Windows Blue: Screenshots, whispers, and the promise of a fresher OS

Don't confuse Windows Blue with Windows 9. Still, the OS upgrade may pack some worthwhile goodies, including Internet Explorer 11. 

|
Reuters
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer shows a Surface tablet before the launch of Windows 8 operating system in New York. Windows Blue, an updated version of Windows 8, could hit computers later this year.

Although Microsoft has declined to talk about it, Windows Blue – an upgrade to Windows 8 – almost certainly exists, and will most likely be hitting computers and mobile devices sometime this year. The latest Windows Blue leaks arrived over the weekend, with a series of screenshots and videos of Windows Blue, including an in-depth, hands-on WinBeta clip

It's worth noting that Windows Blue isn't Windows 9. Nor is it an overhauled version of Windows 8. Instead, it's a rejiggering, a tweaking, a refining of the original Windows 8 OS. Among the updates: More color options and the ability to better organize, resize, and customize tiles. Multitasking will be easier with Windows Blue, says WinBeta, as will managing gads of desktop traffic. 

"The biggest changes are really in the settings part of the Start Screen," Tom Warren of The Verge recently wrote. "Users can now access new networking and apps sections that provide access to additional options not available in Windows 8. Networking lets you switch connections on and off, and there's a quick way to add VPN settings too. In the new Apps section you can view how much storage apps are taking up and also take control of when notifications are shown thanks to a new quiet mode." 

Windows 8 sales were steady if slightly underwhelming through the holiday shopping season – more recently, Information Week reported that Windows 8 sales seemed to be "stalled." Will Windows Blue bring attention back to the platform in the longterm? Unclear. But over at Beta News, Joe Wilcox argues that at the very least, Blue represents a positive development for Microsoft, which is finally speeding up its OS development cycle. 

"[The] situation is this: Google cranks out new Android, Chrome and Chrome OS updates at frenetic pace, along with a plethora of supporting services," Wilcox writes. "Meanwhile, Microsoft development, by comparison, is more like IBM at the end of the mainframe era set against the PC. Microsoft really, really, really needs to pick up the pace." 

Interestingly, WebProNews believes Windows Blue will ship with Internet Explorer 11 – a good reason, in of itself, to upgrade. Launch date of Windows Blue is unclear, but we'd put our money on the early fall – more or less a full year after the initial release of Windows 8. 

For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Windows Blue: Screenshots, whispers, and the promise of a fresher OS
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/0325/Windows-Blue-Screenshots-whispers-and-the-promise-of-a-fresher-OS
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe