost between $599 and $899 dollars when they go on sale later this year.  This is exactly what they currently cost and shouldn’t be unexpected by anyone.

In their article they say that…

Intel and Microsoft [are] both…unwilling to drop their related hardware and software quotes, and as a result, it could push consumers from wanting to purchase the devices.

This information should probably be taken with a pinch of salt, as should the whole story probably.  I wanted to comment on this story and add some balance to the argument.

It is true that the majority, probably over 80% of all Windows 8 tablets will be based on ARM designed processors.  This will be because these machines will have a significantly higher battery life than their Intel equivalents, be thinner and lighter in all probability and be cheaper as well.

One of the reasons for the price difference is that ARM-based motherboards don’t have to support all the hardware that an Intel board will.  There will be no support for external USB devices not even USB 3.0, no firewire, Thunderbolt or even support for SATA, Gigabit Ethernet and everything else that goes with a modern PC.

In part it is all these extras that drain the battery of Intel-based tablets faster, coupled with the fact that their ARM equivalents are lower-power and more efficient with the electricity provided to them.

Intel are working on new chips, though it should come as no surprise to anybody that they will be some way off and currently all the major tablet manufacturers will be eyeing up ARM as the way to make their sexy new Windows 8 tablets attractive to consumers.

Microsoft will not, as DigiTimes suggests, drop Intel as a supported chip manufacturer.  This can simply never happen without jettisoning not only Windows 8 as it stands but an entire ecosystem of hardware and software and billions of computers and users worldwide.

DigiTimes’ article is certainly sensationalist and it’s gotten a lot of coverage this evening.  It’s hardly factual or reasonable however to point out that when Intel Windows 8 tablets go on sale, the fact that they will cost the same as Windows 7 tablets do now will be a shock.  These tablets will commonly carry Core-i5 processors and 4Gb or more of RAM, as they do now, and be extremely powerful tools for IT Pros, designers and other professionals.  These tablets simply will not be targeted at the average consumer but instead at people who need the power to run full desktop suites on the go.

In a way it’s a shame to see articles such as this as they don’t help.  There is still a great deal we don’t know about Windows 8 and about how it will perform, especially on battery life, on the next generation of Intel chips.  We will find out, in the fullness of time, and we’ll discover how much these devices will cost us.

DigiTimes’ “sources” don’t seem to like either Microsoft or Intel very much at all, but frankly… balance is much more important.

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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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At the moment we don’t have a solid release date for Windows 8, Microsoft never really give us a fixed release date until the final build has been completed. At the moment everyone’s thinking that it will be towards the end of this year, probably in time for the holiday shopping period. At CES this year, Pocket-lint reported on a conversation they had with Microsoft that indicated a October release date.

They spoke with Janelle Poole who is the director of public relations of the Windows Business Group. She had this to say:

We haven’t talked about the release date and we generally don’t. We are talking milestone to milestone, so for us right now we’re talking about the next milestone being the consumer preview happening in late February.

One of the things that I think is a good guideline though is we’ve always said that Windows releases come round about every three years and this year will be three years in October since we launched Windows 7. So I think that’s a good guideline to consider.

It would make sense that this is when Windows 8 will launch, as October 3 years ago will be when Windows 7 launched, which is hard to believe. Windows 7 did also come to market earlier than expected thanks to a series of extremely stable betas and release candidates. I’m sure that Microsoft are working as hard as they can to get Windows 8 ready as soon as possible to cash in on the tablet boom and also get their new OS out on the latest line of ultrabooks that will be flooding the market this year.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft stick to their 3 year product cycle, or will they cut it down a little like they did with Windows 7?

When do you think Windows 8 will be released?

Let us know in the comments

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New images have appeared of the Start Screen personalization options in the Windows 8 beta.  In the images, posted online by TheVerge.com you can see shots from what they say is build 8175.  They show that Microsoft are sticking to their guns on a background to the Start Screen that’s far less customisable than what we’ve been used to for years (though give it some time and Stardock will come up with something as they always do).

There’s no custom desktop image for example though there are eight background patterns to choose from.  Then there’s a choice of nine colours.  This isn’t what most people would call “customisation” but its a start and we could still see more appear by the time Windows 8 ships (making people writing books like me redo lots of screenshots!)

I’ll let you judge from the images below what you think and it would be very interesting to see your comments.  It could be argued for instance that if you want to work primarily with the Windows 8 ‘traditional’ desktop that the blue, black and grey shades might be less Metro-like than the green we’ve seen in the Developer Preview, and will make the new Metro pop-ups less intrusive.  It remains to be seen however what Microsoft will release next month.

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At CES 2012 Nvidia demonstrated Windows 8 running on a tablet powered by Nvidia’s new Tegra 3 processor, which is built on the ARM architecture rather than the traditional x86 that Intel and AMD use and dominate the market with.

In the past Windows didn’t support ARM processors which meant that Intel and AMD were the only real players in the processor market. However ARM processors have become more popular in mobile devices since they are more energy efficient and offer high performance as well as good battery life. Nvidia’s latest processor the Tegra 3 is a perfect example of this.

Microsoft said that they were going to add support for ARM processors in Windows 8, but apart from a brief glimpse at their Build conference last year, yesterday was the first time we finally got to see Windows 8 working and running on a Tegra 3 powered tablet.

Nobody really got to have a hands on with the tablet, and we’re not really sure what kind of one it is. At the moment all that you can see is the Nvidia branding on it. It’s rumoured that it could be by ASUS who produced the first Tegra 3 powered devices so it may possibly be a variation of their upcoming tablet.

Nvidia demonstrated a variety of demanding games running perfectly well on the tablet.

Nvidia’s CEO was very excited about the prospects this year. Between Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich and Windows 8, there’s ample opportunities for tablet makers and consumers coming up this year. It will be very exciting to see what tablets are released alongside Windows 8 when it hits the market towards the end of this year. I feel that if Windows 8 is to be a success, it really needs to enter with a big range of high spec tablets.

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Previously we thought that the final build number for the Windows 8 beta build was going to be 8175. Sources said that the beta build had been signed off but now it looks like they were wrong. New information coming from WinUnleaked.tk states that the beta build is still in development, but a roadmap for it has been laid out.

According to their undisclosed sources, the Windows 8 Beta is currently in a pre-beta state and that the final beta build will not be 8175.

Here’s what the road map apparently looks like:

• From now until January 21st, it’s in Pre-Beta stage
• On January 23rd, Windows 8 will enter Beta “Escrow”
• Then from 23rd to the 28th, testers will be voting for the final Beta Build and then sign off the Beta.
• January 30th – The official Beta build is expected to be shown off at an internal preview

Targeted build number is now expected to be 8200.winmain_win8b1 not 6.2.8175.winmain.111217 -1215 as previously thought.

