14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is getting ready to release the first major upgrade for Windows 8 and contrary to general belief, the company is planning to focus a bit more on the desktop working environment.
Tami Reller, the chief marketing officer and chief financial officer of the Windows division, said in an interview with The New York Times that Microsoft was indeed working to make some changes in Blue, but no specifics have been provided.
According to sources close to the matter, in addition to the eagerly-awaited Start button, the tech giant is also looking into an option that would allow users to skip the Start Screen and boot directly to desktop.
And even though it’s yet to be confirmed, this particular setting would perfectly fit Microsoft’s new vision. Reller explained that the desktop would continue be important for the company as it still remained the number one working environment for many Windows users.
“We started talking about the desktop as an app. But in reality, for PC buyers, the desktop is important,” she said, while also adding that Microsoft was at the moment working in retailers to better describe the desktop to potential buyers.
We’ve heard some people saying that Microsoft could completely abandon the desktop in Windows 9 and focus solely on the Metro UI, as the new touch-optimized interface is playing a much more important role for the company’s long-term vision.
That’s wrong, and as far as desktop computers users are concerned, the desktop is and will most likely be the main choice when it comes to working on a Windows device.
Microsoft seems to know this very well, so Blue is very likely to bring a bunch of changes aimed at the desktop though, even though at this point, the details we have are pretty vague.
More info, on the other hand, is very likely to be unveiled next month at the BUILD developer conference when the public preview is also predicted to make its debut.