Welcome to Building Windows 8

Building the next release of Microsoft Windows is an industry-wide effort that Microsoft approaches with a strong sense of responsibility and humility. Windows 8 reimagines Windows for a new generation of computing devices, and will be the very best operating system for hundreds of millions of PCs, new and old, used by well over a billion people globally.

We've been hard at work designing and building Windows 8, and today we want to begin an open dialog with those of you who will be trying out the pre-release version over the coming months. We intend to post regularly throughout the development of Windows 8, and to focus on the engineering of the product. Welcome to “Building Windows 8,” or as we call it, “B8.”
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If they build it...we will come :)

A Guy
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Home x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    INTEL Core i5-750
    Motherboard
    ASUS P7P55D
    Memory
    KINGSTON HyperX Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 1866Mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX750
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG 27MP33HQ 32" IPS LED
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 Evo 120 GB, 2 x SEAGATE 500GB Barracuda® 7200.12, SATA 3 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 16MB cache
    PSU
    ANTEC TruePower New TP-550, 80 PLUS®, 550W
    Case
    ANTEC Three Hundred Illusion
    Cooling
    COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus, 3 x 120mm 1 x 140mm Case
    Internet Speed
    20 + Mbps
    Browser
    Vivaldi
    Antivirus
    Avast
This is the time to get hyped over features that are coming to Windows and stop speculating about rumors.
*sits back and waits :D*
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire V3-531G
    CPU
    Intel B960 Sandy Bridge (2.2GHz, 2MB L3 cache)
    Motherboard
    Intel® HM77 Express
    Memory
    6GB (4+2) DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVidia GeForce GT630M with 1GB dedicated VRAM + Intel HD
    Sound Card
    Integrated audio with 2xHigh Definition Dolby® v4 speakers
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6" HD LED Acer CineCrystal™ (high-brightness 200-nit)
    Screen Resolution
    1.366 x 768 (WXGA)
    Hard Drives
    500GB SATA
    Keyboard
    Acer FineTip & MultiTouch Touchpad
    Internet Speed
    ADSL 5M
This is the time to get hyped over features that are coming to Windows and stop speculating about rumors.
*sits back and waits :D*

Our wait may be coming to an end :cool:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10.0.10122
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    My Build - Vorttex Ultimate
    CPU
    Core i7 @ 4500 MHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS Z87-Plus
    Memory
    32GB DDR3 @ 1822 MHz (OC)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon R9 280X 3GB @ 1180 / 6800 MHz
    Sound Card
    7.1 HDA
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LCD LG 22" + CRT LG 17"
    Screen Resolution
    1760 x 1320 / 1280 x 960
    Hard Drives
    1 x 240 GB SSD (System)
    3 x 500 GB HDD (Data/Media)
    1 x 2000 GB e-HDD (Backup)
    PSU
    ThermalTake 1000W PSU
    Case
    Corsair Carbide R300
    Cooling
    Corsair H60 (Push-Pull)
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Wireless Mouse
    Internet Speed
    60 Mbps (Down) 5 Mbps (Up)
    Browser
    IE, FF, Chrome
    Antivirus
    AVG Internet Security 2015
    Other Info
    Some wired stuff
Works for me!! :D
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows Seven x64
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv5 Notebook PC
    CPU
    2.2 GHz Dual Core
    Motherboard
    Quanta 3600
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3470
    Sound Card
    ATI
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Labtop
    Hard Drives
    ATA Hitachi HTS543215 (5400RPM)
    Internet Speed
    Basic DSL 1.5 up and Down
Let's see how much Microsoft will choose to reveal before BUILD.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 x64
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satellite M205-S4806
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo T5450
    Memory
    4 GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
About this blog and your comments

