Microsoft reveals team working on Windows 8 'App Store' - Page 2

Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to log on? Are you kidding me?

Why make it so simple for the user? Why not Shift + T + Right Arrow + 7 + Make a noise like a cat + Cross your eyes?

Just ridiculous.

Wow, just wow! Microsoft copying Apple...

Who would have seen that coming!?

In an ideal world, software is planned, designed and implemented in that order.

According to my personal history of how Microsoft's products look, feel and perform, I'm more than sure that enough stuff gets added, scrapped and changed along the way so as to ensure that whatever they end up shipping is a total mess.


Ooops, sorry for the double post.

If one were to take the "What did Microsoft do to you?" part as a generic question to all those people who have suffered the crap Microsoft has foisted on the World for decades it would take a long time to answer that question.

And got it out right.

This is the competition's biggest problem. Apple is not simply First Mover in many cases, but Ultimate Mover.

Combining Apple's philosophy about how human beings should interact with tech - as in, tech as an extension of the user and not the user as an extension of tech - creates a dangerous situation for the competition, and these days, given how Apple has refined their game, this situation is often the beginning of the end for Apple's rivals.

A lot of stuff that doesn't have an Apple logo on it is killed in the womb. Already DOA on the rollout.

MS is no exception to this reality.

I'm missing something I'm sure but how do these percentages add up to 100?

Um yeah you are missing something. Probably a lot of something.

I'm trying to be nice today

I suggest that if you don't understand something then perhaps instead of running your mouth off you just simply ask the question. Chances are there will be someone here (like me!) who actually knows the answer.

It would be more like a normal conversation then, don't you think?

The answer to your question is that only the Windows login process is notified of the CTRL+ALT+DEL key press. No 3rd party application (or malware) can override it. That means the user is guaranteed they are entering their password into a secure dialog.

More info here.

The CTRL+ALT+DEL login screen is normally only enabled once Windows is added to a domain (i.e. It's a part of a business network).

Home users just select their logon picture and enter a password.

A leaked screen from Windows 8 showed the password dialog being replaced by an Android-like pattern logon screen.


EDIT:

Pattern logon process can be seen here (a little NSFW half way through)

I think that is kind of nuts. One of the biggest problems with the old Windows CE was that it tried to emulate the real Windows, which did nothing to enhance the experience on a smartphone. I had an old WinPhone. I tried to like it. I tried to master it. After 60 days, I bought a Palm Treo on eBay and put the WINCE in a desk drawer.

They beat his hometown team in the Word Series. It's a Yankees/Red Sox kinda thing for geeks, with overtones of "only believers in my religion will enter the kingdom of Heaven, and the infidels will be damned to eternal torment".

I had a CLIE too. I loved the hardware, but I soon learned to hate the company. I wrote a letter to Stringer telling him of my poor customer service, expecting to get a form letter in reply. I didn't even get that.

After that, I have bought many, many CE products (TV sets, PDAs, DVD players, computers, etc.), and not a single one of them was a Sony. Never again. F*ck Sony!

I don't think he's questioning the mechanic behind having such a secure keypress, merely that the keypress itself is so arbitrary and unintuitive. Why not, say, use the big Windows key that's on every PC keyboard (whether they come with Windows or not, but that's a whole different discussion).

I don't think Microsoft will try to force a desktop interface into Windows Phone.

The re-factorization and modularization of Windows has been an ongoing project for almost a decade with the end goal being core set of common components that can be used across all form factors.

The phone would almost certainly contain a customized UI tailored to the form factor.

The benefit of having the same core components (apart from maintenance and security) is that it opens up options for creating things like phones that look like a phone normally but switch to traditional Windows when docked with a full sized monitor.

Options like this are most interesting when applied to developing countries.

Just right click on the executable and scan it with your security software before running it. No worries. It is a good habit to get into. Besides, viruses and trojans are rare-to-nonexistent when downloading from places like CNET and other major shareware sites.

They named their operating system after a GUI component.
Naming is not their forte.

