The Italian Windows website "Windowsette" somehow managed to get a hold of a super-secret, highly confidential PowerPoint presentation outlining many of Microsoft's goals and plans for Windows 8. Apparently this sensitive data (complete with UNDER NDA watermarks) was just found sitting around the Internet.

MSFTKitchen has an extensive breakdown and detailed posting of all the slides from within the slide deck. The presentation details many of Microsoft's thoughts going forward for Windows 8, including the fact that it is taking direct cues from Apple on how to build something customers want to pay for. While we've heard various rumblings about time tables and features of Windows 8, according to the slides, it looks like the internal plan is to have the product to market sometime in 2012. Of course, that could change (see Vista), but from the roadmap presented in the presentation, 2012 looks like the accurate release date.

Facial Recognition, Fast Boot Up and a Windows App Store

There are lots of new ideas being considered for Windows 8, but a few really stood out to us. First is the concept of user accounts being the primary method identifying a user. So instead of just having the traditional, "admin," "user," "guest" paradigm, accounts would be customized for individual users in a much more customizable way.







Additionally, Microsoft is looking at integrating facial recognition technologies to log users into computers automatically. According to the slides, Microsoft is also considering connecting Windows accounts to the cloud. This is actually a really cool idea because it means that your preferences, bookmarks, e-mail account info and other data could all follow you from system to system.

If you consider that more and more storage might be done in the cloud, via something like Windows Live SkyDrive, the possibilities are pretty cool, especially if used across ultra-portable devices like tablets.







The presentation also shows that Microsoft is looking at making the startup and boot process of Windows 8 as fast as possible. The idea is to make it as "appliance like" as possible, so that instant-on connectivity is available.







Finally, one of the most interesting new developments is that of the Windows App Store. Now, you could make a joke and say that that already exists as the software aisle of any major electronics store, but the concept of having a way to discover new applications online and to get them from a trusted repository is actually not a bad idea.

For desktop operating systems, the idea of a central software repository is not new. Package management tools like APT and PackageKit have been a part of the Linux world for years. In fact, Microsoft has tried to do this to some degree with the Windows Marketplace and Zune Marketplace. Looking at the slides, the Windows App Store will be a much broader strategy with a much more Apple-like approach.

For instance, there is discussion about a "Windows Reset" feature that would back up a users files and reformat the system in case of some sort of system problem. Upon reinstallation, apps purchased from the App Store could be reinstalled and applications not from the App Store would be listed for a users convenience.

Trying to Bring the Smartphone Experience to the Desktop

Looking at many of the broader trends posited for Windows 8, we couldn't help but notice how many similarities exist between current smartphone solutions and paradigms and with what Windows 8 might end up becoming.

The idea of keeping user profile data backed up to the cloud and being portable is something that Google is doing with great success on Android. To a lesser extent, Apple is doing this on the iPhone and iPad with MobileMe and iTunes accounts.







Furthermore, the big focus on quick startups and shutdowns and being "more appliance like" seems to describe the kind of experience that we have on our smartphones and iPad devices today. Since a broader part of the Windows 8 strategy seems to be all about being on many different device types, this makes sense, but it also sounds like Microsoft is trying to bring this sort of experience to the regular desktop.

Of course, the Windows App Store is almost a recreation of the mobile app store paradigm. While an app store is probably less needed for Windows than any other Operating System, having a curated, searchable database of software programs, filled with user reviews and the ability to re-download and re-install on demand is still a compelling feature, provided of course that software can still be found and installed more traditionally.

Future of the Desktop?

Two weeks ago, Farhad Manjoo wrote an editorial for Slate entitled, Flight of the Desktops. In it, he made the argument that desktop computers (ie, NOT laptops but main desktop machines) will continue to lose relevancy over the next five years. This isn't the same argument that a Google executive made back in March (that argument was that smartphones would replace desktops in three years time), but it hints at the same trend, which is, if our mobile devices become more powerful and our data becomes more accessible, for many people, conventional desktop machines will only be needed for certain tasks. If you don't need to do one of those tasks, a desktop computer may eventually end up irrelevant.







Manjoo got a lot of pushback for his post, but in the wake of 3 million iPads and booming iPhone and Android sales, I'm more open to his opinion than I was even four months ago. While I think Google's prediction of an operating-system free world (in the traditional Windows sense) is extremely premature, three's no doubt that the way we use and interact with our content is changing. The definition of computing itself is changing too.

For that reason, many of the slides in the Windows 8 presentation make a lot of sense. Now, how many of these ideas are deliverable and how many can be integrated across a broad set of different devices remains to be seen, but if the traditional computer operating system could take on many of the qualities of a smartphone operating system, that would be a very interesting future.

What do you think of the slides for Windows 8? What do you think about the shifting of the desktop to becoming more mobile-esque? Let us know!