Thank you very much for the warm reception. It is humbling to see the amount of interest and enthusiasm for the blog and for Windows. We've been digesting all the comments (lots of mail is going around internally about specifics) and I've been going through my overflowing inbox (I can't reply to every message, but I have been replying)! Thank you. The most popular question/comment is about "signing up for the beta". We will be up front and very visible with any pre-release software programs that you can opt into. Promise.
As we begin our discussion of building Windows 8 on this blog, two housekeeping topics are worth a post before we start talking about building Windows 8 and the product. We want to be up front about the writing on this blog and provide a view on comments.
This blog is 100% authentic “engineer written” and not a marketing or communications effort. We do not have ghost-writers, editors, or any process that attempts to sanitize the words of folks on the team other than some basic copy editing.
This has the benefit of giving you truly authentic posts that directly reflect the passion of those developing the product. It also means that this blog is not written by professional writers. Some posts will go into a lot of detail. Posts by different writers will all have different “voices.” We ask that folks not be critical of the writing, keeping in mind the direct approach we are taking—I promise you that every writer will take personal comments, well, personally.
We had a long discussion about how to handle comments for Building Windows 8 (“B8”). Our experience with the Engineering Windows 7 blog ("E7") comments was mostly positive, but a non-zero number of folks abused their direct access to both email and comments. Let's keep the comments in the spirit of the community and avoid using comments for unrelated topics.
Of course, the primary goal of this blog is to have a two-way dialog, so comments are an important part of what we’re looking for with our blogging efforts. So we opted for the commenting mechanism already used by thousands of MSDN blogs—anonymous comments are permitted, and they appear without moderation. This blog platform employs some minor security measures and a spam filter that we do not control.
That means we are seeking out comments. Everyone on the Windows team will be watching for comments and is looking forward to the dialog. When participating, we will work to make sure Microsoft employees represent themselves as such, especially indicating if they work on the area Windows being discussed. We ask that press (those that write, blog, tweet professionally) identify themselves accordingly as well.
Things we hope to see in comments:
  • Lots of on-topic, good, interesting thoughts on Windows and the posts on B8
  • Focus on the content of the post and not just the topic in general—seek out the details
  • Dialog that is respectful and fun
We reserve the right to delete comments or otherwise edit what has been said. Things that will get comments edited or deleted:
  • Offensive or abusive language or behavior as determined by a community standard
  • Misrepresentation (i.e., claiming to be somebody you're not) — if you don't want to use your real name, that's fine, as long as your profile name isn't offensive, abusive, or misrepresentative
  • Repeatedly posting the same comments or agenda, or attempting to fit a specific topic into every post, no matter what we blog about
  • Blog-spam or link-abuse of any kind
We hope these rules will keep the discussion lively and on-topic.
--Steven

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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    NT4 SP6
    CPU
    Cyrix 266 mmx
    Motherboard
    Jetway
    Memory
    32MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Voodo
    Sound Card
    sb16
    Monitor(s) Displays
    14' CRT
    Screen Resolution
    800x600
    Hard Drives
    200mb Seagate
    PSU
    120w
    Mouse
    2 button
    Internet Speed
    33k
Introducing the team

