Windows 8 will be Microsoft’s complete reimagination of the PC, and Microsoft is hard at work optimizing it for full blown desktop business powerhouses to SoC devices. Microsoft has been especially focused on the immersive, Metro UI tablet experience it provides. An important part of that is how Windows 8 will react to portrait and landscape modes – we’ve never seen this functionality displayed before in a demo of Windows 8.

Steven Sinofsky has recently updated the “Building Windows 8″ blog with a new entry centered on designing Windows 8 around any way a person holds their tablet – vertically or horizontally. “One of the best things about a tablet is that you can hold it in your hands. It’s personal…so when planning Windows 8 we wanted to make sure that the experience could support any orientation that the device could be held in.” He writes. Sinofsky explains the four principles that the Windows 8 Division followed when optimizing for landscape and portrait modes:

Windows 8: Landscape and Portrait Support | Windows 8 Center