Windows 8 Being Full Metro Will Be Your Choice
Windows 8 will feature a full-Metro mode where it will not even load the desktop code.
Windows 8 will bring with a brand new UI concept called Metro. This concept was first shown in the video above, demonstrating the new, slick interface that's inspired by Microsoft's work on Windows Phone 7 and touch-based hardware. It's a radical addition that will prepare Windows 8 for a whole new generation of PCs and very non-PCs.
Microsoft's Windows President Steven Sinofsky took the opportunity to talk about the new Metro UI some more on the Building Windows 8 blog.
"By now you've seen two different elements of the Windows 8 design—first, a Metro style user interface we showed previously and in a video seen by millions of folks. And recently, we have described in this blog some of the enhancements we’re making to familiar Windows desktop tools such as Explorer and the copy file dialog," wrote Sinofsky.
In what should quell complaints of what Microsoft's shown for Windows 8, Sinofsky confirms that users will have the ultimate choice of interface.
We believe there is room for a more elegant, perhaps a more nuanced, approach. You get a beautiful, fast and fluid, Metro style interface and a huge variety of new apps to use. These applications have new attributes (a platform) that go well beyond the graphical styling (much to come on this at Build). As we showed, you get an amazing touch experience, and also one that works with mouse, trackpad, and keyboard. And if you want to stay permanently immersed in that Metro world, you will never see the desktop—we won’t even load it (literally the code will not be loaded) unless you explicitly choose to go there! This is Windows reimagined.
But if you do see value in the desktop experience—in precise control, in powerful windowing and file management, in compatibility with hundreds of thousands of existing programs and devices, in support of your business software, those capabilities are right at your fingertips as well. You don’t need to change to a different device if you want to edit photos or movies professionally, create documents for your job or school, manage a large corpus of media or data, or get done the infinite number of things people do with a PC today. And if you don’t want to do any of those “PC” things, then you don’t have to and you’re not paying for them in memory, battery life, or hardware requirements. If you do want or need this functionality, then you can switch to it with ease and fluidity because Windows is right there. Essentially, you can think of the Windows desktop as just another app.
Windows 8 brings together all the power and flexibility you have in your PC today with the ability to immerse yourself in a Metro style experience. You don’t have to compromise! You carry one device that does everything you want and need. You can connect that device to peripherals you want to use. You can use devices designed to dock to large screen displays and other peripherals. You can use convertible devices that can be both immersive tablets and flexible laptops.
- Apple Asks That 3G-enabled MacBook Pro be Returned
- New AMD CEO: We Need to Become Predators
- Magnetic Memory Manipulated by Voltage, Not Just Heat
- Acer Ultrabook Spotted Early For $1,130 USD
- Deals August 31: ThinkPad Android Tablet Starting $449
- Asus Reportedly Launching 5 to 6 Ultrabooks in October
- VIDEO: Quake 3 Running on Tiny, Little Raspberry Pi
- Corsair Releases Two New Force Series GT SSDs
- HP May Spin-Off PC Business Rather Than Sell
- Deals Sept 1: 14" ThinkPad Core i3 $594 | Core i5 $636
- Wait on That RAM Upgrade! Prices Set To Nosedive in H2
- Zotac Debuts Palm-Sized ZBOX Nano Mini-PCs
- AMD FX-Series Lineup Revealed in CPU Support List
- Bethesda Explains Why Elder Scrolls Isn't an MMO
- Star Trek Online Going F2P Later This Year
- Toshiba's Portégé Z830 Ultrabook Series in November
- Deals Sept 2: EA Store Buy Two Games Get Third Free
- Thermaltake Intros Flashy LifeCool Notebook Cooler
Elegant, yes. PC no, maybe for tablets or phones. But not for PC, I feel it'd be more frustrating to work with those dang tiles. I already have widgets on my desktop.
thanks for pointing that out captain obvious
Dear tomshardware: STOP SHOWING THE SAME VIDEO EVERY TIME.
Whats with all the retail OS makers lately? First Lion and now Windows 8.
They've let the smartphone successes get to their heads.
Smartphones should be smartphones and computers should be computers.
Elegant, yes. PC no, maybe for tablets or phones. But not for PC, I feel it'd be more frustrating to work with those dang tiles. I already have widgets on my desktop.
That is what I thought when I first saw the preview for Win8, but I don't see why it wouldn't work as long as it is compatible and efficient. Seems as thought Microsoft and Apple is trying to uniform their products now which makes perfect sense to me. I can get use to it as long as it is efficient as W7 or XP.
When did PC + Apps mean "Love" for developers? I think it should be called clusterfack
Whats with all the retail OS makers lately? First Lion and now Windows 8.They've let the smartphone successes get to their heads.Smartphones should be smartphones and computers should be computers.
The lines get blurrier everyday... I doubt I'll invest in Windows 8, unless it outperforms 7...
If it survives, this will be a great addition for my (currently) 3-year-old HP TX2500Z.
I'll always be a desktop guy, and have no use for smartphone-style interfaces, but other people prefer it... so why not give them the choice?
