Windows 8 - New Features Exposed

Windows 8 may not be available for the average Jane/Joe yet but a lot of people are already talking about the new features it's going to have not to mention those brave enough to take it for a spin already (click here if you think you're up to the task but didn't hear about the Windows 8 download freely available so far) and experience some of those features by themselves. As you probably know already I'm one of those who likes to watch new Windows versions and only try them after the final release sometimes waiting for the first service pack to arrive too before considering that OS worthy of having me as its user.

Today we'll just check some of those features that make a lot of people go "WoW!" and also add a few thoughts for each of them. While others talk about up to one hundred such things I'll keep it short and simple as usual - 15 is more than enough if you ask me. What about the rest? Nothing but minor improvements that people like to call "major inovations" and in most cases have been used for quite some time by various products - for example its "specially designed" touch interface or Task Manager's split into App Monitor and Process Monitor. L-A-M-E!!!

1. Antivirus included right inside the kernel of the operating system so the system won't even boot if an infected USB drive is plugged for example! In theory it sounds great. We only need to see how it stands the test of time after Windows 8 is finally released to manufacturing and more and more users adopt it...

2. Metro UI and the conventional Windows Desktop Interface both available in the same system. Hmmm... Windows Media Center anyone? I think they'd better offer one version just for tablets and one for desktop computers/"old school" laptops. Just my 5 cents...

3. Incredibly fast boot up time - at the Build Windows 8 conference a three-year old laptop managed to boot Windows 8 in less than 10 seconds! Another one that sounds great at this time but I want to see it happening with the final release too. ;)

4. Drive encryption capability for tablets - if you're crazy about keeping your data secured this surely sounds like a good one!

5. Hardware acceleration available by default for all applications no extra efforts needed. Add a bunch of cross-platform tools to that so you can easily write apps for all hardware - if using Visual Studio on a tablet sounds normal to you... ;)

6. Two versions of IE 10 one of them being specifically designed for tablets and Metro UI. Just great - so we should expect another IE version that doesn't work on Windows XP right? I think I'll swtich to Linux for good one of these days...

7. Finally Microsoft decided to offer native support for ISO and VHD files in an operating system. About a decade later than it should have but still a good idea...

8. 128-bit display and native support for USB 3.0 look great too!

9. Windows 8's disk defragmenter is - finally - able to take care of your SSD drives and performing the TRIM command is easier than in Windows 7. I don't know about you but this still sounds like "our defragmenter sucks get a third party solution there are dozens of good ones" to me...

10. A lot of sources claim that Windows 8 will offer an improved gaming platform and more than just that future may bring integration of Xbox Live. I just hope it doesn't offer an improved gaming platform the same way Windows 7 did...

11. "History vault" is a new feature that will provide automatic backup and only noobs will use. For serious users there are always a lot of free and paid excellent backup solutions! ;)

12. On the other hand Portable Workspace sounds great - if you got any external drive with at least 16 GB of free space you can easily create a portable image a clone or a whole system backup. Awesome!

13. Genuine Center is another feature that sounds good in theory - it will allow you to enter or change your license key as well as to view the genuine/pirated status of your license. In practice I don't think this will stop people from using pirated versions... only that it will help some of those who pay for pirated software to realize that they didn't get what they thought they would.

14. Same system requirements as Windows 7 - sounds good in theory. On the other hand I think some tablets that are currently running Android 3.0 like a charm surely can't run Windows 7 so my guess is that Windows 8 tablets will be more expensive than the competitors probably even than Apple's iPad. Sure I may be wrong - we just need to wait and see what's what...

15. New keyboard shortcuts mouse-only mode a lot of interface tweaks. Some may love them but I think that old things that work should stay. That's one of the reasons that still keeps a lot of people away from Windows 7 and Microsoft simply doesn't get it - or doesn't want to...

I guess that's all for today but if you think I missed something please go ahead and let the world know - is there any Windows 8 feature worth checking out that I didn't mention above? Thank you in advance for your time!