Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everyone,
Speaker 1: Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and
Speaker 1: I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com. Sitting
Speaker 1: across from me, as he always does, is senior writer
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. Come to my window. I'll be home soon. Ah, yes,
Speaker 1: because today we are talking about the next iteration of
Speaker 1: the Microsoft computer operating system. Well, actually that's sort of
Speaker 1: a misnumber, but we'll get into that in a second,
Speaker 1: or what we know about it since it's so far
Speaker 1: from release. By the developer release it's Windows eight, which
Speaker 1: is actually just a code name. It may not be
Speaker 1: called that once it hits the market sometime in the year.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping it'll be called Susan, but I doubt it. Um.
Speaker 1: Mr Ballmer said, get away from him and os named Sue. Yes.
Speaker 1: Nice a little man in black action right there. Um
Speaker 1: so yeah, we're just trying to cash in. Thanks. We
Speaker 1: don't even really know a whole lot about this upbring system.
Speaker 1: We know bits and pieces. Um ha ha bits. I
Speaker 1: see what I did there, but it's really a lot
Speaker 1: of it will be revealed further down the line. And
Speaker 1: of course you may be listening to this, in which
Speaker 1: case you're thinking, oh, wow, boy, did they get that wrong.
Speaker 1: It's not our fault. We still we still get every
Speaker 1: once in a while we'll get a comment on our
Speaker 1: challenge for people to tell us what all seven versions
Speaker 1: of Windows were. Yeah, because there are more than just seven.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because we always get messages like no, no,
Speaker 1: you're wrong. I'm like, no, I'm not wrong. I took
Speaker 1: this directly from Microsoft, So I mean, if I'm wrong,
Speaker 1: Microsoft's wrong, and they're the ones naming it, so take
Speaker 1: it up with them. So Windows eight right now, we're
Speaker 1: just calling it that we know it's because it's the
Speaker 1: Windows after Windows seven. Yes, but who knows what wacky
Speaker 1: name it will have when it comes out. But it's
Speaker 1: really if you've if you've seen any pictures of it
Speaker 1: or seen any video of it, it's actually a pretty
Speaker 1: significant departure from the way the Windows operating system works
Speaker 1: right now. I mean it's it's like Windows seven wasn't
Speaker 1: such a huge change from the previous versions of Windows
Speaker 1: that you felt like you were looking at something totally different.
Speaker 1: But Windows eight kind of is. Oh yeah, well, I'm
Speaker 1: actually surprised you didn't quote Berlin at the beginning of
Speaker 1: this um, because it would be appropriate in this particular instance.
Speaker 1: Now see Windows eight is right now, uh sort of
Speaker 1: going back to one of Jonathan's old favorite words, convergence. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's really uh apparently isn't as say, apparently, of
Speaker 1: course we're we're still going on what we know of
Speaker 1: the operating system and things change, you know, but it
Speaker 1: apparently is designed to be sort of a go between
Speaker 1: for Windows mobile devices, not Windows mobile devices, but no
Speaker 1: mobile devices that use Windows and computers that run with
Speaker 1: desktops and laptops. Yeah, it's actually really interesting to me.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you brought that up, because you could
Speaker 1: argue that up to a certain point, the smartphone operating
Speaker 1: systems that you encounter, and even the tablet operating systems
Speaker 1: you encounter, are trying to emulate the operating systems you
Speaker 1: find on desktops and laptops, at least as much as
Speaker 1: they can, given the limitations of the form factor of
Speaker 1: smartphones and tablets. Right, I mean, you want you want
Speaker 1: something that's acting as a foundation for programs, and you
Speaker 1: want something that's easy to navigate and to you know,
Speaker 1: you want a certain UH file system built into their
Speaker 1: A lot of the the models for the operating systems
Speaker 1: for these mobile devices are based, at least in part
Speaker 1: off of desktop systems. And here we're seeing a fully
Speaker 1: fledged operating system that presumably will be on desktops and
Speaker 1: laptops that is starting to emulate what we find on
Speaker 1: mobile devices. So the two are coming together. It's just that,
Speaker 1: you know, while you might have expected the operating systems
Speaker 1: for mobile devices to get more and more sophisticated and
Speaker 1: approach the what we have for desktops and laptops, it
Speaker 1: looks like it's more like, at least when Microsoft's approach
Speaker 1: is to make the desktop laptop more like the mobile.
Speaker 1: And it might be because we are entering this post
Speaker 1: PC era where people are getting more used to interacting
Speaker 1: with an operating system in this sort of mobile model. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The when I was making my comment about Berlin that's
Speaker 1: the band, not the city, um yeah, earlier it's because
Speaker 1: they had a hit with a song Metro and the
Speaker 1: if you've seen if you've not actually held one of
Speaker 1: the UH more recent Windows phones using the latest version
Speaker 1: of Microsoft software. Um, if you see the commercials at
Speaker 1: least where you see the little different colorful boxes that
Speaker 1: you use to operate the operating system, that's what they
Speaker 1: call the metro interface, and Windows eight appears to be
Speaker 1: trying to bring that to the desktop and laptop as well.
