50 Facts and New Features you need to know about Windows 8

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Windows 8, When you first heard about it, I am sure you just punched a comment.. ahhhh.. one more similar version of Windows is about to come! But sorry to say, this time you were wrong. There is only one word left in dictionary for Windows 8 - marvelous!

Windows 8 is an approach of Microsoft to deliver a single centric OS for Tablets and PCs and later on for Mobile devices also. At BUILD Windows conference, Microsoft showed up the latest advancement they made in Windows 8. After watching the features of Windows 8, many got stunned and amazed. Being still in its development phase, Windows 8 is nevertheless delivering satisfaction to its users.

TWC 2 1 400x225 50 Facts and New Features you need to know about Windows 8

In this first of the series of 100 things, I am going to tell you about 100 things which I come to know about Windows 8 till now. This series will be divided in two parts comprises of 50 things in each.

So here are the first 50 things which you should know about Windows 8:

1. Windows 8 has a specially designed touch based interface that is easy to use on touch based devices.

2. Windows 8 has both the Metro UI and the conventional Windows Desktop Interface which lets you easily manage the gap of paradigm shift which technology is taking in coming years.

3. The all-new start screen is intended for Windows 8 which comprises of applications in live tiles form,. These let you use your favorite applications in a single tap or click.

4. Using Windows 8 PC, power can be saved like any other mobile device and delivers a high battery power holding time.

5. As demonstrated at the Build Windows 8 conference, by Steven Sinofsky, even a three-year old laptop with Windows 8 installed, booted in just 8 seconds.

6. No other Tablet has drive encryption feature till now; Windows 8 is the first to drive encryption feature for a tablet.

7. Windows 8 offers commendably cross-platform tools to write apps for all hardware even on phones.

8. Antivirus included in Kernel; providing you the security, you never had before and even the system will not boot if it detects an infected USB drive plugged in the system.

9. Windows 8 boots in just eight seconds which is inconceivable for any other PC or Phone OS (including Mac OS X Lion, iOS or Android).

10. Windows 8 gets booted even faster than a monitor can turn on.

11. No extra efforts required to provide hardware acceleration to the apps, Hardware acceleration is available for by default.

12. You can even boot Windows 8 using 256TB hard drive or SSD. (256TB is not available in market till now).

13. Windows 8 is laden with Near Field Communication which lets you share and connect to devices near you.

14. A tablet with Windows 8 on it can even run Visual Studio. Time for developers to go fancy.

15. You can easily switch between Metro UI and Aero UI just by hitting Windows key.

16. In Windows 8, the task manager has been Reimagined as App Monitor and Process Monitor.

17. Windows 8 sports two version of Internet Explorer 10, one is specially designed for Metro UI and tablets.

18. Windows 8 even supports pen based input on touch devices.

19. Windows 8 lets you access your hard drive remotely from anywhere in the world just through Browser and SkyDrive, using your Windows Live ID.

20. Windows 8 lets you connect remotely to other computers just through Windows Live.

21. Each application in Windows 8 tracks its own data usage also which can be viewed in a system wide report.

22. Windows Assessment Console run performance benchmarks for your applications without any requirement of third-party tool.

23. Allows you to hibernate fast even after replacing the battery, requires only 8 secs to come back.

24. As soon the Start Screen appears you can use the keyboard instantly to speedily search and start the applications.

25. Additional applications can be easily found by clicking on the search charm. 

26. New Windows offers New Keyboard Shortcuts.

  • WIN+Q for application search.
  • WIN+W for settings search.
  • WIN+F for files search.
  • WIN+I for “settings” charm.
  • WIN+O for rotation lock.
  • WIN+C to bring up simple “Start menu” and time/date.

27. Windows 8 is also fully compatible with the older shell keyboard shortcuts like WIN+D activates desktop, WIN+R opens Run, WIN+L locks user. WIN+E opens Explorer.

28. In mouse mode, you can activate the options/charms by moving the mouse to the bottom left edge (where the Windows button used to be).

29. In mouse mode, right clicking activates in-app options instead of a common context menu.

30. The application tiles can be selected by using the keyboard arrow keys and page up/down. Enter key starts the selected application.

31. Check the “settings” charm in applications to reveal app-specific settings.

32. Enable the “high contrast” mode in Control Panel -> Ease of Access to see a dark themed Start screen.

33. Windows 8 Support system-on-a-chip (SoC) platforms from Intel running on x86 architecture and from NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments on ARM architectures as well.

34. Windows 8 comprehends native support for ISO and VHD files and images.

35. Windows 8 will have native support for USB 3.0.

36. You can develop Windows 8 apps in HTML 5, JAVA Script, CSS3 also.

37. It will have Native Hyper–V support.

38. Windows 8 has new Office Ribbon Style Windows Explorer.

39. Windows 8 includes a 128-bit architectural display instead of 32-bit operating system.

40. Windows 8 has the same system requirements as of Windows 7.

41. Disk defragmenter in Windows 8 is capable of handling SSD drives and let users to perform the TRIM command easier than in Windows 7.

