Windows 8: everything you need to know

[majithia23]

What we know about Windows 8 is incomplete and unofficial - garnered from job postings, rumours and the slides allegedly leaked in June 2010 by a software engineer at HP responsible for OEM relations.

The slides include plenty of marketing ideas rather than technical details, they show that Microsoft has its eye on what Apple is doing to make its operating systems so popular and they declare themselves a work in progress.

Not only is every page marked 'this is not a plan of record' but the opening discussion includes the line "reality: there are currently more ideas than there is time to implement them". That's especially true if the Windows 8 release date is as soon as we think it might be.

Windows 8 release date

Windows 8, say the slides, will be available "for the holiday" - but not which one.

There's a timeline that doesn't have many dates - the one suggesting that the coding would begin in June 2010 is suspect when some sources say the M1 (milestone 1 build) is already done and there's what we assume is a typo that we'd correct to say the third Forum (rather than the second) would be in July. (There are several points where the slides are incomplete or confusing; for instance a pointed reference to "creating great Dell + Windows Experiences" in a deck that otherwise tips the hat - and appears to have been intended for - HP.)

The timeline put the first beta of IE9 in August 2010, along with the shipping date for Windows Live Wave 4 which fits other rumours and positions them just after the third Forum.

UPDATE: The first beta of IE9 arrived in September 2010 and Windows Live Wave 4 was released in June 2010.

That makes the forums three-to five months apart; assuming an average of four months - and assuming the chart is to scale and that the dates don't slip - that puts Windows 8 beta release date a little before March 2011 and Windows 8 RTM shortly after July 2011 (a date suggested on the blog of a now-ex Microsoft employee which you can find preserved, with the boxed version following in autumn 2011 - for the holiday).

We've said before that we expect Windows 8 release date to be in early 2012 and we don't expect Microsoft to talk about a date until the Milestone 3 build, which would be around November 2010 by these calculations.

UPDATE: Milestone 3 came a little later than we expected: WinRumors reported on 1 Mar 2011 that the first Windows 8 Milestone 3 build has been compiled by Microsoft. We're not expecting a Windows 8 beta release date some time in summer 2011.

There are several statistics in the leaked slides (typical RAM, network connected TVs, mobile broadband penetration and 4G deployment) that talk about the specs that will be common - in 2012.

Interestingly, the timeline shows Windows Live Wave 5 with a short development cycle that finishes before Windows 8; that matches suggestions that Live will offer more cloud services for Windows 8.

UPDATE: On 25 October 2010, Microsoft Netherlands said "it will take about two years before 'Windows 8' [is] on the market."

UPDATE: On February 21 2011, ZDNet published a slide showing the internal Windows 8 roadmap. Given leaked information on some sites around current build information, the author of the ZDNet piece surmises that Windows 8 will see a mid-2010 RTM.

Windows 8 system requirements

Both Windows Vista and Windows 7 have system requirements of a 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. Vista requires 15GB of free hard drive space, and Windows 7 requires 16GB.

Given that there's been no real jump in requirements from Windows Vista to 7 (unlike the jump from XP to Vista, where XP required a 233MHz processor and 64MB of RAM) we'd expect Windows 8 to happily run on a system that can run Windows 7.

Windows 8 price

Windows 7 Home Premium costs £99 for an upgrade copy and £149 for the full version. Expect the Windows 8 price to be similar.

Windows 8 interface

Although no final Windows 8 screenshots have surfaced (it's too early for those), on 17 March 2011, we reported that Windows 8 could offer a cut-down version of its user interface, taking on some design elements from the Windows Phone 7 UI in the form of Aero Lite.

Slimmed down 'Aero Lite' UI set for Windows 8

Windows 8 features

The 'fundamentals' Microsoft is aiming for with Windows 8 include "a fast on/off experience, responsiveness, and a great level of reliability from the start".

The 'big three' are boot time, shutdown time and battery life ("Windows 8 PCs turn on fast, nearly instantly in some cases, and are ready to work without any long or unexpected delays") but Microsoft is also thinking about how long it takes to get things done - how long until you read your first email, see the home page in your browser or start playing media. PCs should feel like an appliance that's ready to use as soon as you turn on the power.

FASTER STARTUP: Windows 8 will show you what slows down startup and if removing an app you don't use improves it

Mobile PCs should resume 'instantly' from sleep (in under a second from S3 sleep), and booting up will be faster because of caching, with a boot layout prefetcher and the ReadyBoost cache persisting even when you reboot.

As only 9% of people currently use hibernate (which will work more quickly in Windows 8 because system information will be saved and compressed in parallel), Windows 8 will have a new Logoff and Hibernate combination that closes your apps like shutting the PC down does and refreshes your desktop like restarting does, but actually caches drivers, system services, devices and much of the core system the way hibernation does.

Turning the PC back on will take about half the time a cold boot needs (and the slides point out that on many PCs the power-on tests take longer than the Windows startup, so BIOS makers need to shape up).

It will be the default option but it won't be called Logoff and Hibernate; Microsoft is debating terms like Shutdown, Turn Off, Power Down and thinking through how the other options for turning the PC off will show up in the interface.

You'll be able to use an encrypting hard drive to boot Windows 8 and they'll integrate with BitLocker and third-party security apps.

Improving battery life will be based on some deep changes to the kernel; removing an interrupt in the kernel scheduler completely and removing more of the timers that interrupt Windows when it's trying to save power.

Windows 8 multimedia

Windows 8 will have better media playback and recording, but it will balance using hardware acceleration to save battery life and using the CPU when it gives a better result.

Audio will use hardware acceleration more because that does improve battery life. There will be post-processing to take out blur, noise and shakey video filmed on a phone or webcam, and support for more codecs including AVC and as-yet-undetermined 3D video codecs (stereoscopic3D support is coming, for games and for 3D movies in Media Center, but there are format issues).

Microsoft talks about sharing 'with nearby devices'; one way that will work is adding the Play To option currently in Windows Media Player to the browser for HTML 5 audio and video content, so you can play it on any device that supports DLNA, another is APIs to let other software do the same.

That will work with DRM content, if it's protected with DTCP-IP (digital transmission content protection over IP) or Microsoft's own PlayReady and hardware acceleration will speed up DRM decoding.

There's also a new 'remote display' option that will let you send your screen from a laptop to a large monitor (which will use DirectX hardware acceleration and the same multimonitor interface that's already in Windows 7, but for wireless displays as well, which could be an Internet-connected TV - Microsoft refers to 35% of TVs having network connectivity by 2012 and wonders whether to prioritise Internet TV over further improvements to broadcast TV).

Windows 8 Help and Support

In Windows XP the Help and Support centre was a branded hub of tools and links; in Windows 7 it's far more minimal. Windows 8 will go back to the branded experience, with integrated search for support forums run by your PC manufacturer but add the Windows 7 troubleshooters.

IMPROVED TASK MANAGER:

Task manager will make it easier to see why an app might not be performing; here the Zune software is using all the network bandwidth to download podcasts, so video in the browser keeps pausing. We hope the white on black isn't the final design!

The Windows pre-boot recovery environment will be simpler, combining the safe mode and 'last known good' options into one interface. It will use what Microsoft calls 'superboot' to remove malware and rootkits

If you have to reset your PC, Windows 8 will restore "all the files settings and even the applications" although you'll have to go to the Windows Store to download apps and get a list of apps that didn't come from the store, so it's not clear how automatic this will actually be.

LOCATION PRIVACY:

Web apps can see your location and use your webcam – but you get to control that to protect your privacy

Along with GPS, Microsoft is expecting PCs to include infrared sensors as well as the ambient light sensors that are becoming common, and the accelerometers that are in tablets with rotating screens.

Put that together and the PC could know which way up it is, whether there's anyone in front of it - or near it and what the lighting is like in the room. So when you walk into the room your PC notices and wakes itself up so by the time you sit down the webcam is ready to recognise you - and no waiting or having to line your face up with a box on screen.

We like the idea of rotation lock buttons on 'Lap PCs' so you can move them around to control a game without flipping he screen repeatedly; again, if you look away from the game, Microsoft envisages it pausing automatically and if you pass a slate to someone it will switch to their account automatically.

What's in: USB 3, Bluetooth hands free and headset profiles (mono and stereo audio).

What's out: Microsoft has no plans to support Bluetooth 3.0 + High Speed, 1394 might be deprecated and Microsoft seems to expect USB 2 ports to be phased out in favour of USB 3 within the lifetime of Windows 8.

What's under consideration: Bluetooth Low Energy (from Bluetooth 4.0). What's not mentioned: Intel LightPeak, although Microsoft does ask if it's missing anything on its list of connectivity.

Windows 8 will know who you are

FACE LOGIN: Forget passwords; Windows 8 will use the webcam to find and recognise your face (probably)

If this works, the camera will pick your face out of the room, like Photo Gallery finding a face in a picture (hopefully without thinking the face in a picture on the wall is you). When you walk away it goes back to sleep again.

Windows 8 gaming

Microsoft hopes to use Windows 8 to relaunch itself at the forefront of PC gaming, with Redmond ready to put its weight behind the platform once more.

"Gaming will be a key component for the whole OS.

A Windows app store

The Windows Store will be branded and optimised for each PC manufacturer. Your settings will follow you from PC to PC, as will your apps (although some slides refer to this as a possibility rather than a definite plan) - but you'd need an HP ID to log into the 'HP Store powered by Windows' and get your HP-specific apps. Microsoft doesn't plan to make money from the store; the slides call it "revenue neutral".

Windows 8 tablets

The leaked slides are aimed at PC manufacturers who are interested in new form factors - and in getting a share of the iPad market - so it's no surprise one of the key PC form factors is a 9" slate (which Microsoft, having obviously got the point of all those iPad ads, is calling a Lap PC), optimised for web and media, casual gaming, reading and sorting email, IM and social networking.