Speaker 1: Now I think from what I've read, it looks like
Speaker 1: you will have the option to go to a more
Speaker 1: traditional looking Windows interface, but they're really pushing the metro look. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so if you turn on a smartphone or or tablet
Speaker 1: something like that. UH. And you know, every operating system
Speaker 1: has its own own features and its own UH traits,
Speaker 1: but in general, they all have a very similar kind
Speaker 1: of approach. And that You've got these icons that are
Speaker 1: on the green, and you select an icon by touching it,
Speaker 1: and that opens up an app and then you use
Speaker 1: various gestures to uh to execute commands within that app
Speaker 1: and UH and you know, this is something that people
Speaker 1: grasp pretty quickly. And in fact, I've heard a lot
Speaker 1: of anecdotal evidence that kids pick up on this really
Speaker 1: really fast. Oh I can, I can. Yeah, it's more
Speaker 1: than just anecdotal. Yeah, I could say this from personal experience. Well,
Speaker 1: that's still anecdotal. It's pretty well you didn't. I didn't
Speaker 1: do a double blind test, did you. Well that's true, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: so but yeah, no, I get it. You've got personal
Speaker 1: experience now for me. For me, it's all secondhand because
Speaker 1: you know, my dogs still don't get a touch interface.
Speaker 1: My cats do. Yeah, uh no, my dogs just don't
Speaker 1: care the But yeah, the point being that this interface
Speaker 1: seems to be very intuitive, very easy to pick up,
Speaker 1: and the louring curve is so easy that unlike traditional
Speaker 1: brain systems, especially old operating systems, you know, you don't
Speaker 1: have that huge barrier to be able to pick up
Speaker 1: a device and just start working on it um And
Speaker 1: that's kind of the approach with this metro system. And
Speaker 1: in fact, the Windows eight operating system is built with
Speaker 1: touch screens in mind, at least partially. Now that you know,
Speaker 1: it's pretty safe to assume that we're going to see
Speaker 1: a lot of different devices you touch screens in the
Speaker 1: in the near future, including things like desktops and laptops
Speaker 1: that you can find them already on the market, right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So you've got these these devices that traditionally did not
Speaker 1: use touch screens. You're just worried about using a keyboard
Speaker 1: and a mouse. Well, now you've got some out there
Speaker 1: that have touch screens, and Windows eight is meant to
Speaker 1: leverage that and make that a a pivotal part of
Speaker 1: your experience on Windows eight. Now that's not to say
Speaker 1: you can't navigate through Windows eight with a keyboard and mouse.
Speaker 1: You you can. It's just that you're not going to
Speaker 1: have you know, the gestures that you would use on
Speaker 1: a screen are going to translate into different commands that
Speaker 1: you'll use with a keyboard and mouse. So the stuff
Speaker 1: that would be really intuitive if you had a touch
Speaker 1: screen might be a little more complex if you're using
Speaker 1: the traditional mouse and keyboard set up. So, but but
Speaker 1: since we're moving towards that touch screen world, it's not
Speaker 1: really something to be concerned about, especially since Windows eight
Speaker 1: is not gonna be released until when we're gonna have
Speaker 1: even more products out there with touch screens. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was going to uh, I was gonna say too that
Speaker 1: um uh, you could tell that they're they're they're just
Speaker 1: the paradigm. The whole entire paradigm is designed for that too, because, um,
Speaker 1: where the doc used to be on the traditional interface,
Speaker 1: it's actually moved over to the left, but I think
Speaker 1: it's silly. Well I don't know that this is the
Speaker 1: actual proper word, but i've seen those, uh the icons
Speaker 1: referred to as charm. Yes, no, that's that's the official
Speaker 1: was the set of icons on the Edge user interface
Speaker 1: which disappears right and you actually use a gesture to
Speaker 1: move it over. You swipe the screen from the edge
Speaker 1: toward the interior, and that will bring up the Edge
Speaker 1: user interface, which has a set of five icons called charms,
Speaker 1: and those charms have relate to specific commands like search.
Speaker 1: So let's say you're in your inside an app. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not just when you're in the operating system, although
Speaker 1: it works that way too. Let's say you're inside an
Speaker 1: app or inside a document and you want to search
Speaker 1: that document for something. You could do that swipe gesture
Speaker 1: and it would pull up those basic commands and you
Speaker 1: can search that way. Um, but you it also works
Speaker 1: within the operating system itself. So you're just looking at
Speaker 1: the OS view and you do that that swipe and
Speaker 1: you can search for something just like you could. You know,
Speaker 1: and Windows that has the Windows Search that's in the
Speaker 1: operating system. It's the same basic thing. It's just built
Speaker 1: in a a different the interface is different, but the
Speaker 1: the actual application does the same thing. It's always done. UM.