Thanks for the comments and the flood of email we received (and to the number of folks now following us on Twitter, too). It is definitely humbling to see all the enthusiasm and interest. There are clearly already few important threads in the initial comments, some of which are based on the previews of the Windows 8 user experience. We’re definitely gearing up to discuss these issues, the design, and tradeoffs. Windows 8 has new features across the full breadth of the product. It takes quite a team to build Windows 8, and so I thought it would be a good idea to talk about the team structure—sometimes the “how” can help folks to understand the “what” and the “why.” This will give you an outline of the places we added features to Windows 8. It will also serve as a bit of a guide as we talk about the product.
It is tempting for some to think of Windows as one entity or group, or for some to think of Windows as just a set of specific people. Sometimes someone speaks at a conference or has a blog, and that comes to represent the product for you. In reality, Windows is always a product of the whole team and much of Microsoft. Nearly every development group contributes to building Windows 8 in some form or another. And Windows contributes efforts to most other groups as well.
Windows is a fairly broad project made up of a set of coordinated smaller projects. When we started building Windows 8 we had a clear sense of the direction we were heading and so we built a team structure to support that direction. Many of the teams work together while at the same time we try to break the work down into fairly independent groups—obviously as a customer you want things to work together, but as an engineer, you also want to be able to work independently. That’s a fine balance we work to maintain.
A lot goes into building a team structure to get all the work of Windows done. The most important first step is deciding “what” we plan to get done, so that we can make sure we have the best teams in place and the best structure to do that work. At the same time we have to make sure all the engineering processes—like daily builds, integration, quality, security, and all the fundamentals—are integral from the start (lots to talk about on these topics!).
We have several engineering roles, or disciplines, that make up our team. The implementation work on Windows happens when developers write code. This code implements features that come from specifications written by program management along with interaction designs from our product designers. Testers are responsible for making sure the spec is complete and the code does what the spec says it should do. This is a simplified view of the relationship between roles, since we routinely walk a bit in each other’s shoes. There are several other equally important roles on the team, but we tend to think of our engineering effort as development, test, and program management working together in lockstep throughout the entire release—each role has an equal voice in the outcome and choices we make.
We organize the work of Windows into “feature teams,” groups of developers who own a combination of architectural elements and scenarios across Windows. We have about 35 feature teams in the Windows 8 organization. Each feature team has anywhere from 25-40 developers, plus test and program management, all working together. Our teams are all focused on building a global product, and so some of our teams are located outside the US and are also delivering globally.
In general a feature team owns and builds what that most folks would identify as an area or component of Windows. “Feature” is always a tricky word—some folks think a feature is a broad architectural component like the "user interface” or networking, and other folks might think a feature is something more specific, like the “start menu” or IPv6. So the term is a bit overloaded. When we set up different feature teams, we pair the architecture (code, subsystems, components) with the scenarios (user experience) in which users will encounter it, while also working to make sure we keep teams small and manageable. We long ago stopped trying to count new features because of the difficulty in defining a feature. We do count work items, which do map to the work and specs that we build (but that is a pretty long list).
When folks do the math and come up with the number of developers on the team, we usually hear one of two reactions: “wow, that is a lot, and there is no way that can work,” or “wow, you build a product for a billion people with a pretty small number folks.” It is to our benefit to have the smallest number of people on the team possible, but it is to your benefit to have the largest number of people adding all the things that folks might want. So, we find a place in the middle. We want the team to be manageable and able to produce high quality, full-featured code.
I mentioned earlier that Windows contributes code to lots of other products and vice versa, so when you look at this list, keep in mind there are features from other groups (for example, our browser language runtime comes from the development tools group) and some of the work here goes into other products, too. For example, all of our kernel, networking, storage, virtualization, and other fundamental OS work is also part of Windows Server—that’s right, one team delivers the full Windows Client OS and much of the foundation for the Windows Server OS. And some features are built in the core OS but are ultimately only part of the Server product.
Many of the teams listed below describe features or areas that you are familiar with or that you can probably figure out based on the name. As we post more, team members will identify themselves as part of these teams. We also have organized these teams in seven larger groups that pull related teams together—fundamentals, devices and networking, core OS, developer experience, user experience, web services, and our engineering system. The Windows Live group (Hotmail, Messenger, Skydrive, Photos, LiveID, and more) also has a similar structure. Internet Explorer group is also a couple of teams on its own, but obviously contributes across Windows 8.

