The Motherboard of PC

The motherboard is the most important component of computer. If we mean that the processor is the brain of the computer, the the motherboard and its major components like chipest, BIOS, cache etc. are the major system that this brain uses to control the rest of the computer system.

• Organization : In one way or another, everything is eventually connected to the motherboard. The way that the motherboard is designed and laid out dictates how the entire computer is going to be organized.
• Control : The motherboard contains the chipest and BIOS program, which controls most of the data flow within the computer.
• Communication : Almost all the communication between the PC and its peripherals, other PCs, the user, goes through the motherboard.

How To Find Your IP and MAC Addresses On Windows XP | 2000 | NT

Here's How:

1. Click the Start menu button on the Windows taskbar.
2. Click 'Run...' on this menu.
3. Type 'cmd' in the text box that appears. A command prompt window launches on the desktop.
4. In this command window, type 'ipconfig /all'. Details are shown for each of the computer's network adapters. Computers installed with VPN software or emulation software will possess one or more virtual adapters.
5. The 'IP Address' field states the current IP address for that network adapter.
6. The 'Physical Address' field states the MAC address for that adapter.

Tips:

1. Take care to read the IP address from the correct adapter. Virtual adapters generally show a private address rather than an actual Internet address.
2. Virtual adapters possess software-emulated MAC addresses and not the actual physical address of the network interface card.

What You Need

• Microsoft Windows XP / 2000 / NT

Scaling to different screens

One of the core promises of the Windows platform has been its support for diverse form factors, allowing Windows to power over a billion PCs in the market today. In Windows 8, we set out to build upon this strength by delivering a great experience regardless of the form factor or screen size. Windows 8 PCs will come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from small tablet screens to laptops and large desktop monitors and multi-monitor setups. They will also scale to different pixel densities; from that of the typical tablet to new high-definition tablets. The following principles guided us in our design process:

1. Offer customers a broad choice of form factors while providing a polished, consistent, and predictable user experience.
2. Enable developers to easily build apps that look great on all form factors in the Windows ecosystem.

With Windows, you can choose a PC that works for you, with a screen that best meets your needs, preferences, or style. For example, a student might buy a touch-enabled laptop with a big screen because they want to be able to write papers but still have fun watching movies or playing games on a touch-screen. Families might opt for an all-in-one desktop with a huge touch screen to view and organize all of the family photos. An accountant with a long commute might pick up a small tablet that easily fits in her bag to surf the web or catch up on her reading during her train ride to and from work. A professional architect or financial trader might have three screens in a mixed portrait and landscape configuration, with one touch screen in the mix.
Windows 8 will power all these PCs and experiences, and as people transition between different sized screens in their day-to-day lives, they will be greeted with a consistent and familiar experience. This breadth of hardware choice is unique to Windows and is central to how we see Windows evolving.
In Windows 8, apps power the user experience, so providing a development platform that makes it easy for developers to create a beautiful user interface that scales to all screens is paramount. For this primary reason, Windows 8 was engineered from the ground up to be a platform for making great apps that work on a variety of screens. 

Device diversity

Looking at the breadth of devices that will run Windows 8, we can classify their screens in several ways.

• Screen size: There will be PCs with different screen sizes, from the smaller screens on tablets, to medium sized laptops, and large desktops and all-in-ones. These screens will also come in different shapes or aspect ratios.
• Screen resolution: Screens will have an increasing number of pixels on screen, or screen resolution. In general, the larger the screen, the higher the screen resolution, but this isn’t always the case.
• Pixel density: Screens will also have different pixel densities, which is the number of pixels within a physical area, or dots per inch (DPI.) The pixel density increases as the screen resolution increases, but the screen size remains constant.

Screen size, resolution, and pixel density were each considered carefully when designing Windows 8 for users and developers. When talking about screens, it is very important to be clear about the variable or dimension being talked about. For example, a 13” screen might be running at any number of resolutions (which means any number of pixel densities) and might have one of several different aspect ratios.
This graphic shows a sample of the diversity of common wide-screen aspect ratios and screen sizes that Windows 8 can run on. Windows will support just about any screen dimension so long as the graphics driver and hardware combination provide the correct information to Windows. In addition, some screens will scale to different aspect ratios via cropping and/or stretching. And although we indicate slate or laptop in the diagram below, please keep in mind that these are “fuzzy” boundaries that are getting more fuzzy all the time.

