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It's been a long while since Microsoft appeared as excited - and to a certain point desperate - about an upcoming Windows release. With Vista the expectations were not met by a long shot and with Windows 7, though a fine operating system, it was also the polished OS that Vista should have been in the first place.
Since then a lot has taken place in personal computing, but most of it outside of Microsoft. Windows 8 will likely determine the company's future and its relevance in the industry. Today at Microsoft's BUILD conference, Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President of the Windows division had a lot to show on its keynote, all of it surrounding the next major release of Windows, code-named 'Windows 8', which he called a "bold reimagining of Windows."
The most obvious new component of the upcoming OS is the use of the Metro-style UI, which has been shown off in tablet format before and in much better detail today. Here's a post and video detailing the Windows 8 tablet experience.
Sinofsky was ready to show Windows 8's developer preview running on a huge range of systems, from ARM and Atom-based tablets, to laptops and ultrabooks, and gaming-equipped workstations. It resonated when all of the systems were called "PCs" regardless of the form factor.
Update: Dev Preview download is now available here or here.
It was a long keynote packed with lots of goodies, here are some highlights (a.k.a. what you need to know):
- Windows will now live between the Metro interface and the legacy Windows desktop. In the demo both interfaces appeared to co-exist and transition from and to each other just fine.
- Microsoft is hinting Windows 8 has a smaller memory footprint and requirements than Windows 7. In addition it's more power conscious and offers a new instant-on hibernation mode.
- The entire Windows 8 UI is hardware accelerated.
- A newly enhanced restore functionality will be able to reset your Windows install to factory out-of-the-box settings and state. Alternatively you can create a custom baseline state once you're done installing your essential apps.
- Windows 8 shall remain keyboard-friendly. For example, under the new Metro Start screen, you can start typing and that will automatically start a local search for an application or document.
- Windows 8 cold-boots and resumes way faster than its predecessors as seen in this video. This is the result of kernel-level optimizations and the use of a UEFI BIOS.
- IE10 lives in both Metro and desktop interfaces, it remains to be seen what other stock applications are treated the same way. In addition the new browser is multi-touched enabled and offers a chrome-less experience when using the Metro style.
- Security notifications have been made more subtle. Windows Defender has extended capabilities.
- The Task Manager has been reworked, can control startup programs and automatically suspends apps when they are idle.
- There are numerous new dialogs and settings that go from an extensive Metro UI-based control panel, new taskbar settings, multi-monitor options for handling programs and customizing looks (wallpaper, etc).
- BUILD conference attendees received a free Samsung Slate PC preloaded with the Windows 8 developer preview. The machine is almost identical to the Series 7 model that Samsung recently unveiled that shipped with Windows 7.
- Windows 8 will ship with DirectX 11. No mention about a newer version than that.
- There's no word about different editions of Windows 8, but it's expected that most devices will be based on the exact same OS: tablets, laptops, etc.
- The public Windows 8 roadmap begins with the dev preview, followed by a public beta, then RC, RTM and general availability.
- Final release "driven by quality and not a date."
- The Windows 8 developer preview will be made publicly available tonight at 8PM PT from dev.windows.com.
- The dev preview will come in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, no activation required. It will receive live updates from Microsoft, just like a retail version of Windows.
Windows 8 developer preview lock screen.
Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft -- ultrabook in hand.
Internet Explorer 10: touch browsing and tab management.
Metro search screen using thumb keyboard.
User Comments: 42
Got something to say? Post a comment-
I really want to check that instantaneous boot up times xD And I also like the interface. I haven't read the whole article, but I'm wondering if I will need to reformat, or can I upgrade from windows 7?
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Ok I'm thinking i'll have to reformat according to what I see
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Why cant you resize your partition and install it on a second partition? Hopefully the bootloader isnt different / it doesnt overright the Windows 7 boot loader. But if it does there are programs to easily fix that (EasyBCD).
The metro UI looks like the 1980s have been resurrected.
