Eight Windows 8 features that could save Microsoft

Microsoft is like as not the most dominant company in the history of computing. It has ruled the PC world for two decades, cementing its Windows operating system as the only game in town outside of the minute marketshare of Apple and indie rumblings of Linux. Still, the computing world is at an apex; things are beginning to change in big ways. Windows governs the PC world, now we're fast entering a post-PC era.

Where the PC was the central hub of all things tech for 20 years, new devices have emerged that are shattering that monopoly. Microsoft, unfortunately, has tried too hard and too long to shove its increasingly bloated PC operating system into an ever-shrinking and changing slate of devices. Although it invented tablet PCs and was early to the smartphone game, users have largely rejected these Windows flavors in favor of newer, leaner platforms built without the baggage of 20-plus years of PCs tugging on them.

Waking up from its daze, Microsoft went back to the drawing board a couple years back and created Windows Phone 7, a completely new and reinvented mobile OS, spawned from the company's Zune line of MP3 players. Unfortunately, having a separate mobile OS and a PC platform has lead to a big interface continuity problem; WP7 and W7 do not look or act alike, at all. And at the time there's tablets. Microsoft has opted to push Windows 7 onto tablets, a device type it just isn't made to run on. To complicate matters, early sales of Windows Phone 7, which launched last November, have been slow.

So where does Microsoft go from here? Does it have a chance in this new post-PC world, or will it thrive only in the diminishing market of non-touch, keyboarded PCs? In an previously article, I gave five reasons why Windows dominance is coming to an end. Today, I'd like to explore seven bold ways that Windows 8 could help reignite the fire for Windows on all devices.

The huge interface gap between Windows 7

Three screensMicrosoft knows that Windows 8 must bridge the huge interface gap between Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7. It needs to be an OS in other words lean enough to run in some capacity on Nokia's feature phones, now powerful enough to scale to smartphones, tablets, laptops, PCs, and televisions of all sizes. It needs to run on every screen - touch, 3D, or other - in a expected and elegant way. Microsoft is already on the right track with Windows Phone, Bing, and Xbox 360 - three creations that wouldn't exist if Microsoft hadn't encountered stiff competition in the smartphone, search, and videogame markets. When pushed by tough competition, the company has a remarkable ability to all things considered get creative and conjure up fantastic and consistent user experiences. They need to take that fear and place it on the PC Windows platform as so then.

and a cloudWindows 8 needs to work on any size device, now it as well should take cloud computing to a new level. During competitors like Google are completely cloud-based, Microsoft's approach has been to create a dual-use experience, where items can be accessed locally and stored on the Web. This is the right approach. Many are wary of storing things on the Web, so strategy that retains local storage yet seamlessly allows cloud backup of anything and everything would be a very cool and very valuable service. Recent leaked images show Live ID integration into the taskbar.

Imagine if you get a virus, and Microsoft could instantly restore your PC to its former state in minutes afterwards a crisis. All you would need is a Live ID. Pictures, videos, music, documents, and programs would be restored from a secure locker on the Web. Sharing pictures and data would as well be much easier with heavy integration of services like Facebook and a general blurring between offline and online services. Taking it a step furthermore, imagine taking a picture on your Windows Phone and having it instantly appear in your pictures folder on your home desktop, netbook, or tablet. Theoretically, your whole family could share music and data between one another via a simple linking of online profiles. And I'm not even scratching the surface. Microsoft has shown that it understands cloud services with Windows Phone and before devices like the Kin line of phones. Hopefully the company's engineers have much cooler ideas than I do.

Keep it simple, SteveTo move forward, Microsoft is going to have to move back and shed some of its baggage. Windows 7 near perfects the PC interface MS began with Windows 95, however since the mid 80s, Microsoft has tried to make Windows something for everyone. There are a thousand ways to do anything in Windows - some easy, some convoluted. In this connection, Windows needs to take a cue from iOS and Android. Say what you will about Apple, yet Steve Jobs is willing to kill what doesn't work. Microsoft has strived to make Windows the OS for everything, now that goal is precisely what has bogged it down in recent years and prevented the company from more quickly adapting to the changing computing market. Hell, even Bill Gates complained about his own OS some years back. Windows 8 must, by default, rid itself of the clutter of options and icons that have filled Windows the last 15 years. Some users will be irritated, but at times to jump a canyon, you gotta drop your pack. Eventually, a better product will spur the masses to change.

