Microsoft Slowly Revealing Details about Windows 8

For all of those curious about Microsoft’s (News - Alert) next operating system, the company has been gradually doling out details about Windows 8 through a blog dubbed “Building Windows 8.”

Kicked off about a month ago, the new blog series has been providing an interesting peek at several of the new features and enhancements that will pop up in the next version of Windows. Many of the blogs have been authored by Steven Sinofsky, President of Windows and the Windows Live Division, but other posts have been contributed by some of the program managers and other folks directly responsible for certain features and functions.

One of the first tidbits unveiled by Sinofsky in the blog is that a prerelease version of Windows 8 is set to hit the stage over the coming months. That term prerelease is a little vague as it could refer to anything from a pre-beta developer’s release to the actual beta edition. My own take is that Sinofsky was referring to an actual beta version since the “Building Windows 8” blog feels like it’s intended for a general audience of Windows users and not just developers. But we’ll know for sure over the coming months.

Looking at some of the specific improvements destined for Windows 8, the blog revealed some long-awaited changes to basic file management, specifically the process of copying and moving files. In Windows 7 and prior editions, copying and moving files can sometimes pose a challenge, especially if you’re trying to handle a huge number of files at one time or replacing files that already exist.

Instead of displaying a separate progress dialog box for each file being copied or moved, Windows 8 will display a single dialog box where you can monitor and control the progress of all files. Windows 8 will also now show you a new graph revealing the data transfer speed, the transfer rate trend, and the amount of data left to transfer. That will replace the current estimate box, which has often been considered kind of a joke with its wildly varying and often changing estimates on how long a file will take to copy or move.

Finally, Microsoft is throwing in a clearer and more detailed dialog box that appears during a file collision, which happens when the same filename exists in both the source and destination folders during a copy or move.

In another change that’s already proving controversial, Microsoft is adding the Ribbon interface to the Windows 8 Explorer. Though the company contends that satisfaction with software that uses the Ribbon is higher, a number of unhappy users already weighed in to express their dissatisfaction. Introduced in Microsoft Office 2007, the Ribbon has been one of those love-it-or-hate-it features. Microsoft seems resigned to the fact that a certain number of people will never take to the Ribbon, but the company is still intent on expanding its usage.

One more major change that we’ll see in Windows 8 is support for both the new Metro interface and the traditional Windows desktop. In designing Windows 8 for both mobile devices and conventional PCs, Microsoft will apparently offer the Metro UI, borrowed from Windows Phone (News - Alert) 7, as the default boot-up option, but will retain the ability to switch over to the desktop for users who may prefer that interface especially when working on laptops and desktops.

What else can we anticipate from Windows 8? The new OS is promising to offer faster boot-up times, better support for ISO and VHD files, and the inclusion of the Hyper-V virtualization tool. We can also expect more to be revealed about Windows 8 this week as Microsoft kicks off its Build developers’ conference on Tuesday.

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