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overwrite* sorry I cant believe I typed what I did.
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Holy crap, that's an amazing feature list. I might use Windows 8 after all. Seems they're putting all of their blood, sweat, and spirit into this.
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Meh...still no interest. It's geared toward portable devices and will have that stupid ribbon UI that I detest. There's nothing in that list that has me even marginally excited about upgrading.
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what's the difference between dev preview and public beta, if both are available to public?
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drivers for it? and when will it have only 64 bit version ?
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AMD has drivers for it. [link]
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I'm guessing these will provide windows 8 support despite not specifically saying so in the notes.
[link]
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Guest said:
what's the difference between dev preview and public beta, if both are available to public?
The dev preview is more of a pre-beta (although not an alpha). The public beta is well, a beta, but a lot more polished than its predecessors.
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matrix86 said:
TomSea said:Meh...still no interest. It's geared toward portable devices and will have that stupid ribbon UI that I detest. There's nothing in that list that has me even marginally excited about upgrading.
You must not have read the article about the ribbon that stated it would be collapsible. I am glad to see that everything is more accessable, though. And since I got my Win7 from a friend for free, i'll have no problem upgrading to Win8 (if I like it). It'd probably be a different story had I paid for Win7, though. It's still too early to tell anything.
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Xclusiveitalian said:
It doesn't look bad, but considering I threw down so much money for windows 7, windows 8 better be $30 or less.
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I've already seen a "Preview"...in Ubuntu 11.04's goofy Unity interface. Good god, when something works, can't dev's just leave it alone?? I understand the growing need for "Goofy" interfaces on small screen touch devices, but I'll be sticking to Debian on my home box and XBMC on my media server. Windows 8? Sure I'll have to have it on a partition and use it..I have to be able to fix it, IT's my job, but when I get done working on other peoples crap, I'll settle back and unwind on Linux.
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Anyone know hardware requirement?????
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Security notifications have been made more subtle. Windows Defender has extended capabilities.
Damn you Microsoft. No more Defender. Just integrate MSE already!
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Guest said:
Security notifications have been made more subtle. Windows Defender has extended capabilities.
Damn you Microsoft. No more Defender. Just integrate MSE already!
Agreed, MSE disables Defender and takes over anyway? Microsoft, this would be a nice change. saves me a couple of minutes when i'm building my rigs!
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Leeky said:
Its unlikely MSE will ever be integrated into the OS because it would be unfair for other AV companies. Its the same scenario as the IE lawsuits in Europe - where users are now asked what browser they wish to install to prevent MS having a monopoly.
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Downloading it now. Can always restore my Win7 image if I don't like it.
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Tekkaraiden said:
Going to have to give this a spin on my very neglected netbook.
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I'm Running This on OPENBOX and i must say, i'm actually pretty impressed. i was never a fan of the tablet and now..i definately could see myself getting a windows 8 tablet
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Leeky said:
Thought I'd give it a run in Virtualbox before committing it to my laptop, and I have to say I'm really not sure about it now.
I don't mind the dashboard, but if I'm on the desktop I want to use it like a desktop. Hitting start just brings up the dashboard, I'd have expected the normal menu to work when in desktop mode.
I'm sure it would make great sense on a touchscreen, but it just feels totally wrong used with non-touchscreen computers.
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I'm Running This on OPENBOX
Pretty sure you mean "virtualbox"?
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Leeky said:
I don't mind the dashboard, but if I'm on the desktop I want to use it like a desktop. Hitting start just brings up the dashboard, I'd have expected the normal menu to work when in desktop mode.
I'm sure it would make great sense on a touchscreen, but it just feels totally wrong used with non-touchscreen computers.
Just type in what you need, from what i've heard...
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Zilpha said:
Just type in what you need, from what i've heard...That doesn't address Leeky's concern though. That's a workaround, and a bit of a crappy one for those times when you would "know it if you saw it" but can't quite think of the name.
That's why us old skool PC techs like our menus.
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