    

Minimum resolution

I’ve seen a few blog comments that ask specifically about minimum resolution, for example on Designing the Start screen in October 2011, @wolf asked:

“A better idea would force all developers to make sure all Metro app[s] [are designed for] a minimal screen size of 800x600. Limiting Metro apps to only 1024x768 will cut out all netbook users as well as hurt the Windows App Store."

We chose a minimum screen resolution of 1024x768 in order to make it as simple as possible for developers to create great apps that work on all the different screens that are available now and in the future. A minimum resolution provides a necessary starting place for developers, who can use it as a baseline to ensure that all of the navigation, controls, and content fit on screen. As we worked on different design layouts for apps, we found that the higher the minimum resolution, the richer and more tailored the app could be. We wanted developers to be able to tailor and refine their layouts to make use of every available pixel on 1024x768, without having to compromise the layout for a smaller resolution.

Windows 8 has a minimum resolution to allow developers to create rich layouts that make the best use of space at 1024x768

Why choose 1024x768 as a minimum?

We chose 1024x768 as a minimum for Metro style apps for three reasons.

• It is large enough to support the rich and beautiful layouts that we expect to see with Metro style apps. Lower resolutions, like 800x600 for example, require simpler more basic layouts with less content.
• Websites are typically designed for 1024x768 as the minimum (or only) resolution, and web developers are used to targeting this resolution.   
• Looking at the data about devices in the marketplace today, we see that only 1.2% of active Windows 7 users have screens with a resolution of less than 1024x768. When designing a new platform that supports the devices of today and tomorrow (with undoubtedly higher resolutions) we optimized for the majority of today’s screens (i.e. 98.8%) without sacrificing the experience and complicating the developer story for legacy screens. In addition, the runrate of new PCs with screen sizes of 1024x600 and 1280x720 has dramatically fallen and, to the best of our knowledge, almost no new mainstream PCs are being manufactured with this resolution. We are aware of purpose-built machines that run at lower resolutions, which are built for specialized desktop apps as well. While many run virtual machines, VMs can easily support 1024x768 even though many default to lower resolution.

A world without a minimum

Some people have asked why we enforce the minimum resolution instead of just communicating it as a loosely supported recommendation. Enforcing the requirement simplifies the lives of developers as they never have to take these lower screen resolutions into consideration—they can just rule them out. If an app isn’t designed with consideration for lower resolutions, some layouts could truncate, wrap, or break in unpredictable ways. Developers would not be able to confidently build apps to look good on all devices that Windows 8 supports. If we were to have a loose requirement, some developers might build and test for these lower resolutions, while others might not, yielding a fractured ecosystem where developers start targeting specific devices instead of the platform as a whole. Also, developers might target the least common denominator and pick the lowest possible resolution, which in turn would be detrimental to the user experience and quality of the apps.

The layout of this game would be truncated at the bottom if allowed to run on 1024x600

Minimum resolution and snap

The resolution that supports all the features of Windows 8, including multitasking with snap, is 1366x768. We chose this resolution as it has enough horizontal pixels to fit the 320px width of a snapped app, next to a main app with a 1024px width. The specs of the Samsung tablet that we unveiled at the //build/ conference are 11.6-inches with a 1366x768 resolution (the Samsung Series 7 tablet in market today). These specs are the minimum screen resolution that supports all the features of Windows 8 on a useful physical size.
         The snap view is always a fixed 320px wide, which allows developers to refine and create a targeted view for this size. A width of 320px is a common and familiar size that developers are already designing for on various phone platforms.
Some people have asked why we don’t allow for the snap view to be arbitrarily sized, or offer a variety of different multitasking sizes. Supporting arbitrary sizes for this small of a layout can significantly increase the complexity of building an app, and would require a lot of additional work and complexity from the developer.
Although the width of a snapped app remains fixed, the vertical space increases to fit the screen, so on larger screens you won’t have to scroll as much. The //build/ talk 8 traits of great Metro style apps provides many great snapped layout examples. We will discuss snap and multitasking more in a future post.
Below are several examples, with the snapped app layout on the left, and the primary app layout on the right.

