Free Windows 8 Infographic for you to share

We have been getting a lot of questions about Windows 8.
People are asking about the new features and the new look and feel etc etc.
In response to that we put together our Windows 8 overview page. This page summarized all the features that we know about and put them in one place.
We also continue to update that page.
We wanted to go above and beyond that and we have put together an embeddable graphic for you to use.
Please share this graphic and page with your friends, colleagues and coworkers who want to know more about Windows 8

What I’m looking for in the Windows 8 Beta

As we race right into 2012, I'm starting to get excited about the prospect of testing the Windows 8 Beta.
I'm looking for very specific things in this latest release of Microsoft's new Operating system.
First, I got myself an ExoPC tablet from the Microsoft store which arrived and looks pretty sweet.
I'm not even going to bother putting the Windows 8 Development Preview on it, I'll just wait for the Windows 8 Beta.

Once I install Windows 8 on the tablet, I'll go over the checklist of Windows 8 features.
I'll do a detailed review of all the features of Windows 8 on this blog and of course I will use those features as my criteria but at the end of the day, there is one metric that will tell me what the future of this Operating System (on tablets) will be.

The 2 year old test

You see I have a 2 year old son.
He loves my Ipad ( he calls it the "pah"). It's sweet. He grabs the Ipad, swipes it open, swipes to his favorite application (Elmo), taps once to run it and taps away at the different letters of the alphabet.
Then, once he gets bored of that, he clicks on the one Ipad button to go to the home screen, swipes to go to another page and then clicks once on his other fave app - Toy Story 2.
Then, sometimes in the middle of that, he'll double click on the button (just like he's seen dad do) and switch between open apps to get to what he wants.

HE's 2 YEARS OLD!
Sorry Microsoft but that to me is the real test. The user interface on the Ipad is so simple a  2 year old can use it and in fact he started using the Ipad at 14 months. I blogged about that here.
Ultimately, Windows 8 has to be easy to use. It has to be stupid simple.
No charms that are hidden, no funny "swipe up left and then right" combos. This is not Mortal Kombat.
It has to be easy enough for grandmothers to use. For babies to want to use. That will be the real predictor for success. When families see that their children are interested in Iphones, they buy them Ipods so they can play their own apps etc.
Believe me I am thinking of getting my kid an Ipod so i can get my Ipad2 back.
If Windows 8 is not smooth and seamless and intuitive, then it's game over. You can't beat something with nothing - it just doesn't work.
The other thing that Microsoft must know about this is that it's all or nothing. There will not be a service pack to fix the major UI issues if they come up. It will either work or it won't and I suspect that within 3 months of using the Beta, we will all render a verdict.
I am reminded that my friend Marc said to me that Android was not innovative because in so many ways, it's a bad copy of the Apple UI. Microsoft get tremendous credit for doing something that is if nothing else original.

Microsoft Strategies To Stay Relevant In 2012, And Beyond

In the past I've discussed how the world of technology is truly on the verge of massive change.
Traditional personal computers are becoming less relevant than they were just a decade earlier as new technologies like tablets, smartphones, and cloud technologies drive things further into a mobile, more flexible state.
While this revolution to mobile and cloud technologies may end up ultimately leaving some companies behind in the dust, Microsoft seems ready to keep such a fate from coming.
So, in the spirit of the Holidays and the upcoming year's end, let's take a look at just a few ways that Microsoft is changing and/or positioning itself for future-proof purposes:



Windows 8 and "Windows Everywhere"

Microsoft's newest version of Windows is a very different animal than what we've seen in recent years. The unique gamble Microsoft is taking is changing the UI through the use of the new touch-friendly METRO interface.
The purpose is clear, it is designed to be easier to use, more casual, and more future-proof for emerging technologies like tablets, touchscreen PC monitors, and Kinect for PC.
Outside of Windows 8, Microsoft is taking things a step further by using "METRO" as the basis for multiple other product changes, like Microsoft Xbox 360's new 'Twist' interface.
By bringing "Windows Everywhere", the company hopes to make customers more willing to adopt new Microsoft technologies thanks to ease of use and familiarity.
Keep in mind this is not really a new strategy though, the only real change is that Microsoft used to make its other products, like Windows CE, look more like the desktop.
In our more mobile-focused world the table has turned and now Microsoft wants the desktop OS to look more like its mobile solutions.