So it looks like it will be the beginning of February when we finally get out hands on the first official beta build of Windows 8.

Source:

Winunleaked.tk

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The closer we get to the actual release of Windows 8 ARM tablets the more I’m mulling over the pros and cons, and wondering just how successful such devices will actually  turn out to be.  At the moment Windows 7 tablets are pretty powerful machines.  They have a great many advantages over every other tablet with support for just about any USB device and the ability to run full desktop apps such as Microsoft Office.  Add to this a friendly tablet interface and surely you’re on to a winner!?  Alas then comes the problem.  There is only one but for most people it’s a deal-breaker, and that is the poor battery life that comes with running Windows on Intel x86 based chips.  A battery that dies on a tablet after about only four hours simply isn’t good enough and there’s no indications that things are going to change any time soon.

So a Windows tablet on ARM architecture must be the way to go then?  Well, actually no.  The problem with an ARM-based Windows 8 tablet is that you will not only forego the USB device support, but also the ability to run existing Windows desktop apps and suites.  You’ll have fantastic battery life but these two problems are, frankly, the reason most people want to use Windows on a tablet in the first place.

What they’ll be left with is essentially a blank slate (sic!) where all the software will be new and none of their existing Windows programs will run.  Is this what people want a Windows tablet for?  The Windows app store, despite Microsoft’s attempts to build developer excitement for Metro, will take some time to get going and build momentum.  It will be leagues behind the app stores for the iPad, Android tablets and even the HP TouchPad and Blackberry Playbook, and this situation will last for many months if not years.

So are Windows tablets going to prove disappointing for people?  Well, this is all in how Microsoft design the code and architecture of the ARM tablets.  If they go down the route of tablets as we know them now then they’ll be no more Windows than an iPad or a Samsung Galaxy Tab is now.  If they do find ways to run existing Windows software, that software will have to be recompiled or perhaps even completely re-engineered to run on them, and many if not most software companies won’t be interested in doing this given that the sales market will be comparatively small.

We might find out more about Windows ARM-powered tablets this week at the Consumer Electronics Show, but it’s becoming clear that Microsoft need to tell us what what types of hardware and software (if any at all) these devices will support when they come to market, probably in early 2013.  Until then if you’re considering buying a tablet I wouldn’t advise you to wait.  If you aren’t fussed about Windows desktop programs and USB devices then any tablet on the market these days will suit you (and prices on the Blackberry Playbook are tumbling) and if you want the full-fat Intel experience then there are a few Windows 7 tablets either out there or coming soon that will fit the bill for when the Windows 8 public beta begins.  But if you’ve been waiting for a tablet that runs Windows, supports all your desktop apps and has a great battery life, you could end up disappointed.

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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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A hidden “easter egg” has been found in the Windows 8 Developer Preview by WinUnleaked.tk that reactivates the transparency on the very nice looking new Aero Lite interface, while disabling much of the extra eye-candy that comes with the full Aero glass effect on the desktop.

On initial inspection it’s unclear exactly how this new Aero Lite Glass differs from the standard Aero Glass effect, though closer examination reveals that it’s much simpler and forgoes effects such as highlights around the minimize, maximize and close buttons.  Also the back and forward buttons are a much simpler Metro style, which many people might prefer.

To activate this you just need to follow these simple instructions…

Navigate to the \Windows\System32 folder

Launch WindowsAnytimeUpgradeResults.exe

Given the title of the program that you launch to achieve this effect it’s unlikely this will still work with the final version of the operating system.  What is also unclear though is whether or not this second Aero will be available in Windows 8 as an option.  The fact that it exists now though will probably mean that it will be available afterwards as a registry hack.

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Microsoft in a new blog post has revealed detailed information about the new Storage Spaces feature of the Windows 8 operating system. Storage Spaces enables two new features in the Windows 8 operating system that were not available in previous client Windows systems.

It first can be used to create storage pools, a feature similar to Drive Extender that was part of Windows Server for a while. This basically allows users to create a joined storage pool from multiple discs. Storage pools can be created using different physical discs and connection methods. A basic example would be to combine a 2 Terabyte disk and a 1 Terabyte disc into a storage pool to have 3 Terabytes of data accessible under a single drive letter.

Instead of just creating a storage pool with a size of 3 Terabyte, Microsoft provides users with options to select a larger size right from the beginning. The core benefit here is that administration is easier when additional drives are added to the pool.

The second feature can be used to create virtual disks that behave just like physical discs in the operating system. Virtual disks offer capabilities like thin provisioning, and resilience to failure of underlying physical media.

Lets take a look at the terminology that Microsoft uses:

Thin Provisioning: Microsoft gives an example where two 2 Terabyte drives are assigned to a Drive Pool with an initial storage size of 10 Terabytes. The technology relies on on-demand allocation of data which improves the efficiency significantly.

Instead of having to connect drives to the computer that at least meet the 10 Terabyte requirements, users and system administrators can now use the 4 Terabyte of space they have for as long as it is sufficient. New storage devices can then be added once the storage reaches the physical limit.

The magic that allows us to create a 10TB mirrored space on 4TB of total raw capacity is called thin provisioning. Thin provisioning ensures that actual capacity is reserved for the space only when you decide to use it, for example, when you copy some files to the volume on the space. Previously allocated physical capacity can be reclaimed safely whenever files are deleted, or whenever an application decides that such capacity is no longer needed. This reclaimed capacity is subsequently available for usage by either the same space, or by some other space that is carved out from the same pool. We achieve all of this through architected cooperation between the underlying file-system (NTFS) and Storage Spaces.

Resiliency This optional feature can only be used if at least two hard drives are used to create the drive pool. It basically mirrors data on different disks of the pool, so that data can be recovered even if a physical disk fails. Resilience is achieved through mirroring and parity.

Another core (also optional) capability associated with a space is resiliency to failure of the physical disks comprising the storage pool. For example, the space we’ve illustrated above is a mirrored space (in other words, it has the mirrored resiliency attribute associated with it). This mirrored setting ensures that we always store at least two (and optionally three) complete copies of data on different physical disks within the pool. This way, despite partial or complete disk failure, you’ll never need to worry about loss of data. As a matter of fact, the physical disks comprising the pool are typically not even visible to other components within Windows or to applications running on your PC. By extension, the fact that some physical disks within the pool have failed, is completely shielded from other Windows components or applications. They continue to operate on the space, completely oblivious to the fact that Storage Spaces is working quietly in the background to maintain data availability. Additionally, upon disk failure, Storage Spaces automatically regenerates data copies for all affected spaces as long as sufficient alternate physical disks are available within the pool.

