Windows 8

Windows 8 is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablets, and home theater PCs.

Development of this operating system started before the release of its predecessor in 2009. Its existence was first announced in January 2011 at Consumer Electronics Show. During its development and test phases, Microsoft released three pre-release versions: Developer Preview (September 13, 2011), Consumer Preview (February 29, 2012), and Release Preview (May 31, 2012). On August 1, 2012, Windows 8 graduated from the development stage and was released to manufacturing. Windows 8 is slated for general availability on October 26, 2012.[2]

New features

Windows 8 employs a new user interface based on Microsoft's Metro design language. The environment features a new tile-based Start screen similar to that of the Windows Phone operating system, which has replaced the previous Start menu entirely. The Start screen displays a customizable array of tiles linking to various apps and desktop programs, some of which can display constantly updated information and content through "live tiles". As a form of multi-tasking, apps can also be snapped to the side of a screen.

A vertical toolbar known as the charms bar (accessed by swiping from the right edge of a touchscreen, or pointing the cursor at hotspots in the right corners of a screen) provide access to system and app-related functions, such as search, sharing, device management, settings, and a Start button. The traditional desktop environment for running desktop applications is accessed via a tile on the new Start screen. The Start button from previous versions of Windows has been removed from the taskbar in favor of a hotspot in the bottom-left corner (but can still also be activated via a button on the device if applicable, or on the charms bar).

Apps and the desktop can be switched between by either swiping from the left edge of a touchscreen, clicking in the top-left corner of the screen, using Alt+Tab, or by pointing in the top-left corner and moving the cursor down to reveal a thumbnail list of active apps.

Hardware requirements                                                               

PCs
The minimum system requirements for Windows 8 Enterprise edition are slightly higher than those of Windows 7.
Minimum hardware requirements for Windows 8 Enterprise edition
Architecture          IA-32 (32-bit) x86-64 (64-bit)
Processor          1 GHz (with PAE, NX and SSE2 support)
Memory (RAM)  1 GB 2 GB
Graphics Card  DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Storage                  20 GB
To run Windows Store apps, a screen resolution of 1024×768 or higher is required. A minimum resolution of 1366×768 is required to run their snapping feature. To receive logo certification, Microsoft requires that an Intel-compatible system resume from standby in 2 seconds or less.
Windows 8 may be run on Hyper-V, VMware Workstation 8.0.2 for Windows, VirtualBox 4.1.8 for Windows, Parallels Workstation 6 for Windows, Parallels Desktop 4 for Windows, and XenDesktop 5.5. It cannot be run on Microsoft Virtual PC, Windows Virtual PC, Microsoft Virtual Server and VMware Workstation v7.x or earlier.


Source : www.en.wikipedia.org