  • App Compatibility and Device Compatibility
  • App Store
  • Applications and Media Experience
  • App Experience
  • Core Experience Evolved
  • Device Connectivity
  • Devices & Networking Experience
  • Ecosystem Fundamentals
  • Engineer Desktop
  • Engineering System
  • Enterprise Networking
  • Global Experience
  • Graphics Platform
  • Hardware Developer Experience
  • Human Interaction Platform
  • Hyper-V
  • In Control of Your PC
  • Kernel Platform
  • Licensing and Deployment
  • Media Platform
  • Networking Core
  • Performance
  • Presentation and Composition
  • Reliability, Security, and Privacy
  • Runtime Experience
  • Search, View, and Command
  • Security & Identity
  • Storage & Files Systems
  • Sustained Engineering
  • Telemetry
  • User-Centered Experience
  • Windows Online
  • Windows Update
  • Wireless and Networking services
  • XAML
In addition to these teams made up of development, test, and program management, there are many others that are part of the product development team. Our content development team writes and edits our online assistance, website, deployment documents, and SDKs, to name a few things. Product planning leads customer and market research and also pays very close attention to feedback and telemetry around the pre-release software. Product design develops the overall interaction model, graphical language, and design language for Windows 8. Our research and usability team creates field and lab studies that show how existing products and proposed features perform with all types of customers. Localization brings Windows to over 100 languages (and localizes this blog). Our operations team runs services that are used by hundreds of millions of people and almost a billion PCs. Just to name a few..
When we started Windows 7 some people told us that the Windows team was too big and had reached a size that caused more engineering problems than it solved. At the same time, you can look at all the comments and see the incredible demand for new features across a very wide range of scenarios.
Folks want new things, and changes to existing things; they want features to be available globally, to be accessible, and to be super high quality; they want things to work on existing hardware, and to take advantage of the latest new hardware. Our job is to get as much done in as short a time as possible, at a very significant scale. That's all a pretty significant engineering effort.
For folks who are counting my words, I am still under 1,500 words, so I think I will call this an introduction to the team. Keep the comments coming, as they are helping us get ideas for posts and shape the dialog. I hope this post helps to develop some shared context in terms of talking about Windows 8.
--Steven

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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    NT4 SP6
    CPU
    Cyrix 266 mmx
    Motherboard
    Jetway
    Memory
    32MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Voodo
    Sound Card
    sb16
    Monitor(s) Displays
    14' CRT
    Screen Resolution
    800x600
    Hard Drives
    200mb Seagate
    PSU
    120w
    Mouse
    2 button
    Internet Speed
    33k
Sounds like things may be picking up soon.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64/ Windows 7 Ult x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    76~2.0
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-3570K 4.6GHz
    Motherboard
    GIGABYTE GA-Z77X UD3H f18
    Memory
    8GB (2X4GB) DDR3 1600 CORSAIR Vengeance CL8 1.5v
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire HD 7770 Vapor-X 1GB DDR5
    Sound Card
    Onboard VIA VT2021
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LCD Dell SP2208WFP
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    Samaung 840Pro 128GB, Seagate 500GB SATA2 7200rpm 32mb, Seagate 1TB SATA2 7200rpm 32mb,
    PSU
    Corsair HX650W
    Case
    Cooler Master Storm Scout
    Cooling
    Corsair H80 w/Noctua NF P12 12cm fan, case fans 2X14cm
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wave
    Mouse
    CM Sentinel
    Internet Speed
    Abysmal
    Browser
    Opera Next
    Other Info
    Dell Venue 8Pro: Baytrail Z3740D, 2GB Ram, 64GB HDD, 8" IPS Display 1280 x 800, Active Stylus.
    Haswell laptop: HP Envy 17t-j, i7-4700MQ, GeForce 740M 2GB DDR3, 17.3" Full HD 1920x1080, 16GB RAM, Samsung 840 Pro 128GB, 1TB Hitachi 7200 HDD,
    Desktop: eSATA ports,
    External eSATA Seagate 500GB SATA2 7200rpm,
Good to see some form of announcement!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 x64/Win 8 Dev x64
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom - PC Specialist
    CPU
    Athlon 64 x2 6000+
    Motherboard
    ASUS M3N78 PRO
    Memory
    4Gb Dual Channel
    Graphics Card(s)
    Geforce 8400
    Sound Card
    On Board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ G2222HDL
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1Gb Spinpoint F3/740Gb Western Digital
    640Gb Western Digital
    PSU
    National Grid
    Case
    Yes
    Cooling
    Stock Cooler
    Keyboard
    Saitek Eclipse II
    Mouse
    Microsoft Laser Mouse
    Internet Speed
    50Mb
    Other Info
    N/A
Yup. I've bookmarked the "Building Windows 8" blog and am checking it every day. *hypemonster*
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire V3-531G
    CPU
    Intel B960 Sandy Bridge (2.2GHz, 2MB L3 cache)
    Motherboard
    Intel® HM77 Express
    Memory
    6GB (4+2) DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVidia GeForce GT630M with 1GB dedicated VRAM + Intel HD
    Sound Card
    Integrated audio with 2xHigh Definition Dolby® v4 speakers
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6" HD LED Acer CineCrystal™ (high-brightness 200-nit)
    Screen Resolution
    1.366 x 768 (WXGA)
    Hard Drives
    500GB SATA
    Keyboard
    Acer FineTip & MultiTouch Touchpad
    Internet Speed
    ADSL 5M
MS BUILDING WIDOWS 8 BLOG.... AKA: B8... Did anyone else catch this???