There’s another resiliency attribute, called parity, which directs Storage Spaces to store some redundancy information alongside user data contained within the space, thereby enabling automatic data reconstruction in the event of physical disk failure. While conceptually similar to mirroring, parity-based resiliency utilizes capacity more efficiently than mirrored spaces do, but with higher random I/O overhead. Parity spaces are well suited for storing data such as large home videos, which have large capacity requirements, large sequential (predominantly append) write requests, and an infrequent-to-minimal need to update existing content.

Here are screenshots of the new functionality. I suggested you check out Microsoft’s blog post for additional information and an FAQ that answers some of the most pressing questions that users and admins may have.

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A few days ago I reported that the Windows 8 Beta build had been finalised and signed off with the build number 8175. This is almost definitely the build that will be released to the public next month when Microsoft distribute the Windows 8 Beta for testing. However, while everyone seems to have focused on Windows 8, they’ve also forgotten that Microsoft are hard at work with Windows Server 8 as well.

There hasn’t been too much coverage on this so far but Winunleaked.tk has posted a screenshot of the installation screen for Windows Server 8.

I know it’s not really much, but the poster says that the Beta version has come with a good few changes such as a refreshed Dashboard UI, new features and some code improvements. At the moment they’ve got it running on a Samsung slate and hope to have a few more screenshots in the near future.

I’m sure they’re will be plenty more beta leaks of both Windows 8 and Windows Server 8 as we near the release date of them, hopefully at the beginning of February.

Source:

Winunleaked

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One of the more interesting features in Windows 8, certainly from my perspective as the author of “Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out” is the ability for Microsoft’s new operating system to self-repair and reinstall itself.  This isn’t actually as clever as it sounds but as a simplistic explanation it’ll do.

Microsoft have today though offered more insight into this process, called refresh and reset.  In a post on the Building Windows 8 blog they said “As we began planning for Windows 8, we asked ourselves: ‘Wouldn’t it be great if you could just push a button and everything is fixed?’ We really wanted to focus on the concept of ‘push button’, which translated into a design goal that represents a simple to use, predictable, and fast solution.  The point of this is…

With Windows 8, there are a few key things that we set out to deliver:

• Provide a consistent experience to get the software on any Windows 8 PC back to a good and predictable state.
• Streamline the process so that getting a PC back to a good state with all the things customers care about can be done quickly instead of taking up the whole day.
• Make sure that customers don’t lose their data in the process.
• Provide a fully customizable approach for technical enthusiasts to do things their own way.

While this sounds like a wonderful solution to all your woes, it’s still not quite as wonderful as it sounds.  The two options will allow you to perform one of these tasks…

• Reset your PC – Remove all personal data, apps, and settings from the PC, and reinstall Windows.
• Refresh your PC – Keep all personal data, Metro style apps, and important settings from the PC, and reinstall Windows.

You’ll notice this says it will keep “Metro style apps” and doesn’t mention desktop apps.  This is because Microsoft will have a much tighter quality control on Metro apps and cite reasons in the blog including reinstalling bad apps and having little or no control over some installer types as the reason.  In fairness there probably are very good technical reasons why this is the case so there’s no need to disbelieve them here.

Windows 7 comes with an image backup system however in all editions that can be used with Startup Repair to restore your copy of Windows with all of your programs and settings intact.  Fortunately this hasn’t been forgotten and Microsoft have built it into the Rest options.

With this in mind, we’ve made it possible for you to establish your own baseline image via a command-line tool (recimg.exe). So when you get a Windows 8 PC, you will be able to do the following:

1. Go through the Windows first-run experience to configure basic settings.
2. Install your favorite desktop apps (or uninstall things you don’t want).
3. Configure the machine exactly as you would like it.
4. Use recimg.exe to capture and set your custom image of the system.

It’s not completely clear yet how this will work with the existing backup options, where a friendly wizard interface will walk you through the image backup process.  It is unlikely however that a command line will be the only way to do this.

So how long will it actually take to perform a refresh or a reset?  Microsoft timed the results on the machines they gave out to developers at their BUILD conference last september.

The refresh and restore options will also work from the new style Windows boot menu, should your copy of Windows be unable to start.

In Windows 8 Beta, there will also be a tool that you can use to create a bootable USB flash drive, in case even the copy of Windows RE on the hard drive won’t start. You’ll be able to start your PC with the USB drive, and fix problems by refreshing your PC or performing advanced troubleshooting. And if your PC comes with a hidden recovery partition, you’ll even have the option to remove it and reclaim disk space once you’ve created the USB drive.

It’s great that Microsoft are making these features more accessible and easier to use.  It is ironic however that the more stable and trouble-free Windows gets, the more troubleshooting and repair features are introduced.

Clearly these tools won’t suit everyone so I’m not concerned about whether there will be another edition of “Troubleshooting…”  I’ve also found on my own Windows tablet that the Developer Preview of the OS didn’t feel there was enough space to store all the rescue files and, as such when I went to try the tool it failed to work.  It might be that on some tablet devices where flash storage is at a premium, this may be the case in the future.

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Microsoft have today confirmed that Kinect will be coming to the PC early this year “not as a hack but as a commercial product with dedicated PC hardware”.  Some changes include a shorter USB cable and new firmware to allow close-up usage of the device.

It is probably safe to assume the new Kinect for PC will also be smaller than the one for the Xbox, due to the need to fit it into tight spaces on people’s desks.

In a blog post today the company said…

Kinect offers PC users (and developers) some unique capabilities that change the way people interact with their computers, including:

• Skeletal tracking
• Motion sensing
• Voice recognition
• Facial recognition

It is with Windows 8 that the Kinect is probably going to make the biggest impact, the decide will no doubt be usable with the new Metro interface that’s coming with the company’s next generation OS.  Being able to operate your PC apps with gesture controls, apart from bringing Minority Report’esque coolness to the PC for the first time, will also help those people who don’t have touch screens with their existing PCs.

In many ways this could save Windows 8 as the Kinect is already a much sought-after device, not just with the Xbox 360 but with a great many different people, including robotics and other researchers.  This will no doubt lead to a whole new range of Windows apps designed to harness the power of Kinect.  Obvious applications are programs for children and the disabled.

It will be with gaming though that the most interesting things will happen.  PC gaming has been on the decline for some time now and the advent and increasing popularity of all-in-one machines, which do not have the latest and fastest gaming hardware, are hammering more nails into the gaming coffin.  Could Kinect for the PC reinvigorate this?  Certainly with the big first person shooter titles, such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Kinect will probably never be used.  The device could drive up the number of smaller and easier games however.

Microsoft have also long talked about being able to play the same game across the PC, Xbox 360 and Windows Phone, though this hasn’t really happened yet.  Having Kinect on a PC could enable people to play on two screens on their PC and Xbox in their home simultaneously.