Speaker 1: You can also swipe to get a menu bar UM.
Speaker 1: You get different different sets of information from UH. Well,
Speaker 1: actually if you do from the top or bottom of
Speaker 1: the screen, you should get a list of commands basically
Speaker 1: contextual commands that you can use in that particular instance,
Speaker 1: depending on what it is that you're doing. And the
Speaker 1: apps are full screen, so you know, you're that's that's
Speaker 1: what you're gonna see when you're using the Metro and
Speaker 1: you're using there are two different basic types of apps.
Speaker 1: They're there are metro apps, which are kind of what
Speaker 1: we think of when we think of smartphone or tablet apps.
Speaker 1: You know, these are they tend to be lightweight. They're
Speaker 1: designed to run within something called Windows run time, which
Speaker 1: is a virtual environment. UM. And they're written in HTML
Speaker 1: five or or dot Net programming language. I believe, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, you can. You can also use
Speaker 1: the C family see C plus plus, C sharp, UH
Speaker 1: and Visual Basic. So these tend to be a little
Speaker 1: more lightweight in the sense of, you know, they're they're
Speaker 1: not going to have the full, huge amount of features
Speaker 1: that you're used to with what the second type of
Speaker 1: app is called, which is the legacy apps. Legacy apps
Speaker 1: would be things like if you wanted to use the
Speaker 1: full Microsoft Office suite with all of the features that
Speaker 1: come with Microsoft Office, that's more of a legacy app
Speaker 1: because it's got a lot more depth and breadth to
Speaker 1: it than a typical UH app would have. You know,
Speaker 1: you might be able to get like a simple word
Speaker 1: processing app as well, which would have limited features compared
Speaker 1: to all the ones you would get with Microsoft Office.
Speaker 1: But Windows A will be able to run both of them.
Speaker 1: It's just that the metro one that's kind of what
Speaker 1: it's tuned to. And in a way this makes sense
Speaker 1: to me because, as we've talked about so many times
Speaker 1: in this podcast, UH, cloud computing is is not going
Speaker 1: away anytime real soon now, right. So I mean, so,
Speaker 1: if you build an operating system that can take advantage
Speaker 1: of cloud computing, and that the apps on the operating
Speaker 1: system itself are very lightweight and don't require a lot
Speaker 1: of resources, you can offload a lot of the heavy
Speaker 1: lifting to the cloud, and you don't need as many
Speaker 1: really heavy duty programs on the device. Itself, right, you know,
Speaker 1: you just have like a very thin client that works
Speaker 1: with this cloud computer system. And um, I think it's
Speaker 1: interesting that Windows eight really seems to be embracing that
Speaker 1: because when you think about Microsoft, I mean, that's a
Speaker 1: software company. They're all about making those really uh rich
Speaker 1: software applications. I was going to use the word compelling,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of hard to talk about spreadsheets being
Speaker 1: compelling the average person. Well, yeah, I mean the operating
Speaker 1: system and the Fist suite are Microsoft's meat and potatoes,
Speaker 1: if you will. Um, so, I mean they they have
Speaker 1: every reason to uh continue to update in and protect
Speaker 1: those products because they are they bring in quite a
Speaker 1: bit of income. But it is interesting to note though
Speaker 1: that there that it appears at this point that there's
Speaker 1: going to be just one version of Windows moving forward,
Speaker 1: rather than the multiple versions we've seen in the last
Speaker 1: couple of iterations. And that version is going to be
Speaker 1: is going to have to work on both Arm and
Speaker 1: Intel's process Yeah. That that is new. Um, before the
Speaker 1: Windows were just run on anything that's running on x
Speaker 1: A D six architecture, and uh now it's gonna be
Speaker 1: running on ARM processors, which are that's that's new that's
Speaker 1: kind of interesting. Um it's it's actually that coused a
Speaker 1: little bit of stir when it was announced because uh,
Speaker 1: there was there was a lot of discussion about Google
Speaker 1: working with Intel and Microsoft maybe getting away from Intel
Speaker 1: a little bit, and it just it's one of those
Speaker 1: things where everyone's looking around wondering what's happening next in
Speaker 1: this in the world of of computers, because these are
Speaker 1: relationships that span many years. Um. But anyway, they there
Speaker 1: are there some some other interesting things about Windows eight
Speaker 1: that I thought kind of you know, just like other
Speaker 1: versions of Windows, you can run multiple processes all at
Speaker 1: the same time. You can multitask in other words, and
Speaker 1: you can flip between the processes, so with a gesture
Speaker 1: you can go from one to another, which you know
Speaker 1: for those old time Windows users they're you know, doing
Speaker 1: all tab all tab to go between. That still works
Speaker 1: on the keyboard. And you can also snap, oh sap. Snapping.