Bing and Social Search

Microsoft has been in the 'search' game for a long while now, but until Bing they really weren't considered a valuable player.
In 2009 Microsoft signed a deal with Yahoo that would power Yahoo's search through Bing, a solid agreement that really helped Microsoft enlarge its presence.
Now changes like the Bing iOS app, Bing Search for 360, and new social media deals for search with the likes of Facebook and Twitter are helping Microsoft continue the crusade for a larger piece of the search engine pie.
The world is truly becoming more and more cloud-focused, and having the power of search on your side is a very good way to stay relevant.

Cloud Technology

There will likely be a time when PCs no longer really exist.
You will have multiple different types of devices that connect to the Internet such as phones, tablets, laptops, and workstations... but laptops and workstations won't really be PCs, at least not by today's standards. Instead such devices will need minimal storage and processing since they will simply be a window into the cloud.
Microsoft has many progressive cloud technologies such as its storage solution, Skydrive, and its Windows Azure cloud environment.
In the following years I imagine these products will both evolve in new and interesting ways, and that the cloud will become a large part of Microsoft's future business strategies.

Xbox 360, And Beyond

It is clear that Microsoft had a vision of what place they wanted the Xbox to have in the market even before the original was released roughly a decade ago, now.
The Xbox's long-term goal was likely never about 'video games'. Yes, it was the immediate goal, but the long-term goal was to find a relevant way to reach users in their living rooms.
Media PCs had attempted this, but never really to much avail. The Xbox started slowly, added online services, and by the launch of the Xbox 360 had a few more. Now with the new "Twist" interface comes many more 'TV and Media' services that make the Xbox 360 move away from being just a game console.
It is a multimedia entertainment hub, and it is possible that there are users out there that have an Xbox that is not even used for games at all.
A sequel to the Xbox 360 with such technologies as Blu-Ray, will likely see even a bigger push towards multimedia and television. With the Xbox Microsoft finally has found success with the Media PC.
If rumors are at all correct, the sequel to the Xbox 360 might even run on a modified version of Windows 8.

New Windows Defender Offline Tool

Recently I covered a post about Austrian-based Security Analyst Peter Kleissner and his new exploit for Windows 8. The exploit was designed to work around Microsoft’s new boot improvements in order to hack into Windows 8, essentially. It would load up from the master boot record and reside all the way through startup allowing root access to the entire machine.
Windows 8′s boot loader has added a number of new security features to prevent malware and security breaches, this includes requiring valid digital signatures. Microsoft had previously hoped that such a move would stop malware by blcoking unsigned software from loading into memory software.
Despite Microsoft’s hopes and intentions, Peter proved that it really wasn’t exactly rocket science to find a way to crack Windows 8.
Is this a flaw in Windows 8 exactly, then? Honestly, as long as computers exist there will be people who find ways to do things that companies didn’t intend, these are known as hackers to most of us. Microsoft can not and will not find a way to create a product that will completely prevent Windows from being hack proof.
Even throwing away Windows completely and starting from scratch would offer no guarantee. As an example, Linux is fairly virus free but Android (which is based on Linux) has started to have a growing virus problem of late.
So if you can beat malware and virus makers, what is the next best step? Staying ahead of the game and creating easy tools to help fight the good fight, so to speak.
Microsoft has now provided such a tool with its “Windows Defender Offline BETA”. This brand new tool likely has Windows 8 in mind, though it does work with older versions too.
With the free tool, you download it and burn it to a disc or a flash device. The purpose of the new tool is to run it as your ‘boot device’ occasionally to check for malware that might be hiding in your boot-up experience.
The release of this tool so closely to the release of Peter’s malware proof-of-concept is no coincidence but I’m glad to see Microsoft being proactive about the entire situation.
Windows 8 will likely have a virus and malware problem for the remainder of its life, and only Microsoft knows how long that is for sure I suppose. Even a future OS by Microsoft (or anyone else) makes no promises about security, but I can confidently see that Microsoft is really working hard to make sure that Windows 8 is a more secure experience than past versions.
This starts with the new Defender (which includes malware, spyware, and antivirus) and ends with the addition of other tools such as this new offline boot checking tool.
What do you think about the new security measures in Windows 8? Is Microsoft going fair enough or is there something better they could be doing to protect their users?
I feel that Microsoft has made many interesting moves with its Metro interface, but its really its new attitude towards speed and security that truly has me excited for the future of Windows.

Can Windows 8 Fare Better On Mobile Phones Than Phone 7?