Suffice to say the long-overdue arrival of the Kinect sensor for the PC is going to be a huge event, and Microsoft are hitting the ground running with incentives for companies that want to harness it for the PC (and they’re not just limiting this to games developers either) with “the BizSpark Kinect Accelerator incubation programme, which will give 10 tech-oriented companies using Kinect (on either Windows or Xbox360) an investment of $20,000 each and other benefits.” among other incentives on the Microsoft Developer Network.

By the time Windows 8 launches we’ll have a good feel for how Kinect will fit with the who PC architecture, how flexible, popular and effective it will actually be, and crucially, if it can give Windows 8 the edge and keep this often criticised operating system firmly on top.

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We’ve had a few leaks of Windows 8 builds recently that have been getting closer and closer to the beta build. Now it’s been reported that the Beta Build of Windows 8 has been signed off by Microsoft and is currently doing the rounds in a very close circle of testers.

The news was reported from Russian site Wzor and Win7vista. If the dodgy google translation of it is correct, then the Windows 8 Beta was signed off on December 29th 2011 and the official build number for it will be  6.2.8175.winmain.111217 -1215

Apparently the beta will also be distributed with the English, German, Japanese and Chinese language packs so more people will be able to test it out then the developer preview.

It’s really pretty difficult to make out anything more from the source, it’s anybody’s guess as to whether or not this is a legit claim, but Wzor seems to be pretty accurate in the past and it would make sense that the Beta build has been signed off now. Microsoft may well demonstrate it at CES 2012 which is just before the expected release date of the Windows 8 Beta in February.

For now we’ll just have to wait and see

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Microsoft are looking to improve security in Windows 8 greatly and we’ve already seen evidence of this with a new bootloader that prevents harmful software like rootkits from ever executing on your system. There’s several improvements in the BIOS security, however it has come under fire recently. Some people have said that it could prevent other operating systems from being installed on a Windows machine as they wouldn’t have the necessary signatures.

But now McAfee are predicting that because Windows 8 will be so secure on the software side of things, that hackers are more likely to go and try hardware based malware attacks instead, which are now seen as an easier option.

“Advances in the Windows 8 bootloader security feature have already caused researchers to show how they can be subverted through legacy BIOS,”

Intel are also looking to roll out it’s UEFI (unified extensible firmware interface) which could enforce secure booting on machines, which will again make it even harder for hackers to use traditional software methods of hacking. They’ll need to find away to get around these security features on the hardware side of things.

According to the report, we could see hackers attacking graphics processor functions, the BIOS and other various hardware components.

We will keenly watch how attackers use these low-level functions for botnet control, perhaps migrating their control functions into graphics processor functions, the BIOS, or the master boot record, In spite of our efforts to thwart their ambitions, attackers clearly see the value and power of attacking hardware and moving outside of traditional operating-system attacks.

This is actually a very interesting report. Basically what McAfee are predicting is that because Windows 8 has become a lot more secure on the software side of things, it now means that it’s made it more vulnerable to attack on the hardware side. Hackers will now see hardware as an easier target to attack the OS. If hackers manage to do this, it could make it very difficult to protect hardware against malware attacks etc.. as traditional antivirus systems don’t protect against hardware attacks.

Source:

McAfee Report

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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

What Do You Think Of The Windows 8 Picture Password? 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.

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

Windows 8 Will Be A Much Better Deal For Publishers 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.

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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It seems to be coming a regular occurrence now, we’ve got yet more leaked screenshots of the latest Beta Build of Windows 8. Microsoft are due to release a Beta edition of Windows 8 to the public sometime in February and they are rumoured to just be signing off on it now.

These latest leaked screenshots come from Win8China and are of the installation procedure and initial set up of Windows 8. The first of them shows the product key screen of Windows 8

As you can probably see, the major difference now is that all the set up menus have been optimised for use with touchscreen devices and all have an option to display a virtual keyboard

The Windows 8 beta setup shows two options similar to what you get with Windows 7. One is for keeping  “keeping windows settings”,personal files and apps or the second is to “keep nothing” from the previous Windows installation. It’s quite self explanatory, the first option will keep your files and settings, while the second is basically a clean install.

It’s not too clear yet what the upgrade options will be for Windows 8. You can be pretty sure that you’ll be able to directly upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8, possibly Windows Vista but Windows XP users will almost definitely be out of luck since they weren’t able to upgrade to Windows 7 without performing a clean install

Source:

Win8China

Windows 8 Beta Installation Screenshots Leaked 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.

Here at Windows 8 News, the team of editors are constantly working away in order to bring you the latest news and information about Windows 8. Of course the same goes for Windows 7 News where we’ve got a huge collection of themes,wallpapers,guides and enough tips to keep everyone happy. We’ve all got quite a bit of experience and knowledge when it comes to Windows that we share with you every day.

However, our resident MVP (Microsoft Valued Professional) Mike Halsey always seems to be one step ahead of us all.

Some of you may know of the Windows 7 Power Users Guide that Mike wrote for Windows 7.

The eBook is an extensive 170 page guide to Windows 7, written by Mike and is available for free to download (Download it here at Windows 7 News) This eBook has been a huge success and has had well over half a million downloads to date.

And now I’m delighted to announce that Mike will now be writing the Windows 8 Power Users Guide, and he’s been picked up by the international publisher APRESS. This new “Windows 8 Power Users Guide” will be for IT Pros and Users who want to master Windows 8. Of course since Windows 8 isn’t even out yet and the book is still in the early stages of development, most of the specifics have been kept under wrap, but I’ve been assured that there’s been nothing like this book before!

Here’s a few words from Mike himself in relation to the Power Users Guide Series as well as his reaction to being picked up by the international publisher APRESS:

I self-published my first Windows Power Users Guide in 2006 for Windows Vista, and it had a great review from ‘Windows Vista: The Official magazine’ in the UK that made it a real hit.  This spurred me on to write the Windows 7 Power Users Guide, a free 170 page guide, which has had more downloads than I can count (the download counter on my website actually broke after half a million, so draw your own conclusions).  To have the Power Users Guide name and format picked up by a major international publisher is a dream come true, and I hope it is also great encouragement to anyone wanting to write their own book for Windows or any other tech subject in 2012 and beyond.”

No doubt Mike will have a few more teasers for us between now and the release of the book, it’s great to see his book series has been picked up by a major publisher, and it’s brilliant that we have him on our team here at Windows 8 News and Windows 7 News.

I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing him every bit of success with it.

Windows 8 Power Users Guide 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.

One of the most noticeable and exciting features in Windows 8 was the new picture password to log onto Windows 8. This new feature allows a user to log in by simply drawing a pattern on a picture, making it easy to remember and use. It’s quite cool and innovative and in a post from Microsoft’s building Windows 8 blog, they’ve gone into more detail on how it works.