Speaker 1: Snapping though is kind of like flipping. Like flipping would
Speaker 1: be a little casual uh flick from uh the leftmost
Speaker 1: edge of the screen and you flick it over and
Speaker 1: you've got a new um um app showing up. Snap
Speaker 1: is where you hold your fingers against the screen while
Speaker 1: you do this, and it will pull up a side
Speaker 1: by side view of two apps. So that way you
Speaker 1: can have multiple apps on the screen at one time.
Speaker 1: Because yeah, the apps, like like Chris said, these are
Speaker 1: apps that are designed to go full screen. But if
Speaker 1: you want to have multiple apps on your screen at once,
Speaker 1: you can do that. Um. I've seen people who are
Speaker 1: really good at this, who have you know, They'll have
Speaker 1: multiple screens, multiple monitors, and then I'll have multiple applications
Speaker 1: open on each monitor and they're like doing this weird
Speaker 1: uh minority report thing where they're just looking at all that.
Speaker 1: I can't do that. I have to have a single
Speaker 1: app per screen. I cannot have. I can't stand to
Speaker 1: have multiple apps in view on a screen at the
Speaker 1: same time. I want as much screen real estate per
Speaker 1: app as I possibly can get. I don't. It's just
Speaker 1: the way I'm wired. I can't. I can't handle it otherwise.
Speaker 1: So like if you see someone working in a smaller
Speaker 1: window in a word processor and they've got another window
Speaker 1: open with other stuff, and I I don't understand you.
Speaker 1: You must be from a different planet because that is
Speaker 1: not how I work. Um. But anyway, so you can
Speaker 1: still multitask on Windows eight. Uh, it's the developer one
Speaker 1: has a beta version of Internet Explorer ten included, which
Speaker 1: upon the beta launch did not support extensions, so you
Speaker 1: could not run flash in it. Yes, and I'm told, well, okay,
Speaker 1: I've read some information about that that suggests that that
Speaker 1: may not go away. Yes, So that might not because
Speaker 1: they haven't put it in yet. It might be intentionally
Speaker 1: left out. It might mean that Microsoft, like another big
Speaker 1: computer company that rhymes with Shmapple, has decided to really
Speaker 1: back HTML five over the various UH platforms that extend
Speaker 1: ht ML's usability. UM like like flash. Flash should be
Speaker 1: the big example. There's so many websites out there that
Speaker 1: depend on flash to deliver the content to you. And Uh,
Speaker 1: there's a problem with these extensions. The main problem is
Speaker 1: that they introduce the possibility of security vulnerabilities because they
Speaker 1: are beyond the control of the the company that is
Speaker 1: providing either the operating system or the browser. Yes. So
Speaker 1: if you've introduced vulnerabilities through these extensions, then you are
Speaker 1: putting your customer base in danger. So the idea behind
Speaker 1: HTML five is that HTML five will natively support these
Speaker 1: features that previously were not supported in HTML, thus the
Speaker 1: need for extensions, and then you don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about mucking around with your web browser and adding in
Speaker 1: elements that could create vulnerabilities. Mucky mucky muckey. So Internet
Speaker 1: Explorer ten may very well not support flash. It's very interesting.
Speaker 1: Won't stop you from downloading Chrome? Well at work with
Speaker 1: silver Light? Yeah, that's a good question. Really. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm amazed that silver Light is still around, tell you
Speaker 1: the truth, but it is. I know it is. But
Speaker 1: even even when it tried to push for uh, you know,
Speaker 1: massive market acceptance through things like wasn't it the Olympics
Speaker 1: that Yeah, that that you could watch Olympic footage by
Speaker 1: by installing silver Light, which is a different video component
Speaker 1: player well not not just video but rich Internet interface
Speaker 1: and and again just it's similar to Flash in that respect.
Speaker 1: It's something that is not natively supported by HTML. You
Speaker 1: have to incorporate it into it. It's just that silver
Speaker 1: Light happens to actually be developed by Microsoft. Another interesting
Speaker 1: feature is that they have decided to change the way
Speaker 1: your computer handles things when it's not being used. Um,
Speaker 1: there's a video I saw when I was doing my
Speaker 1: research on Windows eight from a Microsoft employee. I think
Speaker 1: it's actually on YouTube somewhere. Um, and she has a laptop.
Speaker 1: She's holding a laptop and in one hand in the
Speaker 1: battery for the laptop. In the other hand, she said, okay,
Speaker 1: you need to watch this, and so she plugs it in.