Microsoft has taken a very different stance with its products recently. When Microsoft’s Xbox first debuted back in 2001, part of the strategy was to keep the Xbox separate from Windows.
Back in 2001 there was certainly a mix of emotions when regarding Windows in general (though it really didn’t get bad until Vista).
Now, Microsoft has flipped this strategy around and is actually trying to bring its products together. The Xbox 360 dashboard has recently received an upgrade that makes it feel a lot more like the upcoming Windows 8 Metro interface for one thing.
Windows 8′s Metro is actually very similar to the existing Windows Phone 7 interface.
Windows new approach has received many different mixed emotions and there are many who doubt that Windows 8 will be able to ‘do it all’, appealing to both PC and desktop users.
On the tablet side, many draw comparisons to Windows Phone 7 and how it hasn’t done well in the market so far.
According to many of these naysayers, part of the reason is that people still don’t like the strong connection to Windows.
Windows Phone 7 is a solid product and has many features that make it a good choice, but it is no secret that sales haven’t been exactly hot.
If ARM tablets only run METRO and don’t have the desktop, they will seem very similar to Phone 7. So can Metro do better on tablets than almost the exact same interface has on the Phone?

This is something I wonder about myself. The biggest difference will be marketing strategy.
With Windows 8, Microsoft is focusing on the selling-point that tablets will use a Microsoft OS based on the popular PC OS.
If people associate Windows on tablets with the same OS they have at home it could possibly help.
In contrast many people associate Windows Phone 7 with the older Windows Mobile 6 platform. Unfortunately, the WM6 OS never exactly took off and was largely disliked because its interface was old and too much like the desktop version.
Of course that brings us back to the original point, people don’t like Windows on mobile platforms because it makes them think of traditional desktop PC interfaces. These old PC Interfaces just don’t work great on mobile phones and tablets.
So what is Microsoft doing to change this perception? They will market Windows 8 as a tablet-style touch-friendly operating system, focusing on Metro.
By changing PC users perception of Windows’ PC OS into a more touch-friendly platform it will actually help re-envision what Windows is all about.
Right now when people think of Windows on mobiles, they think of Windows 7 most likely being poorly translated to a phone or tablet.
When Windows 8 arrives, Microsoft is somewhat gambling that people will instead think of Metro when they think about Windows. When thinking about Metro on a phone or tablet, it will seem more natural and acceptable.

Windows 8 ARM Notebooks Delayed Til 2013

When it comes to Windows 8 there are plenty of new features to get excited about.

Despite many features to the desktop environment, improvements on speed, and stability it seems that two new features are getting most of the attention these days: the new Metro Interface replacing the Start Menu and Windows 8 ARM processor support.

With ARM support, Windows will now be able to tackle the ultra-mobile market in ways that it only dreamed about in the past.

Up until now (with the exception of NT4 which ran on a few other architectures, actually), Windows has pretty much been stuck as an x86-only Operating System.

The biggest and most obvious reason for the switch to ARM support has to do with tablets. While x86 tablets do exist, they are bulkier, louder, and consume more power than their often cheaper, quieter ARM cousins.
Microsoft understands a cash cow when they see it and weren’t willing to drop the ball to Google and Apple.
Outside of tablets though, ARM has potential in ultra-mobile laptops as well or at least analysts seem to think so.

There is one bring problem with the ARM version of Windows 8, it seems behind on development when compared to the x86 version.

Now it seems that sources are reporting that notebooks running Windows 8 on an ARM processor aren’t expected to hit the market until June 2013.

This source doesn’t say anything about tablets and so it makes you wonder. If they DO launch the ARM/tablet version in late-2012 (alongside the x86 version), why wait until mid-2013 to bring it to notebooks?

This leaves me to think that either the tablet version is behind too and Microsoft just doesn’t want that cat out of the bag yet, or perhaps Microsoft has made a deal with Intel/AMD to keep x86 exclusive for a while longer.

Only Microsoft really knows the reason for sure.