First off, the picture that the user chooses is broken up into a system of grids.

Then, as you place gestures on the picture, the system records the (X1,Y1,) co ordinates of the starting point and then records the (X,Y) co ordinates for each point in the pattern that you draw as well as the ending co ordinates for lines. For circles it will record the radius and the direction of the circle.

So when you go to sign in, the system evaluates the gestures that you have entered against the ones that have been recorded during set up. Of course you wont be able to draw the gesture exactly the same everytime so Windows 8 will see if what you’ve drawn is close enough to authenticate you.

I think that this is easily the best way to log onto a touchscreen device, which is really what Microsoft are aiming at here with Windows 8.

Microsoft reckon that it’s a pretty secure method of logging in as well. The gesture can be composed of multiple reference points, taps and lines. It might be slightly easier for people to remember if they happen to see you doing it over your shoulder however. Otherwise it will certainly be easier and quicker to log on instead of entering a long complicated password.

The table below compares the number of different gestures you can use in a picture compared to a PIN

The only thing that people are really worried about with this new method of signing on whether or not people will be able to figure out your password from smudges on your touchscreen

Of course this is a concern, but let’s be realistic about this. Your touchscreen is always going to have multiple smudges on it and even if you somehow manage to have a clean touchscreen and only the smudges left from your log on gesture, a hacker isn’t going to know what order you drew those gestures.

And if you’re still concerned, just wipe your screen after you use it!

You can read about this in a lot more detail over at the blog

What do you think of this log on method, do you prefer it?

Let us know in the comments

Microsoft Goes Into Detail On The New Picture Password In Windows 8 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.

Windows 8 will bring a whole host of changes with it as we all know. Thanks to the new Metro UI, it’s inevitable that Windows 8 will find its way onto many a tablet once it’s released. As a result, this will probably mean that users will find themselves chopping and changing between their tablets and desktop PC’s quite a bit.

This will also mean that users personalised settings and passwords will also need to be manually entered for each system that you log into, or at least this used to be the case. With Windows 8, Microsoft are hoping to solve this issue that has always plagued users who work on multiple machines.

In their latest post over on the engineering Windows 8 blog, Microsoft has gone into lots of detail explaining how they are hoping to solve this age old problem. What they’ve devised is a built in credential manager in Windows 8.

It’s advised that you should have different complex passwords for every site that you log into. Of course this is easier said than done and lots of people use the same password for everything. But this new password manager in Windows 8, will allow you to store all these passwords and then fill them in automatically for you when you go to that site.

Of course they’ll be encrypted to prevent hackers from getting them, and all you’ll need is a single master password for Windows 8 and you’ll be able to use them all. Microsoft’s plan with Windows 8 is that users can log onto any Windows 8 machine with their Windows Live ID and all their details, settings and passwords will be automatically pulled down to that machine. This will hopefully save plenty of time and make things much more convenient for Windows users.

Obviously this feature will be optional as I’m sure that there’s many security concious users who won’t exactly be too comfortable having all their passwords stored in one place, but it’s nice to know that the feature is available

What do you guys think of it?

Let us know in the comments

Source:

Engineering Windows 8

Windows 8 To Manage Your Passwords For You 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.

One of the biggest problems with life online is passwords and security.  Either you have one password that’s used everywhere, which presents security problems, a few passwords separating things like email from shopping, which again presents risks, or a different password for everything which is ideal but very difficult to manage and remember.

Windows 7′s Credential Manager was supposed to go some way to solving this problem but most people wouldn’t even know the feature exists.  Now Microsoft have detailed how the credential manager is being enhanced for Windows 8 in a way that will enable it to manage all your passwords for you.

Password storage and management software is now commonplace, with many people worldwide using third-party software that stores all your passwords and automatically fills them in on websites for you.  This will now be part of Windows 8.  In a blog post today the company said…

With Windows 8, we provide support for both the safe storage of username/password combinations, and technology to support alternate authentication; that is, we try to make it easier for you to enhance the security of your passwords, and easier to use newer and stronger techniques for protecting your digital identity.

The aim is for Windows 8 to remember your passwords for each site you visit so that you can have a different password for each.  Just logging into Windows 8 using your Live ID, on whatever computer you want to do this on, will enable the host OS to fill those passwords in for you.

Windows 8 simplifies the task of managing unique and complex passwords in two important ways. The first is by providing a way to automatically store and retrieve multiple account names and passwords for all the websites and applications you use, and do so in a protected manner. Internet Explorer 10 uses the credentials that we store to remember names and passwords for websites you visit (if you choose). In addition, anyone building a Metro style app can use a direct API to securely store and retrieve credentials for that app.

On the fact of it this is a really great idea and is a cool way to stay safe and secure online and manage your passwords too.  On the other hand we all now use a variety of operating systems because life has changed.  There’s WebOS, iOS, Android, Blackberry OS, Windows, Linux and a whole lot more in day to day usage.  While Microsoft would inevitably port this functionality to the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone so that it works there too, the end result would be locking yourself into Microsoft’s eco-system for the sake of some extra safety and security online.

Now I’m not opposed to the Microsoft lock-in, in fact the only other OS I use day to day is WebOS on my tablet, but I’m not sure the extra safety and security this offers is worth it.  Do you really want to have long-complex passwords known to Microsoft and probably not to yourself that you won’t be able to use the next time you want to check your eBay account on a friend’s iMac?  I’m not convinced that I do.

Ultimately for some people this feature will be a complete godsend, but those people will probably be the types who just have a single PC and who don’t really need email and browsing on the move.  For the rest of us I’d recommend sticking to a safe and secure password strategy, at least for now.  My handy poster guide to creating secure passwords is below for you to print out, keep and share with friends and family.

Microsoft Outline Windows 8 Identity Protection, and why you might not want it to 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.

I’m sure most of you have heard about the new Windows Store that Microsoft are looking to launch alongside its newest operating system – Windows 8. Last week Microsoft gave us a look at the new Windows 8 Store and along with that they started a new contest for the developers who want their apps to be featured first when the Store is officially released alongside Windows 8 some time next year.

We also discovered that Microsoft will have the ability to remotely delete apps from your PC, but now something new has been spotted in the ULA. Microsoft have decided that they will also allow open source apps onto their market. This is a big win for the open source movement.

The section that we’re looking at clearly states that apps released under a license from the Open Source Initiative (GPL, Apache, etc.) will have permission to be distributed via the Windows Store. What’s more it also says that the OSI license will trump the Microsoft Standard Application License Terms, namely the the restriction on sharing applications.

“Your license terms must also not conflict with the Standard Application License Terms, in any way, except if you include FOSS, your license terms may conflict with the limitations set forth in Section 3 of those Terms, but only to the extent required by the FOSS that you use. ‘FOSS’ means any software licensed under an Open Source Initiative Approved License.”

