Author Archives: Ankur

About Ankur

He is technology enthusiast and a collegiate, who likes working with latest gadgets and likes to talk about technology everywhere. He is also a MCTS and MCITP in Enterprise Desktop Administrator 7..

Windows 8 to support 109 languages, 14 more from Windows 7

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We know that currently Windows 7 supports 95 languages which can be viewed here, today Microsoft has posted on Building Windows 8 Blog that Windows 8 would be supporting 109 languages, which includes the 95 languages in Windows 7 and 14 new languages. These 14 new languages includes the English for UK. 13 other new Language Interface pack (LIP) available in Windows 8 are Punjabi (Pakistan), Sindhi (Pakistan), Central Kurdish (Iraq), Uyghur (People’s Republic of China), Belarusian (Belarus), Kinyarwanda (Rwanda), Tigrinya (Ethiopia), Tajik (Tajikistan), Wolof (Senegal), K’iche’ (Guatemala), Scottish Gaelic (United Kingdom), Cherokee (United States), Valencian (Spain).

Earlier some of the languages were available via Windows update but Microsoft has completely separated the language part in Windows 8. You can now selected the language from Language preferences in Control Panel. To add a language simply click on “Add a language” link as shown in the image below which will bring a list of languages-

A list of languages would be shown -

Select the language from the list or you can search for the desired language. After selecting the language it would be shown on the main page-

The language would be shown in the list but not downloaded. To download just click on options and click on download and the language would be downloaded-

After downloading you have to make this as primary language which can be done by just clicking on Make this the primary language and it would be set.

Windows 8 consumer preview build 8250 screenshots emerged

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We know that Microsoft would be releasing Windows 8 consumer preview on February 29 and according to various sources the consumer preview build would be build 8250. Today couple of screenshots has been posted on the Chinese site PCBETA showing that build 8250 has been compiled. Here are the screenshots of build 8250

Various sources are indeed claiming that Windows 8 build 8250 has been compiled though the complete build string of this build is currently unknown. Also according to various sources Microsoft has provided this build to various major OEM partners.

Sneak peek on submitting your Windows 8 apps to Windows store

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This may be a question which every developer may be thinking as how they would be submitting their apps to Windows store. Today Microsoft has posted on the Windows Store for Developers blog showing step by step instructions as how to submit the apps to Windows store.

The blog post states that Microsoft has broken the submission process into two phases. In the first phase the developer wold be learning, submitting and reviewing their apps and once the app has been submitted for certification you can track the progress.

Microsoft details that developers can visit the store even before they have started working on the app and they can reserve the name of the app much before they began coding, so they don’t have to worry about the name of the app during coding process.

The submit an App page has lot of features which includes reserving the name for your app, setting age rating and rating certifications, selling details and much more. Here is how the page looks like-

Windows 8 app submission

Microsoft would also be providing Windows App Certification Kit, which allows you to verify your apps locally. Using this kit you can fix technical issues early before submitting and therefore increasing the chances of getting listed in Windows store easy.

Once the app has been submitted for certification you can track the certification of your apps easily via dashboard. Here is how the dashboard looks like-

 

You would be able to get access to Windows store once Windows 8 consumer preview is released on February 29. Check the following video where Microsoft details the submission of Windows 8 apps to Windows store-

 

Firefox for Windows 8 metro in development

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We know that Microsoft would be releasing the Windows 8 consumer preview on February 29 and the RTM version is expected late this year but the guys at Mozilla has already started working on Firefox for the Windows 8 metro version. Firefox is indeed the second most popular web browser after Internet Explorer and everyone would like to see Firefox running on Windows 8 metro. Here is what the mozilla team posted-

Windows 8 contains two application environments, “Classic” and “Metro”. Classic is very similar to the Windows 7 environment at this time, it requires a simple evolution of the current Firefox Windows product. Metro is an entirely new environment and requires a new Firefox front end and system integration points.

The feature goal here is a new Gecko based browser built for and integrated with the Metro environment.

Firefox on Metro, like all other Metro apps will be full screen, focused on touch interactions, and connected to the rest of the Metro environment through Windows 8 contracts.

Firefox on Metro will bring all of the Gecko capabilities to this new environment and the assumption is that we’ll be able to run as a Medium integrity app so we can access all of the win32 Firefox Gecko libraries avoiding a port to the new WinRT API for the bulk of our code. (Though we will need to have a pan and zoom capability for content.)

It’s clear from the above quote that Mozilla team can easily port Firefox on the desktop version of Windows 8, but lot of work has to be done for the metro version.

Mozilla Firefox Windows 8

We may soon see the alpha version of Firefox for Windows 8 soon, but as of now there is no confirmation about the dates from the Mozilla team.