Speaker 1: And that's a paraphrasing. She didn't say that exactly. I
Speaker 1: don't think plugged in the battery, flips open the laptop,
Speaker 1: turns it on, and blamo, it's on. Basically, this is
Speaker 1: because Windows eight hibernates it. It actually doesn't do it
Speaker 1: actually doesn't store information the same way um that previous
Speaker 1: versions of Windows did. So you're when you're booting, it's
Speaker 1: not a cold boot, uh you know, like it would
Speaker 1: be for previous versions of the operating systems. And when
Speaker 1: it boots up, it boots much faster, um than previous
Speaker 1: versions didn't. Yeah, there's there's part of the whole process
Speaker 1: is preloaded, so it doesn't have to go through the
Speaker 1: whole uh, the whole routine. Um. Yeah. It's also got
Speaker 1: the Connected Standby feature, which is a power management mode
Speaker 1: for the for ARM based versions of Windows eight, so
Speaker 1: that not not all chips, not all devices are going
Speaker 1: to take advantage of this, but the arm based ones
Speaker 1: will and that allows the PC to operate at a
Speaker 1: very low power level for for long periods when you're
Speaker 1: not using it. So, in other words, UM, you don't
Speaker 1: have to worry about shutting down your system completely if
Speaker 1: you need to, Like you're gonna go on a car
Speaker 1: trip or whatever, and you want to be able to
Speaker 1: to whip the a particular app or map up or
Speaker 1: something at a moment's notice, but you're not going to
Speaker 1: have it on all the time. It should, at least
Speaker 1: in theory, keep that power level uh nice and stable
Speaker 1: so that your your battery doesn't just drain away while
Speaker 1: your computer is in sleep mode or whatever the other devices.
Speaker 1: You know what, I'm sorry you're gonna say something. Well,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say that I had read an article
Speaker 1: by Chloe Albnsius and PC mag in which he had
Speaker 1: interviewed Gave All, who's the director of program management for Windows,
Speaker 1: and basically he was talking about how it how it works.
Speaker 1: It writes the information to a a hibernate file or
Speaker 1: hyber file i think it's what they called it, UM,
Speaker 1: and it just keeps all that that information in the
Speaker 1: kernel so that it's it's handy that basically the system,
Speaker 1: the entire system state, is sitting there in the kernel,
Speaker 1: so as soon as it gets to that point in
Speaker 1: the boot, it just goes, oh, here's where you are
Speaker 1: and puts it back up and makes that noise to yep,
Speaker 1: it does. I think that would be a little off
Speaker 1: putting for people who are you know, wait, Windows seven
Speaker 1: didn't go Actually it doesn't make that noise, but Chris
Speaker 1: will come up and stand next to you while you
Speaker 1: turn on your device and make that noise for you personally. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just let me know when you get When does eight installed? Actually,
Speaker 1: that's interesting a sign up sheet? Yeah, uh there. There
Speaker 1: is a developer preview available and you don't have to
Speaker 1: sign up to be a developer to get it, so
Speaker 1: members of the public are free to download the developer preview.
Speaker 1: What you gotta remember, the developer preview is not fully implemented.
Speaker 1: It's it is an early build, and there's not all
Speaker 1: the functionality, is there. Yeah, you could say, try to
Speaker 1: install a copy in your virtual machine and it could
Speaker 1: never actually work, right. I admittedly only tried it a
Speaker 1: couple of times. One of the two of us had
Speaker 1: that happen the other one didn't bother to try. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so not that I won't keep trying, and just so.
Speaker 1: Another another interesting feature which is again creating something of
Speaker 1: I don't know that controversy is the right word, but
Speaker 1: it's creating conversations, is the early load anti malware feature.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, so Windows eight is going to have built
Speaker 1: into it an anti malware function that will UH that
Speaker 1: will load early in the operating system boot process. And
Speaker 1: the idea here is that the anti malware will load
Speaker 1: up before uh some sort of other malware can be
Speaker 1: initiated during the startup sequence, because a lot of malware
Speaker 1: that's when it attacks, right, It's when your your machine
Speaker 1: is booting up. The code has been put into your
Speaker 1: machine but hasn't been activated yet until you reboot. So
Speaker 1: this would be uh sort of like an anti virus
Speaker 1: software package that boots very very early in the process
Speaker 1: so that it can try and capture that malware before
Speaker 1: it can do anything bad. And UH, of course, what
Speaker 1: this really means is ultimately means that the people who
Speaker 1: make malware are going to revisit how they make malware
Speaker 1: and try and make some that can even beat the
Speaker 1: anti malware to the punch. I mean that's the nature
Speaker 1: of you know, creating a security versus the AntiSec movement.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's constantly a battle between the two sides.
