Submitted by It looks like Microsoft’s “shhh… let’s not leak our hard work” plea to Windows 8 testers has fallen on deaf ears, as an early development milestone of Windows 8 was leaked in the wild. The shots are remarkably boring, since it looks exactly like Windows 7. Duh.
i think i can say some words because, well i tested it.
some new features are missing because this build is from September 2010. We got the almost every build of Windows 7 when it was 2008 but things are changed.
And some features are hidden (remember Windows Superbar from 2008) because they are not fully implemented.
But as you can see in screenshot, there are some new tools like language explorer, system cleanup tool and windows live userbar.
and some more good news. microsoft is making a “most needed aero capabilites enabled theme with lower requirements” or “aero lite”.
i think we can get a more new build by may.
by the way: sorry for my english.
Your English is better than mine, and it’s my native tongue.
Anyway, looking forward to the beta next fall. Sounds like some great new features in the pipe. Windows 7 was good enough that I did not mind switching to it from OS X (originally for curiosity, but work is a “Windows Shop” and anytime I hit some incompatibility, the tech dept. gave me grief about it) and have been with it since the beta version came out.
I imagine 8 will be another solid leap.
so nothing have changed apart from an arm port? They plan to ship a “new” OS with only some GUI tweak ask users to pay for a skin? Look like OSX to me. At least we can expect some new API! Oh, wait, they are going to be Windows8 specific, are they? Great, an other nice library level lock to prevent Win7 from using them while they are compatible with the base system.
it’s not like OSX got API exclusive to most recent version of the OS.
But again, I agree that right now it look pretty *meh* to me.
It is an early build that was done about the time IE9 arrived. There have been 7 more months of builds and another 6 to go before the beta is even ready.
Not sure what you were expecting from this?
6.2, or better, Win7. The NT kernel is quite good, but not to the point to call it perfect and not work on it anymore. Its like they did nothing since 2006. 6.1 from Win2008R2/Win7 was mostly a bug fix release. I am not saying its a good metric, because I know they dropped some bloat in 6.1, but the overall thread count and file size have not changed between Vista and 7, so even if dropping some code helped keep the ratio, I dont think it account for much. Microsoft love legacy, so they can drop APIs, even hidden ones.
Yes, I agree they love legacy… too much. Well, here’s to hoping they start cutting cords, so to speak!
Are you crazy?
Do you have any idea what Microsoft has been doing with the NT kernel and subsystems since 2002? Just because changes in thelower levels of Windows don’t make sparkles fly out of your computer doesn’t mean they didn’t do anything. The entire codebase has been modularised and cleaned up, which was a MASSIVE undertaking which has reaped a lot of benefits.
These aren’t things you can SEE, but that doesn’t mean they’re useless.
Oh not that crock again *facepalm*.
Edited 2011-04-14 22:12 UTC
I agree – there’s so much more to an OS than the Shell. Right, the Kernel, that thing.
You’re totally right – just because it doesn’t LOOK any different doesn’t mean they didn’t do anything substantial. For example, Windows Server 2k8 Core – although it’s just a command line, you’d be insane to say that Windows 3.1 was better just because it “looked nicer”.
I’m impressed with the Win7 stability and security improvements I’ve seen over previous versions of windows.
Looks fake to me. One of the screenshots even says its win 7:
http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/Leaked-Windows-8-M1-Build-7850-…
They probably just haven’t made it a big deal to recode that dialog box yet. And it’s not like they can just have it pull a ‘uname -a’ or whatever since Windows 7 is really version 6.something and there is divergence in the versioning scheme now.
Microsoft icon designers, wake up!
Hi, I haven’t used any windows since windows xp service pack 2 in maybe 2005. I remember font rendering was bad even with cleartype thing on.
Is this still the case? I find font rendering under Linux to be a lot better especially under freetype 2.4
Font rendering is fine.
I know that some people still install gdipp and linux fonts to use, instead. But I like the fonts out of the box.
Hmm, looks like Windows is finally going to get support for mounting ISO files.
