Microsoft's Windows 8 won the nod of the man chiefly responsible in building up the vast Windows global market - Bill Gates.

The Microsoft co-founder and its former chief executive admitted on Thursday that he has been using the new Windows version, which the software giant has submitted into a major overhaul for the system to run on conventional PCs, smartphones and tablet computers.

His verdict? Microsoft, according to the world's second richest man, has an "exciting new product," to launch on Oct 26, the same date that new PCs and new mobile devices on Windows 8 will debut.

In an interview with The Associated Press (AP), Mr Gates described as his experience of Windows 8 as "very pleasing," and projected that the company he built up from scatch has another "very big deal," coming its way.

"Hardware partners are doing great things to take advantage of the features," AP reported Mr Gates as saying on Thursday.

Along with the new multi-platform software that Microsoft said will power some 500 million devices in due time, the tech firm is also set to unleash Office 2013 and Internet Explorer 10, both reengineered for optimal performance on mobile computing.

Microsoft has intended to eventually phase out previous versions of its dominant OS, which remain as its main source of revenues, once Windows 8 has been fully deployed yet that plan will likely be met by resistance from existing Windows users, tech site BGR News said on Thursday.

Citing data from a survey conducted by ForumsWindows8, the popular news site reported that while users who tested the consumer preview of Windows 8 generally gave it high marks on speed, being user-friendly and the IE10, migrating to the product will be hardly automatic.

More than half of those polled have expressed reservations in ditching Windows 7 once its 'replacement' has arrived, BGR News said, with their reasons ranging from compatibility issues, price and system requirements.

Gamers have also criticised the new Microsoft product, with Minecraft founder Markus Persson recently ranting on Twitter that Windows 8 will likely "ruin the PC as an open platform."

"I'd rather have Minecraft not run on Win 8 at all than to play along. Maybe we can convince a few people not to switch to Win 8 that way," Mr Persson declared too on his Twitter page.

The likelihood that the PC market will be restricted in some respects with the entry of Windows 8, which would require Microsoft certification for apps to be allowed in the Windows ecosystem was assailed too by Valve chief Gabe Newell July this year.

Mr Newell told BGR News that such policy would be detrimental for many PC players and could lead to the exodus from Windows system "of some of the top-tier PC/OEMs."