Is there a maximum resolution?

You may be wondering why there isn’t a maximum resolution. With higher resolutions there is more space, so the layout is really never broken or truncated on higher resolution screens. You can run Metro style apps on a screen as big as 30” with a resolution of 2560x1600! But although apps aren’t broken when they have more space, developers should give some consideration to these larger resolution screens, so that they make use of the space in a way that keeps their apps looking beautiful.

Larger screen sizes

On larger screens like desktop monitors, people generally expect to fit more content on the screens—as the screen size increases, screens have more pixels. The below diagrams demonstrate how, when the screen size and number of pixels increase, the number of objects of the same size on screen also increases. On the small screen below we can fit about 40 orange squares, and on the larger screen we can fit 84 squares of the same size.

  Larger screens generally have more pixels and can therefore show more content 

But just because more content can fit on screen this doesn’t mean every app will make use of this space. If an app is designed with fixed dimensions or a specific form factor in mind, larger monitors may display a large empty region, as in the example below. This is not a good experience, as some have commented.
Regardless of your large screen resolution, today most websites are not particularly well tailored for large screens and tend to leave lots of space (many users prefer to zoom in on the text using the CTRL key and the mouse wheel on large displays, or the keyboard shortcuts CTRL+, CTRL -, CTRL 0). This is the same on the mobile web, when sites are too big to fit on a mobile display. More and more web developers are adapting their content to different form factors by using a combination of form-factor detection and the use of apps.

Without consideration for different screen sizes, many apps would have large empty regions when shown on larger screens

The Windows 8 platform makes building one app that scales to different screen sizes straightforward for the developer by providing built-in layout controls and techniques. Apps in Windows 8 fill the available space by bringing in more content where possible. A developer can easily build the same app to show more content as the screen size changes from a tablet, to a laptop with a bigger screen, all the way up to a desktop monitor. For example, this news app shows more articles on bigger screens. It should be noted that the underlying platform and tools have been developed to provide support for asynchronous programming which also enables “filling” larger displays, and making them just as fast and fluid as smaller displays—there’s no need to block the user while fetching and filling large amounts of content.

Building apps for larger screen sizes

Windows 8 has been designed to work in a predictable and consistent way for screens of different sizes and shapes across tablets, laptops, and desktop monitors. When a user changes to a different sized screen, it’s important that the system and apps make the best use of the screen space that’s available to provide the most immersive experience.

With adaptive layouts like this sample app created for the Developer Preview
at //build/, users see more content on larger screens

One way that Windows 8 helps app developers to adapt their apps for this variety is through support in the app platform for standards-based adaptive layouts. Building an app layout that looks great on different screens has been a challenge in the past on the web. Rather than inventing a new, proprietary set of layout controls, Windows 8 has built-in support for the familiar adaptive layout techniques from XAML, and for the W3C ratified set of CSS3 features, which were designed specifically to make this easier for web developers.
In HTML, the CSS3 grid, flexible box, and multi-column layouts help developers use screen real estate more effectively across a variety of devices and resolutions.
The CSS3 grid layout allows a developer to specify the rows and columns of their layout; it is similar to using an HTML table but provides much more control and flexibility. A grid is also great for defining a top-level adaptive layout that is similar to the ones that you see in the Windows 8 UI (like the Start screen and the file picker). You define the rows and columns, and then place your content into the cells of the grid. It is simple to define which cells should adapt and reflow to the screen.