“If your app includes FOSS, it must not cause any non-FOSS Microsoft software to become subject to the terms of any FOSS license.”

This is certainly a bit of a U-Turn from Microsoft, but then again they are also probably trying to distance themselves from Apple somewhat and trying to become buddies with Android developers again. Microsoft hasn’t really made a big deal about it, they just suitably slipped this nugget of information in there thinking that nobody would notice it.

This certainly is great news for everyone. It’s good for Microsoft because they will get more apps on their market, it’s good for consumers because they will have more apps available to them and it’s great for developers who will have access to the 400 million plus PC’s that will run Windows 8.

Source:

extremetech

Windows 8 Store To Allow Open Source Apps 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.

Ultrabooks seem to be all the rage these days, and for a good reason. These new breed of laptop are packing some serious specs and impressive battery life, but what makes them some impressive is that they are so incredibly thin and portable. A few Ultrabooks have currently come on mainstream in the last month or so, with a lot more expected to start making their way to our shelves in the coming months. The only thing with these Ultrabooks is that they still have traditional user input – ie. a mouse and keyboard.

As we all should know by now, Microsoft are looking to move away from this traditional form of input somewhat with Windows 8. The new Metro UI is predominantly designed for use with touchscreen devices like Tablets. However, computer manufacturer ASUS is looking to fill the gap between the super slim Ultrabooks and the touchscreen tablets.

They are rumoured to be readying a Windows 8 Ultrabook which comes with a swivel touchscreen display. According to a report from Digitimes, they are rumoured to unveil the Ultrabook at the annual Computex trade show in Taiwan next June. The Ultrabook is then expected to be released alongside Windows 8 sometime in late 2012.

Their source also says that they’ll expect to see a significant increase from consumers in Ultrabooks next May when Intel’s latest range of Ivy Bridge processors come on line.

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Microsoft have announced that the Windows 8 Developer preview has now had over 3 million downloads since it was released back in September. I suppose the news isn’t really that surprising, especially when you consider that Windows is easily the most popular operating system in the world.

I’d imagine that nearly all the developers and Windows enthusiasts have all grabbed a copy of the developer preview by now and downloads have probably dropped off significantly. Of course the main reason people are downloading the new operating system is to get a look at the new Windows 8 interface which is made up predominantly of the new Metro UI. Developers of course will also be looking at what apps they can create which will utilise the new features in Windows 8.

Of course I believe that if you want to get the best experience out of Windows 8, you will probably have to use a device with a touchscreen like a tablet or those all in one desktops with touchscreens.

Microsoft have said that they’ll be releasing the first Beta of Windows 8 in February which is expected to have a good few changes from this developer preview. Microsoft stressed that the Windows 8 developer preview is far from finished and has a lot of work still to be done on it as well as more features to be added.

Let’s see if the Beta lives up to those expectations.

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Windows 8 Hyper-V and PC’s

Hyper-V virtualization will be available on Windows 8. However, to run it, the right PC hardware must be available. Here’s what to look for.

Will a TestBed PC Work?

So you have an older PC, maybe two or three years old. You download the Windows 8 beta version, since the system requirements for Windows 8 are unchanged from those of Windows 7. But if you go that route, you might find that you’re unable to use one of the most significant new features in Windows 8. That is Hyper-V.

While Windows 7 offered capabilities that were similar in design, using an add-on program called Windows Virtual PC. Hyper-V integrates this capability directly into the operating system. Windows 8 is relying on technology that has proven itself in the server versions of Windows for more than three years. Will everyone need this feature? Probably not. The average consumer may never need it, but it could be a godsend for IT professionals, developers, security researchers, and geek PC enthusiasts.

64-bit Version

So what’s necessary to run Hyper-V on a Windows 8 machine? A 64-bit version of Windows 8, and only if the host machine is equipped with a 64-bit processor that supports a feature called Second Level Address Translation (SLAT). Some older Intel documentation refers to this feature as extended page tables (EPT). The AMD equivalents are Rapid Virtualization Indexing (RVI) and nested page tables (NPT), respectively.

Availability Tests

There are two scenarios to work with. One where you’ve already installed the Windows 8 Developer Preview, and one where you haven’t.

1. If you have already installed it, you can find out by trying to enable Hyper-V (the feature is disabled by default). In the Turn Windows features on or off dialog box, select the Hyper-V box and then click or tap OK. If your CPU doesn’t support Hyper-V, the Hyper-V Core check box will be grayed-out and unavailable, and you’ll see the following error Hyper-V cannot be installed. The processor does not have second level address translation capabilities.
2. If you haven’t installed the Windows 8 preview, you can use Coreinfo , from the essential SysInternals collection to check. Open a Command window as an Administrator and run the utility with the –v switch.

This new feature will give developers a way to test their programs without having to lock down their unit in order to run their program or application.

Windows 8 Hyper-V and PC’s 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 has revealed some news on its new Windows 8 app store over the last few days. While going through some of the documentation for this new app store, it has been discovered that Microsoft will have the ability to remotely kill or delete apps on your Windows 8 machine without your permission. This “kill switch” which deactivates/removes apps is actually quite common in most app stores.

Both Google and Apple have these sort of switches on the Android and iOS app markets. If you have a look at the Windows Store terms of use  you’ll be able to see for yourself what Microsoft will have control over. However, while you may be somewhat concerned at Microsoft’s control over your apps, they’ll only ever really use this “kill switch” if it’s for your own safety.

“In cases where your security is at risk, or where we’re required to do so for legal reasons, you may not be able to run apps or access content that you previously acquired or purchased a license for,”

In the case that you have purchased an app that has suddenly been deleted from your device for some reason or another, Microsoft will give you a refund which is fair enough. However Microsoft may also delete all data associated with that application from your machine, which could be somewhat irritating if you have some important files or documents that were associated with the app.

While Apple also has this “kill switch” on their app store, they’ve never actually used it. Each approved app must go through rigorous testing before it’s finally approved for the App Store, and while Apple has removed previously approved apps from the App Store, these apps are still on people devices and running fine and haven’t been remotely removed.

Google on the other hand has had to use their remote “kill switch” a couple of times due to a number of malicious apps being found on its store which is not subject to the same stringent quality and security control tests that Apple implement.

So I guess it’s a good thing as well as bad thing that Microsoft will be able to remotely deactivate and delete malicious apps.

What do you think? Is it a good or bad thing?

Source:

PCWorld

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The Private Market Place will be a place on the Windows 8 app store that allows a Windows 8 app to be distributed only to private customers.

With the push for apps available through App stores, some companies, may have a split feeling about how they want to deliver their apps to their customers. For example, take application that have been designed for their own employees. Now further take the view that the company may want to limit the access via a private marketplace notion.

