Todo lo de Windows 9 hasta ahora

Microsoft is all set to officially unveil Windows 9 at a special event on September 30 — and so we thought it would be a good time to run through everything that we already know about Microsoft’s new operating system. Most of these features and changes are reliably sourced from people close to the development of Windows 9 or from leaked builds of the Windows 9 Technical Preview. We’ll also update this story with an official list of Windows 9 features when Microsoft starts releasing public beta builds next week. In short, if you want to find out about Windows 9, this is the place to be.

After the very poor response to Windows 8, and the bitter taste it left in the mouths of millions of users, Windows 9 is a very important release for Microsoft. On the one hand, it needs to rectify Windows 8′s wrongs and offer normal PC users a reason to upgrade from Windows XP or 7. On the other hand, Microsoft continues to lose ground in the mobile sector as well. Windows 9 will actually have to be the jack of all trades, rather than Windows 8′s rather ignominious status as the master of none. How will Microsoft do this? Well, let’s take a look.

Windows 9 for desktop and laptop users

The Start menu returns. After a few years of claiming that the Metro-style Start screen was just as good for mouse-and-keyboard use as touchscreen use, Microsoft has finally backed down. Windows 9 will have a Start menu on the Desktop; the left side will look a lot like the standard Windows 7 Start menu, but the right side will have the option of being populated with Metro-style live tiles. The left side of the menu will adopt a new Metro-like look, too — though you may be able to configure it to look like the good ol’ Windows 7 Start menu.

Virtual desktops. In Windows 9, you will have the option of using virtual desktops. Right now you just have one desktop per monitor — but with virtual desktops, you can switch between as many desktops as you like. This is a popular power user feature that has been present on some Linux window managers and via third-party Windows tools for years — but now it’ll be native in Windows 9.

Metro apps on the Desktop. Rather than forcing you into the full-screen Metro interface, Windows 9 will let you run Metro apps on the Desktop in a window. In theory this will mean that mouse-and-keyboard users might now actually use Metro apps, which in turn might kickstart the arrival of some better apps in the Windows Store. Or not.

Windows 9 Desktop, showing a new, very flat Explorer (note the new icon too)

Desktop interface overhaul. It’s not entirely clear yet, but it seems the Windows 9 Desktop will receive a graphical overhaul, to make it even flatter. The leaked Windows 9 Technical Preview shows some flatter icons and thinner window borders — and I suspect we’ll see some further UI changes in later preview builds. (If you recall, the first Windows 8 Developer Preview still looked a lot like Windows 7, and became more flat and less opaque as the development process went on.) Curiously, there does appear to be a drop shadow behind the Explorer window in the Windows 9 screenshot above — Windows 8 got rid of a lot of shadows, so it would be interesting if they made a return.

The Metro interface may be removed. In the last few months, there has been rumblings from Redmond that the Windows 9 experience might be formally split in two: A Metro-only experience for touchscreen/tablet users, and a Desktop-only experience for mouse-and-keyboard users. One of the biggest complaints of Windows 8 is the way it forces you into the Metro interface when you’re using a mouse and keyboard, and the Desktop interface when you’re using a touchscreen. It isn’t clear if the Metro interface will be removed entirely from “Windows 9 for the Desktop” — more realistically, to cater for users of hybrids and touchscreen laptops, there’ll just be a check box somewhere for “never show me the Metro interface.”

Lots of other tweaks to the Windows 9 Desktop. In addition to all of the above, the Charms bar is also being removed (from the Desktop interface at least; it might hang around on touchscreen devices). The Technical Preview has a Notifications panel that pops up from the bottom right corner (video above), though I don’t think this is its final format or placement. There will also likely be tweaks for multi-monitor and high-res (hi-dpi) setups, too.

