Microsoft's Project Threshold / Windows 9

[spuwho]

Paul Thurrotts Windows Supersite is reporting that Windows 9 has a April 2015 release date.

Why does announcing a Windows release as far out as a Star Wars movie mean something?

Per Winsupersite.com



"Threshold" to be Called Windows 9, Ship in April 2015, Microsoft tries to put Windows 8 in the rear-view mirror

At the BUILD developer conference in April 2014, Microsoft will discuss its vision for the future of Windows, including a year-off release codenamed "Threshold" that will most likely be called Windows 9. Here's what I know about the next major release of Windows.

As a kind of recap, we know that Microsoft will update Windows 8.1 in 2014, first with a service pack/feature pack-type update called Update 1 (or GDR1 internally). I wrote a bit about this update recently in Windows 8.1 Update 1 (Very Early) Preview but the expectation is that it will ship in April 2014 alongside Windows Phone 8.1, the development of which Microsoft will soon complete.

Also in April, of course, is BUILD 2014. That show will hit just weeks after Microsoft completes its corporate reorganization and will surprisingly be very much focused on Windows Phone and Xbox, according to my sources. But I think Windows watchers will agree that the biggest news from the show will be an announcement about Microsoft's plans for the next major Windows version, codenamed "Threshold."

I previously wrote about Threshold in Microsoft to Take Windows to the "Threshold", Further Changes Coming in Windows "Threshold" and Big Changes Are Coming to Windows. This is the release my sources previously pegged as being the one that will see the return of the Start menu and the ability to run Metro-style apps on the desktop alongside desktop applications.

But Threshold is more important than any specific updates. Windows 8 is tanking harder than Microsoft is comfortable discussing in public, and the latest release, Windows 8.1, which is a substantial and free upgrade with major improvements over the original release, is in use on less than 25 million PCs at the moment. That's a disaster, and Threshold needs to strike a better balance between meeting the needs of over a billion traditional PC users while enticing users to adopt this new Windows on new types of personal computing devices. In short, it needs to be everything that Windows 8 is not.

Here's what I've learned about Threshold.

Windows 9. To distance itself from the Windows 8 debacle, Microsoft is currently planning to drop the Windows 8 name and brand this next release as Windows 9. That could change, but that's the current thinking.

BUILD vision announcement. In case it's not obvious that the Sinofsky era is over, Microsoft will use BUILD to provide its first major "vision" announcement for Windows since, yes, Longhorn in 2003. Don't expect anything that grandiose, but the Windows team believes it needs to hit a happy middle ground between the KGB-style secrecy of the Sinofsky camp and the freewheeling "we can do it all" days that preceded that. As important, the firm understands that customers need something to be excited about.

No bits at BUILD. Microsoft will not be providing developers with an early alpha release of "Threshold" at BUILD, and for a good reason: The product won't even begin development until later that month. Right now, Microsoft is firming up which features it intends to deliver in this release.

Metro 2.0. Maturing and fixing the "Metro" design language used by Windows will be a major focus area of Threshold. It's not clear what changes are coming, but it's safe to assume that a windowed mode that works on the desktop is part of that.

Three milestones. Microsoft expects to deliver three milestone releases of "Threshold" before its final release. It's unclear what these releases will be called (Beta, Release Candidate, etc.) or which if any will be provided to the public.

April 2015 release. Microsoft is currently targeting April 2015 for the release of Windows 9 "Threshold."

In some ways, the most interesting thing about Threshold is how it recasts Windows 8 as the next Vista. It's an acknowledgment that what came before didn't work, and didn't resonate with customers. And though Microsoft will always be able to claim that Windows 9 wouldn't have been possible without the important foundational work they had done first with Windows 8—just as was the case with Windows 7 and Windows Vista—there's no way to sugarcoat this. Windows 8 has set back Microsoft, and Windows, by years, and possibly for good.

These things don't happen in isolation—the big and slow Vista arrived inauspiciously just as netbooks were taking off and Windows 8 arrived just as media tablets changed everything—and it's fair to say that the technology world of today barely resembles that of 2006, creating new challenges for Windows. Threshold will target this new world. It could very well be a make or break release.

[I-10east]

Good news. Windows 8 totally abandoned basic PC & laptop functions, thinking that everyone favors functions for tablets and surfaces. Youtube is lit up with complaints concerning Windows 8, with many wanting an OS downgrade back to Windows 7. I rather stick with my current Vista before I buy a Windows 8 computer. Hopefully Windows 9 will be good as advertised so I can finally get a new computer. 

