Microsoft has just unveiled its Windows 8 release preview and most of the reviews regarding this OS has been mostly positive. The released version is just the test version before it will go to the hardware partners of Microsoft. Steven Sinofsky, the president for Windows stated that the new OS would be launched "for the holidays".

Microsoft was able to maximize its strengths and also improved on their weakness in order to create a better and much improved Windows 8. Here are some of the highlights in the Windows 8 Preview:

Installing Experience

Before starting to install the Windows 8 preview, users should know that they cannot uninstall it or upgrade this for the final release. Despite that setback, users who are curious about Windows 8 could still find installing this as beneficial especially when familiarizing with the changes of this new OS. Users are also asked to choose a color scheme and after choosing, installing would automatically begin. There is still a bit of difficulty when installing it because new users are prone to clicking a Metro app and they are not able to close it. Microsoft is already aware of this problem and they are coming up with ways to assist their users stating "We will be sharing more about specific steps the company is taking to make sure customers start off on the right foot with their Windows 8 PCs. We have confidence that people will quickly find the new paradigms to be second-nature."

Additional Apps

One of the features of Windwos 8 is its additional apps. There is already the already existing apps called the "Metro Apps" which includes Mail, Calendar, People, Maps, Weather, Internet Explorer, Music and Video players, Weather, etc. One of the improved part of apps is its Bing-powered hubs which is divided into three: travel, sports, and news. The travel app is more of a trip planning app which helps in researching different travel-related information such as flight schedules, hotel bookings, etc. As for the sports app, it is focused on providing up to date information about different sports and the Bing news app is focused on bringing the latest headlines for different news categories.

Improved Web Browsing

Windows 8 also comes with the Metro version of Internet Explorer. It is no secret that Microsoft is facing big competition for web browsing ever since Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome have stepped in the scene. In Windows 8, users could utilize the new feature called "Flip ahead" which uses crowd-sourcing in order to determine the next page that users would likely to click on next. Instead of clicking, users can also opt to just swipe the screen or click the onscreen forward arrow in order to go ahead.

These are just some of the interesting features that Microsoft has to offer with their Windows 8. Based on the Windows 8 preview, it has interesting features but the final judgement for this OS can only be done once it has been officially released to the public.