As CPU’s have gotten more sophisticated with their logical cores, you may have noticed that if you have a quad-core CPU with eight logical cores after Hyper-Threading, the Performance tab of the Windows 7 Task Manager has problems displaying real-time graphs of per-core utilization..
Microsoft released the early version of Windows 8 on a prototype tablet last week. Those of you who would like to taste and experience the all new Windows 8, you can download the Developer Preview, which is currently in pre-beta version. The developer version shows off the current stage of the OS. It is available for free download, and comes in three different packages: (1) 64-bit version – Only the OS (2) 32-bit version – Only the OS (3) 64-bit version with developer tools ...
“We’re at the beginning stages of a new segment in personal computing,” Whitman said of tablets in the call. She also said that she doesn’t believe it’s too late for HP to succeed in the tablet market and that “the work we do with Microsoft is extraordinary compelling.” ...
Nokia might be releasing a Windows 8-based tablet by June 2012 as well as follow up the recently released Windows Phone 7 devices – Nokia Lumia 800 and 710 – with an even better Lumia, says head of Nokia France Paul Amsellem.
Microsoft has officially unveiled their latest operating system to the public by releasing a Windows 8 preview video, which shows off some of the newest operating system features.
Windows 8 will run on all tablet PCs, notebooks, netbooks and of course more conventional desktop machines. But with Windows 8, Microsoft developers are aiming to create a seamless experience across all devices.
Mike Angiulo, corporate vice president of Windows Planning says:
“Our aim with ‘Windows 8′ is to make the user experience a natural extension of the device, from the time you turn on your PC through how you interact with the applications you know and love. This represents a fundamental shift in Windows design that we haven’t attempted since the days of Windows 95, presenting huge opportunities for our hardware partners to innovate with new PC designs.”
So basically there will be a single user interface for each version of Windows 8 that will look, function, and offer all the same features no matter what device is running it.
The Windows 8 preview was debuted at the D9 conference in California and was also further elaborated at Computex, 2011 in Taipei, Taiwan.
Microsoft unveiled the new operating system through several live demos and a fully narrated Windows 8 preview video. They showed off the main focus of the new operating system, a fully functional touch based interface.
The new interface finally provides an explanation for why Microsoft never offered Windows 7 in the form of a tablet experience. Windows 7 offered a great PC experience, but it was never optimized for touch-screen devices.
Windows 8 will now feature full support for tablet devices with a fully updated user interface and tile based menu system. Of course it will also support more traditional PC platforms including but not limited to desktops, notebooks, and netbook machines.
The Microsoft development team also unveiled additional information about Windows 8 to the public, but they did not provide an exhaustive example of the new operating system. While we don’t exactly know every detail about Windows 8, here’s the breakdown of what we do know:
-Windows 8 will run on tablets, notebooks, netbooks, desktops, and probably mobile devices.
-Windows 8 will provide a streamlined touch interface for tablets and a traditional control scheme for a mouse and keyboard.
-The new user interface will be completely touch optimized for use with touchscreen devices that support gesture and multi-touch features.
-Windows 8 will ship with Internet Explorer 10 as the default browser.
-Windows 8 will use tiled menus similar to the Windows Phone 7 interface, but they will be more advanced and accessible.
-Windows 8 will run older software that is compatible with all previous versions of Windows (you can breathe a sigh of relief).
-Windows 8 will offer multi-tasking opportunities just as previous versions have in the past.
-Windows 8 will scale to the operating device’s proper screen resolution; which means it will scale automatically to tablets, netbooks and higher end desktops.
-Applications will be launched from a tile based start menu instead of the traditional icon list based menu.
-Web based applications and programs will use HTML5 and Javascript for better overall performance.
It is also very important to note that “Windows 8” is currently just a codename for the new operating system, which means the name can be changed at any time. Remember that Windows Vista was previously codenamed the “Mojave Experiment“, while Windows 7 on the other hand remained “Windows 7” during the entire development period. The operating system’s development name doesn’t necessarily reflect the official product release name.
Don’t just take our word for it, check out all the awesome new innovations and features of Windows 8, in the “Building Windows 8 Preview“.
We can expect Windows 8 to be launched sometime in mid-late 2012, however, it’s too early to predict the Windows 8 release date, since it is still under development. Nevertheless, the only question that haunts each and every one of us – Will Windows 8 win the battle against Apple which it had lost several years back?
A leaked roadmap suggests that Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 8 will be released to retail channels in August 2012. The roadmap, if legit, confirms a Windows 8 Beta release during next year’s CES 2012 in January (see Coming the Windows8 Beta Release In January). Microsoft will release the beta of the Windows Store and the online market customer preview at the same convention.
The release candidate and the beta of the online market will be revealed in April 2012 during the Mix 2012 conference. Windows 8 RTM (release to manufacturing) during the gaming expo E3 2012, and the final version of Windows 8, the online market, Windows Phone 8 and the Xbox Store during August 2012.
If the roadmap is legit, we will see a release of Windows 8 in about ten months from now.
The roadmap interestingly enough does not stop there. It covers the years 2013 and 2014 as well. It may come as a surprise to many that Microsoft may have the intention to ship Windows 8, the successor of Windows 8, two years after the Windows 8 release.
The roadmap suggests a November 2014 release for Windows 9. In 2013 we will see the release of Internet Explorer 11 during Mix 2013 and the Xbox loop and Windows 9 Developer Preview releases during Build 2013.
The CES in 2014 will see the release of the Windows 9 Beta, Mix 2014 the Windows 9 Release Candidate, the Build 2014 conference the Windows 9 RTM and Windows 9 Mobile RTM, and November 2014 finally the release of Windows 9, Windows 9 Mobile and the Kinect HP2.
