Windows 8
Encyclopedia
Windows 8 is the codename for the next version of the Microsoft Windows
computer
operating system
following Windows 7. 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 Start Screen interface has been added that was designed for touchscreen
input in addition to mouse, keyboard, and pen
input.
(CES), Microsoft announced that Windows 8 would be adding support for ARM microprocessors
in addition to the x86 microprocessors from Intel and AMD.
interface for Windows Explorer, a PDF reader called Modern Reader, an updated task manager
called Modern Task Manager, and native ISO image
mounting.
A 32-bit Milestone 2 build, build 7927, was leaked to The Pirate Bay
on August 29, 2011 right after many pictures leaked on BetaArchive the day before. Features of this build are mostly the same as build 7955.
A 32-bit Milestone 2 build, build 7955, was leaked to BetaArchive on April 25, 2011. Features of this build included a new pattern login and a new file system known as Protogon
.
A 64-bit Milestone 3 build, build 7959, was leaked to BetaArchive on May 1, 2011. This build is notable for being the first publicly leaked Windows Server 8 build, as well as the first leaked 64-bit build.
A Milestone 3 build, build 7971, was released to close partners of Microsoft on March 29, 2011 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.
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.
announced that the next version of Windows would be released the following year.
However, Microsoft quickly amended Ballmer's words in a statement issued that afternoon:
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
. 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.
Microsoft has shown a development roadmap at the BUILD conference stating that the coming milestones will be Beta, Release Candidate, RTM, and general availability.
According to Microsoft, there were more than 500,000 downloads of the Windows 8 Developer Preview within the first 12 hours of its release.
named Metro. With the new change, the Start Menu was replaced in favor for the new Start Screen, where there are tiles that contain shortcuts to applications, Metro style applications, and updating tiles, similar to Windows Phone
.
A new authentication method allows users to sketch in three different places over the picture to login, instead of typing a password.
Windows Explorer
now uses a ribbon interface
, similar to those used in Microsoft Office applications.
Another feature expected to be introduced in Windows 8 is native USB 3.0
support, without the need to load drivers
Windows 8 will come with Windows Store, an online marketplace for buying, selling, and advertising applications.
Windows 8 can be run from a USB-connected drive, such as a flash drive. This feature is called Windows To Go
. 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. WTG is not included in Windows 8 previews.
Windows 8 will support multiple monitors with the new ability to natively display different background images on each display and customized taskbar(s) on each of the connected displays.
The Developer Preview comes with two new 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 its original state while removing all installed programs and apps. The latter deletes all files and effectively re-installs 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.
One big change is that user accounts do not have to be local-only (or from an Active Directory
domain) anymore but can be linked up to one's Windows Live ID. This has the advantage that users will not lose their settings and files as they move from their home computer to their work laptop or to any other computer also using Windows 8.
Other new features include a new Welcome screen, a new packaged application model called AppX that is based on Silverlight
, and Open Packaging Conventions, as well as a setting to automatically adjust window color to fit the wallpaper.
There is also a stripped down "Immersive" version of Internet Explorer, using the similar Metro-based user interface of the mobile version of Internet Explorer 9. The Immersive Version of Internet Explorer 10 does not support ActiveX plugins, in order to be an HTML5-only browser. The Desktop version of IE10 does support ActiveX plugins.
A new "Hybrid Boot" option that uses "advanced hibernation functionality" on shutdown to allow faster startup times.
A new version of Task Manager
with a redesigned user interface is also present in pre-release versions of Windows 8.
A multi-touch screen is required to use touch input. For Metro applications, a screen resolution of 1024x768 or higher is required.
Microsoft may also require new PCs to have the UEFI secure boot feature enabled by default to be given Windows 8 certification. There has been some concern about this, that it could lead to machines that do not support alternative operating systems. The manufacturer is free to choose which signatures are accepted by the feature and to offer the ability to turn off the secure boot feature. Microsoft has addressed the issue in a blog post.
