After a lot of complains about the two UI modes on Windows 8. As you may know, Windows 8 will ship with the New Metro UI as well as a standard desktop mode for legacy apps. Which is Confusing!

Microsoft has heard your complaints and They will make some changes on the Desktop Mode to be more in sync with the Metro design language. Here is the New Desktop Interface after the Modifications (Photo Below).

A couple of the considerations about the New Windows 8 Desktop UI from Microsoft:

• While much of the Metro style UI uses white text on a colorful saturated background, the desktop in Windows 8 will continue to use black text on light-colored chrome, as in Windows 7. This choice was made to help preserve maximum compatibility with existing programs.

• Since the release of Windows Vista (which introduced Aero Glass), many desktop programs have integrated with glass, making assumptions that they should custom draw dark text with a cloudy "blur" texture behind it to make their text readable.

• Some of you may remember the substantial compatibility problems that arose when the system colors changed from light on dark (Windows XP) to dark on light (Windows Vista.) It took many years for these to be fully sorted out. We would prefer not to reintroduce these compatibility issues again in the other direction. So, "color matching" the new design on the desktop is not entirely feasible.

• But at the same time, we want desktop windows to continue to feel light and airy, and we want a chrome style that doesn't distract from the content of the app. We talk about Metro style apps as being "chromeless," (that is, no title bar, borders, or Windows UI surrounding them.) Desktop apps, on the other hand, have a lot of chrome. When you add up the cacophony of a bunch of these windows floating on the screen, suddenly you have a lot of chrome pleading for your attention. Aero was designed to help the app's content to be the center of attention, and for the Windows system UI to recede into the background. This is still relevant today, and while we are moving beyond Aero, we don't want to lose sight of these goals.

• Visual compatibility with Windows 7. Windows 7 is the most popular and widely-used version of Windows so far. We made a conscious effort to relate the visual appearance of the Windows 8 desktop to the visual appearance of the familiar Windows 7 desktop. This helps people who want to predominantly use the desktop feel comfortable and immediately at home in the new environment.

Microsoft has released the list of editions that Windows 8 will be sold in. There will be FOUR editions, will named as following:

"Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8 Enterprise and Windows RT."

The first three will be available for PCs and tablet users running x86/64 processors and will be on sale whereas Windows RT will be exclusively for PCs and tablets running on the ARM platform and will not be sold but would rather ship built into the devices. According to Microsoft, all editions of Windows 8 offer a no-compromise experience, which has sort of become their slogan with Windows 8.

Lately, Samsung has confirmed that Windows Phone 8 aka "Apollo" devices will hit the market in the second half of 2012, We may also see some Windows 8 tablets along with these devices too.

The devices will hit the market no earlier than October after Microsoft launches the next iteration of its mobile OS. There are currently no details on their specs. They will surely follow once Microsoft reveals the hardware requirements for Windows Phone 8.

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is currently out in the wild and the official release coming in the near future, the big names in the software world are looking to have Metro versions of their apps ready for the Windows Store as soon as it opens.

Firefox 2012 Roadmap shows that its goal is to have a working Firefox prototype on Metro by the end of Q2. While it is not to their standards yet, there is a Firefox browser that works in Metro. Currently, it sports the same look as the familiar Android version. The Metro version allows you to surf the web, create tabs, bookmark pages, build history, retain cache, and adjust preferences (screeshots above and below).

Yesterday, Microsoft showcased the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (CP) with pretty amazing new UI and Features. I am sure you are so exciting to Upgrade to Windows 8 ASAP. We already offered the Windows 8 Official CP copy to Download... But the Question is, Can your PC handle Windows 8 ?

The Answer is... "YES"

At the Microsoft Building Windows 8 blog, the Windows 8 team has posted the following system recommendations for Windows 8:

• 1 GHz or faster processor.

• 1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit).

• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit).

• DirectX 9.0c graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver.

This setup gets you going with Windows 8 such that it is functionally equivalent to Windows 7, and as we have talked about previously, you should see measureable improvements in performance in a number of dimensions with a system at this level.

