Windows 8 Consumer Preview will be available a few days later. This means the Microsoft’s new operating system is closer to us.  Do you have a plan that updating your Windows to this upcoming Windows platform?

Maybe you’ve just used to Windows 7 and not intend to update this new Windows. But the amazing new features and improvements of this new Windows may arouse your interest and make your plan changed. Following are some Windows 8 features you may be interested in: Read more

Refer to Windows 8, there are many news about this forthcoming operating system. For example, Windows 8 will launch in 2012. Windows 8 supports USB 3.0. Windows 8 to have similar requirements as Windows 7 and users don’t need to wait for Windows 8. Here we have news about the new operating system. Windows 8 is to run on any system capable of running Windows 7, which at a minimum will require the its resource usage to remain the same as its predecessor’s.

The above news is from the Building Windows 8 blog, which is introduced to keep partners and customers better updated with the development and progress of its next operating system. On the blog, Bill Karagounis, the group program manager of the Windows Performance team, said that the group’s goal with Windows 8 was always to ship with the same performance requirements as Windows 7. He also wrote that the reason for doing this was to minimize the power consumption used by Windows 8 when running on a tablet.

Karagounis also identified several methods to minimize Windows 8 memory usage: combining memory, or the ability of the OS to identify duplicate memory being used for identical tasks and then retain a single copy. Many Windows 8 services like Windows Update, the Plug and Play service and others, run only when they’re needed while they run in the background more or less constantly in Windows 7.  By changing some traditional Windows services to run only when triggered and making many new-to-Windows 8 services behave the same way, the OS can save RAM without actually shedding features.

Interested in it and wonder more details, please visit the Windows 8 blog.

Microsoft’s Windows XP has slipped under the 50% share mark for the first time according to Net Applications. At the same time, Windows 7 has steadily grabbed more customers since its official release in October 2009. It’s said Windows 7 will be the most likely to replace Windows XP as the mainstream operating system before the arrival of Windows 8.

Although Windows 8 has been confirmed to launch in 2012 and there are various leaks and rumors about it, Microsoft has yet provided any progress and update details about the forthcoming operating system. It’s said that Microsoft will cover more of the new features and improvements in Windows 8 at the BUILD developer conference, planned for September 13, 2011.

Even so, the users’ attentions haven’t transferred to the next version of Windows at present, and most of them are mainly in the use of Windows 7.
Net Applications statistics shows Windows 7 finished July with a 27.9% global usage share, an increase of seven-tenths of a percentage point over June. While on the other side, the decade-old XP closed July with 49.8%, a 1.3-percentage point drop from June.

If you are still sticking to the ten-year-old operating system, just hurry up and switch to Windows 7 right now. If you are hesitate about whether to update to Windows 7 now or wait for Windows 8, the suggestion is to update to Windows 7 as Windows 8 will run Windows 7 software just fine. After switching to Windows 7, please remember to create a password reset disk for your password-protected Windows 7 user account as there’re increasingly users troubled by a lost Windows 7 password.

Have you ever heard about graphical password? Well, if you have ever been careful about the Windows 8 rumors and news, I believe you’ll not be unfamiliar with it. It’s said that there are two ways available when you log on to the upcoming operating system: traditional text password and graphical codes.

Here comes the problem: what is a graphical password?   According to Wiki, graphical passwords are an alternative means of authentication for log-in intended to be used in place of conventional password; they use images, graphics or colors instead of letters, digits or special characters. Read more

Though  Windows 7 is still prevailing in the market and takes more than 25% market share, we have to look forward to the coming of Windows 8 which is turning into be one of the hottest topic in our Windows users. Although Windows 8 is anticipated to be released in 2012 or later, many functions about the upcoming Windows 8 have apparently leaked onto the Web, revealing new surprises and some makeovers to existing features.  The following will list the new functions of Windows 8.

ARM processor support
No doubt that Microsoft wants Windows platform to the flat-panel computer can be entered. To achieve this purpose, Windows 8 will operate on the ARM microchip architecture, the technology that powers most of the world’s smartphones and tablets. At the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed Windows8 Foreign Assembly ARM processor running on the effect, which means that Windows8 will be able to thin, low-power devices to compete with Android and OS .
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