Microsoft has revealed the following maximum supported hardware specifications for Windows Server 8 at the BUILD conference.
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.
Windows 8 for ARM processors
will not run software created for x86; software will have to be ported by its developers to create ARM executables from source code
.
Windows 8 Developer Preview is incompatible with some virtualization platforms, such as Virtual PC. 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. It is reported to work under VMware Workstation
and VMware Player
—detailed instructions for installing in these environments have been published.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
following Windows 7. It has many changes from previous versions. In particular it adds support for ARM microprocessors
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
in addition to the previously supported x86 microprocessors from Intel and AMD. A new Start Screen interface has been added that was designed for touchscreen
Touchscreen
A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...
input in addition to mouse, keyboard, and pen
Pen computing
Pen computing refers to a computer user-interface using a pen and tablet, rather than devices such as a keyboard, joysticks or a mouse....
input.
Early announcements
In January 2011, at the Consumer Electronics ShowConsumer Electronics Show
The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...
(CES), Microsoft announced that Windows 8 would be adding support for ARM microprocessors
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
in addition to the x86 microprocessors from Intel and AMD.
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, which was soon leaked to P2P/torrent sharing networks on April 12, 2011. Milestone 1 includes a ribbonRibbon (computing)
In GUI-based application software, a ribbon is an interface where a set of toolbars are placed on tabs in a tab bar. Recent releases of some Microsoft applications have embraced this form with a modular ribbon as their main interface. The Ribbon is a contextual interface that offers functionality...
interface for Windows Explorer, a PDF reader called Modern Reader, an updated task manager
Task manager
A task manager is a program used to provide information about the processes and programs running on a computer, as well as the general status of the computer. It can also be used to terminate processes and programs, as well as change the processes priority...
called Modern Task Manager, and native ISO image
ISO image
An ISO image is an archive file of an optical disc, composed of the data contents of every written sector of an optical disc, including the optical disc file system...
mounting.
A 32-bit Milestone 2 build, build 7927, was leaked to The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
on August 29, 2011 right after many pictures leaked on BetaArchive the day before. Features of this build are mostly the same as build 7955.
A 32-bit Milestone 2 build, build 7955, was leaked to BetaArchive on April 25, 2011. Features of this build included a new pattern login and a new file system known as Protogon
Protogon
Protogon is the preliminary name for a file system feature found in leaked builds of Microsoft Windows 8. It is found in leaked builds starting with 6.2.7955. , little is known about the filesystem. Protogon is not readable by Windows 7 or earlier...
.
A 64-bit Milestone 3 build, build 7959, was leaked to BetaArchive on May 1, 2011. This build is notable for being the first publicly leaked Windows Server 8 build, as well as the first leaked 64-bit build.
A Milestone 3 build, build 7971, was released to close partners of Microsoft on March 29, 2011 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.
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
Hyper-V
Microsoft Hyper-V, codenamed Viridian and formerly known as Windows Server Virtualization, is a hypervisor-based virtualization system for x86-64 systems. A beta version of Hyper-V was shipped with certain x86-64 editions of Windows Server 2008, and the finalized version was released on June 26,...
3.0, and PowerShell
Windows PowerShell
Windows PowerShell is Microsoft's task automation framework, consisting of a command-line shell and associated scripting language built on top of, and integrated with the .NET Framework...
3.0 were revealed in this build.
Official announcements
At the Microsoft Developer Forum in Tokyo on May 23, 2011, Microsoft CEO Steve BallmerSteve Ballmer
Steven Anthony "Steve" Ballmer is an American business magnate. He is the chief executive officer of Microsoft, having held that post since January 2000. , his personal wealth is estimated at US$13.9 billion, ranking number 19 on the Forbes 400.-Early life:Ballmer was born in Detroit, Michigan to...
announced that the next version of Windows would be released the following year.
- "And yet, as we look forward to the next generation of Windows systems, which will come out next year, there's a whole lot more coming. As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8. Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors."
