Windows 8 is the codename for the next version of the Microsoft Windows computer operating system following Windows

7.[2] It has many changes from previous versions. In particular it adds support for ARM microprocessors in addition to the previously supported x86 microprocessors from Intel and AMD. A new Metro-style interface has been added that was designed for touchscreen input in addition to mouse, keyboard, and pen input. Its server version is codenamed Windows Server 8. Microsoft has not announced a specific release date for Windows 8.

Contents
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1 Development o 1.1 Early announcements o 1.2 Milestone leaks o 1.3 Official announcements o 1.4 BUILD conference and developer preview o 1.5 Beta/consumer preview 2 New features 3 Hardware requirements 4 Secure Boot o 4.1 Controversy 5 Compatibility 6 Logo 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Development
[edit] Early announcements
In January 2011, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Microsoft announced that Windows 8 would be adding support for ARM microprocessors in addition to the x86 microprocessors from Intel and AMD.[3][4]

[edit] Milestone leaks

A 32-bit Milestone 1 build, build 7850, with a build date of September 22, 2010, was leaked to BetaArchive, an online beta community, and to P2P/torrent sharing networks as well on April 12, 2011.[5] Milestone 1 includes a ribbon interface for Windows Explorer,[6] a PDF reader called Modern Reader, an updated task manager called Modern Task Manager,[7] and native ISO image mounting.[8]

A 32-bit Milestone 2 build, build 7927, was leaked to The Pirate Bay on August 29, 2011[9] right after many pictures leaked on BetaArchive the day before.[10] Features of this build are mostly the same as build 7955.[11] A 32-bit Milestone 2 build, build 7955, was leaked to BetaArchive on April 25, 2011.[12] Features of this build included a new pattern login and a new file system known as Protogon, which is now known as ReFS and only included in server versions.[13] A Milestone 3 build, build 7971, was released to close partners of Microsoft on March 29, 2011[14] but was kept under heavy security. However, a few screenshots were leaked. The "Windows 7 Basic" theme now uses similar metrics to the Aero style, but maintains its non-hardware accelerated design, and also supports taskbar thumbnails. The boxes that encase the "close, maximize, and minimize" buttons have been removed, leaving just the signs.[15] A 64-bit Milestone 3 build, build 7989, leaked to BetaArchive on June 18, 2011 after screenshots were revealed the previous day. An SMS feature, a new virtual keyboard, a new bootscreen, transparency in the basic theme, geo-location services, Hyper-V 3.0, and PowerShell 3.0 were revealed in this build.[16]

[edit] Official announcements

On June 1, 2011, Microsoft officially unveiled Windows 8 and some of its new features at the Taipei Computex 2011 in Taipei (Taiwan) by Mike Angiulo and at the D9 conference in California (United States) by Julie Larson-Green and Microsoft's Windows President Steven Sinofsky.[17][18] The main feature that was shown was the new user interface. On August 15, 2011, Microsoft opened a new blog called "Building Windows 8" for users and developers.[19]

[edit] BUILD conference and developer preview

Windows 8 startup on a laptop in 14 seconds Microsoft unveiled new Windows 8 features and improvements on September 13, 2011, day one of the BUILD developer conference.[20] Microsoft also released a developer preview (build 8102) of Windows 8 for the developer community to download and start

working with. This developer preview includes tools for building "metro style apps", such as Microsoft Windows SDK for Metro style apps, Microsoft Visual Studio 11 Express for Windows 8 Developer Preview and Microsoft Expression Blend 5 developer preview.[21] According to Microsoft, there were more than 500,000 downloads of the developer preview within the first 12 hours of its release.[22] On 16 February 2012, Microsoft postponed the expiration date of the developer preview. Originally set to expire on 11 March 2012, this release is now set to expire on 15 January 2013.[23]

[edit] Beta/consumer preview

In December 2011, Microsoft held an event in San Francisco to demonstrate Windows Store, through which all Metro-style Windows 8 apps will be sold. At the end of the event, Microsoft announced that the public beta (or consumer preview) will be released sometime in February 2012, along with the Windows Store Beta.[24][25] A few screenshots from a prebeta build were leaked. New features included an updated setup preparation, a new theme, Aero Lite, a new background on the Start screen, and new Metro-style apps like Reader, Music, Video, and Photos.[26] On February 3, a Chinese site PCbeta revealed some screenshots of the Consumer Preview (Build 8220) and shows that there is no more start orb.[27] More screenshots of a beta candidate build 8220 were leaked on 6 February 2012.[28] Microsoft has confirmed that the consumer preview will be released at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 29.[29]

[edit] New features

Bootable Windows To Go USB flash drive Main article: Features new to Windows 8 Windows 8 will contain a new user interface based on Microsoft's design language Metro. The Metro environment will feature a new tile-based Start screen similar to the Windows Phone smartphone operating system, which will contain shortcuts to both normal "desktop" applications and new Metro style applications which will be oriented more towards use on touchscreen devices such as tablets, and dynamically updating "live tiles" which can display information on the Start screen. These applications will also be able to push notifications and share information between other applications.[30] The classic desktop (similar to Windows 7) will still be available for non-Metro applications, and can be switched between at any time. However, the Start button on the

"Developer Preview" build opens the Start screen instead of the Start menu, and recent leaked builds leading up to the "Consumer Preview" build revealed that the Start button had been removed entirely, in favor of a hotspot in the bottom-left corner.[31] Applications for the Metro environment will be available through the "Windows Store", an online distribution platform. [32] Metro applications are developed with the new Windows Runtime platform using various programming languages; including C++, Visual Basic, C#, and HTML/Javascript. Metro applications will also be cross-compatible with both x86 systems and ARM-based Windows systems. Metro applications will be packaged in the "AppX" format.[33] and Open Packaging Conventions.[34][32][30] Windows 8 will also include Internet Explorer 10, which will be available in a strippeddown version for use within the Metro environment that will not support plugins or ActiveX components, and a normal "desktop" version which resembles Internet Explorer 9.
[35][36]

A new authentication method will allow users to sketch in three different places over the picture to login, instead of typing a password.[37][38] Additionally, user accounts may be linked with a Windows Live ID, allowing the user's profile to be synchronized over the internet and accessible from other computers running the operating system. Additionally, the system will provide integration with the SkyDrive service, which provides 25GB of online storage to Windows Live users.[39] Windows Explorer has also gained new functionality, including a new ribbon toolbar, and a redesigned file operation progress dialog which provides more detailed statistics, the ability to pause file transfers, and improvements in the ability to manage conflicts when copying files.[40] A new "Hybrid Boot" option that uses "advanced hibernation functionality" on shutdown to allow faster startup times.[41][42] Windows To Go will allow Windows 8 to be run from a bootable USB device (such as a flash drive). It is intended for enterprise administrators to provide users with a Windows 8 image that reflects the corporate desktop; pricing and licensing details were not discussed when the feature was announced.[43][44] There will also be two integrated recovery functions, Refresh and Reset, which both make a complete restore easier than a re-installation. The former keeps all the settings and files of the user intact and only reverses all changes to Windows files to their original state while removing all installed programs and apps. The latter deletes all files and effectively reinstalls Windows, but without any additional user input such as agreeing to license agreements or selecting a hard disk required. After a reset completes, the user will be asked for the product key and will then proceed to account creation.[45]

Among other features, Windows 8 is also expected to include native USB 3.0 support,[46] a new lock screen,[47] as well as a setting to automatically adjust window color to fit the wallpaper.[48]

[edit] Hardware requirements

Microsoft says that the developer preview works well on hardware suitable for Windows Vista or Windows 7; these system requirements may change in the final release.[49] Minimum hardware requirements for Windows Developer Preview Architecture IA-32 (32-bit) x86-64 (64-bit) Processor 1 GHz Memory (RAM) 1 GB 2 GB Graphics Card DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver HDD free space 16 GB 20 GB A multi-touch screen is recommended for touch input (single-touch screens still work but lacking the multi-touch features which may be required by some Metro applications). For Metro applications, a screen resolution of 1024x768 or higher is required.

[edit] Secure Boot

Secure boot is a controversial[50] UEFI-based feature to "prevent unauthorized firmware, operating systems, or UEFI drivers from running at boot time".[51] Microsoft will require new PCs to have the UEFI secure boot feature enabled by default to be given Windows 8 certification. Microsoft requires that manufacturers must offer the ability to turn off the secure boot feature on x86 hardware, but must not offer such an option on ARM hardware.[52][53][54]

[edit] Controversy
See also: Hardware restrictions#Windows 8 and Trusted Computing
"This effectively makes it impossible to boot anything but Windows 8 on these ARM devices, rendering these devices entirely useless as general computing devices." Thom Holwerda, writing about secure boot, for OSNews[55]

In September 2011, Matthew Garrett, a Red Hat developer, raised the possible risk of Microsoft locking out alternative systems,[56] leading to wide media coverage.[57][58][59][60] Microsoft addressed the issue in a blog post,[61][62] stating that the manufacturer is free to choose which signatures are accepted by the feature.[63] In January 2012, the company revealed ARM manufacturers must not allow Secure Boot to be disabled, and it caused widespread concerns,[64][55][65] particularly in the Linux community.[66] Adrian Kingsley-

Hughes, writing for ZDNet, suggested Microsoft is locking out other systems for vendor lock-in reasons, among other hypotheses.[65] Canonical and Red Hat, two of the biggest companies involved with Linux, released a whitepaper regarding the issue, recommending that "PCs include a User Interface to easily enable or disable Secure Boot".[67]

[edit] Compatibility
Windows 8 for x86 processors will run most software compatible with previous x86 versions of Windows, with the usual restrictions: 64-bit Windows will run also 32-bit software but not 16-bit ones; 32-bit Windows will optionally run 16-bit software if installed to do so, but will not run 64-bit software. Either 32- or 64-bit Windows can be installed on x86-64 processors. Some expertise in manipulating compatibility settings may be required to run, for example, 16-bit software for Windows 3.x under 32-bit Windows 8, in cases where it is possible. In particular, applications compatible with 32- and 64-bit Windows 7 will run in the same way on Windows 8.[68] Windows 8 for ARM processors (WOA) does not support running, emulating, or porting existing x86/64 desktop apps. Code that uses only system or OS services from WinRT can be used within an app and distributed through the Windows Store for both WOA and x86/64. Consumers obtain all software, including device drivers, through the Windows Store and Microsoft Update or Windows Update.[69] A blog post by Microsoft notes that the setup process is error-prone when installing in a virtual machine, and installing without hardware virtualization support can be particularly problematic.[70] It is reported to work under VMware Workstation, VMware Player, VirtualBox, and Parallels Desktop for Mac detailed instructions for installing in these environments have been published.[71][72] The languages supported by Microsoft for creating Metro style apps are JavaScript and HTML, Visual Basic, C++, and C#[73]. For "desktop" applications, many languages are supported by third-party compilers.

[edit] Logo
On February 18, 2012, Microsoft confirmed that Windows 8 would use a vastly different logo than previous versions of Windows.[74]