Short: Some of what Microsoft didn’t show of Windows 8

Microsoft may have blew the lids off Windows 8 in the first BUILD 2011 keynote but you can only fit so much in a 2 hour presentation, no matter how enthusiastic Steven Sinofsky can be.

Near the end of the keynote, the presentation included a slide with hundreds of features that Microsoft claim they “didn’t get to show”. At normal scale, it was a little difficult to comprehend, but with the magic of magnification it reveals a few nuggets.

Here are some of the most interesting ones I could read legibly from the text.

  • Integrated load balancing – if you have multiple active network connections, Windows 8 will intelligently balance the network traffic between them for performance
  • Stereo 3D video and gaming – would suggest native support for stereoscopic display output too
  • Easy discover apps that support a language – would suggest Windows Store will allow browsing by language
  • Filter apps that are accessible – similar to above, for applications that are accessible
  • Start background – there will be the ability to change the Start background (not possible in developer preview)
  • Create Live ID in Windows OOBE – users without Live IDs will be able to create one at the Windows setup
  • Phone as Smartcard – the ability to use Windows Phone as an authenticator for login?
  • Communication over SMS on my PC – the ability to send and receive SMSes?
  • Native support for WIMAX and LTE

23 insightful thoughts

  1. OMG!!! Microsoft actually listens! The Phone as Smartcard is actually my feature-request I posted to the Build site. Its a simple feature: Pair my bluetooth phone device to my tablet or desktop machine, use the proximity detection of the mobile device to ID my presence and log me in automatically or use it as Two-tier authentication with the lax security feature of the PIN or Picture login.

    I never thought they’ll implement it so fast.

  2. Is that “DirectX 11” in the list near the bottom left? That’s already in Win7.

    Maybe it has been enhanced for Win8, or it was meant to say DirectX 12. (Maybe it does say DirectX 12 and I just can’t read the tiny letters. :))

  3. ‘Long Zheng: BTW: the Aero in the traditional desktop of the Windows Developer Preview is not final, it should be totally black/chromeless’

    Was that a joke that went over my head?

  4. “Create Live ID in Windows OOBE – users without Live IDs will be able to create one at the Windows setup”
    Didn’t they try integrating .NET Passport into Windows XP, and failed horribly? How will Live ID be any different?

  5. “Stereo 3D video and gaming”

    windows lacks this wonderful option “Communication over SMS on my PC ”

    2 cool options

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