CSS3 flexible box layout allows a developer to distribute margins and whitespace equally and predictably. It’s great for laying out individual components and collections like toolbars and image collections.
Finally, CSS3 multi-column layout can be used to arrange content into multiple columns on the page, similar to the layout of a newspaper or magazine. All of the templates provided with Visual Studio 11 use these layout constructs and leverage the ListView and other controls to support different sized screens by default. Developers can use the same standards-based layout techniques and controls that help them accommodate different screen sizes to also help them adapt the layout to different orientations and snapped views. All of the layout constructs available in HTML are available for XAML developers as well.
Some apps, particularly games and game-like rendered UI, do not wish to take advantage of more space with higher screen resolutions. For these apps we provide a way to easily scale an app that was designed for 1366x768 to fit any screen. If the aspect ratio doesn’t match the content, the system provides theme-able letterboxing regions as well. While this isn't ideal for all UI because it may make things appear quite large on desktop monitors, it does work well for many games and game-like UI that is composed mostly of bitmap graphics. This solution also allows apps to remain immersive on a variety of screens without needing significant work from the developer.
        

With fixed layouts like this 5inarow game, users see the game bigger on larger screens

We believe it is important for app developers to be able to choose which layout technique—adaptive or scaled to fit—makes the most sense for them, depending on their content and their workflow. If all apps were adaptive, it would be difficult to build game-like rendered UI that fills a 23” 1920x1080 screen without huge empty margins. On the other hand, if all apps were scaled to fit, users wouldn’t be able to see more email messages on their 23” 1920x1080 screen. We believe that our solution strikes the right balance, and provides developers with the choice and tools to optimize their apps for different screens based on the scenarios that are most important for them.
You might be wondering why we don't just let apps arbitrarily resize and not worry about any of this. That is a reasonable question given the history of resizable windows in Windows. In fact, the first version of Windows supported "tiled" Windows and it was not until Windows 2.0 that overlapping windows were supported. We focused on tailored full-screen layouts for Metro style apps for all of the reasons you have just read, along with the desire to have reliable experiences at many resolutions.
This may seem counter-intuitive given our experience in Windows every day. But as we look across many apps and the ever expanding screen sizes available to us all, it has become clear that developers are no longer optimizing for the diversity of screens available. Though most software lists minimum requirements, in practice, we see many errors—with UI that is clipped, awkwardly placed, or just poorly rendered when windows are resized or maximized. We also see assets (icons and UI elements) that do not properly scale to a variety of pixel densities. Even in the designs of the ribbon in Office 2007, much effort went into scaling the ribbon, as you can see in this series of screen shots.

Image from Scaling up, scaling down on Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface blog

Unfortunately, most applications do not take advantage of controls that are already available (like the Windows ribbon) to successfully scale. As a result, end-users have to learn how big or small to make a window and developers have to deal with bugs and inconsistencies in resolutions that they might not be testing for, since they cannot prepare for all resolutions, aspect ratios, and pixel densities. As developers created their own layouts, controls, and UI metaphors they also built in assumptions about screen resolution and pixel density required for their code, but rarely enforced these (even today, Windows property sheets clip at below 600 pixels as some have seen with early netbooks or on VMs).
In general, while many reading this blog find arbitrary window sizes something they can manage and arrange, data consistently shows two things. First, on laptops (over 75% of PCs purchased by consumers) most applications are run maximized all the time—this makes sense given the real estate available and the design points of most interfaces and web sites. Second, on large screen displays, most windows are sized to a reasonable number of rough dimensions primarily because most programs do not support “infinite” scaling.
We're going to see new user interface approaches and new ways to organize commands. Windows 8 contains a very rich control library and vastly more flexible tools and languages for coding user interface layouts than any previous release. And of course, the Windows desktop is still there (and is improved), where you can continue to work with the capabilities you are used to for the apps you currently use.

Different pixel densities

Pixel density is a new concept to a lot of people but it is closely tied to our discussion here of screen size and screen resolution. Basically, the pixel density is the number of pixels in a physical area. This is commonly described as dots per inch, or DPI. As the pixel density increases, the physical size of fixed pixels decreases. Some of you may have observed how text can be very small on very high-resolution laptops. Historically many are familiar with “large fonts” or “make text bigger” settings on the desktop to compensate for these physics. Windows 8 takes this to a new level of support for WinRT applications.

On higher pixel density screens, without scaling, physical sizes are smaller.

