Windows 8 Direct Experience Mode

We do not know an awful lot about Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 8. Heck, we do not even know if it will be named Windows 8. Microsoft is tight lipped and does not reveal planned features at this point in time, probably to avoid jeopardizing the sales of their current operating system Windows 7.

The official information we have are mostly from job postings and patent applications. Back in August I ran a story on the Direct Experience Mode which could become a part of Windows 8 which was mentioned in a patent application. It basically mentioned an option to load different versions of the operating system automatically or manually. An example is a video DVD inserted by the user before boot which would load a faster loading video player instead of the full operating system.

A new patent application was filed in January 2011 which looks like a detailed version of the previous application.

The operating system is not loaded directly anymore. Instead, a virtual machine manager is started which can load one of the available partitions. Partitions in this case means either a general purpose operating system or a specialized version. It should not be confused with hard drive partitions.

The figure above shows one general purpose operating system and four specialized systems for DVD, TV, Music and Other purposes. It is likely that other is just a placeholder for multiple applications. It could for instance be interesting to load a web browser directly which could target Google’s Chrome OS.

While it is currently not known if the technology behind the patent will find its way into the Windows 8 operating system, it is likely that it will in form of the Direct Experience Mode.

According to the patent, it is possible to load a second operating system to switch between systems whenever the need arises. Windows 8 could start up with a web browser or email client and load the general purpose operating system in full in the background.

Several questions remain unanswered at this point in time:

Will the technology be integrated into Windows 8? If so, will it be available in all editions or only specific editions.
Are partitions beneficial for a PC’s power consumption and performance?
Will it be possible to create custom partitions?

What’s your take on the Direct Experience Mode?

© Martin for gHacks Technology News, 2011. | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit, twitter
Post tags: direct experience mode, patent, windows 8, windows 8 partitions

Comentários

Postagens mais visitadas deste blog

Improve Windows Security By Closing Open Ports

Improve Windows Security By Closing Open Ports : " A standard Windows operating system has a number of ports open after installation. Some of these ports are needed for the system to function properly while others might not. These ports can pose a security risk as every open port on a system might be an entry point for a malicious user. A port basically allows communication to or from the device. Characteristics are a port number, an IP address and a protocol type. This article will give you the tools at hand to identify and evaluate the open ports on your Windows system to make a decision in the end whether they can or should be closed or left open. Software programs and tools that we will use: CurrPorts : Available for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows. It is a port monitor that displays all open ports on a computer system. We will use it to identify the ports and the programs that are using them. Windows Task Manager: Also used to identify the programs and link some p

Diagnosing a Blue Screen of Death Error in Windows

Diagnosing a Blue Screen of Death Error in Windows : For many years now the famous Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) has been the ultimate indication that something disastrous has happened to make your computer die, but how useful is the information in the BSoD and the respective crash dump file that Windows produces? The best article I ever found explaining the BSoD in depth is here on the Microsoft website, however it’s quite technical and doesn’t discuss how to actually troubleshoot a problem. The crash dump file is just technical details of what was being held in the computer’s memory at the time of the crash, and this will include details on every driver and service that was loaded, and every piece of software that was running. The most useful pieces of information are to be found on the BSoD itself and are highlighted on the screenshot below. These are the BSoD error name, the stop error code and the name of the driver or service that has failed (this last one might not always appea

Use BGInfo to Build a Database of System Information of Your Network Computers

Use BGInfo to Build a Database of System Information of Your Network Computers : " One of the more popular tools of the Sysinternals suite among system administrators is BGInfo which tacks real-time system information to your desktop wallpaper when you first login. For obvious reasons, having information such as system memory, available hard drive space and system up time (among others) right in front of you is very convenient when you are managing several systems. A little known feature about this handy utility is the ability to have system information automatically saved to a SQL database or some other data file. With a few minutes of setup work you can easily configure BGInfo to record system information of all your network computers in a centralized storage location. You can then use this data to monitor or report on these systems however you see fit. BGInfo Setup If you are familiar with BGInfo, you can skip this section. However, if you have never used this tool, it takes ju

SysAdmin

Pesquisar este blog