In his intro the last months start of the Microsoft Building Windows 8 Blog, MS Blogger Steven Sinofsky said:

Welcome to “Building Windows 8,” or as we call it, “B8.”

Does anyone else here, frothing at the mouth for Win8 betas, find this name as ironic as I do???

B8=BAIT!

:ROFLMAO:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Steve Ballmer Signature Edition
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Homebrew PC - "Alpha_Dawg"
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad - Q9550 - 2.83GHz stock - OC'd to 3.6GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
    Memory
    4GB DDR2 800MHz (PC6400) OCZ Reaper
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce GTX 460
    Sound Card
    Asus Xonar DX
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung SyncMaster 2333HD
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    WD Caviar Black 750GB/7200RPM/32MB cache
    WD Caviar Green 2.5TB/5400RPM/64MB cache
    WD Caviar Green 2.0TB/5400RPM/64MB cache
    PSU
    PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750
    Case
    Gigabyte 3D Aurora
    Cooling
    Case is Air - 5ea. 120mm fans (mix of Arctic and Xigmatec)
    Internet Speed
    50 mbps down/5 mbps up
    Other Info
    AVerMedia - AVerTVHD G2 Dual Tuner Card
...lol...

:ROFLMAO:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10.0.10122
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    My Build - Vorttex Ultimate
    CPU
    Core i7 @ 4500 MHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS Z87-Plus
    Memory
    32GB DDR3 @ 1822 MHz (OC)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon R9 280X 3GB @ 1180 / 6800 MHz
    Sound Card
    7.1 HDA
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LCD LG 22" + CRT LG 17"
    Screen Resolution
    1760 x 1320 / 1280 x 960
    Hard Drives
    1 x 240 GB SSD (System)
    3 x 500 GB HDD (Data/Media)
    1 x 2000 GB e-HDD (Backup)
    PSU
    ThermalTake 1000W PSU
    Case
    Corsair Carbide R300
    Cooling
    Corsair H60 (Push-Pull)
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Wireless Mouse
    Internet Speed
    60 Mbps (Down) 5 Mbps (Up)
    Browser
    IE, FF, Chrome
    Antivirus
    AVG Internet Security 2015
    Other Info
    Some wired stuff
Good one... :ROFLMAO:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64/ Windows 7 Ult x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    76~2.0
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-3570K 4.6GHz
    Motherboard
    GIGABYTE GA-Z77X UD3H f18
    Memory
    8GB (2X4GB) DDR3 1600 CORSAIR Vengeance CL8 1.5v
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire HD 7770 Vapor-X 1GB DDR5
    Sound Card
    Onboard VIA VT2021
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LCD Dell SP2208WFP
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    Samaung 840Pro 128GB, Seagate 500GB SATA2 7200rpm 32mb, Seagate 1TB SATA2 7200rpm 32mb,
    PSU
    Corsair HX650W
    Case
    Cooler Master Storm Scout
    Cooling
    Corsair H80 w/Noctua NF P12 12cm fan, case fans 2X14cm
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wave
    Mouse
    CM Sentinel
    Internet Speed
    Abysmal
    Browser
    Opera Next
    Other Info
    Dell Venue 8Pro: Baytrail Z3740D, 2GB Ram, 64GB HDD, 8" IPS Display 1280 x 800, Active Stylus.
    Haswell laptop: HP Envy 17t-j, i7-4700MQ, GeForce 740M 2GB DDR3, 17.3" Full HD 1920x1080, 16GB RAM, Samsung 840 Pro 128GB, 1TB Hitachi 7200 HDD,
    Desktop: eSATA ports,
    External eSATA Seagate 500GB SATA2 7200rpm,
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