Choice is good, as long as it doesn't hurt the functionality in traditional Windows.
thanks for pointing that out captain obvious
Exactly, I think it's been clear from the outset that the Metro UI was brought about in response to the increasingly wide range of form factors Windows would be targeting, and intended for use primarily on tablets. Of course, that didn't stop the lolcows from whining about how awful it is, and how they'll stick with Windows 7/XP forever.
nice,, finally starting to get more choices,, take more ideas from Linux -- and maybe windows will be one of the nicest (prettiest) OSes to use
This entire thread sounds like the same comments I heard when WordPerfect decided to include pull-down menus in WordPerfect 5. "OMG, people just need to learn to use the function keys!" Guys, there is no 'PC' interface or 'tablet' interface. A design thrives or dies because people like it.
Now if they put this on a lightweight tablet -- competitive to the iPad's weight, size and dimensions -- then add the USB ports for support of any USB device including keyboard/mouse, HDMI port for external display, and keep the OS open to all 3rd party software..in other words, let me have the ability to go to google.com, or mozilla and download any browser I want, use any program I want that is Windows 7/XP/Vista compatible, let me run Steam on it with all my games even if the tablet doesn't have the hardware to play every game that I own. Hell they can even throw in an application store for games like Doodle jump or angry birds, because sometimes they're fun too
. If they can manage to put all that together inside of a tablet with up to date hardware like AT LEAST a quad core processor..then you got a tablet that I am 100% willing to buy at a reasonable/affordable price.
and i always thought that being metro/gay wasnt a choice
nice,, finally starting to get more choices,, take more ideas from Linux -- and maybe windows will be one of the nicest (prettiest) OSes to use
well then oh wise one let me know what linux distro looks better than windows
Wow, those tiles sure are great indicators of what freaking program they open.
Some text!
A man's chin!
01!
People running!
Green words!
They've made a total tradeoff of presenting information quickly rather that organizing it and making it quickly recognizable. In other place (like the office buttons) they go for a pretty looking consistency with the new apps rather optimizing that space or making the icons large and recognizable.
And my god, the awkward drop into the Win7 interface when Excel is opened. And trying to use the taskbar on a touch interface looked painful even for the presenter.
Ahem, the keyboard is pretty sweet. Nice photo app. Best of luck to you MS.
I'll stick with win7 as almost all of us did with XP when Vista came out, but thx for the effort anyways.
Sounds to me like Metro will be the default, and we'll have to manually switch to the desktop every time we reboot or log of. Thanks, but no thanks. Guess we could put the "desktop app" in the start menu or something.
Am I the only one who thinks that blocky/square UI in Windows 8 looks terrible?
Even on a smartphone/tablet it looks terrible.
and i always thought that being metro/gay wasnt a choice
you always have a choice
I see this as a way to increase the accessibility of the PC to people who may not be as savvy as Tom's readers. This is giving more information at once for quicker consumption and doing it in fewer steps. While I think this this is primarily suited for tablets, I could see this being of great use in AIO PCs as well. Hell, depending on how games can be integrated, I may even use it.
I smell the stench of Apple all over this... I don't want my computer trying to be an ipad. I'll pass.
i just hope they make it easy to turn that stuff off when the time comes. for just messing around that might be great. but for work stuff, development and such, that might just be annoying.
also, woulda been great if they showed what dual monitors looks like on there.
They didn't call that Tiles long time ago ?
Welcome to the new trend in the industry, simple enough for even a animal could use but for work this is a child's toy. It looks pretty, has massive and colorful tiles, meaningless pictures, and far far short of what most who use their machines for actual work need.
Fit for a toddler or some preschoolers but for programing or setting up routers and switches over command line no thanks.
I just threw up in my mouth.
Wow, those tiles sure are great indicators of what freaking program they open.Some text!A man's chin!01!People running!Green words!They've made a total tradeoff of presenting information quickly rather that organizing it and making it quickly recognizable. In other place (like the office buttons) they go for a pretty looking consistency with the new apps rather optimizing that space or making the icons large and recognizable.And my god, the awkward drop into the Win7 interface when Excel is opened. And trying to use the taskbar on a touch interface looked painful even for the presenter.Ahem, the keyboard is pretty sweet. Nice photo app. Best of luck to you MS.
You do realize that you don't have to use Metro, right? You can turn it off and never have to look at it again and instead use the more feature-rich Explorer. I don't see why you are complaining about having choices.
no one pointed this out yet[citation]Essentially, you can think of the Windows desktop as just another app.[/citation]
does this mean that there will be older windows emulated through apps?
such as the experiance of xp, but with all the new crap added to it?
if so... i think im in love...
will get it the moment a xp "app" is shown off or announced.
If I can launch my games, music and browse the web, then ok.
Yeah just another laptop or tablet ui. No one is going to want to hold both hands straight out for any length of time in order to navigate or type on a desktop pc. So great, it's ok for small form and mobile, but what is the point for the desktop?
Yay now we can simplify everything so much that your computer's OS will be the same as your phone's!