However, Microsoft quickly amended Ballmer's words in a statement issued that afternoon:
- "It appears there was a misstatement. We are eagerly awaiting the next generation of Windows 7 hardware that will be available in the coming fiscal year. To date, we have yet to formally announce any timing or naming for the next version of Windows."
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
Steven Sinofsky
Steven Sinofsky has been the President of the Windows Division at Microsoft since September 2008, responsible for the development and marketing of Windows, Windows Live, and Internet Explorer.-Education:...
. 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.
Build conference and developer preview
Microsoft unveiled new Windows 8 features and improvements on September 13, 2011, day one of the BUILD developer conference. Microsoft also released a Developer Preview build (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.Microsoft has shown a development roadmap at the BUILD conference stating that the coming milestones will be Beta, Release Candidate, RTM, and general availability.
According to Microsoft, there were more than 500,000 downloads of the Windows 8 Developer Preview within the first 12 hours of its release.
New features
Windows 8 will contain a new user interface based on Microsoft's design languageDesign language
A design language or design vocabulary is an overarching scheme or style that guides the design of a complement of products or architectural settings...
named Metro. With the new change, the Start Menu was replaced in favor for the new Start Screen, where there are tiles that contain shortcuts to applications, Metro style applications, and updating tiles, similar to Windows Phone
Windows Phone
Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market...
.
A new authentication method allows users to sketch in three different places over the picture to login, instead of typing a password.
Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer
This article is about the Windows file system browser. For the similarly named web browser, see Internet ExplorerWindows Explorer is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface...
now uses a ribbon interface
Ribbon (computing)
In GUI-based application software, a ribbon is an interface where a set of toolbars are placed on tabs in a tab bar. Recent releases of some Microsoft applications have embraced this form with a modular ribbon as their main interface. The Ribbon is a contextual interface that offers functionality...
, similar to those used in Microsoft Office applications.
Another feature expected to be introduced in Windows 8 is native USB 3.0
USB 3.0
USB 3.0 is the second major revision of the Universal Serial Bus standard for computer connectivity.USB 3.0 has transmission speeds of up to 5 Gbit/s, which is 10 times faster than USB 2.0 . USB 3.0 significantly reduces the time required for data transmission, reduces power consumption, and...
support, without the need to load drivers
Windows 8 will come with Windows Store, an online marketplace for buying, selling, and advertising applications.
Windows 8 can be run from a USB-connected drive, such as a flash drive. This feature is called Windows To Go
Windows To Go
Windows To Go is a feature in Windows 8 that allows the entire system to run from USB mass storage devices such as flash drives and external hard drives....
. 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. WTG is not included in Windows 8 previews.
Windows 8 will support multiple monitors with the new ability to natively display different background images on each display and customized taskbar(s) on each of the connected displays.
The Developer Preview comes with two new 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 its original state while removing all installed programs and apps. The latter deletes all files and effectively re-installs 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.
One big change is that user accounts do not have to be local-only (or from an Active Directory
Active Directory
Active Directory is a directory service created by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems. Server computers on which Active Directory is running are called domain controllers....
domain) anymore but can be linked up to one's Windows Live ID. This has the advantage that users will not lose their settings and files as they move from their home computer to their work laptop or to any other computer also using Windows 8.
Other new features include a new Welcome screen, a new packaged application model called AppX that is based on Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight is an application framework for writing and running rich Internet applications, with features and purposes similar to those of Adobe Flash. The run-time environment for Silverlight is available as a plug-in for web browsers running under Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X...
, and Open Packaging Conventions, as well as a setting to automatically adjust window color to fit the wallpaper.
There is also a stripped down "Immersive" version of Internet Explorer, using the similar Metro-based user interface of the mobile version of Internet Explorer 9. The Immersive Version of Internet Explorer 10 does not support ActiveX plugins, in order to be an HTML5-only browser. The Desktop version of IE10 does support ActiveX plugins.
A new "Hybrid Boot" option that uses "advanced hibernation functionality" on shutdown to allow faster startup times.
