Windows 8 Initiates the New OS Battle

The release of Windows 8 undoubtedly makes the year 2012 a huge year for Microsoft, the technology giant.

Apparently, Microsoft is willing to put its money where its proverbial mouth is, though, and lead its customers by example. It is reported that Microsoft plans to accelerate its normal PC refresh cycle to give all employees new Windows 8 desktops and laptops. But, wait - there's more! Microsoft is also allegedly issuing new Windows Phone 8 Smartphone's and Surface RT tablets to all employees as well.

Many experts tend to think that it's a brilliant move by Microsoft. For this move not only fosters employees' loyalty and good will, but also allows Microsoft to do a massive real-world test of its manufacturing and distribution channels, and it enables Microsoft to demonstrate - on a massive, global scale - that Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 are ready for enterprise customers to roll out themselves.

Microsoft's "re-imagining" of Windows8 is focused very heavily on a new, Metro-style touch-based interface. In addition, the Windows Store, which is now available in the Consumer Preview, looks much like the home screen, with tiles that correspond to different categories and featured apps. Microsoft finally redesigned the task manager, and it looks pretty great. You have a very simple task manager for basic task killing, but if you're a more advanced user, you can bring up the detailed task manager filled with information on CPU and RAM usage, Metro app history, and even startup tweaking.

Along with these cool features, Windows 8 also comes with other features we've come to know and love in our mobile OS. It's got system-wide spellchecking, so you don't have to rely on a specific app to keep your writing top-notch, as well as a system-wide search feature, that lets you search anything from your music library to your contacts to the web itself. It also has a really cool feature for desktop users that enables you to run the Metro UI on one monitor while running the traditional desktop on the other.

It also has a really cool feature called "refresh your PC", where you can do a clean install with the tap of a button. Whether you're selling your machine or just want a cleaner, faster installation of Windows, you can do it all in one click.

Though a lot of technical and marketing job Microsoft has done, whether users will get to love the new OS and abandon their Windows 7 which is highly appreciated by users compared with other Microsoft OS is still to be questioned. (Below is a picture showing the Share Trend of different OS.)

From the picture we can conclude that the highly appreciated Windows 7's Share Trend has already surpassed Windows XP. And many think that Windows 8 is only the enhanced version of Windows 7 that offers enhanced service of File History, secure boot, built-in antivirus protection, Hyper-V 3 on supported systems, and Power Shell Version 3, etc. They do not find anything compelling to make them upgrade to Windows8 from Windows 7.

Besides Windows 7, the viral of Windows 8 include Android, which is backed by Google, and Apple's IOS. It will be a very interesting battle, and we could wait and see who will manage to get the lion's share of the OS market.

Related Articles

How to Auto login Windows 8/8.1/7

Top 5 Windows 8.1 issues and fixs methods

Windows 8.1 update 2 will add start menu back