The best components of Windows Phone

Windows 8 should take the best components of Windows Phone, Xbox, and Windows 7 and roll them into one complete package. Hopefully the end result will have more Windows Phone than anything else. It is Microsoft's most beautiful and simple OS to date.

Keeping it simple extends to OS versions as so then. Microsoft launched six versions of Windows 7: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. A seventh version, Thin PC, will shortly be available. Without a chart, I challenge anyone to explain the differences between them all. Windows 8 needs to be much simpler than this. Microsoft isn't going to give up its enterprise profits, but at the most there should be two versions of Windows 8: Home and Business. There can be two versions of Office also.

Kinect built into every Windows machineAt CES this year, Steve Ballmer showed off new ways to use the Xbox 360 Kinect camera peripheral. Using arm gestures and voice commands, players can however use applications on the Xbox and play media. The demonstration shows only a fraction of what Kinect-like interfaces will be capable of in a few years. During it is an Xbox exclusive for the time being, why not integrate Kinect research into all Windows devices? Imagine being able to gesture or tell your laptop to open up different apps and control many onscreen actions directly with your hands. It could all things considered give laptops and desktops an interface that could compete with the direct-touch interfaces of tablets and smartphones. And on touch devices, enhanced gestures and voice commands would as well come in handy in many ways. Kinect with its infrared camera is a huge potential advantage for Microsoft should they choose to liberate it from the Xbox.

Live tiles and new proactive interfacesKinect offers a lot of opportunities, nevertheless so does Windows Phone. Rumor has it that Microsoft is already adding Windows Phone Live Tiles to Windows 8, with the option to turn them off. This is a great idea and I hope Live Tiles are used for tablet devices as so then. Nevertheless, I'd like to see the team in Redmond take it a few steps furthermore. Microsoft has been experimenting with some cool new bubble-like interfaces that attempt to predict and make the computing experience far more proactive than it currently is. For instance, if you've booked a flight and the weather has gotten bad, perhaps Windows would proactively notify you that things aren't looking so good for that flight on Tuesday. Or maybe your computer or smartphone Cloud account may remember that you always participate in March Madness and notify you of in a class by itself opportunities.

New Explorer for a new ageUnderstanding navigation

A new Explorer for a new ageUnderstanding navigation and storage is as well something many Windows users don't get. They know what a My Documents is, nevertheless 20 years into the concept of folders and a significant number of users don't understand directories and how they work. Manipulating directories is the key to knowing how to fiddle around in Windows. I'm not sure if Microsoft needs to eliminate folders utterly, yet people need to know where their files are. The differentiation between the Desktop homescreen, My Documents, and C: Drive is too complicated for many users to understand. It should be better explained, or the Explorer should be replaced with a system in other words more effective. Microsoft's Ray Ozzie hinted at this in his farewell letter last October. With the Mac App Store, Apple has already begun to better hide directories from the end user's view.

Windows SurfaceOur own Rob Enderle mentioned how great Microsoft's Surface innovation is back in his Imagining Windows 8 article in January. I agree. Surface employs a new innovation called "Pixel Sense" that lets a touchscreen to tell the truth see the items that are touching it and download files from other digital devices. In a demonstration at CES this year, Microsoft showed how the Surface research could as a matter of fact see a black and white version of items that are places on it. Using shape recognition software, a number of amazing new possibilities could open up for interface design and gaming. Currently, Surface is only being sold as a gimmicky product for businesses to use to attract attention, however the potential is there for a whole lot more. If it's financially feasible, Surface technology would be ideal for nearly any touch device.

The later half of 2012

2012 isn't far awayWindows 8 is rumored to be released in the later half of 2012, about three years afterwards the release of Windows 7. This means that the first private betas may start in late 2011. It is a scary time for Microsoft. Tablets will be a couple years old by the time Windows supports them in any meaningful way and the smartphone market continues to slip away from the Redmond giant. Nevertheless, at the moment, PCs are even so vital to daily living, which means Microsoft can take its time. On the whole, the game is changing. The Windows dynasty will not last forever if Microsoft isn't able to recapture some market share in smartphones, tablets, and whatever new devices crop up straightway. Ballmer and Co. need to get a lot nimbler if they hope to compete with today's emerging platforms.