Windows 8 to “Roam Free” Thanks to New Options

Windows 8 will allow users to have their settings roam with them seamlessly as they switch between various computers and devices.

Testers digging deep across the latest leak of the operating system have come across new Roaming Options introduced in the next version of Windows.

Of course, the Roaming Options are intimately connected with User accounts in Windows 8, but less with a specific PC, laptop, slate, smartphone, etc.

I have already told you about Windows 8 Connected Accounts, and I can only conclude that the Roaming Options are in fact at the core of the next gen Windows user accounts.

“When you use your connected password to log on to different computers and devices, the personal settings you care about will travel with you and automatically be available,” Microsoft promises. (via Long Zheng)

Connected Accounts is all about enabling users to take the entire Windows 8 experience with them in a device-agnostic manner.

This will be possible by making specific elements of a user account, such as settings, customizations, favorites, as well as synchronized content available anywhere, roaming with the user, as long as the same account credentials are being used.

Previous leaked details have revealed that customers will be able to use email addresses and passwords for their Windows 8 user accounts.

As such, customers can benefit from Cloud synchronization of personalization settings and content, with Windows Azure and Windows Live presumably having an important role in this.

Here are the “settings to roam:

- Personalization: Desktop background image, glass color;

- Accessibility: Ease of access control panel, magnifier, on screen keyboard, narrator, and speech recognition settings;

- Language settings: Language profile, text prediction preferences, and IME dictionary;

- Application Settings: Application settings and search history;

- Windows Settings: taskbar, Explorer, search and mouse settings;

- Credentials: Wireless network profiles and saved website credentials.”