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Microsoft Shows off some new Windows 8 Tablet Screened

Microsoft has released a few new screenshots for the still in-development Windows 8 for tablet PCs, with which they hope to challenge the iPad dominance. The Windows 7 sequel OS will come with touch capabilities as standard, so you won’t need a special edition to run on a tablet. Mice and keyboard can of course be used to, but touch controls are the base ones that the system is based on.

The new startup screen includes tiles that can be swiped back and forth, giving the user important information in a similar fashion to Windows 7 Phone edition. It seems that Microsoft is taking some inspiration from smartphone operating systems to create this new platform.

Microsoft Windows president Steven Sinofsky let people in on the fact that the OS won’t use anymore resources than current Windows 7 builds, meaning people can move over easily if they want to. On top of this, Windows 8 will be optimised for Intel, AMD and ARM chips giving it a fair breadth of hardware support.

Internet Explorer 10 is coming built into it that will also support touch screen input, including the use of a split keyboard for easy thumb input.

“And this isn’t just about touch PCs. The new Windows experience will ultimately be powered by application and device developers around the world — one experience across a tremendous variety of PCs,” said Julie Larson-Green, Corporate Vice President for Windows Experience. ”The user interface and new apps will work with or without a keyboard and mouse on a broad range of screen sizes and pixel densities, from small slates to laptops, desktops, all-in-ones, and even classroom-sized displays. Hundreds of millions of PCs will run the new Windows 8 user interface. This breadth of hardware choice is unique to Windows and central to how we see Windows evolving.”

Industry