Today, at the BUILD Conference, Microsoft demonstrated the next generation of Windows for the first time. Microsoft calls Windows 8 a “reimagining of Windows, from the chip to the interface”. Windows 8 is touted to be able to scale from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse. The demo showed some of the ways in which MS “reimagined” the interface for a new generation of touch-centric hardware. Fast, fluid and dynamic, the experience has been transformed while keeping the power, flexibility and connectivity of Windows intact.
Here are a few aspects of the new interface:
1. Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.
2. Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from the apps.
3. Fluid, natural switching between running apps.
4. Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so one can multitask easily.
5. Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.
6. Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10.