Let’s say that a company wants to make available to its own employees a sales report of current and potential customers app developed by a company’s IT department. Then the IT staff may want to distribute test and final versions of this app to all their Windows 8 users but don’t want those not working at the company to see it in the Store. This is where “private marketplaces” come into play.

Earlier this year, Microsoft enabled private marketplace functionality for Windows Phone “Mango.”  Given that functionality, maybe Microsoft is planning to offer a similar path to business users for their Windows 8 Metro-style apps.

But watch it! Will the same Windows 8 App store functionality be available to non-Metro style apps? Maybe, but maybe not. Microsoft hasn’t given an answer to that, and it may be that they are still up in the air about what the Windows 8 App store will really be about. That, however, revolves around the metro-style app structure. The Windows 8 App store will carry it but not other styles.

Here is Microsoft’s current take:

“Apps listed in the Store are visible to all Windows 8 users, so enterprise apps can be offered in the Store, just like any other Metro style app. However, we also offer support for enterprises that want direct control over the deployment of Metro style apps.

“Enterprises can choose to limit access to the Windows Store catalog by their employees, or allow access but restrict certain apps. In addition, enterprises can choose to deploy Metro style apps directly to PCs, without going through the Store infrastructure. For Windows 8 Beta, IT administrators can use group policy to permit Metro style app installations, as long as the apps are signed by trusted publishers and the machines are joined to the domain. Then the IT admin can use (P)owershell commandlets to manage those Metro-style apps on Windows 8….

“This deployment flexibility ensures that employees have software on the devices they prefer while IT can continue to manage software payloads based on their company’s needs and regulation.”

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Microsoft today unveiled the new Windows Store which will be rolled out across all WIndows platforms including Windows Phone and Xbox 360 by the time Windows 8 launches.

The company wants to make apps in the store easy to find, but with the biggest computing platform on the planet, this may be a much harder task than it might at first appear to be. 

There have been some very interesting snippets of information that have come out of this presentation.  The most significant of these is the announcement that Microsoft “will open the store to customers when [they] release the beta of Windows 8 and that’s going to be in late February of 2012.  This is later than many people expected and might be an indication that the backlash from people over the Developer Preview has put the project back slightly from it’s intended timetable; the Windows 7 beta appeared a few days after being unveiled at the January 2009 Consumer Electronics Show.

In this presentation Microsoft were only talking about and showing off the new Windows app store.  In the screenshot above we can see a new eBay app.  The store will be viewable by search engines meaning that reviews of apps can be seen online.  This will be a very good move for many developers.

As expected revenue sharing for apps will start at 70%, the same amount developers get from the Apple store.  When an app has made $25,000 though the revenue share will rise to 80%.  Alas this doesn’t help the smaller developers who would never have apps that will make this much money.

At least we now know when the Windows 8 beta will be out so we can stop wondering when it will be, and instead ask the question has it been delayed from January?  The answer to that we won’t know until we get a final release date for the product.  One question this doesn’t answer though is if this late February release will be the public beta and if testers will get the beta earlier.  With Windows 7 Microsoft surprised many by releasing the public beta just 10 days after private testers got it.  Will they repeat this with Windows 8?

You can watch the Windows Store launch video below.

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With the end of the year rapidly approaching, and the launch year for the next version of Windows almost upon us analysts are now beginning to make their predictions for what will be the biggest tech of 2012.  One of the predictions made by research firm IDC is that “Windows 8 will launch with split success”.

So what does this mean?  ZD Net blogger Mary-Jo Foley looked further into this and IDC said…

Windows 8 will be largely irrelevant to the users of traditional PCs, and we expect effectively no upgrade activity from Windows 7 to Windows 8 in that form factor.

Mary Jo sais that “IDC’s skepticism on uptake isn’t out of left field. Other company watchers (including yours truly) have wondered about the applicability of the Metro tiled interface on anything other than a tablet.” though some technology bloggers including Paul Thurrott have been raving about the new OS.  I myself have been deeply sceptical but I’m reserving my judgement until I see the beta next month because of what I’ve been told privately is coming by Microsoft, which is sadly nothing I’m allowed to say here.

Certainly it can be assumed that Windows 8 won’t be popular in Enterprise environments where many companies have yet to roll out Windows 7.  They certainly won’t consider another move within three years or more.

But will desktop PC users snub Windows 8?  Well Microsoft will say it’s selling brilliantly no doubt, because it will be shipped with new PCs.  Demand from consumers though may force PC manufacturers to offer a downgrade option to Windows 7 in the way they were forced to with XP.  Microsoft may attempt to stamp on this however by withdrawing Windows 7 from sale.

If you are an IT Pro and think that Windows 8 isn’t for you then my advice would be to wait until the beta is out.  Much is going to change and you and still still may not be convinced but the additions that weren’t ready for the Developer Preview and the improvements made because of feedback since then could be enough to placate a good few people.

There’s no doubting though that the move to Metro is significant and not without its problems, especially for IT Pros on the desktop and on laptops.  My own laptop has a touch screen, so I’ll definitely be using Windows 8 on that when the beta comes out, but my desktop computer doesn’t and so there I’m reserving judgement for now.

On tablets though IDC are predicting that sales of Windows 8 tablets will be “disappointing”.  Could this be because they don’t see Windows 8 tablets as a viable proposition or could it be because of rumours that ARM-powered tablets won’t go on sale until some time in 2013?  I personally think that Windows 8 tablets will sell extremely well and will offer some extremely tough competition to Android tablets because of the familiarity people have with the name “Windows”.

In other Windows 8 news a new screenshot has leaked, apparently from build 8165 of the improved Start Screen.  The image doesn’t really show us much that we either hadn’t seen before or weren’t expecting.  The named groups feature is working and tiles can be easily resized.  There’s not much new other than that though you can see the screenshot below.

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Predictions…Predictions…Predictions. Will Windows 8 Succeed? Not according to IDC it won’t.

Ok, here’s the tune. It will, but not for PC users. It may succeed elsewhere, like in tablets, or laptops. But for PC’s that is another story.

“Windows 8 will be largely irrelevant to the users of traditional PCs, and we expect effectively no upgrade activity from Windows 7 to Windows 8 in that form factor,” according to IDC’s prediction document.

What that means

Microsoft may be pushing the envelope in the user interface, where it will be the most obvious, but that may be the problem. The PC, while under attack by the tablet format, is not going away because at the enterprise level, the PC does things that the tablet does not. The user interface, at the PC level should not be a reflection of the iPad, if that is what Microsoft intends. No, the PC should continue to be what it has been for 25 years, a business tool. There is no need to the PC to compete with the tablet, any more than the Server needs to compete with the Mainframe.

Coming Too Soon?