A new version of Task Manager
Windows Task Manager
Windows Task Manager is a task manager application included with the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems that provides detailed information about computer performance and running applications, processes and CPU usage, commit charge and memory information, network activity and...
with a redesigned user interface is also present in pre-release versions of Windows 8.
Hardware requirements
Microsoft say that the Windows Developer Preview (a pre-release version of Windows 8) works well on hardware suitable for Windows Vista or 7.| Architecture | IA-32 IA-32 IA-32 , also known as x86-32, i386 or x86, is the CISC instruction-set architecture of Intel's most commercially successful microprocessors, and was first implemented in the Intel 80386 as a 32-bit extension of x86 architecture... |
x86-64 X86-64 x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It supports vastly larger virtual and physical address spaces than are possible on x86, thereby allowing programmers to conveniently work with much larger data sets. x86-64 also provides 64-bit general purpose registers and numerous other... |
ARM ARM architecture ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced... |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processor Central processing unit The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in... |
1 GHz | ||
| Memory (RAM) | 1 GB | 2 GB | |
| Graphics Card | DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM Windows Display Driver Model Windows Display Driver Model is the graphic driver architecture for video card drivers running Microsoft Windows versions beginning with Windows Vista.... 1.0 or higher driver |
||
| HDD free space | 16 GB | 20 GB | |
A multi-touch screen is required to use touch input. For Metro applications, a screen resolution of 1024x768 or higher is required.
Microsoft may also require new PCs to have the UEFI secure boot feature enabled by default to be given Windows 8 certification. There has been some concern about this, that it could lead to machines that do not support alternative operating systems. The manufacturer is free to choose which signatures are accepted by the feature and to offer the ability to turn off the secure boot feature. Microsoft has addressed the issue in a blog post.
Microsoft has revealed the following maximum supported hardware specifications for Windows Server 8 at the BUILD conference.
| Logical processors | 640 (was 256 in Windows Server 2008 R2) |
|---|---|
| Random-access memory Random-access memory Random access memory is a form of computer data storage. Today, it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow stored data to be accessed in any order with a worst case performance of constant time. Strictly speaking, modern types of DRAM are therefore not random access, as data is read in... |
4 TB (was 2 TB in Windows Server 2008 R2) |
| Failover cluster nodes | 63 (was 16 in Windows Server 2008 R2) |
Compatibility
Windows 8 for x86 processors will run much 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 x86-64X86-64
x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It supports vastly larger virtual and physical address spaces than are possible on x86, thereby allowing programmers to conveniently work with much larger data sets. x86-64 also provides 64-bit general purpose registers and numerous other...
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.
Windows 8 for ARM processors
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
will not run software created for x86; software will have to be ported by its developers to create ARM executables from source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
.
Windows 8 Developer Preview is incompatible with some virtualization platforms, such as Virtual PC. A blog post by Microsoft notes that the setup process is error-prone when installing in a virtual machine, and installing without hardware virtualization
Hardware virtualization
Computer hardware virtualization is the virtualization of computers or operating systems. It hides the physical characteristics of a computing platform from users, instead showing another abstract computing platform...
support can be particularly problematic. It is reported to work under VMware Workstation
VMware Workstation
VMware Workstation is a virtual machine software suite for x86 and x86-64 computers from VMware, a division of EMC Corporation, which allows users to set up multiple x86 and x86-64 virtual machines and use one or more of these virtual machines simultaneously with the hosting operating system...
and VMware Player
VMware Player
VMware Player is a freeware virtualization software package from VMware, Inc. . VMware Player can run virtual appliances. VMware Player can also create virtual machines since version 3.0...
—detailed instructions for installing in these environments have been published.
See also
- Metro (design language)
- Windows 7
- Windows VistaWindows VistaWindows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
- Windows XPWindows XPWindows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
- Windows LiveWindows LiveWindows Live is the collective brand name for a set of services and software products from Microsoft, part of their software plus services platform. A majority of these services are Web applications, accessible from a browser, but there are also client-side binary applications that require...