Microsoft as o late, is nearly always a step behind Apple. Apple gets this stuff into shipping versions followed by Microsoft some time later. Then when Microsoft does finally ship, it magically is pretty much a mirror of what Apple did two years earlier. The brick and mortar stores are a perfect example. Not only did they follow Apple, they copied them right down to the Genius Bar, the furniture and look and feel of the store.

I'm not saying Apple is first at everything, because clearly they're not. There have been other corporate store before. Other mobile phones and other tablets. That said the whole industry watches Apple very closely. They see how Apple implements things, then copies. Apple develops the iPod, how many iPod copies followed? Apple develops the iPhone, now how many iPhone copies are there? Apple develops the iPad, now how many iPad copies are there? It's pretty obvious really.

I'm also not saying Microsoft cannot innovate. They went their own way with the Zune and Windows Phone 7, and have done a pretty good job. They have done some other nice stuff in the past too. Microsoft needs to find it's way again and start leading... at least some of the time.

Far from being arbitrary those keys were intentionally selected to prevent a user from accidentally hitting them (like a single key would be).

The Windows key could already be captured by third party applications, so making it the secure attention key would have broken backward compatibility with some applications.

A better solution would be to simply throw the "CTRL+ALT+DEL to logon" in the rubbish, which is what they did for consumers.

is MS' codename for Windows 8 really "Windows 8"??

Each browser is showing the percentage of blocked sites over time. The full report is here.

Call me dyslexic, but I misread codenamed as "condemned".

Microsoft has publicly discussed this, and they have brought up a very interesting point: Our mobile devices are getting faster and faster, and many devices run 1 GHz + processors. By the time that "Windows Phone 8" ships they will probably be in the 1.5 Ghz range. With MinWin and the continuing modularization of Windows, it is not too farfetched to think that "Desktop Windows" will run on these devices in some form, with an interface that is more suited to the device of course.

I am pretty excited to see what they have up their sleeve. I have seen the Dell Inspiron Duo very cheap, and I am tempted to buy it just to put the public beta of Windows 8 on.

To some extent this is obviously MS copying Apple with an App store being built into the OS or copying Chrome having it's Apps store sort of being built into it's OS. But to some extent I think MS had to wait to be second.

If they had come out with this idea of building in an App store where they get a 30% cut of all revenue they would have instantly been fined millions and ordered to remove it as a result of using there monopoly against all software retailers. Now Apple and Google have both gone first they can say it's catching up with their biggest competitors OS features.


You mean when he said it 2 weeks before Apple announced iOS 5 they we're copying Apple 2 weeks in advance of seeing what Apple we're doing. Now that really is perfecting copying the competition when you copy something they havn't done yet.

I'm excited too!

I can't wait to see Microsoft -- once again -- try to shoehorn an OS designed for desktop/laptop computers into a smartphone form factor. The problem isn't the processor horsepower, it's the UI! I'm baffled that Microsoft continues to be so averse to using the touchscreen OS in Windows Phone 7 for tablets. It's like it's Groundhog Day every day in Redmond.

Because M$ is too lame to come up with thir own name, or anything else for that matter.

Microsoft announced something that Apple had been developing for months?

they foisted us on Windows and Steve Ballmer, enough reasons to burn Redmond to the ground

uncouth

I like that they refer to it as an "App Store."
I mean, what else could they name it? Windows 8 Live Marketplace?

I've owned just about every Apple product since the //c. Not gonna lie... I LOVE what Microsoft is doing on Windows 8. We've had the same desktop metaphor since the original Mac. It *should* have been Apple that updated the UI. But they got complacent. Lion looks like the same tired desktop we've had for over 25 years. So Microsoft came up with a completely new way of interacting with your technology that JUST MADE SENSE the instant I saw it. Even Engadget pitched a tent over the new UE and they usually only do that with Apple swag.

Like many of you, these days I live in several ecosystems. My phone is in Apple's, my PC is in Microsoft's, and Google's cloud services tie it all together for better or worse. Like a great man once said, "I have a dream" a dream that one day I'll be able to have all my tech in the same ecosystem and it will just work with a minimum of hassle and fuss.

