Report claims that the Microsoft is planning to launch a preview of Windows 9 this year

Jul 7, 2014 12:48 GMT  ·  By

Windows 9 is work in progress at Microsoft and new rumors coming via Russian leaker WZor reveal some pretty interesting tidbits about this fresh version of the operating system.

In a post published on Russian-language forum Ru-Board, WZor says that Microsoft is very likely to introduce the first preview version of Windows 9 later this year, thus allowing users and developers the chance to try it out before the public launch.

While we already heard some rumors regarding the features to be part of Windows 9, the leaked information that reached the web today adds that Microsoft is also planning a completely new activation system that would help fight piracy and closely tie a specific copy of the operating system to a given PC.

Basically, it appears that Microsoft is trying to fight piracy especially in countries such as China where most of the installed copies of Windows are pirated. This thing isn’t going to happen with Windows 9, WZor said, as the new activation system will make it harder to get a copy of the operating system without paying for it and installing on your computer.

Surprisingly, WZor hasn’t said anything about Microsoft’s plans two talk about Windows 9 at the Worldwide Partner Conference that kicks off later this month.

Two weeks ago, WZor said on Twitter that Redmond could finally break the news and even present an early build of Windows 9 at WPC 2014, but it turns out that either the company has changed its plans or the previous reports weren’t exactly accurate.

Windows 9 should be ready by April 2015, sources said, which means that Microsoft is trying to complete development of the operating system in approximately one year.

As far as features are concerned, WZor says that the Start menu is very likely to be part of the operating system and Microsoft would try to capitalize on this by launching marketing efforts specifically supposed to emphasize that Redmond listened to customers and brought back the Start menu. At the same time, options to run Metro apps in separate windows could also come with Windows 9.

All these new details are still in the rumor stage, so take them with a grain of salt, even though WZor has a pretty good track on Windows projects. Microsoft is expected to provide some official details on Windows 9 very soon, so keep an eye on our news section to find out more.