Microsoft gave everyone a long glimpse of Windows 8 at the D9 conference in Southern California and immediately followed that up with Windows 8 for Tablets (and PCs) at Computex 2011 in Taipei.

The last two days mark the first time Microsoft is unveiling the Windows 8 interface to the public, and the new look is a radical departure from the Windows operating systems that precede it. For mobile devices, Windows 8's new touch interface looks similar to the operating system it uses for its Smartphones, called Windows Phone 7. Of course, there's a lot more going on underneath the hood than just a pretty interface. Windows 8 will be able to scale from touch-friendly tablets to full-blown desktops. It's designed to work on "the hundreds of millions of PCs already out in the market," according to Microsoft.

It has been a tough road leading up to this point, what with Apple and Google eating up the tablet market share. But Microsoft looks ready to fight a good tablet war, thanks to Windows 8. In Taipei, Windows 8 was demonstrated on several tablets, ARM-based devices, and PCs. Follow the slides to see how it works.


1. Welcome Screen The Windows 8 welcome screen brings the "Start" menu to life, arranging all the apps a typical Windows user is accustomed to into big, colorful tiles. Keep in mind this is the Windows 8 UI for tablets, so it's meant to be very touch friendly: You swipe from the side to get to other tiled pages. The apps on the welcome screen are, of course, customizable, but the most widely used ones will likely be Internet Explorer 10, Twitter, Microsoft's App store, etc.

2. News Reader This is the News Reader that you get to from the Start menu, but pay attention to the "Edge UI" on the right hand side. It's controlling the Start screen and also launching new apps. Many of these apps will remain open, and if you drag from the left side of the screen, you can easily switch between them. If you're holding a tablet, these controls are right under your thumb. In a nutshell, and this is for tablets, Windows is working from the "sides" and the apps are working from top to bottom.

3. Stocks Application The "Stocks" application is just one of many tiles that you get to from the Start Menu

4. Windows Snap This is a demonstration of "Windows Snap," a feature that makes it easy to use two apps side by side. In this case, there's video playing on the right, while your Twitter feed is being displayed on the left. You can drag in another app on the side or in the middle without interrupting the video, an example of true multitasking, according to Microsoft.

5. Going Back to the Old Windows Interface If you're uncomfortable with the new UI or need to access a file, you can go back to the traditional Windows interface ("Desktop" icon). The file directory that Windows users are so accustomed to is a tap away. This is the traditional-looking "Pictures" folder, and you can instantly switch back to the new UI at any point in time.

6. Traditional File Directory Menu Still Accessible You also have access to traditional file directory menus from within the App itself. In this slide, the Twitter app can bring up the File menu and grab photos directly from it. It's as if a Windows file directory is built into the app.

7. Sharing Between Apps Not only do you have access to the files in your system, but you can also share between apps. This particular app is called "Photo Feedr." After it's registered with Windows 8, you can have Twitter grab photos directly from this app. So there's no copying and pasting or saving pictures to the desktop before you upload it to Twitter. The key message here is that apps can talk to each other, and it doesn't get any more seamless than that.

8. Windows 8 for All (Devices) Windows 8 isn't designed for tablets alone (obviously); it's for all kinds of PCs. Microsoft built Windows 8 to adapt to any desktop or laptop.

9. Samsung Series 9 The Samsung Series 9 is running on Windows. This ultrabook, a term Intel recently coined, doesn't have a touch screen, so how does Windows 8 adapt? You use the keys (Arrow, Page up and down) to move from page to page and tile to tile. You click on applications with the mouse buttons or hit the Windows key (on the keyboard) to get back to the desktop. Microsofts message: All the touch functionalities in the previous slides work just as well with a mouse and keyboard.

10. Windows 8 Tablet on the Asus EeePad EP121 The Windows 8 Tablet experience is optimized for a 1,366-by-768 resolution or it works best with 16-by-9 aspect ratios. The Asus EeePad EP121, which is demonstrated in this slide, uses a non-widescreen resolution (1,024-by-768). Windows 8 adapts by displaying itself full screen.

11. Qualcomm Reference Design Qualcomm reference design running on Windows 8

12. Qualcomm Snapdragon Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon chip will make Windows 8 for ARM purr.

13. ARM CPUs Take the Next Step ARM CPUs aren't just for tablets. This slide features an Nvidia clamshell reference design running on an ARM CPUand it doesn't have a touch screen. You use the keyboard and mouse button to maneuver through Windows 8 just as easily as if it were touch. And you get the all-day battery life that comes with ARM architecture.

14. USB Devices on Windows 8 Many of these mobile operating systemsAndroid, iOS, MeeGohaven't been exactly USB friendly. Windows 8 will enable many USB peripherals to just work with an ARM-based tablet, thanks to Microsoft's long list of compatible drivers. In this slide, a USB drive, with H.264 videos, is plugged into an ARM-based tablet and Windows 8 immediately recognizes the drive and video format and proceeds to play it back.

15. Kardu Tablet and Kal-El This slide shows the Kardu Tablet, running on Nvidia's yet-to-be-released Kal-El processor. It's a quad-core processor, which you'll notice, from the task manager on the right, with four threads going while an HD video is playing on the left. Microsoft claims that Windows 8 is handling most of the software decoding work, which is why there's minimal utilization on all four cores.

Further Reading

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