Windows 8 in India (Win 7 v/s Win 8)

Microsoft launched the latest version of its Operating System (OS) Windows 8 in India.

Windows 8 is designed to work across PCs, tablets as well as for smart phones.

Some KEY Differences b/w WINDOWS 7 and WINDOWS 8 (Features that make WINDOWS 8 better than WINDOWS 7):

1. Metro interface:

A Touch-centric, Tiles-based User Interface. The most fundamental difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8 is the main interface. The Metro interface is the default home screen for Windows 8. The  Metro interface features a series of colorful tiles, each offering access to a discrete application and live information. Thus, one can see his/her emails in inbox without having to open an application.

2. Windows Store:

This is an online shop-front which is full of Windows apps – each designed to run on x86 Windows PCs, laptops and tablets, as well as ARM tablets and smartphones.

3. Easy cloud integration

Cloud integration is made central to Windows 8. Thus a potential to sync data to SkyDrive – there’s a SkyDrive app as well as the ability to save data to and from our cloud storage. Office 2013 apps have SkyDrive capabilities included, too.

4. Support for both x86 PCs and ARM tablets

What is ARM?

ARM (formerly Advanced RISC Machine, which was formerly Acorn RISC Machine) is a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) developed by British company ARM Holdings.

As of 2009, ARM processors are used in nearly 90% of all embedded 32-bit RISC processors which are used extensively in consumer electronics, including personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablets, mobile phones, digital media and music players, hand-held game consoles, calculators and computer peripherals such as hard drives and routers.

Till now, Windows only supported x86-based Intel and AMD PCs but now with Windows 8, which will support devices running on ARM architecture.

5. Charms

‘Charms’ is a new implementation of the traditional Windows start bar. The Charms, or the Charms bar as its often called, refers to an opaque overlay that appears on the right side of the screen (or, on a multi-screen PC, the primary screen) when summoned. Its purpose is to provide quick access to several commonly-needed features, including search, sharing, the Start screen, hardware devices, and settings.

On an ordinary non-touch PC, charms are accessed by dragging the mouse to the bottom-left corner of the screen, to the same spot as the old Windows start button. On a tablet, you swipe from the right side of the screen to bring up charms.

6. Snap Multi-tasking

‘Snap multitasking” is designed to make it easy to run two apps in Windows 8 side-by-side, to resize them, and to switch between them.

7. Two Touch Keyboards

Windows 8 also contains two soft keyboards: an “enhanced” traditional keyboard, plus a new thumbs keyboard for non-touch typists.

8. Better Copy Experience

Windows 8 also introduces the ability to perform all current copy operations into a single dialog box, instead of requiring you to perform file copying in separate dialog boxes for each app.

9. Better multiple monitor support

Better Multi-Monitor support in Windows 8. With Windows 8 we can now have the Start Screen on one monitor and the desktop in another, or choose to have the Windows 8 Desktop and taskbar on both screens. We can also put a different background on each screen if you have multiple monitors.

10. Native USB 3.0 Support

New USB 3.0 ports operate at speeds up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0.