14 DAY TRIAL // As we’ve reported to you earlier today, Microsoft China teased Windows 9 for the very first time on its Weibo account, thus confirming that its next operating system is on the way.
Although only little was said in this small post, there’s a debate online that talks about what Microsoft revealed through its Chinese account, with both users and tech websites pointing out that the picture that Redmond included in the message is actually the logo of Windows 9.
That’s not at all true, and the picture you can also see included in this article is actually a concept created by a third-party designer a few months ago, imagining the logo of the operating system that could come after Windows 8. For example, we used the same photo in an article about Windows 9 more than a week ago, so it’s pretty clear that this isn’t new.
In other words, no, Microsoft hasn’t yet disclosed the Windows 9 logo, but instead, the company actually confirmed something that’s at least as important.
In the last few months, we’ve heard a lot of rumors pointing to the name of the Windows successor, with some believing that Windows 9 might not be the official name prepared by Microsoft for the official product. This post pretty much sets things straight and confirms that Windows 9 is indeed the chosen name for the next Windows version, putting an end to rumors suggesting a different designation.
Another thing that’s worth mentioning is the Start menu reference that was included in the post.
Microsoft China asked its followers if they thought that a Start menu could be included in Windows 9, suggesting that such a feature would no longer be part of another Windows 8.1 update, but of a completely new operating system scheduled to be released very soon.
Back in April at the BUILD 2014 developer conference, Terry Myerson, head of the OS unit at Microsoft, said during his keynote that a future Windows 8.1 update could bring not only the Start menu, but also options to run Metro apps on the desktop in separate windows.
It appears that this plan has been abandoned in the meantime, and Windows 9 could bring both features, with the Start menu obviously expected to be the star of the show.
In the end, now we finally have the confirmation that Windows 9 is coming, but don’t fall for reports claiming that this photo is actually the logo of the upcoming operating system.
And by the way, Microsoft hasn’t accidentally teased Windows 9, no one does that with a product that’s simply critical for the future of the company.