Right now Windows Phone lacks several key features I need to replace my iPhone, but I sincerely believe that by the time Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 are released, I'll finally see my dream of living in a single technological ecosystem realized.

I wanted it to be Apple I *really* did. But there's too many compromises. I can't even do something as simple as bringing my custom email address to iCloud (a feature that both Google and Microsoft offer). I've had the same email address forever and see no reason I should have to give it up. Or pay a fee to stream my own music when I can do that from WMP for free.

So I've begun what's known as The Long Goodbye. I just finished migrating my cloud services to Microsoft. And as soon as the Windows Phone catches up (either with Mango or whatever follows) I'll be trading in my iPhone for those awesome tiles and hubs.

I can't wait to see my XBOX avatar jumping around like an idiot on my phone. Pointless? Definiately.

More fun that my current phone? Absolutely.

*sniff*

Don't let the door hit you in the arse on the way out...

Microsoft didn't just announce it, they demonstrated it.

From what we have seen from Windows 8 it looks to be designed around a 16x9 aspect ratio and a landscape orientation. Pretty much like a computer screen.

The iPad is designed around a 4x3 aspect ratio and portrait orientation. More like a traditional book.

I think this explains why Microsoft demonstrated the split keyboard upfront. As Window 8 tablets will have wider screens and primarily a landscape orientation the split on-screen keyboard is a necessity.

For Apple and the book-like portrait orientated iPad it was more of an afterthought.

Have you seen the Windows 8 demo?

Watch the video in the original post and you'll see it's the other way around. They are taking elements from the phone and shifting it to the tablet/laptop/desktop.

There is also no indication that they will try to replicate the same interface across all form factors. At the moment, looking at Windows Phone, the Windows 8 demo and the upcoming Xbox dashboard update, it seems like they will try to have a similar UI "feel" across all form factors but customized for each device.

Why aren't you on WindowsInsider.com?

I'll keep mac os for my desktop and notebook - but windows 8 looks pretty damn awesome if you ask me - that'll be going on my tablet pc the second it gets released.

Windows 8? Or the tablet PC?

I know it might seem like a foreign concept, but as well as AppleInsider I actually do frequent the Windows equivalent (and I didn't even self-combust when I did it! )

As a side note this probably explains why I know so much more about Windows stuff than you do.

Really? By "know so much more about Windows stuff than you do" you're referring to, what? Unreleased demo-ware? Betas? CTPs?

Because I work every day with production Windows servers and SQL Server servers (in addition to Oracle on various platforms) and have for the past 18 years. My first Windows OS was Windows/386 (version 2.1, I still have the 3.5" floppies) but I go back to MS-DOS 3.1. We ran NT 3.1 when it was first released, including Advanced Server (with unlimited users!) when Microsoft was competing against Novell, back when it mattered whether someone was a CNE.

Now, I admit that there have been so many Microsoft flops in the phone/tablet/touchscreen product space that I don't bother to pay attention until they at least start having their vendors ship actual hardware for their software.

Well, yeah. I always keep an eye on what's next.

You sound like you couldn't give a shit. Maybe it's time for a change of careers?

Ahh, these threads make it so easy to spot whos living inside the Reality Distortion Field

Windows and OSX releases tend to be staggered, so its not too surprising that they tend to leapfrog each other in features with every release.


This seems to be their endgame; Windows core components everywhere, with a custom UI layer on top. A few other companies have mentioned that this is where they see tech heading (nVidia for example), so I definitely want to see how far they can take this with Win8. Based on that, we can see if this vision has merit or not; because the hardware is going to get there, I don't think there's any doubt of that, its the software that I have my doubts about.

They have to; aside from the competitive aspect, netbooks and thin notebook PCs without optical drives are becoming common. Big PC makers are probably itching for the death of the DVD drive, one of the most failure-prone components in a computer.

Long ago, VW introduced what they called the Volkswagen Bus. Not long after that, GM, Ford, and Chrysler came out with SUVs. Volkswagen's ad agency came up with an add that showed the GM, Ford, and Chrysler SUVs with the caption: Volkswagen introduces three new models! Volkswagen vetoed the ad, but it would have been fun.

So Apple announces an App Store for Windows!