Microsoft has been relatively tight-lipped about the company’s next version of Windows. Most of the information available publicly is from leaked screenshots and videos. Lets briefly take a look at whats going on inside Microsoft when it comes to Windows 8.
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Here is what we know so far. The latest internal build as of this post is 8030.0.110620-1742. This is a Milestone 3 build and was compiled on June 20th. Multiple branches of Windows 8 are being built off the winmain trunk. Microsoft is still facing a ton of bugs with their Windows 8 code as the company faces some big architectural changes to support the promised features. In fact, in these builds, we are seeing incomplete and untested code. Applications and features that worked in the past are now facing problems with user interface bugs. Microsoft is currently focusing all its efforts on making the new Windows 8 interface work as promised.
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Speaking of the new interface, an anonymous tipster sent us a screenshot of what appears to be a presentation of the new interface in Windows 8. The screenshot is infact legit and showcases a notification indicator at the bottom right. Perhaps we will be seeing a new notification system? What is also unknown is what build this screenshot emanates from, although we are thinking an early Win8 build. It’s unknown if this type of notification system will be implemented. We think perhaps Microsoft was just testing out the feedback of the user interface. The bigger question is, will this notification system make it to a newer build or will it get scrapped for something entirely different? Two names were edited out of the screenshot for their protection.
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The latest leaked build of Windows 8 is 7989 and features a new wallpaper and a new boot-up screen as well as other features that are being discovered by eager testers.
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As we have seen from multiple screenshots and the Windows 8 introduction at the Computex and D9 conferences, the Windows 8 user interface is heavily influenced by Windows Phone 7’s Metro UI. In fact, we are also expecting to see Xbox Live integration in Windows 8.
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To catch up on all Windows 8 news, you can follow us on our Windows 8 page.
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