Here are couple of pages on the Mozilla website related to Windows 8-

  • https://wiki.mozilla.org/Windows8
  • https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Windows_8_Integration
  • https://wiki.mozilla.org/Windows_8_Integration

(Thanks to Aniket for sharing on Facebook )

Windows 8 consumer preview to be build 8250

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We already know that Microsoft would be releasing Windows 8 consumer preview on February 29 at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, recently Chinese site Win8China has posted that 8250 will be the final build that would be released on that day. Further couple other sources are claiming that infact final Windows 8 consumer preview build would be build 8250. As Microsoft tends to skip builds during the compilation we believe that this build would be compiled very soon or according to some unconfirmed sources this build has already been internally compiled. We are still trying to get things confirmed whether this build has been compiled or not.

We already have confirmed news that build 8227 has been compiled which according to few is very stable. The recent leaked screenshots show that the build has lot of new features including the much awaited Windows store. Windows 8 Consumer preview would definitely be a treat for Windows users and we hope it would be available on tablets soon.

Windows on ARM to support only office based desktop apps

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Microsoft has recently posted on the Building Windows 8 blog giving details about the Windows 8 on ARM or which is currently called as WOA. Those who are not familiar with WOA here is what Steven Sinofsky posted about it-

WOA is a new member of the Windows family, much like Windows Server, Windows Embedded, or Windows Phone. As with those products, WOA builds on the foundation of Windows, has a very high degree of commonality and very significant shared code with Windows 8, and will be developed for, sold, and supported as part of the largest computing ecosystem in the world.

According to the post, WOA will only support 4 desktop apps from office 15 namely Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.These office applications has been build to minimize power/resource consumption and can be used on both WOA and on Windows 8 on x86/64. Besides these desktops applications the components of Windows like File explorer would run on WOA. Though metro apps would on both WOA and x86/64. Here is the extract from the post-

WOA includes desktop versions of the new Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. These new Office applications, codenamed “Office 15”, have been significantly architected for both touch and minimized power/resource consumption, while also being fully-featured for consumers and providing complete document compatibility. WOA supports the Windows desktop experience including File Explorer, Internet Explorer 10 for the desktop, and most other intrinsic Windows desktop features—which have been significantly architected for both touch and minimized power/resource consumption.

A video has also been posted showing the screenshots of office 15 running on WOA tablets. Here is the video-

 

 

Windows 8 Consumer preview to be launched on February 29

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There has been rumors that Windows 8 consumer preview would be launched on February 20, but today Business Insider has posted that Microsoft has send invites to the press stating that Windows 8 consumer preview would be released on February 29 at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), at Barcelona hotel between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. local time on February 29, 2012. The MWC conference runs from February 27 through March 1 and Samsung would be releasing lot of stuffs during this event so we may probably see some new Windows 8 tablets during this conference.

Further we have seen in the leaked screenshots that Windows Store is currently not opened, according to the information available Microsoft would be opening the store for public at the same time.

The Windows 8 Release candidate or what we should say as business preview is expected to be released in third quarter and we can expect the Windows 8 RTM release by the end of this year.

(Thanks Dustin for the tip )

 

Windows 8 consumer preview to have Media Center, latest build 8225

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Some sites were reporting that Windows 8 consumer preview won’t contain Media Center, but today the guys from Microsoft has tweeted on Building Windows8 twitter account that Windows 8 consumer preview would indeed include Media Center. Here is the screenshot which Microsoft posted-

The screenshot show no notable difference in Media Center from what in Windows 7 though the build number is clearly visible. The build number as seen in the screenshot is build 8225. We had unconfirmed information about this build since couple of days but Microsoft has now finally confirmed that Build 8225 has been compiled. Further according to our information the complete build string of this build is   8225.0.winmain_win8beta.120203-1918  which states that the build was compiled on February 3.

Windows 8 consumer preview build 8220 new screenshots leaked

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We have earlier posted lot of screenshots about the Windows 8 consumer preview build 8220, now Canouna has extensively posted about it on Winunleaked and showing most the new features in this build.

According to him the following new features is available in this build-

  • new Immersive UI icon set
  • new background set for the Start Page
  • new shortcuts for the Charm Bar
  • new Apps menu template
  • no more Microsoft Confidential watermark, neither on the desktop or in the WinVer
  • no security hash
  • no start button
  • a lot of bug fixes
  • new Ribbon organization
  • new branding : « Windows 8 Consumer Preview »
  • new organization for split touch keyboard
  • And of course lot more

As we already know that Start orb has disappeared from this build, but you can access the start meny by just taking the cursor to the bottom left corner and the menu would appear. Finally he has posted lot of screenshots which we are posting here as well-

Setup.exe

Installation Screenshots

Start Page

Windows 8 Apps

Split touch keyboard

Side by Side PC Settings/Desktop

IE 10 Immersive

Ribbon

Charm Bar