Most of us are used to fairly low-pixel densities in laptop and desktop monitors; for example, a common laptop with a 13” screen size and a resolution of 1280x800 has 116 DPI. Because of the active ecosystem bringing different displays to market we are seeing incredible advances in the pixel densities of screens on the market. Many Windows 8 tablet PCs will have pixel densities of at least 135 DPI - much higher than many of us are used to. Of course we’ve seen the introduction of HD tablets with Full HD 1920x1080 resolution on an 11.6” screen, with a pixel density of 190 DPI or quad-XGA tablets with 2560x1440 on the same 11.6” screen; that’s a pixel density of 253 DPI. Pixel densities can increase even more on lesser aspect ratios and smaller screens as we see in the new iPad. As the pixel density increases, the physical size of objects on screen gets smaller. If Windows wasn’t built to accommodate different pixel densities, objects on screen would be too small to easily tap or read on these tablets.

Without scaling, objects are too small to tap easily on a higher pixel-density screen, like the HD tablet on the right.

For those who buy these higher pixel-density screens, we want to ensure that their apps, text, and images will look both beautiful and usable on these devices. Early on, we explored continuous scaling to the pixel density, which would maintain the size of an object in inches, but we found that most apps use bitmap images, which could look blurry when scaled up or down to an unpredictable size. Instead, Windows 8 uses predictable scale percentages to ensure that Windows will look great on these devices. There are three scale percentages in Windows 8:

• 100% when no scaling is applied
• 140% for HD tablets
• 180% for quad-XGA tablets

With scaling in Windows 8, physical sizes are maintained on high pixel density devices, and text and content on screen is crisper.

The percentages are optimized for real devices in the ecosystem. 140% and 180% may seem like odd scale percentage choices, but they make sense when you think about how this will work on real hardware.
For example, the 140% scale is optimized for 1920x1080 HD tablets, which has 140% of the baseline tablet resolution of 1366x768. These optimized scale factors maintain consistent layouts between the baseline tablet and the HD tablet, because the effective resolution is the same on the two devices. Each scale percentage was chosen to ensure that a layout that was designed for 100% 1366x768 tablets has content that is the same physical size and the same layout on 140% HD tablets or 180% quad-XGA tablets.

The scale percentages in Windows have been designed to maintain touch targets and
layouts, while optimizing for real tablets coming on the market in the near future.

Some might be curious about the new iPad screen. For this screen, Apple has chosen a scale factor of 200%. The new screen has twice the pixel density (132 PPI to 264 PPI)* on the same size screen. Because iOS and developers only need to support the predefined resolutions, they only need to design for this one additional scaling factor. In the case of iPad 2 compared to new iPad the 200% scaling factor means that what you see on 1024x768 is exactly what you see on the new resolution, only sharper because more pixels are used (as in the image of the app above). Additionally, on higher pixel-density screens like the new iPad, developers for games and other performance-critical apps may decide the right balance between letterboxing and running at a lower fidelity to deliver the best experience (frame rate, for example).
Scaling is invisible to the user and Windows implements it automatically based on screen dimensions, without the need for intervention from the user, IT administrator or OEM vendor. Developers just need to make sure images look great on each of the scale percentages. Because these scaling percentages are predictable, developers who provide images for each percentage can easily avoid any blurriness or artifacts due to image stretching.
Pixel density offers another variable where the existing paradigms of toolbars and menus are becoming increasingly burdensome to use. "Hacks" such as large fonts or tricking the system into using a different DPI are just that—hacks. As anyone who has used a high-DPI screen can tell you, existing applications and the UI paradigms simply don't function, and become unusable. A typical example is when a common toolbar button becomes a diminishingly small square, and menu heights and text become too small to read and navigate. Obviously personal preference plays a role, and the ability to tweak the system can help, but neither of these is a reliable way to make sure Windows is usable on a new generation of hardware.
Windows 8 has been designed to provide developers with the easiest way for to reliably build software that works on the widest variety of hardware, and top provide consumers with the most consistently rich experience using that software. It is important not to look at this in isolation as "no more resizable windows," but rather as part of a larger effort to provide a wider choice of screen sizes, resolutions, and densities, where developers can know their apps will work and consumers can be sure that their apps are compatible with their hardware. We do this so you don't have to compromise by using software that isn't fully functional or only getting to choose among a small set of screen sizes (and price points, power consumption, etc.)

