Windows 8 - Under Construction

When Windows 7 is about to be released, Microsoft is already hiring Windows 8 programmers (Source). Windows 8 is expected to be released on 2012. Though, many industry commentators are not expecting it to happen. Windows 8 is widely expected to adopt a more tablet-focused design.

Ribbon.

Ribbon UI has already shown up in Office and Paint in the Windows 7 version. Its already in Windows. Its just a matter of time before Microsoft fully implements it on all other of its programs.
App Store.

Another rumored change is inclusion of an app store, in which may explain the ongoing legal battle over that term with apple. But there are no indications how Microsoft will manage the countless thousands ofapps available for Windows, or many other details about the store at this point.

Faster Startup.

Windows 8, according to the slides, will feature faster startup through a new feature that combines the Logoff and Hibernate states.
 Push button reset.

This will allow you to re-install Windows with the push of a button. Most important is that Windows will retain all of your files, settings, applications, and so on, without wiping them out.

128-bit

The one thing that does seem to be on the agenda for Windows 8 is support for 128-bit architectures. A senior Microsoft researcher recently posted details on LinkedIn regarding his day-to-day work at the company.Among the details were indications that Windows 8 would include 128-bit support. Adding this to Windows 8 makes sense in terms of the evolution of hardware, even though most current users are still on 32-bit machines.

A 128-bit version of Windows 8 may well be overkill - 64-bit versions are still mostly under-utilised at this point - but in the long-term view it could become standard issue. If rumours are true that Intel and Microsoft are working on the 128-bit project together then Windows 8 and 128-bit processors could well suddenly start appearing around 2012.





Other rumored changes includes, new installation system, native ISO mounting, as well as windows ownPDF reader.