Microsoft BUILD: Windows 8, A Pre-Beta Preview
by Brian Klug & Ryan Smith on September 13, 2011 12:05 PM EST- Posted in
- BUILD
- Windows
- Microsoft
- Windows 8
- Trade Shows
We’re here in Anaheim, California at Microsoft’s BUILD conference. As has become tradition (or at least as much as possible), Microsoft has been holding major developer conferences for their new OSes roughly a year ahead of launch. In 2008 developers and the press got their first in-depth look at Windows 7 at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC), and here in 2011 BUILD is doing much the same for Windows 8.
As it stands Windows 8 is still in its infancy. The build in Microsoft’s demos is 1802, a pre-beta and not feature complete version of the OS. Microsoft needs to balance the need to show off Windows 8 to developers with a need to keep it under wraps until it’s done as to not spook end-users. The result of that is the situation at BUILD, where Microsoft is focusing on finished features while unfinished features are either not in the OS or are going unmentioned. For comparison, at PDC 2008 the Windows 7 interface was not done yet, and Microsoft was using the Windows Vista interface in its place.
Today the show kicks off in earnest with a keynote that begins at the same time as this article went live, followed by some mega-sessions for developers covering the biggest aspects of Windows 8. Yesterday was a pre-show day for press, with Microsoft spending most of the day running the press through a similar series of presentations, focused more on the end-user than developers.
At the conclusion of the press sessions we managed to get some hands on time with a tablet PC development platform running the same build of Windows 8. We haven’t had the chance to give the platform a full working over – not that it would be prudent in its pre-beta state – but we did want to give you a rundown of what Microsoft had to share with us and what we’ve seen so far. Microsoft’s tagline for BUILD is that “Windows 8 changes everything” and while Win8 is not a massive reworking of the Windows kernel, it is a major overhaul of nearly everything else. Certainly based on the pre-beta build on display, you will be using Windows 8 significantly differently from Windows 7.
The big thing with Windows 8 is Metro, which we’ll go more in-depth with in a bit. Microsoft classifies Metro as a style, but in reality Metro is a new version of Windows from the API on up. Metro is the Windows Shell, Metro is an application design paradigm, Metro is a user paradigm, and Metro is the future of Windows application programming. Metro is everywhere – and for ARM it is everything - and it will make (or break) Windows 8.
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Belard - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
Hopefully Metro Apps will be smart enough to work in a windowed environment... otherwise, they might as well drop the "Windows" name. If thats the case - then it becomes a non issue.For tablet and phone devices, a full screen is needed because of the smaller sub 11" screens. Fine.
Remember, Win8 has a normal desktop. Its always there. And WebOS showed good ways of multi-tasking on a tablet interface. Seems that MS is still working on that.
UMADBRO - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
Cool story, bro!ludikraut - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
I can see the applicability of the Metro UI for business environments where you want to tightly control what users are able to do - collections departments, order processors, bank tellers, etc. The Metro UI is inherently more intuitive than a locked down desktop. Many home users will potentially benefit from this as well, but the challenge will be in how easy it will be to configure the Metro UI for the average end user. As for power users, such as myself, I can appreciate the Metro UI on my tablet, but there is no way that I want anything to do with it on my main desktop machine unless Win8 can be configured to run Metro on one screen and the desktop on another.HMTK - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
My god, there are a lot of idiots commenting here. The Metro UI is indeed NOT suited for a pc. That's why you can easily change to the classic desktop. I would be surprised if Microsoft wouldn't let you choose a default UI or that you can push whatever setting with Group Policy in a business environment.Quit whining, you'll have the desktop you know and love. You can even have both in the same machine. Metro when you want to use your tablet as a tablet and the classic UI when you use a keyboard and mouse. Instead of a glorified surfboard like an iPad you'll have that AND a laptop.
Rand - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
The article specifically says you cannot disable Metro, it is always there. If you want to launch an application you use Metro. If you're booting, you boot to Metro.If you want to change system settings you use Metro.
It doesn't matter if you're on a server platform or a tablet, you use Metro. You cannot choose a default UI. It's Metro on all platforms, regardless of what interface device you use.
The "idiots" are the ones who read the article and listen to what MS has very clearly said. You cannot just use the desktop, and the start menu is gone permanently.
The desktop is effectively a legacy UI, there for backwards compatibility.
You will not just be using the desktop on any platform, or any interface.
Ryan Smith - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
To be clear, the Desktop and the taskbar are fully functional for desktop applications. The start menu is indeed gone, and trying to use quick search to launch something requires going back to Metro, but that's all that has been lost for desktop applications. You can still use the Desktop almost exclusively by putting program icons on the desktop or pinning them to the taskbar.I'm not sure it's going to be practical to do that without the Start Menu, but as it stands that's what's available.
Exodite - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
To me that's equivalent of removing the desktop mode entirely, as filling my desktop or taskbar with random icons is pretty much the definition of inefficiency.Personal opinion obviously but that solution sounds like, well, iOS.
Exodite - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
Then again I'm one of those people who hated the removal of the old start menu in W7, as well as the lack of a W2K theme that didn't look like crap.UMADBRO - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
Then go install Windows 2000 and put your blinders on, you old fart.Exodite - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
*sigh* With that attitude you should probably be hanging out on Engadget or something.