BARCELONA — Get ready all you consumers for your first taste of the future of Windows. Microsoft today announced that it’s rolling out a fresh preview of Windows 8 and this one, called the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, is for everyone to try.
Speaking at the Hotel Miramar, which is pearched atop a hill in Barcelona, Spain, and pretty near the Mobile World Congress event that has been going on all week, Microsoft Windows lead Steven Sinofsky unveiled the latest Windows 8 update and a passel of new hardware to run it. He called it “A bold reimagining of Windows”
This Metro-styling interface is not your father’s desktop OS. It’s not even your big brother’s desktop operating system. It looks and works differently–at least most of the time–than all Windows that have come before it (though you can still find a more familiar-looking OS just a mouse move or gesture away.)
The OS is designed to run on standard Windows PCs (anything that ran Windows 7) and ARM-based devices — think tablets.
Windows 8 Consumer Preview is quite a bit different from the developers version released last year. All parts of it have been touched, said Sinofsky, and improved in Windows 8. “We have made over 100,000 code changes to Windows 8. So for many people, this is a whole new product,” said Sinofsky
He also said the OS is “alive at a glance” and that it can work from entry-level to hard-core users. It can scale across use scenarios and will work with Apps. Apps will work together “to get richer”. One app plus another app will be like three apps, said Sinofsky.
Microsoft started planning Windows 8 before Windows 7 was delivered, so devices that would support it didn’t even exist, said Julie Larson-Green Corporate VP for the Windows Management Program. They actually walked around the halls of Microsoft with cardboard cut-out to try and get a feel for how the Windows 8 tablet should work.
During the tablet demo, Larson zipped through the Metro-style interface to show how “fast and fluid” it is. A quick look at Internet Explorer in Windows 8 Consumer Preview shows how different the experience is than what you find on the standard windows Desktops.
XBox Games comes pre-installed to show your avatar, game achievements and player interactions. There are also casual game apps (in addition to standard PC games, which you can still run). Larson-Green demoed Cut the String. It also has built in music and video stores.
App navigation is also quite a bit different than program navigation in traditional Windows. Instead of alt-tab, you flick with your thumb to slide through apps or make a slightly different move to see a list of all apps running.
Antonine LeBlond, Corporate VP, Windows Web Services stepped on stage to demo Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a more traditional laptop, the Lenovo U300S, to how how you navigate the OS with your mouse and keyboard.
Windows 8 is not just about tablets, said Leblond, it’s also about PCs.
Windows 8 is not just about tablets, said Leblond, it’s also about PCs.
Windows 8 has a whole host of mouse and keyboard control options, LeBlond explained, that fingers great for large targets and gestures. Mouse is a precise pointing device, but not good for gestures. However, there are four spots on any interface that are critical for mouse control, the four corners, and they are now used to navigate Windows 8. Moving to one corner, for example, brings up a list of control “charms”.
Windows 8 also introduces the concept of share contracts that apps use to work with each other.
Also notable is that all Windows 7 apps still run on Windows 8 The hardware still works though, LeBlond says they have improved how some of these things work.
Windows 8 still has the Desktop, though Microsoft would like you to think of it “as a full-screen metro app. The desktop is also where you’ll find the new copy experience. A new Copy Action screen lets you can control and even pause copies as they happen. Interrupted copies are now recoverable.
Larson-Green then came back on stage to show a combo device: a touch-screen computer with a keyboard. Windows 8 “is not an either/or” said Larson-Green referring to the chose between a touch interface or mouse and keyboard control.
Microsoft used this portion of the demo to pitch its cloud-services: SkyDrive, which is pretty deeply integrated into Windows 8.
LeBlond then walked us through the Windows Apps store. It’s organized as you would expect with highlights apps and then categories you can peruse. Microsoft also ran an app-building contest and announced 8 winners, including SigFig, Puzzletouch and Physamajig. “Right now is the time to get your app out there for Windows 8,” said one winner.
Sinofsky then returned to the stage to explain what we just saw. You get to work the way you want to work. You can pick the form-factor you want without compromising.” He added that the apps that come with preview are “are a milestone behind the OS.” In other words all Apps that ship with preview are all subject to change. “It’s a a bit early to review or list the apps,” said Sinofsky.
Sinofsky called Windows 8 an “Unprecedented opportunity for developers.”
Microsoft also showed off some ARM-based hardware running Windows 8–though it was mostly reference-design tablets for ARM-based CPUs from Nvidia Tegra 3, Texas Instruments OMAP, Intel Clovertrail, and Qualcomm SnapDragon. Even on ARM, though hardware and software will work as it does on X*S systems, including Word, Excel and Powerpoint. All have been tuned for touch capabilities.
The event is underway now. We’ll add more details as they become available.
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