Report claims that Microsoft won’t talk about the feature lineup of Windows 9

Apr 1, 2014 09:55 GMT  ·  By

The BUILD 2014 developer conference which kicks off on April 2 in San Francisco is expected to bring us the very first official news on Windows 9, Microsoft’s new full operating system that could see daylight sometime in the spring of 2015.

Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley is reporting that the software giant is very unlikely to disclose the feature lineup of Windows 9 at the event, but instead the company would focus on a new SKU specifically developed to work on “Windows Phones, ARM-based Windows tablets/PCs, phablets and other kinds of devices,” as she points out.

This basically means that Microsoft would put the focus on the way Windows 9 would tackle the non-PC market, so expect no confirmation on a potential return of the Start menu in the upcoming OS release.

It turns out that his new SKU for Windows 9 might not include a desktop at all, so you won’t be able to run traditional software applications on your devices. Metro would remain the key environment, so all updates would be delivered to PCs and tablets running it via the Windows Store.

As you can see, not much is known for the time being, so let’s take everything with a pinch of salt until tomorrow when Microsoft is expected to finally disclose more details on Windows 9.

Previous reports have indicated that Redmond is actually planning to do some big changes to Windows 9 in order to better tackle the PC market and thus boost sales of its modern operating system which has until now failed to draw excitement.

Some people close to the development plans said that Windows 9 might even include a new Start menu that would basically turn the operating system into a much friendlier working environment and thus regain the market share lost after the debut of Windows 8, a highly controversial OS that completely removed the Start menu.

At the same time, word is that Microsoft is trying to mix Metro and the desktop for a unique interface which would basically give users the option to launch their favorite Modern apps right on the desktop, similar to the gadgets we’ve seen in Windows 7.

Of course, such an improvement would clearly make sense given the fact that the Metro UI is much more appropriate for tablets rather than for desktop computers, so don’t be too surprised if the company is indeed turning to such a change to attract more users.