The source further claims that due to significant challenges, such as vendor reluctance and software support, it will likely be 2015 or later until ARM presents a significant market-share challenge to x86-based laptops.
What is curious about all this is that IF Microsoft has agreed to hold back the ARM version for laptops/desktops from vendors, why?
According to analysts, ARM’s challenges will keep in back from competing for years even when released. Holding it back until June 2013 really seems unnecessary based on this information.
This leads me to think that it is more likely that ARM development is behind and Microsoft is either going to hold back ALL ARM products until 2013, including tablets, or it is working around the clock to make sure that at least the drivers necessary for a few key tablets are ready in 2012.
If tablets get pushed back all the way to June 2013 I personally think that the tablet war will already be won, and Microsoft will in fact be too late to the party.
Keep in mind that nearly all of this is speculation, and we only know so much about the when, where, and how details regarding Windows 8 on ARM.
What we do know is that things are certainly heating up for an interesting battle of the architectures in the next few years.
Qualcomm in particular seems very intent on pushing beyond mobile interests and into the laptop/desktop market as well; even Nvidia seems to have some interest in capitalizing further on Windows 8-based market expansion.
At the other end of the game, Intel (and to a lesser extent, AMD) has been the king of PC hardware for many decades now and they aren’t go to give up without a spectacular fight.
Ivy Bridge in early 2012 and Haswell in 2013 will continue Intel down a path that is slowly put surely improving power consumption while still retaining a good deal of power under the hood.
No matter who wins in the long run, it seems like this is good news for everyone. Major competition like this means that hardware vendors have to push themselves further to deliver cutting-edge and improving products in order to stay competitive.
This can create consumer confusion due to the multitude of choices it brings, but in the end its nice to have options.

Intel to Make Touch Screen Windows 8 Powered Ultrabooks

Now that Samsung has set a time period for the launch of its Windows 8 tablet, everyone else wants in. At the Intel Capital Global Summit today, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said that touch screen “Ultrabooks” will be the main focus in the next year.
If you don’t know what an Ultrabook is, think MacBook Air. After Apple’s success with the MacBook Air, (its thinnest laptop available) other companies finally decided that they wanted in about six months to a year ago. Intel took the lead by developing special processors for Ultrabooks that would make them powerful, yet energy efficient.
No Ultrabooks have actually gone on sale yet, though, and Intel’s new processors are probably going to be pretty expensive, which will make the actual Ultrabooks more expensive than certain models of the MacBook Air.

Otellini noted the expensive price and said that to get more customers from the mainstream laptop market to buy Ultrabooks, they would have to get the price of the touch technology down. Otellini said, “To hit the volume price points, we need to span $699 and up, and that’s the goal for next year.”
$699 would be a great price point to be at. It would be about $200-300 lower than Apple’s lowest priced MacBook Air. To hit the volume price points, we need to span $699 and up, and that’s the goal for next year.” To get the price down to $699 would be pretty good. It would be about $200-300 lower than the lowest priced MacBook Air is right now.
Otellini explained just how Intel was going to do that, “To do that, we have to get touch to a lower cost. This is particularly important, as we move to the launch of Windows 8. The iPad and the iPhone have made touch a paradigm.”
Intel says that the launch of Windows 8 will make Ultrabooks a lot more popular, especially its new touch based ones. It will be kind of like one of those tablets with a detachable keyboard in the sense that when you just want to relax and enjoy media, you can just use the touch screen and Metro, but when you want to get a lot of work done you can use the keyboard and the classic desktop mode.
What I don’t understand is why Intel isn’t making the keyboard detachable. I mean it would make sense. Why would you want there to be a keyboard just awkwardly hanging there when you are using the touch screen, and I’m not sure how comfortable using the touch screen when holding the Ultrabook like any laptop would be.
Nevetheless Intel still tries to prove its touchscreen Ultrabook idea will work, “Starting with Windows 8, you have a mainstream operating system incorporating touch. Our view is that in the ultrabook lines, touch is a pretty critical enabler. When users see that new Windows interface, they’re going to want to touch it.

Intel Very Happy About Windows 8′s Current Direction

Windows 8 is certainly changing the way Windows works with its new interface, Metro, and its ability to support ARM processors.
It is no secret that the ARM processor giant, Qualcomm, is very excited about the future of Windows thanks to its support of ARM and its move into the tablet market.
Qualcomm hopes to use Windows 8 to move into new markets creating robust Windows 8 laptops and even desktops that use ARM technology versus the current standard of x86.
With Qualcomm’s big push with Windows 8, you might think that Intel would be feeling the pressure from the move. So how does Intel feel about the changes that Windows 8 brings to the table? It seems that they are highly ecstatic about where Windows 8 is going.
According to Intel CEO Paul Otellini, “Windows 8 is one of the best things that’s ever happened to our company”. This seems like an interesting statement, and is it really how they feel or simply a PR move to make them seem unaffected?
Otellini has talked fairly extensively about what he calls “myths” surrounding Intel and Windows 8 .
These myths largely covered the idea that ARM will hurt Intel, that the PC is dying breed, and that the chip giant can’t compete in the mobile market due to x86 architecture just not being worthy due to issues like heat and power consumption.
A lot of these alleged issues that Intel is running to have a strong link to Windows 8. Here’s what Otellini said 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.
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.

