WINDOES 8 OPERATING SYSTEM REVIEW

Windows 8 will be the next version of the Microsoft Windows computer operating system following Windows.
It has many changes from previous versions. In particular it adds support for ARM microprocessors in addition to the previously supported x86 microprocessors from Intel and AMD. A new Start Screen interface has been added that was designed for touchscreen input in addition to mouse, keyboard, and pen input.

NEW FEATURES -

•	Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.
•	Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps.
•	Fluid, natural switching between running apps.
•	Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using the capabilities of Windows.
•	Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.
•	Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10. n December 2011, Microsoft held an event in San Francisco to demonstrate Windows Store, through which all Metro style Windows 8 apps will be sold. At the end of the event, Microsoft announced that the public beta will be released sometime in February 2012, along with the Windows Store Beta. However, a few screenshots from a pre-beta build were leaked. New features included an updated setup preparation, a new theme, Aero Lite, a new background on the start screen, and new metro-style apps like Reader, Music, Video, and Photos Compatibility Windows 8 for x86 processors will run much software compatible with previous x86 versions of Windows, with the usual restrictions: 64-bit Windows will run also 32-bit software but not 16-bit ones; 32-bit Windows will optionally run 16-bit software if installed to do so, but will not run 64-bit software. Either 32- or 64-bit Windows can be installed on x86-64 processors. Some expertise in manipulating compatibility settings may be required to run, for example, 16-bit software for Windows 3.x under 32-bit Windows 8, in cases where it is possible. In particular, applications compatible with 32- and 64-bit Windows 7 will run in the same way on Windows 8. Windows 8 for ARM processors will not run software created for x86; software will have to be ported by its developers to create ARM executables from source code. Windows 8 Developer Preview is incompatible with some virtualization platforms, such as Virtual PC. A blog post by Microsoft notes that the setup process is error-prone when installing in a virtual machine, and installing without hardware virtualization support can be particularly problematic. It is reported to work under VMware Workstation, VMware Player, VirtualBox, and Parallels Desktop for Mac — detailed instructions for installing in these environments have been published. Developers can write apps for Windows 8 in JavaScript and HTML, Visual Basic, C++, and C#.