14 DAY TRIAL // There’s a lot more coming to Windows 8 than the Windows Developer Preview has to offer, and Microsoft has stressed this on numerous occasions starting with BUILD.
New features, functionality and capabilities are planned for unveiling in an upcoming development milestone, most probably the Beta Build of Windows 8, the company also hinted.
Among the future changes that early adopters will be able to test are a number of Start Screen customization options, according to the software giant.
In all fairness, Windows 8 Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3) offers restricted elbow room in terms of personalization, so much so, that the vast majority of testers need to start liking green, a lot.
But this won’t be the case for very long. Microsoft is going to allow Windows 8 users to customize the Start Screen, including changing the background color.
“The Developer Preview Release only has one option, but we don't think that everyone will want a green background with squares. We're planning to add more customization options here in the future,” revealed Alice Steinglass, the group program manager for the core user experience team on Windows.
As I’ve already said, there are certainly a lot of reasons to wait for Windows 8 Beta with bated breath. Windows 8 Build 8102 M3 is nothing more than a developer preview, focused on getting devs to start building projects for the operating system, especially targeting the new Metro platform.
Metro app development is the priority of the Windows Developer Preview release and not the core user experience. But this will change with the advent of Windows 8 Beta, when Microsoft’s focus will shift to end user.
There’s no telling when the software giant will wrap up and release Windows 8 Beta, although chances are that the development milestone will be finalized by the end of 2011, which make possible a release in early 2012 at CES.
Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3) is available for download here.