Loading one of these apps will bring up a more familiar version of Windows. Legacy apps and new apps can run side by side (Click to Zoom) What about existing Windows apps, such as Office and Photoshop? Presumably Microsoft will distribute these apps through its own store–there’s a “Store” tile in the version of Windows 8 that Microsoft demonstrated–but the company offered no details. Microsoft also showed off Internet Explorer 10, which is optimized for touch. A news reader displays stories and thumbnail images in big, rectangular panes. A weather app shows the five-day forecast. Microsoft says it’s created a new kind of app for Windows 8 using HTML5 and Javascript, and they’re a lot like the apps you’d expect to find on a tablet. Windows 8 Weather App (Click to Zoom) How will Windows 8 apps work? This allows users to view two apps at the same time–something that no existing tablet OS can do. And therein lies the coolest-looking feature of Windows 8: When swiping in a new app, users can snap it in place next to the app that’s currently running. Users can multitask between open apps by swiping across from the left bezel. Swiping from the right bezel brings up a menu that can take users from an app back to the home screen. As with Windows Phone 7, apps can show some information within the tiles–users needn’t click on the weather app to see the current temperature, for example. (Click to Zoom) How does the touch interface work?įrom the start menu, which shows basic information like time and unread e-mail counts, users swipe upwards to reveal the home screen and its tiles. But underneath that touchy layer is plain old Windows, with a task bar, file manager, app icons–everything. The operating system’s home screen is filled with big, touchable panels, like the live tiles in Windows Phone 7, and from there you can tap and swipe your way to other touch-based applications. Essentially, Microsoft showed how Windows 8 will work on both tablets and traditional PCs.

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