Four Reasons Why Microsoft IS NOT Too Late To The Tablet Market

Opinions regarding Windows 8 have to be some of the most mixed and scattered I’ve ever seen. People say they love Metro, people say they hate it. You hear about how Windows is too late for tablets and then you hear that a burst of tablet sales will arrive in 2012 sometime and that the Windows release is right on track.
Sorting through all the bi-polar news regarding Windows 8 can be a little confusing but you have to understand why. Windows 8 is very different from past offerings thanks to Metro and their idea of unifying platforms through ARM/x86 support.
This means that Windows 8 is a gamble, and like any gamble the odds can often be about 50/50 (unless you are at a casino, in that case the odds are much lower). Calculating the odds of Microsoft’s chance of success with Windows 8 isn’t easy and this is likely why there is such a large variety of opinion surrounding it.
Now here comes an article from PC World that states we shouldn’t be worried.
Unlike the other article I reported on today, this article doesn’t claim Windows 8 will be a wild success, it simply says Microsoft isn’t too late to the party.
Here are the reasons he states:

People Are Clueless

This doesn’t apply to tech-saavy types like those reading Windows 8 Update and other similar publications, but the average man on the street has no idea what Windows 8 is all about. When you ask them about a tablet running Windows they likely will think of the same plain old version of Windows slapped onto a touch screen.
This isn’t what people want and so no wonder people with their narrow understanding of what Windows on a Tablet looks like, don’t want it. The average person doesn’t understand Microsoft is rebuilding the entire interface to make it more touch friendly, app friendly, and a great mobile experience.
When tablets running Windows 8 finally arrive and people check them out, it seems likely their opinion could change.

Windows is Huge, and So Is the Market

Those who argue that Windows 8 is running out of time are overlooking the vast number of people who have yet to adopt a tablet.
Microsoft has license over 450 million copies of Windows 7 versus Apple’s iPad 40 million sales. If you add in the few million that own Android tablets you still see that there is a vast untapped market that Windows could reach out to.

Late to What Market?

“Windows 8 looks like it’s going to be a good product,” Gownder told the New York Times. “It’s just going to be so late to the market.”
According to PC World, Gownder’s comment implies that being early to the market is an advantage, but this isn’t necessarily true. As an old example, the Dreamcast reached the console party for its generation in 1999, and the rest of its competition (Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube) didn’t arrive for another 1-2 years. The Dreamcast failed horribly in the market, and so being first means little.
The market is still growing and offering a solid product is what is really going to matter.

Cheap Tablets Are a Different Product

Forrester notes that cheap tablets like Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet have reshaped consumers’ expectations, and this is honestly true. Still the iPad was also initially a consumption device and blossomed into a powerful computing device.
Kindle and Nook will NEVER be powerful laptop replacement units. PC world contest that Windows tablets will more than likely go up directly against iPad and not the Android options. This is likely true and although Apple fans will stick with iPad, Windows fans will likely flock instead to W8 tablets.

Overall Opinion

Windows 8 will certainly have its place. Android is starting to settle in as a budget option thanks to the success of devices like the Kindle Fire. If Microsoft can dominate the mid-range and compete in the high-range with the iPad as well, it will have a place in the market.

Metro-Style Control Panel In Windows 8

There are many features in Windows 8 that are worth talking about such as new speed improvements, the Metro interface, and the upcoming Marketplace. One feature that isn’t talked about as much but is equally important is the Control Panel.
With every version of Windows, Microsoft has taken to the Control Panel with new improvements that make it easier to change features in Windows and make it the operating system you need.
In Windows 8, the Control Panel has some options directly viewed in Desktop Mode while also offering a Metro Control Panel, too.

