Thousands of Developers Achieve Guinness World Record at Windows AppFest

Thousands of Developers Achieve Guinness World Record at Windows AppFest Microsoft creates history; makes Official Guinness World Record by bringing together 2567 developers at a single location to compete in Windows AppFest—a non-stop 18 hours coding marathon for developing Windows 8 applications.

List of features removed in Windows 8

Aside from the removal of the Start menu, several notable features have been removed in Windows 8. Support for playing DVDs has been removed from Windows Media Player due to the cost of licensing the necessary decoders (especially for devices which do not include optical disc drives at all) and the prevalence of streaming services such as Netflix. For the same reasons, Windows Media Center will no longer be included by default on Windows 8 as well, but the software (which also includes support for DVD playback) can be added back through the paid "Pro Pack" (for the base version of Windows 8, which also upgrades the system to Windows 8 Pro) or "Media Center Pack" (for Windows 8 Pro) add-ons. Windows 8 will still support third-party DVD playback software. File History, the new backup feature of Windows 8 described above, replaces Backup and Restore, the former backup app, and Previous Versions, a component of Windows Explorer that saves previous versions of changed files. Backup and Restore is deprecated but will continue to work on preset schedule on computers that upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8. Previous Versions no longer protects local files, although it is still available to access previous versions of shared files stored on a Windows Server computer. Shadow Copy, the subsystem component based on which these worked, however, is still available for other software to use.

Hardware certification requirements for Windows tablets

Hardware certification requirements for Windows tablets
Graphics Card	DirectX 10 graphics device with WDDM 1.2 or higher driver
Storage	10 GB free space, after the out-of-box experience completes
Standard buttons	'Power', 'Rotation lock', 'Windows Key', 'Volume-up', 'Volume-down'
Screen	Touch screen supporting a minimum of 5-point digitizers and resolution of at least 1366x768. The physical dimensions of the display panel must match the aspect ratio of the native resolution. The native resolution of the panel can be greater than 1366 (horizontally) and 768 (vertically). Minimum native color depth is 32-bits.
Camera	Minimum 720p
Ambient light sensor	1–30k lux capable with dynamic range of 5–60k
Accelerometer	3 axes with data rates at or above 50 Hz
USB 2.0	At least one controller and exposed port.
Connect	Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 + LE (low energy)
Other	Speaker, microphone, magnetometer and gyroscope. If a mobile broadband device is integrated into a tablet or convertible system, then an assisted GPS radio is required. Devices supporting near field communication need to have visual marks to help users locate and use the proximity technology. The new button combination for Ctrl + Alt + Del is Windows Key + Power.

Windows Store and Apps

Windows 8 introduces a new style of application, Windows Store apps; according to Microsoft developer Jensen Harris, these apps are to be optimized for touchscreen environments and have smaller scope in relation to desktop applications. Apps can run either in a full-screen mode, or be docked directly to the side of a screen. They can provide notifications and a "live tile" on the Start screen for dynamic content. Apps can use "contracts"; a collection of hooks to provide common functionality that can integrate with other apps, such as search and sharing. Apps can also provide integration with other services; for example, the People app can connect to a variety of different social networks and services (such as Facebook), while the Photos app can aggregate photos from services such as Facebook and Flickr. Windows Store apps run within a new set of APIs known as the Windows Runtime, which supports programming languages such as C, C++, VB.NET, C#, along with HTML5 and JavaScript. Depending on the language used, apps written for Windows Runtime can be cross-compatible with both Intel and ARM versions of Windows. To ensure stability and security, apps run within a sandboxed environment, and require permissions to access certain functionality, such as accessing the Internet or a camera. Retail versions of Windows 8 will only be able to install these apps through the Windows Store—a namesake distribution platform which offers both apps and certified desktop applications. Sideloading, or the facility for loading Windows Store apps from outside Windows Store, is provisioned in Windows 8 Enterprise, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT, albeit in a very limited fashion: Out-of-box sideloading support is only available for Windows 8 Enterprise computers that have joined a Windows domain. Sideloading on Windows RT and Windows 8 Pro computers as well as Windows 8 Enterprise computers without a domain affiliation requires purchase of additional licenses through Microsoft volume licensing outlet. Windows Store apps were originally known as "Metro-style apps" during the development of Windows 8, referring to the Metro design language. The term was reportedly phased out in August 2012; a Microsoft spokesperson denied rumors that the change was related to a potential trademark issue, and stated that "Metro" was only a codename that would be phased out prior to Windows 8's release. Following these reports, the terms "Modern UI-style apps", "Windows 8-style apps"[74] and "Windows Store apps" began to be used by various Microsoft documents and material to refer to the new apps. In an interview on September 12, 2012, Soma Somasegar (vice president of Microsoft's development software division) officially confirmed that "Windows Store apps" would be the official term for the apps.