Building apps for higher pixel densities

Windows 8 also makes it simple to develop apps that work across different pixel densities. First of all, no manual work needs to be done in order for the app to scale. Unlike previous releases, you won’t need to do any work to make your apps DPI-aware; there are frameworks in place to scale the app for you. Just by using web-standard CSS pixel units or a XAML layout, app layouts will scale proportionally. When an app is scaled up, images are stretched and could get blurry, but Windows 8 makes it easy for developers to keep these images looking crisp and beautiful.

    Windows 8, the platform natively supports vector graphics. Any images exported as SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) or XAML art will scale without getting blurry. Additionally, Windows 8 introduces automatic resource loading so developers can save three versions of images with a naming convention; images that correspond to each of the current scale percentages (100%, 140%, and 180%) load automatically to keep images crisp on high DPI. Developers can also use the CSS3 resolution media query or the system events to reload images at different scales. Windows 8 scaling to pixel density allows developers to achieve a baseline level of quality with little effort, and then tailor their images to look polished and crisp on high pixel density screens.

Testing apps on different screens

Even though Windows makes it easy to build beautiful apps that work well on different screens, it is still important to test apps on those different screen sizes. We realize that most people don’t have a plethora of devices at their immediate disposal, so we built support for testing apps on different screens into the tools. Visual Studio 11 offers the Windows Simulator, which allows developers to run their apps on a variety of screen sizes, orientations, and pixel densities. Switching to a different screen size is just as easy as choosing an option from a menu.

The Windows Simulator lets you test for different screens

Microsoft Expression Blend 5 offers a platform menu that allows you to design your apps on different screen sizes and pixel densities as you go. The Blend canvas can update dynamically depending on the display dimensions you choose on the platform menu.

Microsoft Expression Blend 5 includes options to design for different screens

Recap

A lot of planning, thinking and development are involved in making sure that Windows 8 scales across different screens and form-factors. For users, Windows 8 offers an experience that is predictable and consistent across devices. On larger screens, they can see more content in each app. On higher pixel-density screens, they get a crisp, premium experience that is easy to read and easy to interact with via touch or keyboard and mouse. For developers, Windows 8 makes it easy to support different screen sizes and pixel densities through standards-based and well known layout techniques, and by automatically scaling to pixel density. All while allowing developers to tailor their experiences to be great on each form factor.
We look forward to you trying Windows 8 on different screens!
Thanks,
David

Touch hardware and Windows 8

The Windows team has continued to work in lock step with external hardware partners to fully embrace the experience we want for Windows 8. New Windows 8 PCs are coming, and while that is not a topic for this post, we at Microsoft are excited with what our hardware partners have in store for you.
It’s worth reinforcing that Windows 8 will run on the hardware available today, and we are committed to making sure that happens. So you should feel confidence in installing the Consumer Preview on the machines that you own today. However, as much as we value compatibility, we also have to balance this with making Windows 8 really shine on new Windows 8 PCs. We’d like to provide you with some perspective on our efforts and how we will achieve this.

Making sure Windows 8 works on your Windows 7 PC

At the //build/ conference we introduced a set of touch interactions that make up the Windows 8 touch language. These core interactions form the basis of the Windows 8 user interface, and are reused heavily in the application frameworks within our common controls and samples. The primary goal of our touch language is to promote ease-of-use and ensure user confidence. By confidence, we mean that all touch interactions work consistently and reliably all the time. Developers who consume our controls will automatically feature this language in their applications when they re-use the common controls or use the samples, and in doing so, they also minimize any learning required for users.