Let’s take a look at just a few features in the Metro panel:

Personalize: This tab is all about customizing the lock screen and User Tile. Right now, you can’t change Metro’s color scheme but in BETA this is supposed to change and this will be the place to do it.
Users: This is pretty much the place to add and change users and user permissions. This also always you to change in the login methods such as classic password, pin,, and the new gesture/picture login system.
Notifications: This option allows you to tweak setting and choose which application should notify when something happens, basically. Each app listed here has a toggle where you can switch notifications on and off.
Privacy: The privacy menu allows you to see how applications use personal information such as location, account picture, your name, and other settings. You can also delete history for applications here as well.
General: I don’t really like the name “General” because it doesn’t seem to clarify how important this tab really is. This is the place you go to tweak touch-keyboard options but it is also the place to Refresh/Reset your PC if something goes wrong. In Windows 8 you can easily reset/refresh Windows to fix problem.
Search: Search in Windows 8 uses global integrated search, a feature that looks even inside of apps to find what you are looking for.
Ease of Access: This feature has probably changed the least and offers tools for disabled or those who have eyesight, hearing problems, etc.
Devices: You will find here a list of all connected devices and the option to remove them.
Sync PC Settings: Using Window’s Live ID you can configure the PC to automatically import major setting when accessing the same account from different Windows 8 systems.
Keep in mind all these features are also fully available in Desktop Mode’s more robust control panel.

ARM Tablets Running Windows 8 to Drop the Desktop App?

Do you remember how back in September there was a big debate over whether Windows 8 ARM tablets would have the link (otherwise known as an app) to the desktop in the Metro user interface?
And as a matter of fact, on the demos of the ARM tablets running Windows 8, there was a Desktop app. So naturally we expected that would be how it is.
But now, according to Paul Thurrott, a co-host of a Windows 8 podcast, it seems that Microsoft is dropping the link to the desktop which means that ARM tablets that run Windows 8 will only be able to support Metro apps (which was kind of how it was before except for a few selection of desktop apps that could run on both x86 and ARM.)

If Microsoft follows through on this idea, it essentially means that there will be different versions of Windows for each architecture: x86-64 and ARM.
This would be a good choice for Microsoft if they are trying to market ARM based tablet as the better one of the two, and as of now, ARM based tablets are better than Intel ones.
They have better battery life, they are lighter, faster, etc. They are also cheaper. And as I said before, there are barely any x86-64 apps that can work on ARM.
Steven Sinofsky, head of the Windows 8 division of Micrsoft, even said, “”We’ve been very clear since the very first CES demos and forward that the ARM product won’t run any x86 applications.”
Microsoft did show Microsoft Office running on an ARM based laptop back in January at CES, but I don’t know where they’re going with that.
There doesn’t seem to be a reason to make a whole desktop user interface for ARM based tablets, especially since not many developers see a market for point-and-click ARM apps and therefore aren’t recompiling their apps for ARM.
I can’t see a market either. ARM is all about mobile, no one really wants to use traditional desktop apps while on the go, it’s just too complicated.
Though I’ll admit, I was hoping for a a version of Mac OS X on the iPad before it came out and not just iOS (or iPhone OS as it was called back then.) That would have differentiated the iPad from let’s say and iPod Touch.
It’s what Microsoft is doing now. Microsoft isn’t just taking their phone operating system (Windows Phone 7.5) and making it bigger, they are taking what works well in their phone operating system, making it more tablet oriented, and combining it with their desktop operating system.
Now that’s a good operating system, and that’s why I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to take the desktop app away. Not to mention how confusing it would be adding on another option to Microsoft’s usual options that they have for Windows (Starter, Basic, Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate.) Of course in this case it makes sense, there’s no market for desktop ARM apps.

Windows 8 Beta Coming In February

For those of us that have actively used Windows Developer Preview, we’ve come to find some features of Windows 8 (such as speed of startup) refreshing and worth messing around with the pre-BETA. Other features like Metro aren’t bad but certainly could use some improvement.
Luckily, Microsoft has told us numerous times that they have heard our complaints and that the Beta will introduce many of the fixes we’ve been waiting for to make the experience as good on laptops and desktops as it is on a tablet.
At this site, and many other places, we’ve speculated closely that the much anticipated Beta would arrive in January, around the time of the CES. Now reports are coming in that supposedly it will be shown off at CES but the BETA won’t reach consumers until late February.
As far as the final launch date? It is still expected in 2012, but likely not until late fall. This basically means that a projected RTM version would arrive around June.
This might seem a little optimistic with the BETA arriving so late, but we can at least hope.
Exact feature changes in the Beta have yet to be confirmed and it seems that Microsoft has still yet to nail down the exact features, according to sources.
While the end of February is a LOT longer than I personally hoped to have to wait, I suppose if it means a better experience and shows us something that looks a lot closer to the final experience, it will be worth the wait.
Windows 8 is destined to make some big changes in the market with its support of ARM and its introduction of the Metro interface.
With the new changes, it is understandable that Microsoft doesn’t want to rush this product to the consumers.
If Windows 8 doesn’t set out to deliver the experience that Microsoft is touting it can (a great OS for conventional and unconventional computing devices) it could seriously hurt Redmond’s chances of staying competitive the in vastly growing mobile sector of the market.

