Microsoft SEO Steve Balmer hinted that Windows 8 would be released in
2012. That's a fast schedule.
Windows 8 will be
the first Microsoft system to run on ARM hardware. One side-effect is there will be lots of cheap
laptops, tablets and notebooks running Windows 8. Of course, Windows 8 will
also be a great operating system for traditional desktops where you will be
able to take advantage of the new tile-based scrolling technology.
With Windows 8 a tile is the new icon; naturally they can be personalized for
each user. What I like about tiles is the way they combine to form a
mosaic. However, the Metro UI, represents a different mindset from the
Windows 7 desktop.
See how the 'Old' Windows 7 Start Menu is replaced with tile-based Start
Screen.
Scrolling through your tiles is clearly designed with touch screen in
mind, but
it does work beautifully with a mouse click or a keyboard 'Page Up'.
Another option is to have a snap-in
unit available as a permanent menu. Windows 8 apps seem even easier to
connect to other machines than previous versions.
Winkey enables you to switch to
the classic desktop view.
SmartScreen
Microsoft says "Windows 8 is a reimagining of Windows, from the chip
to the interface".
... The new interface is: "Fast, fluid and dynamic"
Windows 8 will play 3D movies and games, although we don't have a list of
supported formats just yet. This is one reason Windows 8 is designed
for a wide screen display with a 16 x 9 aspect ratio at 1366 x 768 pixels.
Thus think carefully whether monitors limited to 1024 x 768 monitor will be
suitable for this new OS.
Windows 8 and IE 10 IE 10 is optimized for touch and
for zooming. There is also an on-screen split
keyboard designed for typing urls with your thumb. It will also have
hardware accelerated HTML 5 to support a whole range of apps.
Internet Explorer Immersive is an alternative to Aero Graphics for
phones, tablets and possibly laptops. It's role in Windows 8 will
become clearer once we get nearer a public release version.
Aero Auto-Colorization Cosmetic improvement for those who love tweaking their Windows shell,
menus and taskbar colors. Check out the Personalization options for
Windows Color and Appearance.
Windows Explorer Ribbon
This is a progression from the Ribbon first seen in Microsoft Office, likely
to replace the old-style toolbar and menu.
It seems that it has taken ages to get Windows Ribbon quite right, but
this could be reflection of many Windows features. At first they are
disliked and rubbished, but Microsoft listen to criticisms and persevere
with their vision, eventually, a feature like Windows Explorer Ribbon
emerges to dazzle us.
Windows 8 also introduces a new file system model where data files are
tightly associated with their applications and these data files are not
designed to be manipulated in any other way.
Thus utility makes it easy to check the health of a router or
firewall. Check the real-time performance and availability statistics for any device
on your network.
Each version of Windows tends to focus on a particular aspect of computing.
With Windows 3.11 it was networking, in Windows 95 the taskbar and start menu
gained focus,
XP perfected connection to the internet, Windows 7 paid attention to laptops,
now with Windows 8 it seems that Microsoft's
priority has been to design the OS to ensure that tablets, phones and other mobile
devices are truly 'smart'.
Windows 8 and ARM Chipsets For many years ARM* has
been the leading provider of 32-bit embedded microprocessors on iPhones and
tablets. However, Until Windows 8, Microsoft operating systems were
designed to run only on the rival Intel chips.
At its simplest, the benefit of ARM is cheaper computers. Also ARM
technology means lower temperatures and longer battery life, two important
factors for tablet computers.
The downside of switching to ARM is that developers will have to
re-compile existing Windows Applications so that they run on the different
processor architecture.
* Advanced RISC Machines, a computer chip project originally involving
Apple and the defunct Acorn company.
Windows 8 Nokia Phone Microsoft is teaming up with
Nokia to produce a phone to rival Android smartphones.
Windows 8 Has Location Sensors Microsoft encourages a
PC or phone to make use of location sensors and thus applications can
improve the user's experience. Windows devices connect faster and work
better on Windows 8 than on previous operating systems. See more on
Windows 8 tablets.
Laptop users were the most vociferous critics of Vista. Microsoft
listened and made improvements to battery life and awakening from 'Sleep'.
Windows 8 continues the battle to win back laptop users by making changes to
the kernel; removing interrupts and timers that interfere with the operating
system when it's trying to save power.