Interface and desktop of Windows 8

Windows 8 introduces significant changes to the operating system's user interface, many of which are centered towards improving its experience on tablet computers and other touchscreen devices. The new user interface is based on Microsoft's Metro design language, and features a new tile-based Start screen similar to that of Windows Phone, which has replaced the previous Start menu entirely. The Start screen displays a customizable array of tiles linking to various apps and desktop programs, some of which can display constantly updated information and content through "live tiles". As a form of multi-tasking, apps can be snapped to the side of a screen. A vertical toolbar known as the charms bar (accessed by swiping from the right edge of a touchscreen, or pointing the cursor at hotspots in the right corners of a screen) provides access to system and app-related functions, such as search, sharing, device management, settings, and a Start button. The traditional desktop environment for running desktop applications is accessed via a tile on the new Start screen. The Start button on the taskbar has been removed in favor of the Start button on the charms bar and a hotspot in the lower-left corner of the screen. Swiping from the left edge of a touchscreen or clicking in the top-left corner of the screen allows one to switch between apps and the Desktop. Pointing the cursor in the top-left corner of the screen and moving down reveals a thumbnail list of active apps. Aside from the removal of the Start button, the desktop on Windows 8 is similar to that of Windows 7, except that the Aero Glass theme has been replaced by a flatter, solid-colored design inspired by the Metro interface.

Software compatibility of Windows 8

The three desktop editions of Windows 8 are sold in two sub-editions: 32-bit and 64-bit. The 32-bit sub-edition runs on CPUs compatible with x86 architecture 3rd generation (known as IA-32) or newer, and can only run 32-bit programs. The 64-bit sub-edition runs on CPUs compatible with x86 8th generation (known as x86-64, or x64) or newer, and can run 32-bit and 64-bit programs. 32-bit programs and operating system are restricted to supporting only 4 gigabytes of memory while 64-bit systems can theoretically support 2048 gigabytes of memory. 64-bit operating system require a different set of device drivers than those of 32-bit operating systems. The 32-bit edition of Windows 8 is capable of running 16-bit applications, although 16-bit support must be enabled first. 16-bit applications are developed for CPUs compatible with x86 2nd generation, first conceived in 1978. Microsoft started moving away from this architecture since Windows 95. Windows RT, the only edition of Windows 8 for systems with ARM processors, only supports applications included with the system (such as a special version of Office 2013), supplied through Windows Update, or Windows Store apps, to ensure that the system only runs applications that are optimized for the architecture. Windows RT does not support running IA-32 or x64 applications. Windows Store apps can either be cross-compatible between Windows 8 and Windows RT, or compiled to support a specific architecture.

Minimum hardware requirements for Windows 8 for PC

Minimum hardware requirements for Windows 8 PC
Criteria	Minimum	Recommended
Processor	1 GHz clock rate IA-32 or x64 architecture Support for PAE, NX and SSE2	x64 architecture Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) support
Memory (RAM)	IA-32 edition: 1 GB x64 edition: 2 GB	4 GB
Graphics Card	DirectX 9 graphics device WDDM 1.0 or higher driver	DirectX 10 graphics device
Display screen	1024×768 pixels	1366×768 pixels
Input device	Keyboard and mouse	A multi-touch display screen
Hard disk space	IA-32 edition: 16 GB x64 edition: 20 GB
Other		USB 3.0 port UEFI v2.3.1 Errata B with Microsoft Windows Certification Authority in its database Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Internet connectivity