Microsoft Shows Off Windows 8 at D9 Conference

At the D9 conference being held this week, Microsoft decided for the first time to give a public preview of its upcoming Windows 8 OS, and what a showing it is! Whereas Windows Vista had similar styling as XP, and 7 was simply an evolution of Vista, 8 looks to make the traditional interface we’ve become used to obsolete. Hope you’re ready for touching!

That’s right… Windows 8 is going to have a huge emphasis on touch-enabled displays. Those would include standard desktop displays, mobile phones, tablets, notebooks and virtually any other device that has a touchscreen and the ability to run Windows. It’s clear that Microsoft wants to see its OS in as many places as possible, and with huge demand touch in our mobile computing, the company envisions users enjoying the same sort of functionality at home.

Similar to Windows Phone 7, the Windows 8 primary interface will feature a clean design and tiles in lieu of icons. Microsoft states that tiles are better than icons because they are larger by nature and have more “personality” – something I’m not about to disagree with. But can an interface like this work for a desktop PC? That’s the big question.

In a provided video, the host does almost all of his computing with the main touch interface, from looking at the weather, to browsing the Web, to watching a video and more. It’s only when he launches Excel that we see the traditional Windows desktop. It’s assumed that similar to Windows Media Center, this interface can just be brushed aside and ignored. At the same time, it can also be used in unison with the standard Windows Explorer interface – so whichever works out best for you, you’re welcome to it.

There are some “touch” interfaces that work well with a mouse, but this is one where a touchscreen is going to be the only reasonable option. In the video, the host uses his hands a lot to perform touch-specific gestures, and it seems like replicating the same sort of movements with a mouse would be a little more tedious than need be. Equipped with a touchscreen though, this interface has huge potential, though it’s an ambitious move by Microsoft. This will undoubtedly be one of the company’s most challenging goals it’s set out to hit in a while.

With such a major emphasis on this touch interface, I do have to wonder if it’s going to feel like the normal Windows interface is going to be left alone with few new features introduced. In the quick glance we could see of the usual interface in the video, the OS looks identical to Windows 7, even going as far as to include a similar wallpaper. Though, it is still early, and this touch interface is obviously the focus at the moment. We’ll have to wait and see how the OS as a whole progresses.

What do you think about Windows 8 far?