BTW, Windows 8 Installation process take about 10 min ONLY to be completed and you can also choose to keep your Personal Windows 7 files and Applications too, but not all of them, Windows 8 will show you the compatible Apps that can work and the ones that won't.

Today, Microsoft showcased the Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a private event, The windows 8 is the Upcoming Generation of a whole new Windows Experience. Microsoft Now Offers the official Copies of the Windows 8 CP to all consumers to try it on their PCs with both 32-bit and 64-bit support. So Hurry Up and Get your Free Copy of the Windows 8 CP.

System Requirements, Windows 8 Consumer Preview works great on the same hardware that powers Windows 7:

• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster

• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)

• Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

• Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device or higher

• To use touch, you need a tablet or monitor that supports multitouch

• To access Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768

• To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768

Download windows 8 CP [EN 32-bit]

Download windows 8 CP [EN 64-bit]

Other Lanugauges & Versions

Windows 8 has undergone more than 100,000 code changes since the Developer Preview was released and will feel much more "refined," Sinofsky said. He called Windows 8 a "generational change" in how Microsoft designed the product, as well as in its function and implementation.

"The last time we made a generational change was Windows 95," Sinofsky said.

Julie Larson-Green, vice president of Windows program management are up to offer more details about Windows 8 and apps.

Julie is presenting Windows 8 on a Samsung Series 7 tablet. She is showcasing how the different apps are sorted into categories. Also, HTML 5-based games and apps can easily become Windows native apps in the new version of the OS. Says it took Microsoft about 5 months to make this possible.

Continuing with the showcase of apps, Cut the Rope gets a lot of spotlight for being one of the first apps rewritten on HTML5 and runs like absolute butter on Internet Explorer 10. Also, a CookBook app as well as the new People app got demonstrated. The latter looks very clean and we ca not wait to get our hands on it.

She also said that mouse and touch do not have to be mutually exclusive and that they can work together. She demonstrated scrolling pictures with her fingers while navigating with the traditional keyboard and mouse to prove her point

click on the photo to see larger version

We already leaked the Start-up screen animation and the icon of Windows 8, Today we the Have the final official logo of Windows 8 (picture above).

The Windows logo has gone through several changes over the years. What started as a simple, monochrome 2D logo with Windows 1.0 slowly became more complex as more colors were added along with a bit of depth, until it started resembling a flag by the time XP came out. That "flag" then got ensconced inside an orb with Vista and has been the same ever since. from Windows Steam blog post:

It's a window... not a flag

Paula asked us a simple question, "your name is Windows. Why are you a flag?"

With the Windows 8 logo, Microsoft has attempted to move away from this flag shaped logo towards something that goes well along with the "Windows" name, as well as fit with the new Metro style of the UI. For this they hired the designers at Pentagram and thus the new Windows 8 logo was born.

Microsoft new logo for Windows 8 is prompting far more reaction than you might expect from four skewed squares. Revealed yesterday after a spate of low-profile leaks, the logo is according to Microsoft Windows team itself as much an homage to the earliest, pared-down graphics of Windows 1.0 as it is a nod to the Metro UI that has become the theme of Windows Phone, Xbox LIVE and, soon, Windows 8 itself. Complaints about the new logo have generally centered on its insipid lack of distinctiveness, but according to the designers themselves this is merely the first step of many incoming changes.

Microsoft used external design agency Pentagram to create the new logo, and according to that team the sharp-edged icon should be seen as the first of a new language. The existing flag-like shape has been flattened out and made crisp, and other Microsoft products and services will make similar evolutions too. See the Demo Videos Below!

Windows 8 now has a specific launch date for the Consumer Preview version of Microsoft next PC operating system. Today, Business Insider reports that media invites have been sent out revealing that that the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, also known as the Windows 8 beta version, will be launched on Wednesday, February 29. The company is launching the beta version as part of its activities for the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, which is being held from February 27 to March 1.

The actual launch will be part of a press event for the Mobile World Congress which will be held from 3-5 pm on February 29. It is likely that Microsoft will be making some additional announcements at the event that will related to its Windows Phone business.