Windows 7 blocked processes that tried to wake-up laptops automatically
when they're not plugged in. Windows 8 takes this a stage further with
a new 'intelligent alarm' that wake them up for virus scans, but only if
they're plugged in.
Guy Recommends a Free Tool: VM Console
Virtual Machines are great for reducing hardware costs, but they can
multiply fast and can get out of control. SolarWinds' VM Console is
the classic tool to answer the following questions:
Which VM's are struggling and thus need more resources.
Which VM's are idle, and so are literally a waste of (disk) space.
The benefit of a good utility such as SolarWinds Virtualization Manager
is that you see the big picture yet drill down into the detail of disk,
memory or CPU.
Microsoft will feature deep cloud integration into the Windows 8
operating system will feature deep cloud integration to help realise the
vision of 'Three screens and a cloud'.
CPU - 1 GHz RAM - 2 MB 64-bit Disk Space - 20 GB for the
OS files Graphics Adapter - Supports Aero DVD - To install Windows 8.
A welcome trend is that Windows 8 will need the same or lower system
requirements than it's predecessors. One of its cleverest features is
the way Windows 8 adapts to a huge variety of form factors, with our without mice and keyboards
and different
screen widths. Nevertheless, if possible choose a recommended screen
size, so that you can activate the menus near the screen
edge. For those who love gadgets this means buying a cheap ARM tablet.
Those workers who want a desktop replacement for Windows 7 are likely to
operate Windows 8 with the mouse and keyboard, and thus will be more likely to
wait before upgrading until they can afford a new touch-screen monitor.
Step-by-step Install Windows 8 will boot even faster then Windows
7 thanks new fast on/off routines. Awakening from sleep will also be less hesitant.
You will also be able to use an encrypting hard drive to boot Windows 8 and
they'll integrate with BitLocker and third-party security apps. There
are also better recovery procedures if you have to repair/reinstall.
At last it's possible to have a computer that's always on, always connected and
can wake-up quickly. In addition there is better support for sensors such as
cameras.
Windows Live ID. If you are connected to the
internet during the install Windows 8 will suggest you use your Windows Live
ID as the default account. Naturally you can choose another account
either during the install, or later at the Control Panel, nevertheless it's
interesting to note that this is the preferred way to go.
As for me, when I first reviewed Windows 8 I wasn't keen on using my Live
ID account, but gradually I can see the benefits, for example; synchronising
with other internet accounts and thus logging on to websites that bit
quicker.
Windows 8 UEFI UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is a 2010s specification. It interfaces between the operating systems and platform
firmware and one day will replace the BIOS. The main benefit of UEFI
to Windows 8 is speed of loading, a welcome side
effect is less distracting flashing screens as the operating system
initializes.
Windows MarketPlace App store copying, improving upon Apple store?
SkyDrive provides integration of Apps, and is a neat idea for allowing the
operating system to keep track of files with minimal user intervention.
History Vault This is a new take on backup.
ISO Mounting It's frustrated me for years that I have to buy 3rd party tools to mount
ISO files. A good move to mount ISO directly.
'Modern' Reader for PDFs Another Microsoftism, there
will be a native PDF reader. It employs a new AppX codename
of Jupiter, in fact it's a development from Windows Phone 7.
There were complaints that for ordinary enthusiasts Vista betas
were more trouble than they were worth because they were
unstable, and lacked important components. 'Be careful what
you wish for', Guy says, because now with Windows 8 we are
frustrated because there are no early beta versions for the public
to scrutinize.
Update 1: To aid developers Microsoft opened
registration for its new developer conference, BUILD. The conference
will took place Sept. 13 - 16, 2011, in Anaheim, Calif. See
online at
Windows 8 BUILD.
Even though Microsoft's new user interface is snazzy, intuitive and fun to
manipulate, it will be nothing without clever Apps. But rest assured,
by the time Windows 8 is released in mid-2012 developers will have produced
a natty App for every niche interest.
Many of Windows 8's features are aimed at tablets, touch screen phones
and laptops. However, Microsoft's latest operating system will also
service desktop computers where you will be able to take advantage of the
new tile-based scrolling technology, or use the mouse and Start button as
before.
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