Windows 8

Microsoft’s day 1 keynote for the BUILD developer conference detailed an update to Windows coming on the next scheduled patch Tuesday called 8.1 Update. Notice it’s not called Update 1, which means there may or may not be more of these updates later in the year. Hopefully there’s more. Windows 8 launched about 18 months ago. With that launch, Windows was put on a rapid release cycle, which resulted in Windows 8.1 a mere 12 months later. When Windows 8 launched, “touch first” was the talking point used during the reveal. Windows 8 was likely the biggest ever change to Windows, and was a pretty big gamble on Microsoft’s part. For the project head of Windows 8, it didn’t work out with Steven Sinofsky leaving...

In-Depth with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Windows has changed a lot since Windows 95 ushered in the modern era of the desktop operating system almost two decades ago—the underlying technology that makes Windows what it...

286 by Andrew Cunningham, Ryan Smith, Kristian Vättö & Jarred Walton on 3/9/2012

Windows 8 Consumer Preview: A Quick Look at Battery Life (Updated)

With each new operating system in recent history, Microsoft has promised better battery life. We tested this back in the early days of Windows 7 and found that while...

113 by Jarred Walton on 3/1/2012

AMD Releases Video Driver for Windows 8 Consumer Preview

In conjunction with today’s release of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, AMD has released a new set of drivers specifically for Windows 8. Dubbed the AMD Catalyst driver for...

18 by Ryan Smith on 2/29/2012

Microsoft Demonstrates Windows to Go

Windows 8 supports installation to removable flash media via a feature called Windows to Go. Your apps, settings, and OS can all be installed to a USB stick and...

12 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/29/2012

Microsoft Demos Windows 8 on 82-inch Touchscreen

Microsoft is talking a lot about the importance of touch input to the Windows 8 experience in everything from tablets to high-end desktops. To show just how far you...

23 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/29/2012

Microsoft Shows Windows 8 CP on Tegra 3, Krait, OMAP 5 & Clover Trail

Update: Despite Microsoft referring to the test platform as running on a next-generation OMAP processor, TI tells us that the Windows 8 tablet was running an OMAP 4470, not...

4 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/29/2012

The Windows 8 Copy Dialog Box

Microsoft revamped the Copy Dialog box in Windows 8. You now get useful visualizations of the progress and speed of your file copy. You can also pause/resume individual copies...

17 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/29/2012

Windows 8 Consumer Preview: The Four Corners

During Microsoft's Windows 8 Consumer Preview Event at MWC today, Microsoft demonstrated some of the new features in the CP release out today. While the Metro UI obviously lends...

60 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/29/2012

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Available for Download

Adventurous Windows users can now download the Windows 8 Consumer preview from Microsoft's web site using the link provided below. The preview version of the new OS is available...

14 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/29/2012

Microsoft Showcases SkyDrive Metro and Desktop Apps for Windows 8

Microsoft has talked a bit about SkyDrive before in its plans for Windows 8, but Microsoft's Mike Torres and Omar Shahine have authored a Building Windows 8 blog post...

17 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/20/2012

Windows Store App Submission Process Detailed

Microsoft’s Jonathan Garrigues has detailed some aspects of the submissions process for the upcoming Windows Store on the company’s Windows Store for Developers blog. The post describes in detail...

8 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/15/2012

Microsoft Discusses Windows 8 Accessibility Improvements

After last week's broad, sweeping post about Windows on ARM, the Building Windows 8 team is back to discussing the nuts and bolts of the operating system - today...

13 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/14/2012

Microsoft Provides Windows on ARM Details

We've known that Microsoft has been planning an ARM-compatible version of Windows since well before we knew anything else about Windows 8, but the particulars have often been obscured...

62 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/9/2012

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Event Scheduled For Feb 29

Windows aficionado Paul Thurrott has just confirmed that the Windows 8 Consumer Preview event will be held in Barcelona, Spain on February 29, 2012. Coming from Mr. Thurrott, we...

12 by Saumitra Bhagwat on 2/9/2012

Microsoft Makes Changes to Windows 8's File Management Changes

We've been covering the changes in Windows 8 fairly closely since Microsoft started talking about the upcoming operating system, and while most of these changes will probably land in...

7 by Andrew Cunningham on 1/31/2012

Windows 8 Motion Sensor Support Detailed

Windows 8's tablet-centric focus means that it's going to pick up a lot of new features to support hardware particular to those devices - Microsoft's Gavin Gear took to...

22 by Andrew Cunningham on 1/25/2012

Windows 8 Mobile Broadband Enhancements Detailed

Using mobile broadband in Windows 8 will no longer require specific drivers and third-party software, says Microsoft's Billy Anders in a Building Windows 8 blog post today. This is...

14 by Andrew Cunningham on 1/20/2012

Microsoft's ReFS Filesystem for Windows 8 Server Explained

While Windows 8 client machines will continue to use the NTFS filesystem, Microsoft's Surendra Verma has given us some details on Windows 8 Server's new "Resilient File System," or...

18 by Andrew Cunningham on 1/16/2012

Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga 13 with Windows 8: This Is the Ultrabook We Want

We were back at Lenovo’s suite today and got a chance to spend a bit more time with a laptop that we didn’t get around to discussing on Tuesday...

31 by Jarred Walton on 1/12/2012

NVIDIA Tegra 3: Games Plus SplashTop Streaming of Skyrim

Tegra 3 tablets are a big thing for NVIDIA right now, and we’ve seen quite a few new tablets using the SoC. At NVIDIA’s booth, they had a bunch...

12 by Jarred Walton on 1/11/2012

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