Speaker 1: Uh So. But it is interesting also because it's it's
Speaker 1: raised questions about, well, if Windows eight incorporates this anti
Speaker 1: malware directly into the operating system, what does that mean
Speaker 1: for third party UH computer security firms that that create
Speaker 1: anti malware software. Does that mean that Windows eight is
Speaker 1: essentially saying, hey, you know, you don't need those guys
Speaker 1: because it's built directly into the operating system. And does
Speaker 1: it negate that business model for those companies? And uh
Speaker 1: because you remember, you know, we've said on on this
Speaker 1: podcast a few times it may seem like a good
Speaker 1: idea to install multiple uh anti malware programs because you're like, well,
Speaker 1: this way I've got you know, it's like it's like
Speaker 1: hiring five really really sharp guards. They're on the lookout
Speaker 1: for anything, and and this one guard he's really good
Speaker 1: at looking at people who are sneaky in the dark,
Speaker 1: and this other guard he's really good at stopping people
Speaker 1: who are really big and brawny. And you know, the
Speaker 1: idea is somehow being that by by incorporating more anti
Speaker 1: malware feature programs, we are you know, creating a tighter
Speaker 1: net of security, when in reality, it means that we
Speaker 1: have all these different programs that are competing for the
Speaker 1: same computer resources to run and often will interfere with
Speaker 1: one another, sometimes identifying each other as malware and causing
Speaker 1: your system to crash. So if this is built directly
Speaker 1: into Windows eight, what happens if you prefer a specific
Speaker 1: type of anti malware program? Is it going to run
Speaker 1: smoothly within the Windows eight environment without interfering with this
Speaker 1: anti malware layer. I don't know. Yeah, of course, Uh
Speaker 1: it's it's a good idea. You know. Let's say you've
Speaker 1: booted your computer into Windows eight and it's got the
Speaker 1: anti malware functionality and so everything should be okay. Um,
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that you can't download a virus and
Speaker 1: have a non running copy. Uh, So it would be
Speaker 1: nice to have something go on and lean that off.
Speaker 1: You know. People who uh use other operating systems in
Speaker 1: a corporate environment are often asked to put um anti
Speaker 1: malware software on their computers and they'll, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: because if you are running say Lenox, and you share
Speaker 1: email with a bunch of people whore running Windows. That
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that just because the the particular malware doesn't
Speaker 1: affect Linux computers doesn't mean you can't be a carrier
Speaker 1: and email that either knowingly or unknowingly to Windows people
Speaker 1: and infect their computers too. So, you know, there's any
Speaker 1: time that you uh that you can clean off of
Speaker 1: virus before transmitting it to somebody. And there will be many, many,
Speaker 1: many millions of computers that are still running older versions
Speaker 1: of the Windows operating system without that anti malware feature. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, so the malware people are not going out
Speaker 1: of business just for this, at least not right away,
Speaker 1: not right away. But it's it's one of those things
Speaker 1: where they're like, well, did Microsoft just put an expiration
Speaker 1: date on our company? Yeah? Still, they will also have
Speaker 1: something to do, even if it is completely impervious to
Speaker 1: being beaten. Yeah. Well, the to get back to what
Speaker 1: you were just talking about with with you know, rebooting
Speaker 1: your computer without having to worry about malware. There are
Speaker 1: a couple of other features and again this makes it
Speaker 1: sound a lot more like a mobile device than an
Speaker 1: operating system for a for a desktop or laptops. We
Speaker 1: just don't see this that frequently. But the refresh your
Speaker 1: PC and reset your PC features. Yes, so refresh your PC.
Speaker 1: Windows eight will automatically back up all of the data
Speaker 1: on your machine, um, all your personal files and and
Speaker 1: if you've customized Windows eight in anyway, it saves all
Speaker 1: those settings. And then what it does is it reinstalls
Speaker 1: Windows from scratch and then ports all those settings over
Speaker 1: into your new installed version of Windows eight. That's really nice. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So so if for some reason something has become corrupted
Speaker 1: and you need to be able to refresh your your
Speaker 1: PC for some reason, sometimes that happens. Uh, This does
Speaker 1: it automatically for you, so you don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about porting all that information over to some external drive
Speaker 1: so that you can pull it back over once you've reinstalled.
Speaker 1: And reportedly this only takes a few minutes, like five
Speaker 1: minutes to do, which is that's pretty incredible too. Um
Speaker 1: I guess And now granted that process is probably gonna
Speaker 1: take longer the more data you have, but but the
Speaker 1: basic process of reinstalling Windows is about a five minute
Speaker 1: long process. Now reset your PC. This is a lot
Speaker 1: like the setting you see on a lot of mobile devices,
Speaker 1: which is essentially restore factory settings, so you know, you
Speaker 1: press this little command and it's gonna wipe everything off
Speaker 1: that computer and started as if it just came out
Speaker 1: of the box. That will also be nice. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean there are times again when you want to be
Speaker 1: able to do that, especially if you've had, you know,
Speaker 1: some sort of corruption or malware infection. Assuming that the
Speaker 1: reset old take care of that, you might be able
Speaker 1: to to go back to a point where you weren't
Speaker 1: being plagued by problems. Another hint that the mobile and
Speaker 1: non mobile worlds are are colliding violently is the Windows
Speaker 1: Store UM, and which might bear a certain resemblance to
Speaker 1: another app store by a company that rhymes with Schmapple.
