Windows Archive

"Microsoft will finish work on Windows 8 this summer, setting the stage for personal computers and tablets with the operating system to go on sale around October, according to people with knowledge of the schedule." Judging by the community preview, they've got a lot of work yet to do, like, you know, actually making it usable on non-touch devices. What I'm tying to say - pretty aggressive release schedule.

"With Windows 8 and its radically redesigned Metro interface, Microsoft is offering software developers a new set of challenges and opportunities. Rather than reusing tactics from building for previous versions of desktop Windows, developers are creating applications in the style introduced on Windows Phone, and making them work across the larger screens of multitouch tablets and keyboard-and-mouse-driven PCs. With the Windows 8 Consumer Preview out, many developers have already built preview versions of the apps they plan to offer Windows 8 tablet and PC users. We spoke with the creators of Photobucket's Windows 8 application to get their take on the Metro development process."

And thus, Microsoft bites itself in its behind with Metro. As you all surely know by now, the Metro environment in Windows 8, and its accompanying applications, need to follow a relatively strict set of rules and regulations, much like, say, applications on iOS. For one type of application, Metro has already proven to be too restrictive and limited: web browsers. Microsoft has had to define a separate application class - aside from Metro and desktop applications - just to make third party web browsers possible for Windows 8.

Microsoft has disclosed just which limitations Windows Phone 'Tango' will have on low-end devices (256MB RAM). It's pretty hefty - most importantly, the ability to 'multitask' has been disabled. Aren't there more powerful unlimited Android phones out there? What's the point of all this?

As you may have seen, David's been taking care of OSNews for a few days because I'm quite busy with work. Still, there's one thing I'd like to talk about: the desktop mode in Windows 8. I wish I could've added this to the first impressions article, but I only arrived at this conclusion yesterday: desktop mode in Windows 8 is Microsoft's equivalent of Mac OS X's Classic mode.

Woody Leonhard provides an in-depth, hands-on look at Windows 8 Consumer Preview, finding Microsoft's old Windows desktop and tablet-friendly Metro UI to be strange bedfellows. "In my experience, with rare exceptions, longtime Windows users don't like Windows 8. There's too much change, and it isn't at all clear that the adjustments benefit people who've grown accustomed to mice and 'legacy' programs. And though Windows 8 introduces some nice new features, they're minimal. If you're looking for a business desktop OS with revolutionary improvements comparable to Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows 95, or even Windows Vista, it has yet to be seen. But if you're considering a move to a Windows-based tablet, you'll want to dive into Windows 8 with both feet", Leonhard writes, offering a guide to some of the lesser-known nooks and crannies in Windows 8 and an extensive visual tour of features and hidden menus.

Wednesday was the big day for Microsoft - the largest overhaul of its operating system since Windows 95 (heck, I'd argue the overhaul is far larger than Windows 95) went into consumer preview. I've been running it on my Asus ZenBook since its release, and in all honesty, it's not as arduous as I expected. I'm not planning on doing a full review, but I do want to mention a number of things - both positive and negative - that stood out to me.

By all early reports, Windows 8 is going to be a good operating system. Microsoft's hegemony may be crumbling in a mobile computing onslaught, but its core empire remains undimmed. However, whereas Windows 7 had three versions, Windows 8 will apparently be ballooning to 9 versions.

There's a lot of news coming out of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, but since we can't compete with the well-funded gadget blogs, I suggest you read up on the details at The Verge (or Engadget). One thing stood out to me, though. While the entire industry is moving towards more cores, more megapixels, more gigahertz, more display inches - Microsoft is doing the exact opposite. Windows Phone has been updated and optimised to run on slower hardware.

Metro is beautiful and elegant. It works wonders on my HTC HD7, and I'm pretty darn sure it's going to work just many wonders on tablets later this year. However, Microsoft also expects us to use Windows 8's Metro on our desktops with mice and keyboards - and in that scenario, I can't really see it work any wonders. The Verge user Sputnik8 decided to see what Metro would look like applied to a more regular desktop. The results are... Stunning.

Raymond Chen's The Old New Thing - one of the best Windows blogs on the web - has a very interesting item up about a certain bit of behaviour in Windows 95 I was unaware of. Basically, there's a neat little trick where you can close and move the Start button. It wasn't a feature, but a bug.

As you all know, Windows 8 will be the first release of Windows NT which supports the ARM architecture. Microsoft hasn't been particularly forthcoming about this new Windows variant, but that's changing today. The company has posted a long and in-depth blog post about Windows 8 on ARM.

For all intents and purposes, this is only a minor change, and were this any other operating system or graphical environment, it would never warrant an entire news item. However, we're talking Windows, the most popular desktop operating system of all time, here. After 17 years of trusty service, Microsoft has removed the Start button from the taskbar in the upcoming Consumer Preview release of Windows 8.

This is the kind of news just tailor-made for OSNews. After 16 years of trusty service, the venerable Windows CE will be history as far as Microsoft's mobile operating system offering goes - the next major version of Windows Phone will use the NT kernel from Windows 8. As a heavy former Windows PocketPC Mobile CE Ultimate SP2 Edition user, this makes me sad. As a fan of the NT kernel, this makes me happy.