Note: already posted on Windows8newsinfo forum | With Windows 7 making strides forward in its usage and popularity I thought it about time to have a look forward to what I hope Windows 8 will be like.
Its probably best to first look forward to what we know is coming in the future and see how those trends might affect what Microsoft do with Windows 8.
Mobile devices including phones, netbooks and tablets are going to become an increasingly important part of our lives and perhaps we’ll become more dependant on them than desktops and large notebook PCs. Part of this trend includes “location aware” technology that is often used in mobile phones and increasingly online services like Twitter are using more with features like Local Trends.
Natural User Interface (NUI) is becoming an increasing trend of Microsoft to include in its products with full touch support in Windows 7 and Project Natal on its way for Xbox.
Google plan to release their Chrome OS before the end of the year which will bring a brand new kind of operating system to computers, a cloud OS. This will mean that PCs will no longer need to have powerful hardware within them or large amount of storage as nearly all services will be accessed from the Cloud.
Taking the above trends into consideration I’ve come up with a few ideas of what I think Microsoft could try and implement into Windows 8 and a few things I hope that they would add to Windows.
Microsoft will certainly want to combat Google’s Chrome OS that maybe ahead of its time but the idea of a Cloud OS accessed through a browser is definitely going to be the future of computing. Now Microsoft would be foolish to make Windows 8 pretty much only a browser and they wont do that. However they will look to make Windows 8 integrate better with their own and other web services; one way I see Microsoft doing this is to allow easy access to the Cloud from deep within the operating system.
One of the most commonly used services of the cloud is for storage so wouldn’t it be great if Microsoft allowed users to add virtual disk drives to sit along side local disk drives in Windows, with virtual drives treated exactly the same as local ones. I think this should already be a feature of Windows Live SkyDrive and perhaps it will be come in Wave 4. Now obviously Microsoft would need to avoid any bundling or anti trust cases from the EU so it will have to provide an API (or whatever the technical name is, I’m no developer) to allow other online storage providers to add their virtual drives to Windows.
Alternatively Microsoft could make use of their Live Mesh technologies and Libraries, found in Windows 7, to allow users to automatically have all their files synced to the Cloud and any other devices they have. If a library could be made into a Cloud Library then users could choose files and folders from across their PC to be synced, this however might attract the attention of the EU as it would most likely have to synced only to Microsoft’s services.
Obviously there is more than just online storage offered online so for those services I would hope Microsoft makes it easy to add web services easily to the desktop. In a way this can already be done with Silverlight as seen with the Facebook app and in doing this allows users to quickly access the internet content they want. The problem with these apps though is that the require Silverlight and as much as I like it I can’t see it lasting for many years longer with standard like HMTL5 bringing support for a much more immersive web experience with no addins required.
Microsoft should add a nicer way to access online content other than just URL shortcuts so that users could, for example, access the Office Web Apps quickly, straight from their desktops without needing a browser. For this concept I envisage something like Prism from Mozilla Labs.
Now with Cloud storage and online services addressed I wouldn’t want to have to set this up several time on my various PCs and I can see a future where Windows Mobile devices make use of similar functionality. To make it easier for the user it would be great if Microsoft gave users the option to sign in to their Windows user account using their Windows Live ID which would then quickly connect them up with their various online storage accounts and immediately add their online services shortcuts to Windows. Obviously local programs would vary on different PCs but that has always been the case, this idea could also allows users to log on to and internet connected PC in the world and access their online storage quickly and easily.
I know that I would appreciate it if my folder structure, shortcuts, customisation etc etc were the same on my various PCs and for businesses it would be easier for them if someone could sign in to Windows and immediately have access to their own data on any PC. This will provide the best combination of client PC usage with internet content quickly accessible on PCs, better than Google’s idea. With regards mobile devices it would be very useful to sign in with the same Windows Live ID as a user’s PC and make use of the same storage and online services.
Moving away from the internet now I expect that over the next few years tablet devices will increase in popularity (for the wrong reasons, Apple) which will require Microsoft to think about how best to cater for the form factor. Currently notebooks, desktops and netbooks all have a fairly similar interface using a keyboard and mouse but when they are removed from a tablet the screen becomes the only input. Microsoft have done an excellent job of addressing the technologies needed to be utilise a touch screen through their Windows Touch implementation and hand writing recognition however the UI of Windows doesn’t always lend itself to touching with small icons, buttons and text to click and view.
I think, like Ed Bott, that Microsoft should allow switchable interfaces for their apps for touch screen and non-touch screen PCs this way addressing the need for both sets of interfaces whilst not changing the OS. Developers should be made aware of the technologies Microsoft have built within Windows 7 to make touching a PC screen as enjoyable as possible because currently there are so few apps out there to entice people to buy a touch PC.
I also think Microsoft will be adding even more NUI elements to Windows, just looking at game demos of Project Natal I can see practical applications for the technology on Windows PCs; it could effectively turn any PC into a touch screen PC.
Looking at mobility I expect Microsoft will look to keep the requirements to run Windows 8 the same as Windows 7 so that mobile devices can be as small, energy efficient and light weight as possible. If they had to up the requirements of the OS it would probably allow the light weight Google Chrome OS to gain market share in very low powered mobile devices.
Furthermore I think Microsoft will look to make Windows PCs even more location aware building on top of their sensor platform so that PCs are not only aware of where they are but also where other devices are around them (not sure how easy that would be to do though). This could allow for easy drag and drop functionality to share and backup content on different devices, similar in some ways to placing a device on a Surface. Now to the Windows awareness if you add the Project Natal technology and touch users could swipe content to various devices across their WiFi without needing the hassle of connecting everything up in partnerships; a truly innovative experience I would say and something Microsoft wants to implement.
I think that is all I have at the moment for what I want to see in Windows 8 but no doubt over the years to come other things will come to me as new technologies are announced.
Windows Live Tags: Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8