Speaker 1: That's true, the Schmack Schmap store. Well, that's and I
Speaker 1: think though, UM, regardless of of who came up with
Speaker 1: the idea, because I know people will complain now, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it's a I think it's a great idea
Speaker 1: for UH, for all the operating systems. Frankly, I mean
Speaker 1: just to have to have a place where developers can
Speaker 1: put their their apps up there for people to define
Speaker 1: and download. UM. That's one of the things that I
Speaker 1: liked way back when we did our Lenox episode. I
Speaker 1: really like the the ability to find application for Lenox
Speaker 1: in a feature built into the build of Linux itself.
Speaker 1: And I said, man, it would be really great if
Speaker 1: Windows and Matt can do this too. Well, now they
Speaker 1: can do so. UM Now I think it's I think
Speaker 1: it's fantastic to be able to do that. UM. But yeah,
Speaker 1: they are coming out with a Windows Store that from
Speaker 1: which you will be able to buy applications. UM. And
Speaker 1: I'm sure that that will it will be sort of
Speaker 1: like the UM the other application stores, but it will
Speaker 1: have you will have the ability to run these apps
Speaker 1: on your Windows mobile device and your Windows eight computer
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah. And one other thing that I thought
Speaker 1: was really interesting to me. Um, it's very similar to
Speaker 1: the way operating systems like ubunt to allow you to Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you can run Ubuntu from a flash drive. Yes,
Speaker 1: you can just be thumb drive so you know, you
Speaker 1: don't have to replace the native operating system on your device.
Speaker 1: If you want to run Ubuntu, you can just plug
Speaker 1: in a USB drive and you can either boot it.
Speaker 1: You know, you can boot Ubuntu instead of your operating system,
Speaker 1: or you can even run it side by side. Now, uh,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of different reasons why you want
Speaker 1: to do that, but we won't. We don't need to
Speaker 1: really get into that. The reason why I bring it
Speaker 1: up is that Windows eight actually has a Windows to
Speaker 1: Go feature that will allow you to boot into Windows
Speaker 1: eight from a USB drive. That's really useful as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of a it's a new approach for Microsoft.
Speaker 1: It's not something that you would I would not have
Speaker 1: expected it from from Microsoft, which that's a great compliment
Speaker 1: to give a company as as old as Microsoft. Microsoft,
Speaker 1: of course is like you think about, that's one of
Speaker 1: the companies that defines the standard. Yes, so when Microsoft
Speaker 1: does something innovative, that's big news because you don't really
Speaker 1: think of it as an innovative company really. You think
Speaker 1: of it as like the dependable company that is sort
Speaker 1: of the measuring stick that you use it to to
Speaker 1: judge other companies by. And when Microsoft, which you know,
Speaker 1: you think of it as this big, monolithic company that
Speaker 1: you know, it's really hard to get stuff, uh moving.
Speaker 1: When something like this happens, you're like, oh, okay, you
Speaker 1: know what, that's my fault. It's a misconception in my
Speaker 1: mind of what this company is and what it's capable
Speaker 1: of doing. It's nice to see that. Now. Whether or
Speaker 1: not it ends up being a feature that a lot
Speaker 1: of people take advantage of, that's another matter entirely. But
Speaker 1: it does mean that people will potentially have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to test out Windows eight and see if they like
Speaker 1: it before committing to that system. Now granted, of course,
Speaker 1: just like any other Microsoft operating system, eventually, this will
Speaker 1: be the standard. Essentially on launch day. That's when you're
Speaker 1: gonna start seeing it, like all the all the PCs
Speaker 1: that run Microsoft from that point forward are going to
Speaker 1: have at least the option of running Windows eight, and
Speaker 1: then within a year or two it's not even an option,
Speaker 1: it's standard. Um to that. To that end, it's it's
Speaker 1: hard to say since uh, and if you're you're intrigued
Speaker 1: by this other than the developer preview, you're you want
Speaker 1: to get your hands on a real copy of Windows eight,
Speaker 1: It's gonna be about a year from the time of
Speaker 1: recording this apparently, which is in uh, getting to the
Speaker 1: end of September two eleven, UM, so it's it's gonna
Speaker 1: be probably late summer, early fall somewhere in there next year. UM.
Speaker 1: It'll be interesting though to see if they if Microsoft
Speaker 1: decides to release the operating system on a flash drive
Speaker 1: or some other medium other than DVD. Uh. I would
Speaker 1: imagine they might even do something similar to what mac
Speaker 1: os does, where you can download it directly, uh and
Speaker 1: then install it that way. Yeah, I think that that
Speaker 1: would be very useful, uh for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: Of course, not everyone has a broadband connection. I think
Speaker 1: you're still they're still gonna have to offer some kind
Speaker 1: of physical medium, sure, uh, from which they can you know,
Speaker 1: they can load it onto a computer, but you know it,
Speaker 1: I'm curious to see whether they're going to adopt something different,
Speaker 1: um when this actually comes out in stores. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: I can actually see a time where, you know, we've
Speaker 1: talked about again the post PC era. I can see
Speaker 1: a time where we get to a point where where
Speaker 1: instead of laptop computers that's what Chris and I tend
Speaker 1: to use at work, Instead of laptop computers, you get
Speaker 1: a tablet and you have a docking station at work,
Speaker 1: and you just dock your tablet when you get to work,
Speaker 1: and you've got a you know, a keyboard, Bluetooth keyboard
Speaker 1: or you know, maybe it's wired to the dock. It
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter uh that you use and you you
Speaker 1: use your tablet as if it were a desktop while
Speaker 1: you're at work, but then when you're done, you can
Speaker 1: just pop it out and then it's it makes that
Speaker 1: noise to pop it out, and then you've got your
Speaker 1: tablet and you still have access to all the information,
Speaker 1: or maybe you don't, depending upon how they create the system.