Windows 9 for touchscreen tablet/hybrid users

So far, we know relatively little about the Windows 9 experience for tablet, touchscreen, and hybrid users. It is likely that the Desktop will be removed (or at least made very hard to access) so that touchscreen users only have to interact with the Metro interface. It would make sense if Microsoft made it so tablet/touchscreen users never had to venture out to the Desktop to access the Registry Editor or Control Panel (both of which are hard to use without a mouse and keyboard).

Here are some other possible tweaks to the Metro side of things:

The Cortana digital assistant is making the jump from Windows Phone. Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to Siri, will reportedly be coming to Windows 9. She will probably be accessible from both the Desktop and Metro, but presumably her ability to understand natural language will be more useful for people on the move, or without a keyboard. If Cortana is capable of understanding (and executing) complex filters, she could be a very useful addition to Windows 9. (Imagine being able to say “Cortana, show me all of my photos from my 2011 trip to Mexico.”)

Start screen tweaks. While the Start screen will still look much the same in Windows 9, many of its elements will be tweaked. Live tiles — the big, resizable icons that show updates and notifications — will be reportedly be upgraded, so that you can actually use some features of an app from the tile, without having to open it up. Live folders from Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 may also make the jump to Windows 9.

Read: How to bring back the Start menu and button to Windows 8

Notifications. While the leaked Technical Preview has a Notifications tray on the Desktop, I suspect the final version of Windows 9 will have some kind of Notifications panel in the Metro interface as well — probably resembling the Notifications panel from Windows Phone 8.

One Windows: Windows for all, Windows Phone, etc.

Windows 9: Other general updates, tweaks, and rumors

In addition to forward-facing UI changes to the Desktop and Metro, Windows 9 will of course have lots of under-the-hood changes. The most notable so far seems to be one-click upgrading: With Windows 9, upgrading to the next version (Windows 9.1, Windows 10) should be a simple matter of clicking one button.

Will Windows 9 be the last major version of Windows? Coincidentally, the change to a one-click upgrade cycle also suggests that Windows 9 will be the last major version of Windows (at least for a while). Microsoft has been trying to shift its sizable bulk towards a faster release cycle over the past couple of years, so that Windows and Windows Phone can evolve more rapidly — just like iOS, Android, and OS X. One-click upgrades would be a sure sign that Windows 9 is moving away from major overhauls and towards smaller, iterative updates like OS X.

A possible (but unlikely) Windows 9 logo

What will Windows 9 be called? There has been some discussion about whether Windows 9 (codenamed Threshold) will actually be called Windows 9, or whetherMicrosoft will instead call it just Windows or maybe Windows One. Just yesterday, however, the head of Microsoft’s France operations said that the company would be releasing “Windows 9″ at the September 30 event in San Francisco. Microsoft’s PR team quickly backpedaled, saying the next version of Windows “at this stage does not have a name as such.” Hmm.

Universal Windows apps. In theory, we should begin to see the arrival of truly universal Windows/Windows Phone apps on Windows 9. It still isn’t entirely clear what Microsoft’s vision for universal apps is, but I suspect we’ll hear more about it at the September 30 event. The idea of buying a single app and running it across all of your Microsoft devices (including the Xbox One) is rather sweet, but I think it depends on…

Microsoft Windows 9 event, September 30

… the merger of Windows Phone and Windows RT. So far, despite the leak of the Windows 9 Technical Preview a few weeks ago, we know very little about the Metro interface. One possibility is that the Windows 9 Technical Preview is actually just for mouse and keyboard users, and that Microsoft is working on another preview build for mobile devices. This ties in neatly with a rumor that Microsoft is currently working on merging Windows Phone with Windows RT.

We’re sure there will also be lots of other underlying improvements to Windows 9 — little tweaks, support for new kinds of hardware, improved high-DPI support — but we won’t discover them until we actually get our hands on the Windows 9 Technical Preview. Stay tuned: The September 30 unveil of Windows 9 is now just a few days away.

Source : http://www.extremetech.com/computing/190865-windows-9-changes-and-new-features-everything-we-know-so-far/2