Does Microsoft really believe that the Windows 8 model, which they hope to radically change how operating systems work, will be accepted in all its dimensions? The Windows 8 business tool is being challenged.

Several company watchers have wondered about the applicability of the Metro tiled interface on anything other than a tablet. Microsoft isn’t so sure about it either now. Some Microsoft officials have gone out to suggest that there may be some changes on the Windows 8 usability front for those wielding keyboards and mice by the time the Windows 8 beta hits in early 2012. Some reassessment may be taking place because while the competition with tablets may be intense, that is not the same with PC’s. That is still Microsoft’s market; totally.

The developer preview that Microsoft released in September has led to user uncertainty regarding Microsoft’s promise that Metro will be just as navigable with a mouse/keyboard as with fingers/stylus. The point may be that a separation of UI may be necessary to keep the PC market from blending into the tablet market. That may hurt Microsoft in the long run.

Source: IDC

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It is once again through leaks that we get information about a new feature that the Windows 8 operating system will ship with. Storage Spaces – the name of the feature was revealed back in September but only associated with Windows 8 Server at that time – is a new feature that Microsoft introduces in their upcoming operating system.

Judging from the leaked screenshots, the feature can be used to use free storage space on drives to tolerate drive failures.

The feature allows Windows 8 users to create a new pool and storage space. Microsoft explains the feature in this way:

Use Storage Spaces to help protect yourself from a drive failure. You first need to create a storage pool of two or more drives, and then you can create Storage Spaces from the free pool capacity.

Here is how Storage Space is configured in detail. Lets first take a look at the screenshots. Please click on the screenshots for a larger version of the screenshot.

You basically start by selecting at least two different drives (not partitions) for the drive pool.

You then configure the drive pool in detail, including the drive letter it receives, pool capacity and fault tolerance.

Once setup, the information are displayed to you in an overview that allows you to manage and edit details.

Storage Spaces add two core new features to the Windows 8 operating system. It first offers to pool drives together to form a single storage unit. This can be handy to make use of the storage space of multiple drives under one drive letter. Fault tolerance, the second feature ensures that data remains accessible even if one drive fails. (via)

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A few more screenshots of a build of Windows 8 that’s closer to the beta build that we can expect to see in a few months have recently found their way to the web. The images come courtesy from PCBeta (Site is in Chinese). Now they don’t really seem to reveal a whole lot more about Windows 8 that we don’t know already, and even using Google Translate, it’s quite difficult to make out what they’re saying in the post.

They refer to the sidebar in the post as a “charm bar” and seem to think that it’s a new feature (this could be down to a dodgy translation) but if what’s written in the post is correct, this can now be accessed by going to the bottom right of the screen with your mouse where the current “show desktop” button is located in Windows 7.

There also seems to be an update to IE 10 which allows it to automatically update without disturbing you with annoying pop ups. But whether or not this will require a restart or not to complete the installation is unknown

Then the post seems to refer to the “Most exciting highlights of this function – Windows to Go” (Again dodgy Google Translation here)

I’m really struggling to make out what it is they mean,  here’s what the translation gives you

this appears not only to enhance the compatibility of the USB Storage Device, also incorporates Bit lock in which is very good (on Windows to Go details access to even the Blog,

Maybe you guys can make some sense of that?

I know this hasn’t really been a very informative post, but I just thought I’d bring you a few screenshots of a more recent build of Windows 8. Is there anything else you guys have spotted that’s different? I’ve also noticed Microsoft have changed the Metro UI colour but that’s hardly surprising.

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According to sources close to Microsoft, the first beta edition of Windows 8 is to be expected to be released in February of 2012. The Next Web claims to have received information to that effect. Microsoft released the developer preview edition of Windows 8 this September so it would make sense to see the first beta of Windows 8 around February next year.

Alternatively, Winrumors claims that the first stable beta build of Windows 8  will be released in late January, a few weeks earlier, according to their anonymous sources. This would coincide with the Consumer Electronics Show which runs from January 10 to 13.

So I guess we can be pretty certain that we will get to see a stable beta build of Windows 8 in the first two months of 2012. And if the speed at which Windows 7 was developed is to go by, then I’d see we could expect to see the full RTM version around September, which would leave Microsoft with enough time to get to the market for the Christmas period.

Microsoft stressed that the Windows 8 developer preview edition had a lot of features excluded and plenty more that were not finished. They’ve used it more so to judge the feedback from people about the new Metro UI. There’s been several concerns over how user friendly this interface is for people who don’t have touchscreens and there’s also some difficulty with navigating around. Microsoft will hopefully take all this into mind when developing the beta and RTM versions of Windows 8.

So far we don’t know a whole lot about the beta, but it seems that Microsoft will allow users to change the Start Screen colour and background image. Users will also have the ability to create, name and arrange Start Screen groups as well as navigate through the apps in a better fashion. We can also expect to see the Windows Media Center making a return in the beta, alongside Windows Games, DVD Creator etc…

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A two hour preview event in San Francisco on December 6 will take place where Microsoft plans to share more information about the Windows 8 app store. Microsoft has invited select developers and local press to hear more details on the Windows Store.

What Else is Happening on December 6?

Well, on December 6 Microsoft also will be rolling out its new Xbox 360 dashboard. Testers who’ve been working with a test version of the dashboard (under non-disclosure-agreement terms) have mentioned the new app store functionality in the dashboard. Facebook, Hulu, Netflix and Twitter are listed under apps in the preview.

Are these two events a coincidence?

Consider that back in September, Microsoft officials shared some high-level details about the Windows Store at the Build conference, even though the Store isn’t operational in the Windows 8 Developer Preview build.

Apparently all Metro-style apps (the Metro-Windows 8 UI) would be available only via the Windows Store. Metro apps will have an account-based protection (not a machine based) licensing model that is limited to a set number of machines, i.e., 5. So users will be able to access app trials, buy/download Metro-style apps, license them, and have them serviced through the Store.

Desktop apps that are non-Metro style will be able to be promoted in the Windows Store if they meet Microsoft’s Desktop App certification requirements, and will be discoverable via the Windows 8 store.

Windows 8 Desktop Apps will be neither licensable nor downloadable (i.e., able to take advantage of the Windows 8 “fulfillment service”) from the Store. Instead, Microsoft will only provide a link to the Windows Store for Desktop Apps on Windows 8 on x86/x64 and ARM.

So where does this lead to Xbox 360?  Apparently the new app store functionality that is in the Xbox dashboard and it will allow apps for Facebook, Hulu, Netflix and Twitter in the preview.

The big thing is that Windows 8 is moving fast in the direction of making a commercial impact. No longer is Microsoft hiding it’s OS with nicknames or hidden names, and you never know what will be in the OS until it is released. Now, Microsoft is using the marketing element to make people anticipate what will come, and further report on it.

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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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