Speaker 1: I mean, and maybe it's like you have access to
Speaker 1: some apps while you're at work, and then in order
Speaker 1: to a you know, secure that data, you don't have
Speaker 1: access to it when it's not in a stocking station.
Speaker 1: But I can easily see that happening because again we're
Speaker 1: talking about a future where cloud computing is taking over.
Speaker 1: So you don't necessarily have to worry about creating a
Speaker 1: device that's going to have a massive hard drive, which
Speaker 1: you know that's that's one of the things that takes
Speaker 1: up a lot of space. Even with solid state you
Speaker 1: know you eventually that's gonna put extra space in a
Speaker 1: in a form factor that as we've all seen, people
Speaker 1: prefer the slim, sexy version of the tablet. They don't
Speaker 1: want just because just because something is capable of doing
Speaker 1: more stuff doesn't mean that people will go out and
Speaker 1: buy it because it might look a little clunky to them.
Speaker 1: You and and depending on what you're doing, you may
Speaker 1: not even need, you know, a syrit more serious powerful computer. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, people who do a lot of video editing
Speaker 1: and heavy graphics and uh that kind of stuff are
Speaker 1: still going to prefer desktop computers because they can use
Speaker 1: that the extra processing power. I mean can't You still
Speaker 1: can't put a high end processor as high end a
Speaker 1: processor let me, let me clarify that in notebooks simply
Speaker 1: because of the heat. Yeah. It generates so much heat
Speaker 1: that it will actually make the the components within the
Speaker 1: device start to malfunction. Uh you have. That's why you've
Speaker 1: got like these. That's why when you hear about gamer rigs,
Speaker 1: like the really super advanced ones, you'll hear about things
Speaker 1: like water cooling or nitrogen cooling. I mean you can
Speaker 1: talk about some pretty crazy cooling systems in order to
Speaker 1: keep a handle on the heat. Yeah, just and not
Speaker 1: just because of the main processor, but also for the
Speaker 1: graphics processors as well. Um, and also the uh amount
Speaker 1: of power that it draws. And of course from there
Speaker 1: you go down to the tablet and you you have
Speaker 1: to take another cut because uh, you know, it can't
Speaker 1: the form factor will not allow you to use as
Speaker 1: powerful processor. Yeah, you don't even have You may not
Speaker 1: have any way of cooling that tablet other than you know,
Speaker 1: waving it around in the air, right, because it's not
Speaker 1: you know, the form factor doesn't allow you to have
Speaker 1: a fan. Right. But depending on what you're doing, you
Speaker 1: may not need all that kind of power, and an
Speaker 1: operating system like Windows eight could take advantage of, uh
Speaker 1: an environment where you say, you know what, I only
Speaker 1: want to carry this, you know, two pound device or
Speaker 1: one and a half pound device with me. I don't
Speaker 1: want to carry a full size laptop. I don't need
Speaker 1: a full size laptop. Yeah. I can definitely see this
Speaker 1: being the future of computing, and not necessarily when I
Speaker 1: say the future for everyone, but that's not going to
Speaker 1: be for everyone, and it's not necessarily going to be
Speaker 1: the Windows eight model because uh when Microsoft is not
Speaker 1: the only company doing this. So I'm not saying I
Speaker 1: don't mean to suggest that Windows eight is the future
Speaker 1: of all computing, but that this model, this approach to computing,
Speaker 1: to me, looks like a pretty good bet that this
Speaker 1: is the future. So it may not be have the
Speaker 1: Windows brand name, but it'll probably have a very similar approach. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I think that wraps up this discussion. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: might revisit it in the future when we know more detail,
Speaker 1: maybe when it when it finally comes out, when we
Speaker 1: when we're actually using Windows eight, which will be sometime
Speaker 1: around Um. Yeah, my Windows ninety five is growing really
Speaker 1: slowly today for some reasons. So guys, if you have
Speaker 1: any suggestions for topics we should tackle, then I think
Speaker 1: you should email us that addresses text stuff at how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com, or drop us a line on
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter. You can find us there with the
Speaker 1: handle text stuff H S W and Chris and I
Speaker 1: will talk to you again really soon. Be sure to
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