The touch language allows us to design a base user experience that is optimized for touch and works well on every PC, whether it was built originally for Windows 7 or for Windows 8. The fundamental gestures require no more than 2 fingers. However it is important to note that 2 fingers can be very limiting for a variety of applications. This is why Windows 8 PCs require digitizers that support a minimum of 5 fingers. The reason we went in this direction is a response to developer feedback. Developers do not want their creativity to be limited, and in particular, they let us know that they want to be free to use whichever multi-finger gestures or controls are useful. They do not want requirements for a minimum number of fingers that may not make sense for their application. As such, we focused on a minimum of 5 fingers to enable scenarios like whole hand interactions (all 5 fingers) or multi-finger/multi-hand scenarios. This will address the feedback, and unlocks opportunities for developers to push the envelope with multi-touch applications. So, while we ensure that the OS works well with a Windows 7 PC, a new Windows 8 PC is going to be much more consistent and predictable both from a user and developer perspective.
New UI concepts in Windows 8 also impact touch hardware design. This is another area where Windows 8 PCs will be more capable than existing Windows 7 PCs. For example, the edge swipe required to reveal the charms and app bars fundamentally changes all the assumptions made on touch hardware. Traditionally, the edges of the screen are where touch sensitivity drops off, and it’s a place that hardware manufacturers have traditionally not placed much emphasis on. The center of the screen received all the innovation, while the edges have suffered. If you have seen or experienced the Windows 8 user experience, the edge swipe is a critical part of using Windows. However, it also has a big role to play in our developer promise, as every pixel used to detect an edge swipe is a pixel taken away from the developer. For Metro style apps, where every pixel belongs to the developer, it is critical that we uphold and deliver on this promise.
We worked closely with our hardware partners to figure out a design that will allow all pixels on a touch screen to be accurate and perform well. There were many challenges here, but we were able to deliver on the promise of Windows 8 PCs that have the ability to trigger the edge swipe without taking any pixels from applications, and with extremely good edge sensitivity using touch—a promise that benefits developers and users alike. To make things work with Windows 7 PCs, we had to go in a different direction. In order to make edge swipe work consistently on Windows 7 PCs, we created a mode where there is a 20-pixel buffer to catch the edge swipe gesture. This allows a majority of PCs to reliably invoke the charms and use Windows 8 effectively. The downside of this buffer is that it takes away some real estate from the application, and from developers.
There is a broad set of Windows 7 PCs available in the market, and while this is a strong testament to the diversity of the Windows Ecosystem (as it offer more choices for our users), it also adds a degree of variance in touchscreen performance that must be accommodated. Here are some other examples of work we did to enable Windows 7 PCs to work well with touch:

• Making gestures like press and hold and pinch to zoom more forgiving On some touch screens, the information reported from the screen is not consistent. We call this “jitter.”., When “jitter” happens, it’s hard for the system to know if the finger is actually moving or stationary. In some instances, a simple gesture like “press and hold” becomes extremely hard to calculate.
• Determining user intent for sloppy or imprecise touches Although larger UI elements help improve touch targeting, we don’t have that luxury within the Windows desktop, especially with existing desktop applications. For this, we developed new ways to remap touch targets using the geometry of the finger, such that it becomes easier to invoke any UI that is within the radius of your finger contact. We will talk more about this feature in a separate blog post.

While you can see that there are a number of places where we’ve done work to accommodate the variance in hardware, there will be some areas where software cannot compensate. We will call out a few of them below. The good news is that in some cases users can learn to overcome these issues; in other cases, the experience will seem slow or imprecise, sometimes requiring you to attempt a gesture more than once before you succeed. We can overcome some of these issues with updated drivers, but this is entirely up to the hardware partners to evaluate and support. Here are some other examples of inconsistencies that we see when comparing touchscreens on some Windows 7 PCs:

• Individual taps do not always work, especially when typing quickly in the touch keyboard.
  There are generally 3 things that impact this: the touch screen response rate, typing speed, and number of touch points. As you start typing faster on a touch screen, the screen has to match the speed of switching keys. The response rate in a touch screen is usually more optimized for detecting dragging gestures than rapid taps; this will manifest itself as missed taps. When you start typing faster, the chances of having more than 2 simultaneous fingers down also goes up. On systems that do not support more than 2 touches, you will notice missed touches.
• Swipe to select is inconsistent on hardware that does not detect small touch deltas fast enough.
  It takes a little time for touch to respond to an initial touch. In some cases, the touch screen ignores the first few values of the initial touch, and the system then has difficulty interpreting the swipe correctly.
• Swipe and slide can be misinterpreted as a tap, especially on hardware that is not sensitive enough.
  This stems from the same issues as above, in which touch screens take some time to respond, and cannot send a consistent stream of data once a swipe or slide begins. In this case, it can result in the system reading the data as taps instead of slides. When this happens, swiping and sliding more slowly may help.
• Swipe from edge does not always work, especially with faster swipes.
  Although we have the buffer accommodation described above, fast swipes from the edge sometimes suffer from response rate as well. Fingers that come in too fast from the edge don’t get picked up by the touch screen until it is past the buffer. Trying again at a slower speed usually helps here.