The information are not confirmed and it is likely that we won’t see an official confirmation or response. What’s your take on the roadmap? Will Microsoft release Windows 9 only two years after Windows 8?
The new Windows 8 Task Manager this will provide new features if you have more than 1 CPU.
Problem With the Windows 7 Task Manager
As CPU’s have gotten more sophisticated with their logical cores, you may have noticed that if you have a quad-core CPU with eight logical cores after Hyper-Threading, the Performance tab of the Windows 7 Task Manager has problems displaying real-time graphs of per-core utilization. To make the CPU performance display, it squeezes in eight, time-on-the-x-axis charts into a small horizontal window: it doesn’t work very well. Now step forward to today’s more sophisticated CPU’s. How well will their information be displayed two CPUs and 16 logical cores, or four CPUs and 32 cores as Microsoft details in its latest Building Windows 8 blog post, 160 logical cores? Something has to change.
The Metro-Style Screen
Windows 8 will revolve almost entirely around the new Metro-style Start screen; but that does not apply to the new Task Manager. The Metro interface isn’t designed for apps with mega-data density, but that is what the Task Manager works with. Since Windows 95, the Task Manager has grown into a general system for debugging. Both consumers and power users alike use it this way. The problem is that as the OS has become more intense the data density of the Task Manager has also increased.
Differences
The main feature is that each core will now be represented as a block with its current utilization displayed as a percentage. There is no graph, no horizontal space constraints, just a heatmap-like grid (image above). You can compare cores for debugging purposes. So this increases the at-a-glance functionality of the Performance tab. You can now hover over a core to see its logical ID, too. And this interface will scale up to 640 logical cores, the Windows 8′s maximum. The Task Manager also modified The “Set affinity” dialog to make it easier to assign processes to specific processor.
Windows 8 users are in for a gift soon after the turn of the year. Microsoft has let it be known that it may even be sooner than that. Consider that the Build 8141 appears to have been compiled on October 21, 2011. It also includes changes with Metro apps zooming, changeable metro background color, and Media Center is now included. A while back many users expressed dissatisfaction that the Media Center not a part of the Developer Preview and were worried that Microsoft may have been cutting the application, which HTPC enthusiasts love. Apparently the next edition of the app just hadn’t been ready in time, but would appear in a later build. At least that is Microsoft’s contention.
With Windows 8 Developer Preview now being widely used, reviewed, and dissected across the world, many users have begun to get anxious for the beta edition. Previously, the consensus opinion was that Windows 8 Beta would be unveiled and become available during the upcoming CES in January 2012. But apparently some reports indicate that a beta release may be coming sooner than that.
Since Build 8141 occurred only a few days ago it seems unlikely that the beta will be hitting the Microsoft download channel too soon. However, it does lend credence to an earlier than CES release. Below are two screenshots posted below that show part of that Build. At this time they are unverifiable, but they at least have the look of something legitimate.
Given that Windows 7 has been so successful, and that Microsoft’s other ventures have been less than successful, at least on the market side, even though technologically they have met their requirements, Microsoft may not want to wait too long to forestall the next implementation of Windows. Apparently, they may have learned a lesson from Apple, if you have a product ready or near ready for market, push it out…this gives the consumer something to talk about, and not just whisper hope and expectations. Perhaps a Windows 8 beta release will be here before we know it.
Well would you look at that, I only published a story less than 24 hours ago about HP entering the tablet market with Windows 8 and then they go and confirm it just after. Typical! In fairness it probably isn’t much of a surprise, more of a coincidence that HP announced this news now. My post dabbled more with the idea of HP bringing back the TouchPad from the dead, but in a conference call with HP CEO Meg Whitman and an LA Times Analyst, HP cemented their commitment to entering the tablet market with Windows 8. However they didn’t say if they were going to be re-using the TouchPad brand.
Of course it’s no surprise that the worlds largest PC manufacturer is keen on entering the tablet race. However what people were curious to see is if HP decided to stick with their failed Web OS that they acquired from Palm this year, or if they should cut their losses and resort back to Windows 8. Based on this news, it looks like HP have decided to drop the Web OS from their tablet division in favour of Windows 8 as they’ve recognised the huge potential that Windows 8 can bring them. This is a bit of a U-turn for HP. Originally they had said that they would be working with Microsoft and bring out phones running Windows Phone 7. Then they dropped that in favour of Web OS which hasn’t been very successful for them at all.
HP’s CEO said that they were still trying to figure out what it is that they are going to do with Web OS.
This is what Whitman said,
“We’re at the beginning stages of a new segment in personal computing,” Whitman said of tablets in the call. She also said that she doesn’t believe it’s too late for HP to succeed in the tablet market and that “the work we do with Microsoft is extraordinary compelling.”
Whitman said in the call that HP’s Windows 8 tablets would launch sometime next year and that the company would be narrowing its focus to help the company succeed not just next year, but also in 2013, 2014 and the future.
“One of my observations is that HP tries to do a lot of things,” “And I am big believer in doing a small number of things really, really well — set them up, knock them down, set them up, knock them down.”
One rumour that’s been going around is that HP could be thinking of using the Web OS in a range of Ultrabooks. HP has remained surprisingly quiet when it comes to Ultrabooks. Most of the other major PC manufacturer’s like ASUS, Acer, Toshiba and Lenevo have all announced these ultra thin devices. Personally I hope to god that they don’t release Ultrabooks running the Web OS as I really don’t think it would be suitable for them at all.
Source:
