First of all let me just wish all my readers a very happy new year, I hope you have all had relaxing and enjoyable holidays. I’d also like to apologise for the lack of posts on here, I was far busier this festive season than I thought I would be. Anyway, the show must go on so here’s my first post of 2011 and with CES starting this week and with rumours of different versions of Windows to be announced, one able to run on ARM processors and one for “thing PCs”, and possibly even a demo of Windows 8 or mention of a new Surface computer I thought I would share with you some ideas I have had about Windows 8.
Back in February of last year I wrote about what I want to see in Windows 8, I pointed out that I thought Microsoft would integrate Windows 8 deeply with the cloud and from rumours and leaked documents throughout 2010 that certainly seems to be what Microsoft have planned. I went as far as to say that Microsoft should allow users to sign into any PC using their Windows Live ID and have access to their documents and Web Apps from Windows Live Mesh. I am increasingly thinking this is exactly what Microsoft will be offering, I have also come up with some other ideas related to this. This article is specifically looking at the ways in which Windows can work with the cloud, not how it could work on tablets.
One great feature of many Web Apps is that some don’t require users to hit a save button, it automatically saves. I really hope Microsoft provide this functionality throughout more of Windows but as part of this I would also like files to be saved to the Cloud at the same time as being saved locally. I hope that Windows 8 will see SkyDrive deeply embedded into the OS and treated like a backup drive so all files saved on the computer are saved to the cloud too.
I’d also like to see Windows support web site pinning rather than it just being through having IE9 installed on the computer. No doubt the anti-competitive courts would be keen to again penalise Microsoft over an IE issue so I think if Windows offered devs and users the ability to pin sites then all browsers could take advantage of the functionality. This would also combat Google’s Chrome OS, if it does indeed pose any threat to Windows.
Those ideas are just evolutions of the original ideas I had back in February for making Windows more web focused. But most of that is only superficial and I have had some more comprehensive ideas for Windows 8.
After using Windows Phone 7 for a few months now I really have come completely dependant on its great integration to the cloud and I think the Windows team can learn something from the mobile OS; specifically the cloud integration within the hubs and the hubs themselves.
The hubs are a great idea as it brings everything of a set category into a single place…much like Libraries that were introduced in Windows 7. I don’t know whether Libraries were ever meant to be a stepping stone towards a different kind of document management within Windows but I can see that the Libraries aren’t too far away from the Windows Phone 7 Hubs. In fact aside from the presentational and UI differences the only major difference is the lack of internet content appearing in Libraries.
If, as I hope, Windows Live ID become part of Windows 8 and the whole OS is linked to the likes of SkyDrive then Libraries could actually show similar content from across hard disk drives within a PC and from different places around the internet. It would be great to go to the Pictures Library and see photos from my PC, my flash drive, Facebook, Windows Live Photos and Flickr. Using Windows Live Mesh it could also be possible to see photos from my other devices without having to save them to my computer.
I can imagine the same for music with my music being shown alongside tracks I don’t own but are pulled from Zune or Spotify. Videos would be slightly different but perhaps if I like a video on YouTube then it would show up in the Video Library.
I believe that this could all be achieved relatively easily with the services that already link to Windows Live, after all some of this is currently possible on Windows Phone so why not Windows. Another feature that could provide some of this functionality would be Federated Searches that already bring internet searches to Windows.
I’ve also wondered if Microsoft will be offering a very cheap version of Windows for consumers which will only allow web sites to be pinned and not have applications installed. In 2012 when Microsoft are expected to release Windows 8 I’d hope that the Office Web Apps and Zune.net offer similar functionality to the PC software counterparts and that there are online versions of all Windows Live Essentials applications. I think that version of Windows 8 would depend entirely on Chrome OS, if that proves popular then Microsoft would probably have to offer a very cheap, web focused competitor to it.
I wonder if Steve Ballmer will talk about or even demo Windows 8 this week, I hope that some of my ideas/wants are addressed if he does. Microsoft certainly seem to “get” the cloud but with Windows’ long development cycle it could feel like they don’t get it.
One other thing I have been wondering about is the ability to get WL Mesh to remotely turn on computers. If I ever need to remotely access a computer it because I have forgotten to do something on it which usually means I didn’t think to leave the computer turned on. However, if Windows 8 can become more integrated with the internet then in theory it wouldn’t matter what computer I was at as I would be able to access all my files on any Windows 8 PC just using my Windows Live ID. And if Microsoft do release an app Marketplace for Windows then i wouldn’t necessarily be constrained to use a PC because of the apps on it.
Do you have any additional internet focused features you want to see Microsoft add to Windows 8?