The Future Of Voice, Touch, And Motion-Control In Windows 8

Recently, the iPhone 4S received tons of positive attention for one of its most impressive features, Siri. Apple’s new Siri technology allowed you to fully speak and have it converted to text message, navigate search engines through voice, and more. Regardless of the tons of attention received for the technology that is being painted as cutting-edge and unique, it really wasn’t anything new.
Voice to text, for example, has existed on the Android platform for a while. As for things like search engine search, and other ‘exclusive’ Siri features? Similar technology exists on the Microsoft end between Phone 7, Xbox/Kinect, and even Windows 7. So what does this mean for the future of Windows 8? Expect all these features to come together cohesively in Windows 8 on the desktop, laptop, and tablet side of the product fence.
When Windows 8 arrives next year, expect features that utilize Kinect on the desktop side and even other voice elements for the tablets. Even the Kinect Beta is coming out for the PC in January, around the same time the Windows 8 Beta is expected. This means that with Windows 8 you might be able to just plug in a Kinect and instantly have support in place.
Once Windows 8 makes its way to tablets and possibly even phones, it is likely that Windows 8 will have technology just as good as what is in place with Siri as well.
The only thing you have to wonder is if the idea of hooking up Kinect is really practical enough to catch on. For a laptop PC, it is more than likely than answer is no, but for the desktop? I guess it really depends on the desktop setup.
Where I really think that Windows 8 and Kinect will shine is for multimedia PCs. Metro has many things in common with the interface of Windows Media Center, and allow it looks a little boxy on large screens the idea of apps on the big screen and the ability to control them all with Kinect sounds rather appealing. Additionally a huge Kinect camera wouldn’t look nearly as obtrusive in a living room setup.

In Windows 8 I sincerely hope they do optimize the system for Kinect, at the same time I think its equally important to optimize voice technology that perhaps combines the use of webcams with microphone technology. Such a setup would certainly work better for laptops and even desktops.
It seems that the future of technology is pushing the old-style keyboard/mouse setup into the background with voice, gestures, motion, and even touch taking a new front-seat. Such a dramatic change in direction is certainly going to cause mixed reactions.
Traditionalist and power users are likely to be the last people to pick up the new input crazes, although early adapters like me will find it hard to resist at least trying to use these alternatives.
I am very curious how others in the tech world and readers just like you feel about the recent push forward to touch technology, voice, and other alternatives. Will the keyboard and mouse simply become a standard only for major productivity use and not for ‘content consumption’ and casual users? I think this is probably the most likely scenario at least in the immediate future.
In the long run, do I think that mouse and keyboard could dissapear altogether? Possibly, but not without some major improvements in voice dictation software, touch interfaces, and other such alternatives. For now, there are just some things that a keyboard and mouse can do better than touch and voice. For example, try doing a major Photoshop project using nothing but touch and voice, good luck with that.

Windows Video – The Remote Desktop Experience in Windows 8

Microsoft released this training video from BUILD about the Windows Remote Desktop experience.
RemoteFX in Windows 8 is designed to provide users a fast and fluid experience on their remote desktops and apps over both LAN and WAN conditions for VDI, Session, and physical hosts.
This video covers these enhancements with a series of demos using the new Metro look Remote Desktop client app.

This is important to watch whether you are an enthusiast or an enterprise user getting work done using your IT provisioned centralized desktop and app deployment, to learn what is new in remoting in Windows 8, this is the video for you!
The video is brought to you by Gaurav Daga and Nadim Abdo.

