History and development
In January 2011 at the Consumer Electronics Show Microsoft announced that Windows 8 would be adding support for ARM microprocessors in addition to the traditional x86 microprocessors from Intel & AMD.
A 32-bit Milestone 1 build, build 7850, with a build date of September 22, 2010, was leaked to
BetaArchive, an online beta community, which was soon leaked to P2P/torrent sharing networks on April 12, 2011.
Milestone 1 includes a
ribbon interface for Windows Explorer,
a
PDF reader called
Modern Reader, an updated
task manager called
Modern Task Manager,
and native
ISO image mounting.
A 32-bit Milestone 2 build, build 7927, was leaked to
The Pirate Bay on August 29, 2011
right after many pictures leaked on BetaArchive the day before.
Features of this build are mostly the same as build 7955.
A 32-bit Milestone 2 build, build 7955, was leaked to BetaArchive on April 25, 2011.
Features of this build were a new pattern login and more.
A 64-bit Milestone 3 build, build 7959, was leaked to BetaArchive on May 1, 2011.
This build is notable for being the first publicly leaked Windows Server 8 build, as well as the first leaked 64-bit build.
A Milestone 3 build, build 7971, was released to close partners of Microsoft on March 29, 2011
but was kept under heavy security. However, a few screenshots were
leaked. The "Windows 7 Basic" theme now uses similar metrics to the Aero
style, but maintains its non-hardware accelerated design, and also
supports taskbar thumbnails. The boxes that encase the "close, maximize,
and minimize" buttons have been removed, leaving just the signs.
A 64-bit Milestone 3 build, build 7989, leaked to BetaArchive on June
18, 2011 after screenshots were revealed the previous day. An SMS
feature, a new virtual keyboard, a new bootscreen, transparency in the
basic theme, geo-location services,
Hyper-V 3.0, and
Powershell 3.0 were revealed in this build.
Features
The main feature that was shown is the extensively redesigned user
interface, optimized for touchscreens as well as mice and keyboards. A
new "Start screen", similar to the one in
Windows Phone 7,
includes live application tiles. It replaces the Start menu, being
triggered by the Start button or Windows key, and is also the first
screen shown on startup. The user can go to the regular desktop by
choosing the "Desktop" tile or a traditional desktop-based application.
The Start screen also displays the user's name and avatar.
Windows 8 has a new developer platform according to Microsoft Vice
President Julie Larson-Green, who called it "our new developer platform,
which is...based on
HTML5 and
JavaScript.
The new applications run in full-screen, but two of them can be
displayed side-by-side using "Snap". Examples of new applications that
were demoed include a Twitter client, a weather application, a
stock-tracking application, an RSS news feeder, and a virtual piano.
The new interface is primarily designed for
16:9
screen resolutions, with 1366×768 and larger screens able to display
two Windows 8 applications. 1024×768 screens can display one Windows 8
application in full-screen, and 1024×600 screens can only use the
traditional Windows desktop.
Mike Angiulo confirmed at Computex 2011 that Windows 8 will use OEM
Activation 3.0 instead of OEM Activation 2.1 (used by Windows 7), which
supposedly makes it less prone to cracks.
Windows 8 features a new lock screen that shows the date and time and notifications, along with a customisable background.
Windows 8 will also include Microsoft's
Hyper-V
virtualization tool. Previously only offered in Windows Server, Hyper-V
will now be available in client versions of Windows for the first time.
The system requirements for Hyper-V are a 64-bit processor, a 64-bit
version of Windows 8, and a minimum of 4 GB of RAM. Hyper-V also
requires a 64-bit system that has Second Level Address Translation
(SLAT), a feature that helps with memory management. Many of Intel's and
AMD's recent processors support this feature, including many of Intel's
i-Series processors (with
Extended Page Table) and AMD's 10h family processors.
On September 8, 2011, Microsoft announced that Windows 8 has short
boot times, because it saving the kernel's memory to the hard disk on
shutdown (similar to the existing Hibernate option) and reloading it on
startup.