In a new post by Steven Sinofsky on the Building Windows 8 blog, we learn that Windows 8 will not only have native VHD, but also native ISO support in Explorer (finally!). Windows users can now rejoice at no longer having to use a third-party application to view ISOs. A video created by Rajeev Nagar, a group program manager on the Storage and File Systems team at Microsoft, explains the process and gives us another great glimpse of the new Ribbon UI in Windows 8, as well as the updated Taskbar

Windows Explorer is a foundation of the user experience of the Windows desktop and has undergone several design changes over the years, but has not seen a substantial change in quite some time. Windows 8 is about reimagining Windows, so we took on the challenge to improve the most widely used desktop tool (except maybe for Solitaire) in Windows. Alex Simons on the program management team authored this post with a detailed look at the evolution of Explorer and the major improvements to its interf

As the Windows team did with Windows 7, the Windows team is going to be are blogging about the engineering process and decisions with Windows 8. Microsoft kicked off the new “Building Windows 8″ blog with an August 15 introductory post by Windows President Steven Sinofsky. As usual with Sinofsky posts, there are lots of words (1,250 of them) and not much a Windows watcher would consider to be “news.” In fact, Sinofsky’s post stressed that the purpose of the blog isn’t about generating traffic,

If you’re a Windows watcher, circle this date on your calendar: April 10, 2012.   That’s the date when mainstream support for Windows Vista officially ends. And it cannot come soon enough for Microsoft, whose public image was badly damaged by the massively unliked Vista. If the rumors about a possible Windows 8 release in April 2012 are true, it will be an almost perfect changing of the guard.   But vanquishing the ghost of Windows Vista is the easy challenge for Microsoft. Windows XP is sti

At long, long last, Windows XP is no longer the number one, end-user operating system. It only took, Microsoft, what? Not quite two years to get desktop users off XP to Windows 7? Well, you could look at it that way, but you’d be wrong.   The truth is that users haven’t been moving from XP to 7 of their own free will. They’ve been moving only because their old XP PCs are finally giving up the ghost. Then, and only then, are they getting Windows 7. Or, are they? If you look closer at Net Applic

Microsoft officials showed off on July 12 at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference a first public glimpse of its coming Windows Server 8 operating system.   Windows Server 8, the server complement of Windows 8 client, is on the same development track and path as Windows 8 client. If we Microsoft watchers are right, both Windows 8 client and server should be out in 2012, possibly in the first half of the year.   Microsoft is touting Windows Server 8 as a key private-cloud building block,

A new build for Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 operating system could be released to developers as early as next week if a Twitter message from a previously reliable source has its facts straight. The Twitter page for "@MSFTtm" claims that Microsoft will release a Community Technical Preview (or CTP for short) for Windows 8 next week at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference. The conference is scheduled to be held on July 11-14.   While there's no concrete proof that Microsoft will indeed re

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has claimed that the company’s next-generation of Windows “will be pretty important.”     Ballmer made his remarks at an Imagine Cup 2011 event in New York on Friday. The software giant brought together some of the brainiest students to showcase their work and efforts to solve real world problems using technology. Ballmer praised the various groups of students who are participating in the event. Over 300,000 students registered for the Imagine Cup 2011 and the wi