42. Windows 8 loves Ambient Data.

43. On the Start Screen, Live tiles keeps updating constantly.

44. Windows 8 supports biometric and facial recognition for user verification.

45. Windows 8 offers improved PC gaming platform, later on may also get integration of Xbox Live.

46. Windows 8 offer one of the most exciting features called history vault that provides an automatic backup of files and documents.

47. With Portable Workspace user can create a portable image or a clone or whole backup on any external drive with at least 16GB of available storage capacity.

48. Windows 8 also integrates Immersive browser to get more web on to the screen by reducing many options.

49. With Windows 8 experience the new mode of shutting down and starting up the Windows with the feature called Hybrid boot.

50. Another great feature introduced in Windows 8 is Genuine Center, through which you’ll be able to enter or change your license key and view the status of your license’s genuineness.

In my next next post titled … you guessed it … More facts and new and features you need to know about Windows 8, I will share with you some more nuggets about Windows 8. icon smile 50 Facts and New Features you need to know about Windows 8

So stay tuned!

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Nitin Agarwal is a Microsoft MVP and a Pro Blogger. He has been awarded as Most Valuable Professional for three times by Microsoft in Windows Expert - Consumer category. He is immensely inspired by Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and APJ Abdul Kalam.

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  • H.Mahajan

    Great work !!

  • r0lZ

    What’s the difference between points 5, 9, 10 and 23? Repeating 4 times that Windows 8 boots in 8 seconds is not fair. Especially as that 8 seconds time does not apply to the full boot, but only to the new hybrid-hibernation mode (or whatever they called it) and, more important, in absence of any additional program or driver installed on the system. Remember when you had just installed XP or Win7? It booted (real boot!) in 20 seconds or so. After some years of intensive usage, my XP tooks 3 to 5 minutes, and Win7 even more. I bet it will be exactly the same thing with Win8.

  • Brian Garrett

    Re: item # 9 My 27″ iMac running Lion (and as well as when it was running Snow Leopard) boots in just about 8 seconds… I haven’t timed it simply because I hardly ever reboot it – but when I do I can’t even reach for a sip of my drink before it’s done.

    Hopefully all of those other items are accurate and included and don’t get dropped for technical reasons. If they are in there they’ll have a great OS on their hands…

  • Sirgee

    Thanks! I’m already using Windows 8! It’s superb!

  • Gdghgfgjy Ggjffv

    256TB? Most SSDs are struggling for 256GB and now 1,000 times more? Wonder how much that would cost. 256GB SSd=~$500. 256TB=~$500,000.

  • http://www.windowslifestyle.com Nitin Agarwal

    All these points are referred in different context, In point number 5, I told what Steve showed on the stage of BUILD Conference. In point 9, I compared booting time with other OS. In point 10, I tried to measure the speed of initial booting time of Windows 8, so that a novice can understand in easy terms and in point 23 I talked about the hibernation recovery time.

    All these stats are as of now what Windows 8 is actually delivering, As there are no drivers available for Windows 8, so we cannot measure its performance in that context. Though I have one Intel device driver installed on my W8 machine, which came through Windows updates but still the booting time is in time frame of 8 seconds.

    And there is no doubt that drivers for Windows 8 will also be re-written by the manufacturers to deliver much more optimized performance, and with Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to centralize most of things. like many devices will not even going to require any driver. So, in this case Windows 8 will surely deliver the fast booting time.

  • http://www.windowslifestyle.com Nitin Agarwal

    Achieving 8 seconds booting time on a 3 year old junk PC is really a big achievement and if you’ll get Windows 8 on PC equivalent to what your shiny iMac 27″ holds inside it, then it can do things which we can’t explain in words. (Performance wise).

  • http://www.windowslifestyle.com Nitin Agarwal

    Thanks Harsh! :-) Hope you have shared it with your friends..

  • http://www.windowslifestyle.com Nitin Agarwal

    Your welcome Sirgee :-) Ya it’s awesome…

  • http://www.windowslifestyle.com Nitin Agarwal

    Yes, that’s the beauty of Windows 8 :-) You heard it right, it supports up to 256 TB :-)

  • Matt Gajownik

    Any idea how to access the new Windows Assessment Console in x86, or is it part of the developer tools?

  • Zepe

    I’m not opposed to change, but sometimes companies make “improvements” for the sake of change. There’s an old addage that rings as true today as it ever did, :If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” The ribbon is a classic example.

  • Ricki Kerr-Hunter

    point 28 is incorrect, that’s how you access the start button, you hover over the extreme bottom left and the traditional desktop start menu appears, i’m yet to find a mouse gesture for the charms

  • Naim Oliveira

    Very cool man. Does anyone in the world knows a way to make the METRO UI run in 1280x720p?

  • Addie Nonki

    Number 9 gets me excited! Can’t wait for this!

  • Dksullivan_99

    I actually shut down the pc each night after work. Not sleep or whatever. complete shutdown. Windows 8 is the fastest startup I have ever seen. and shut down is fast also. I do have 9 gig of ram, but is seemed super slow with windows 7. But with win8 everything is super fast! Can’t wait to get the complete version.