3D SUPPORT:

Windows 8 will play 3D movies and games, but don't ask Microsoft to pick its favourite format yet

Optimising "for smaller screens" will help netbook users as well; Windows 7 gets key dialog boxes to fit on a small screen but not all apps do.

Windows 8

[Ambrocious]

I think I'll be happy with Windows 7 for at least 2 more years, unless Windows 8 is an epic win and without too many flaws. Of course Windows 8 wont be fully ready till sometime in 2012, I'll of course have to wait and see...and see what methods I can take to get a pirated version that wont tattle on me!

[nuthut]

if history serves us right... Windows 8 is going to bomb on a tremendous scale... Pay attention class, there will be a test afterwards:

Windows 98 and SE... back in its day, it was the best thing since sliced bread... Some of the younger users of the forums this is probably the first real experience you have had with an OS. There have been others before this but microsoft didn't make it and it wouldn't run on a IBM compatible PC. (Commodore Basic/Amiga Basic) first to use more than four colors and had "real" audio and not synthetic tones generated from a pizzo buzzer... But I digress.

The the next greatest thing to hit your PC..... Windows ME!!!!! It's a new millenium and a new operating system.... It will revolutionize the way you use your PC. Sucked ass. It was a rush job because Bill Gates wanted to ride the wave of mass hystaria that Y2K was going to bring. many things didn't work on it... It was the shortest run OS that MS has produced... (Fun fact: Windows ME is the only Windows OS that you can not do an upgrade install from that will let you keep all your settings. Kick ass video on youtube about the evolution of Windows 1.0 to Win 7)

Next in line is Windows XP. eXPerience the new Windows on your computer. This is the staple of the majority of PC gamers everywhere.. It was fast. It was stable. It was an all around great OS. It was so great other OS wanted to me like it. Look at the evolution of Linux distros durring the 2000's. Went from command line only to almost looking like Windows XP

Next in line.... Every IT departments favorite OS, Windows Vista. An operating system so great, Apple made millions of dollars in sales just becase of their clever commercials.... "Hi I'm a Mac. And I'm A PC, Mac: We have this really crappy operating system that only uber graphics nerds wants to use. PC: My OS sucks worse because no one wants to shell out money for a new PC just so they can use my features that don't really work as advertised" I'm might be exagerating a tad, but Windows Vista came RTM with almost 700 bugs still attached to it. It really didn't start working well until SP1 came out for it and then it still sucked the life out of everyones PC.... People wanted XP back.

Next in line came Windows 7. People really didn't want to jump on board the Win 7 train beacuse of the bad taste Vista left in their mouths. It took the coaxing of us fearless gearheads who was willing to take a chance on that this OS was actually going to be good, then spreading the gosple to the ney-sayers and non believers. Really, this is a good OS and a good replacement for your best friend XP. This is what Vista should have been if Uncle moneybag Bill wasn't so greedy and shipped out subpar products.. I can't complain about Windows 7 at all, if I didn't have valid keys for all my computers; this is the easiest OS microsoft has put out to get a "genuine" copy with out having to go through hundreds of hoops and having to reapply patches every so often to keep it working. (Thank you DAZ for all your great work on that thought)

Next out of the gates is going to be Windows 8 or what ever cool and catchy name they might decide to give it. Once again, microsoft is going to try to do way too much new stuff with it way to quickly, its not going to work they way people want it to and microsoft is going to get another black eye in the process. Microsoft wants its new OS to run on a cloud network. That's all fine and dandy if everyone in the world has a stable connection to the internet that never drops off and has enough band width to have programs stored on the cloud comes almost instantaiously. Not going to happen in 2nd world countries. Probably won't happen in main stream countries unless you are rich enough to own an uber high speed connection that is feed directly off the backbone of the net. They want the new OS to look and work like my cell phone. I don't want another cell phone in my life, one is enough. I want a PC that does PC stuff, I want a phone that makes phone calls. Microsoft wants to incorperate ARM processor technologies to run the same programs PCs will run. That's isn't going to happen. It is like running a gasoline (petrol for my out of US friends) engine on diesel fuel. It just isn't going to work. You need to have a diesel engine to run diesel fuel and a gas engine to run gasoline. The two are not compatible, never will be.

I'll be sticking with my Windows 7 for at least two builds for when the next great OS from microsoft comes out.

[Ambrocious]

Part of the reason I'll probably stick with Windows 7 is because Windows 8 will be cloud based. Cloud based indicates not only a hassle, but also a breach in privacy. Windows 8 will be forced to probably have an installation to set up a cloud based option without the requirement of cloud based in case the person's computer can't handle it (Windows 8 will most likely be a derivative of Windows 7 OS, that is if they want to be smart about things). Technology is advancing so fast, people eventually wont be able to keep up with it all. Eventually something will happen along the lines of the documentary "Technocalyps" in order to compensate, people will have to merge with technology just to keep up.

And yes, after seeing what Windows 8 has in store for the world...I'll be waiting for a while too.