[thekillingwax]

The metro interface is one of the most visually unappealing designs I've seen. The big ugly square boxes seem more like what someone from the 80's thought computing might look like in the 201X's. It doesn't even look good on their phones and the xbox one is even worse (but the crappy interface is the least of its problems). There are some decent upgrades under the metro garbage and if the new update restores functionality, I might even consider it for a new build I'm working on but at this point, I am more than happy to keep using windows 7 until we find out what 9 does.

[avonjax]

I love Windows 8.1. I know it's fashionable to hate Windows 8, but it has performed very well for me. My start screen looks rather nice. And I love how I've customized and organized for my needs. Most people are cry babies about change anyway so that's why I think people don't like it.

[Lunican]

I use Windows 8.1 and it is reliable and fast. I don't use the metro interface much because it's not that useful on a desktop, but it also doesn't get in the way of anything. Also, Windows 8 seems to run faster on older hardware than Windows 7.

[spuwho]

I use Windows 8.1 and it is reliable and fast. I don't use the metro interface much because it's not that useful on a desktop, but it also doesn't get in the way of anything. Also, Windows 8 seems to run faster on older hardware than Windows 7.

I guess I would need to understand what you mean by "old".  W8 needs 3 CPU registers to be available or it won't install. Some of those registers didn't appear in mainstream CPU's until as late as 2011.   

[Lunican]

A laptop from 2006 with a Pentium 4 cpu. MS has a tool to verify compatibility before installing W8.

[carpnter]

Windows 8 (8.1) is great on a tablet, but I don't really care for it on a desktop or regular laptop.  When I put it (original Windows on a laptop I ended up getting Start8 to get my start button back and force it to boot to the desktop.  Had MS given users that option instead of forcing them into the "Metro" UI I think it would have been more successful. 

[IrvAdams]

We've had WIN8 phones (mine is a Lumia 920 and my wife has the 820) for 4 months and love them. There's a learning curve, of course, but you will find that WIN8 tiles provide more heads-up information to the user than icons do. The final verdict is in the reliability, performance and ease-of-use; and all those are outstanding. All they need are more apps in the store.

[Lunican]

I don't really understand all of the complaints about booting to the metro screen. Windows 8 standby mode works great and it doesn't force you to the metro screen after resuming. How often is everyone rebooting that one extra click for the desktop is such a burden? Does everyone reboot their ipads as well?

[spuwho]

A laptop from 2006 with a Pentium 4 cpu. MS has a tool to verify compatibility before installing W8.

Interesting. I had some old stuff I attempted to verify on and many failed.

Some of them were AMD. It might have been AMD being late to add the needed registers. I will check again.

Even Lubuntu is starting to drop certain CPU support on the new builds. I had to go back to Lubuntu 10 to keep Pentium M support.

[KenFSU]

Most people are cry babies about change anyway so that's why I think people don't like it.

Either that, or they hate it because it was an absolute mess.

Microsoft spent 20 years refining the traditional Windows user interface, and then -- to drum up sales for their failing smartphones and tablets -- they pulled a complete 180, replacing the start button and desktop environment with a toy chest of noisy, dancing tiles that look like something a drunken birthday clown vomited on the screen.

They even removed the CLOCK.

The freakin CLOCK.

I understand the urge to marry your UI across multiple platforms, but it's just completely impractical in this case. It would be like Apple forcing Launchpad onto their iMacs and MacBooks as the primary environment. Tablets and smartphones are devices primarily used for consumption. Media. Games. Books. Facebook. Whatever. Desktop PCs and Laptops are devices tailored for production. Managing workflow. Driving your day to day job or business. To that end, Windows 8 is an epic failure, putting an unnecessary burden on the end user with all the Metro crap. Nonsense like the boot to Metro, redundant application, full screen Metro apps, etc. do nothing but get in the way of production.

It was a betrayal of trust of Windows users and a cheap, obvious play to get them onto Windows mobile devices.

Really hoping to see Microsoft do better with 9.

[I-10east]

^^^+100

The metro interface is one of the most visually unappealing designs I've seen. what someone from the 80's thought computing might look like in the 201X's.

Perfect description! It does have that retro-futuristic look. 

[Lunican]

You guys realize the traditional desktop wasn't removed, right?

[KenFSU]

You guys realize the traditional desktop wasn't removed, right?

Sorry, meant to say:

*Gimped and hidden behind an alternative UI that looks like a Windows 95 screen saver.