It's that time again. Windows 7 is two years old, and that means the
next version of Windows is merrily percolating – and generating such
enthusiasm that Microsoft managed to sell out its recent BUILD developer's conference without publishing a
word about content.
At the conference, Microsoft unveiled Windows 8, and although the shiny
stuff has been grabbing headlines, there's plenty under the bling to
interest business.
But let's start with a bit of the shiny.
After the super-speedy boot (demo systems came up in the blink of an
eye), the first thing that grabs you is the user interface (UI). This
ain't your typical Windows. The new look, entitled Metro, with its
colourful live tiles, is reminiscent of Windows Phone 7, not PC Windows.
As such, it's an ideal interface for use with a touch screen. During
BUILD, Microsoft presented each paid attendee with a Samsung tablet
running a developer's preview version of the system.
The company has reimagined navigation with touch in mind, developing
gestures that will be consistent throughout. Flick a finger from the
right edge of the screen, and a menu of five icons, called Charms,
appears. These icons – Start, Search, Share, Devices and Settings – also
pop up if you point your mouse at the bottom left of the screen, where
the Start menu appears on previous versions of Windows.
Swipe from the top edge down or bottom up, and you'll see what Microsoft
refers to as “chrome” – buttons, tabs, menus, and other pieces of the
UI. With Metro-style apps, these elements are hidden so the app can use
virtually every scrap of the screen to display its content.
Since most touch screens tend to be used in landscape orientation,
layouts are mainly horizontal and can be scrolled through with a quick
swipe anywhere on the screen but the edges. The operating system
supports multi-touch, if offered by the hardware, so you can, for
example, drag a tile up and scroll the rest of the screen beneath it
rather than resorting to the old-fashioned drag and drop if you want to
rearrange things. Swiping from the left side of the screen lets you
cycle through all open apps.
Microsoft presenters repeatedly demonstrated that the old mouse and
keyboard are well supported too, with lots of keyboard shortcuts.
The familiar Windows desktop is still available, but as an app, not as
the primary operating environment. Traditional Windows apps can be
installed, and are also given a tile on the Metro start screen. The
desktop does have one wrinkle that may frustrate users: Microsoft has
opted to use its Ribbon menu interface (first seen in Office 2007)
throughout.
All this adds up to some challenges for business. There will be a
learning curve. There will be confusion. Users of Windows Phone 7 will
have a slight advantage, since they’ve already been using the Metro
interface.
However, there are also advantages for business that make this OS well worth checking out.
First, security. Windows 8 will include a full anti-malware component
based on its Defender software. That doesn’t mean you’re stuck with it;
it will gracefully disable itself if you install another product.
The boot sequence has been altered to load the anti-malware software
much earlier, to prevent something from sneaking in while the machine is
unprotected. Microsoft will also support a technology called UEFI
that replaces the old BIOS (the software on a chip that starts the
operating system load) with a more secure method that prevents malware
from grabbing control of the system at the pre-boot stage.
Two related features will save a ton of time and tears when a computer
is misbehaving. “Refresh” preserves the user’s settings and files, then
returns the operating system to a known good state. “Restore” takes
things a step further, wiping all vestiges of the user from the machine
and returning it to its pristine state, ready for redeployment. That
pristine state is defined by the administrator, so it can consist of a
fresh operating system load, complete with company standard
applications, all configured in the company-approved manner. The demo at
BUILD took about six minutes to restore a computer.
Microsoft only mentioned management via group policy in passing, but it
did say that there’s a new version of the Windows PowerShell scripting
language coming. PowerShell is used by administrators for both desktop
and server management.
Windows 8 will run on the same hardware as Windows 7, and should perform
better, since things like memory management have been significantly
improved.
Bear in mind that the version of Windows 8 presented at BUILD was an
early one. Things will change. But if you want to play with the
developer’s preview, you can download it here.
Just remember, it’s pre-release software. Don’t try to use it for
production. It will crash. It will do rude things. But it will also give
you a preview of the future of Windows.
Sorce : theglobeandmai
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