Uhhhh…and we would want this….why exactly? Those of us who know what an ISO is have Daemon Tools or Alcohol, and everyone else? probably needs to stay away from it. I’m in the process of teaching a friend my, as he calls it “Crazy multitasking knows everything ubergeek” thing and getting the average user to wrap their head around things like virtual drives? NOT in ANY way shape or form easy.
If MSFT has anyone left there with a brain they would LEAVE THE UI ALONE and concentrate on polish. The Windows 7 UI is frankly as close to perfect as one can get, it is intuitive enough those like my dad that have trouble even figuring out what an email is can find lots of features they never knew existed previously, while nice features like breadcrumbs and the new libraries make it easy for old guys like me to manage files easier.
So please MSFT, don’t fix what ain’t broke. Want to make Windows 8 a “must have”? Make it easy for guys like my dad to log into their office machine from home. Frankly RDP just doesn’t cut it, it needs to be more like Homegroup. Make it easy to plug a USB backup drive into a machine at work and drag and drop files at home onto it, use BITS to make it work in the background without choking the connection.
There is so much you can do to make Windows even better without futzing up the good UI thing you have going with 7. You guys like to rip off Apple? Then rip off Apple and simply tweak while leaving the core UI alone for the most part like they do with OSX. If you futz with the UI too much I’ll be wiping Win 8 to put on 7 for a year like I did with all the people wanting to “upgrade” from Vista to XP.
Why wouldnt you want this? Daemon tools is loaded with crapware if your not careful. It seems like the best thing for everyone (except the people who sell this type of software) would be that its built in.
Because I get Daemon Tool or Alcohol for free, and so can you? Just check “giveawayoftheday” .com once a day, you’ll find all kinds of cool tools and they give away Daemon Tools Pro about every 6 months or so. If you don’t want to wait just get Alcohol 52% and uncheck a single box that says install the toolbar.
As for why I wouldn’t want this, you DO know they’ve had a virtual CD driver for XP for like forever, right? Frankly it sucks. it ONLY reads ISOs, and even then it is “picky” about how the ISO is made. Compare to something like Alcohol 52% which gives you up to FOUR virtual drives (I have two set up in DTP myself) and it will read ANY format you can name, from the big ones like .ISO and .BIN to the rare funky stuff like discjuggler.
So I wouldn’t want this because like most of Windows pack ins it’ll be a day late, a heck of a lot of features short, and frankly suck. It is like the difference between the pack in defrag and something like Defraggler. With the pack in you have NO options at all, and no real say on anything, whereas Defraggler I can tell it to move files to the end of the drive, optimize boot, defrag on boot, defrag only certain files, etc. it is like the difference between a sit down meal and a MickeyD’s burger. Sure they are both considered “food” but that is where the similarity ends.
This is an _old_ screenshot. It’s a Milestone 1 build from September. MS is currently working on Milestone 3.
Lovely screenshots, but there are no Oooh… Aaah features introduced that will make me jump with excitement. It looks too much like 99% Windows 7 with here an there additional add-ons.
Having used Windows for most of my career, nearly 17 years; I’ve finally switched to Ubuntu and Snow Leopard. Each of which has there benefits and like-able features.
I believe that Windows 8 should take a look at Gnome3 Activities and Lion Mission Control. I prefer Gnome 3 Activities cohesion of navigational tasks. Windows does a decent job, but why does it still not extend Explorer to be tabbed base? Why is there still no central Notification System that is part of the base OS integration platform that can be activated and utilized by any Application – Growl like notifications. Why is Window Search an service and not a kernel extension that will index in “near” realtime. I would hope to see something like spotlight.
Furthermore tile based UI navigation is brilliant like in the Windows Mobile space. I would like to see more of this. Reducing UI real-estate that is just dead-space. Make looking at Icons / tiles multi-dimensional: giving navigation, usage, statistical information and feedback. Today displays are in HD and will even improve in the future, therefore allowing better rendering in condensed space – allowing the ability to provide visual information easily.
I’ll stop for now because I’ve got many different issues with Windows 7 and surely Windows 8 will raise the same.
Maybe the penny will drop and I’ll jump through the roof!