Windows 8 Will Have Faster, Online-Based Installation

Once upon a time, Windows installations could take well over an hour or more and either were performed by PC techs or those who were fairly savvy with computers.
Back in these days upgrading meant loss of files (although back up was possible) and having to start from scratch.
With every version of Windows, Microsoft has went a step further in making installation an easy process that just about anyone with any level of PC experience can perform.
I talked a little about the recent blog post from Microsoft and how the new setup system works in the last article I wrote, although I primarily focused on how the Window.old file works and the deletion timer associated with it.
This time around I’m going to focus on how the new setup system makes upgrading faster and easier to use.
A big part of this new focus, according to Microsoft, will be its shift to focusing on a digital delivery model this time around.
Microsoft will now offer Windows 8 as a downloadable purchase that can then be put onto USB or DVD depending on your needs.
This is a similar approach that Apple has taken with its OS downloads of late, and with everything moving to the cloud it makes a lot of sense.
Of course if online isn’t your thing, there are still physical versions of Windows 8 DVDs coming to the stores as well. Whether there is a price difference in these versions (physical or online), we aren’t sure yet.
Microsoft also offers a scanning program that will check to see if your PC is compatible with Windows 8 and will give you a report that will show any upgrade problems that you might encounter and how you can fix them.
The report will also let you know about certain  peripheral devices  and were or not they will be supported, and can give you overall detailed or simplified information. The scan also determines the language version and whether you should get the 32 or 64-bit version of Windows 8.
Windows 8 can even start downloading and preparing for the setup process online and then take it to the Windows desktop and go from there. Windows 8 starts downloading to your PC to complete the installation process and once it’s finished you can keep all your account settings, files, apps, and everything else from Windows 7.
Windows Vista users will not keep their apps but can keep settings and account files. For those going from XP you will only retain user accounts.
The overall process of Windows 8, whether online or offline, is substantially easier than Windows 7. In Windows 7 there were four different installation wizards, including the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and Easy Transfer system, and up to 60 clicks were involved in the entire process.
Windows 8 will only require 11 clicks, which shows they have put a ton of work into making the installation process easier.
Although speeding up the process is great, probably one of this biggest changes to the easy-install Windows 8′s process is that you no longer need a CD key.
That’s right, your installation will embed the 25-digit product key into the disk image you downloaded and install it in the setup process. Keep in mind this is ONLY for the online based install.
Overall Windows 8 is shaping up to be a very interesting and different version of Windows, and the new install process is just another way they are making it even better.

Windows 8′s New Updating Solution And Possible Alternatives

Microsoft recently revealed a post on their Building Windows 8 blog that the next-generation Windows OS will require fewer reboots for Windows patches and updates.
Admittedly, this sounds pretty awesome. The truth is that the ‘less reboots’ to keep secure is all about smoke and mirrors and they just are delivering the process a bit differently this time around, though I still think its a fairly good solution.
A perfect PC would never require a reboot and all patches would just silently install themselves in the background without getting in the way of your work.
Unfortunately, we live in the real world and the reason for the restarts is that during an update there might be important system files in use that can’t be updated while the machine is running in its current state.
So Windows 8 will at least do the next best thing and reduce the need of reboots by limiting patching to once a month. The new system will simply gather up all the updates and then on the second Tuesday of each month it will restart and install all the patches and security fixes.
This means that by waiting until the second Tuesday of each month all your updates are ready, they just aren’t installed. This smoke and mirrors approach means that all patching will happen en mass meaning that you might have patches that you downloaded two weeks ago for a security fix that is just getting updated now.
Luckily all the major security patches will still require immediate reboots, but it still has to make you wonder if waiting around for a patch is really any better.
So in short, Microsoft makes good on its “less reboots” promise, though they phrase it in a way that it sounds like patching is still going on in the background you just don’t need to reboot as much.
I understand Microsoft’s reason for wanting fewer boots and have had a personal experience where I walked away from some work only to find my PC rebooting and I lost it all. It’s possible this is the best solution that they can offer with current hardware technology but I wish it wasn’t the case.
So what would I propose instead- proving that the technology could actually handle it? How about smart technology inside of Windows that is ‘always-on’ and when your PC is already off it turns on your machine, grabs the updates, installs them, shuts back down, and on restart your previous shut-off state is resumed so that nothing looks or seems different.
With this approach you wouldn’t even know you ever received updates unless you looked at your update log. This sounds cool but who knows if it is actually reasonably possible and I suppose this scenario also doesn’t take into consideration people who never shut down their PC unless they have to.
So if not the first scenario, why not smart software that detects that there has been no new activity in X amount of time. The PC could then make a save image that would include any and all open and in progress work.
The computer would restart, install the patches, and the load up the image that would ensure all your previous work was still there and unchanged. Again, perhaps this is just not possible.
Microsoft is really working hard to improve security, speed, and convenience in Windows 8 so I don’t want to sound like a complainer. I like Microsoft’s ‘less booting’ plan and fully support it.