14 DAY TRIAL // The first consistent leaks of Windows 8 have brought with them a taste of some wallpapers currently available with the early development milestones of the operating system.
The two images included with this article, courtesy of Win7China are screenshots of the background images available with a Milestone 2 Build of Windows vNext.
Somewhat ironically, both wallpapers contain the same message: “shhh… let’s not leak our hard work.”
Obviously, the background images have made it into the wild along with additional leaked content from the next major iteration of the Windows client.
According to the source of the leaks, the wallpapers come from Windows 8 Build 7910.winmain.110111-1804, an interim release which was wrapped up on January 11, 2011.
But in all fairness, Microsoft’s “do not leak” message did not exactly fall on deaf ears. Up until the time of this article, I haven’t managed to come across any actual leaks of Windows 8 M1 or M2, and I highly doubt that they’re out there.
Reports indicate that the software giant has started the coding work on Windows 8 Milestone 3 on February 28th, 2011.
At M3 stage in the development process, Windows 8 is bound to be still, quite similar to Windows 7.
However, M3 is also the last development milestone before the Redmond company will move forward to the Beta release.
Windows 8 Beta is expected to be made available for download to the public later this year, sometime in the second half of 2011, if the OS will spend some five to six months in M3.
While some changes have already been confirmed, such as Windows Live Cloud integration and driver installation enhancements, the vast majority of changes in Windows 8 are still to be unveiled.
This situation is bound not to change until Windows 8 graduates from M3 to Beta, or just before Beta, if Windows 7’s development process is any indication.
Obviously, the Windows 8 M2 wallpapers are only temporary and they’re bound not to survive past M3.