Here is a video that shows some examples of how hardware can affect the Windows 8 touch language.

Download this video to view it in your favorite media player:
High quality MP4 | Lower quality MP4

Note that touch variability does not necessarily block usage, since you can adapt the way that you touch or interact with touchscreens to work around different timing or movement thresholds. For example, if the charms don’t appear after an edge swipe, you can try again, but swipe more slowly. However, this variability does tend to make you less confident about using touch on Windows. However, we don’t want app developers to have to accommodate all the variances in touch hardware. Ultimately, we want to keep the promise of consistency, and the promise that applications work on all Windows 8 PCs. This is why we are working hard to ensure that Windows 8 PCs have a consistently good touch experience, and why you will want one of these new PCs when they are released.

Touch hardware testing

To make sure that the Windows 8 experience works well on your existing Windows 7 PC, we’ve been testing a bunch of them. Listed below are some of the newer Windows 7 systems that are commonly used within the Windows organization. This is not an endorsement, and users of these PCs should not expect official support from PC vendors when installing Windows 8.

• HP Elitebook 2760p convertible
• ASUS EP121 tablet
• Dell Inspiron Duo convertible
• Lenovo x220t convertible
• 3M M2256PW 22” display
• Samsung Series 7 slate

To support our commitment to customers who upgrade, we also frequently test Windows 8 on a broader set of in-market systems. We listed many of these systems in the previous post, and will now share some of the data we collected. Our test team collected data on how the Windows 8 touch interactions perform on 64 different Windows 7-era touch screens. As seen in the pie charts below, the data covers a variety of different form factors and touch sensor technologies.

What we found was encouraging: the vast majority of Windows 7 touchscreens can be used with Windows 8. This means that touch drivers continue to load, and you can perform the basic touch interactions in Windows 8 with a reasonable degree of success. But, as described in the previous section, we did see significant variability in how touch interactions were interpreted across different Windows 7 touchscreens. For example, the same swipe gesture can be interpreted as selecting a tile on one touchscreen, as dragging it on another, and as activating (tapping) it on a third screen. The charts below show examples of how successful completion varied between touchscreens when performing Windows 8 interactions for swiping to select a tile, dragging a tile to move, dragging to resize a snapped view, and swiping the screen edge to invoke the charms. 100% means that all attempts succeeded (note that for Windows 8 PCs, we require all these tests to pass with at least 95% success*).

Test: Select a tile in Start
Expected result: Tile is selected with a single swipe

Test: Move a tile in Start
Expected result: Tile is moved on first drag attempt

Test: Resize a snapped application
Expected result: Application is snapped to new size

Test: Swipe the right edge to view Charms
Expected result: Charms bar appears on first swipe

* pass rates may vary between each test

The road to Windows 8 PCs

Throughout Windows 8 development, we worked closely with external hardware partners to reduce hardware variability and establish consistent Windows 8 requirements. At the time of the //build/ conference, we were still working with partners to establish these requirements in early prototypes. The Samsung slate that was handed out at //build/ was our first attempt to push new requirements into a production system. Those of you who had the opportunity to use the Samsung slate experienced a level of touch quality that is closer to what we expect for Windows 8. You’ll also find some of these improvements in the commercialized version of the same slate hardware, which Samsung calls the Series 7 slate. Experiencing Windows 8 on this hardware will give you an idea of what touch will be like on Windows 8 PCs.
We have published our requirements for new Windows 8 hardware, and we continue to work with touch hardware partners, suppliers, independent hardware vendors, and PC manufacturers to ensure that new devices meet the requirements. Microsoft tests and certifies each new touch device before it can enter the market as a Windows 8 PC. This is how we will ensure consistency and quality in touch hardware for Windows 8. We will talk more about the certification process in a separate blog post.

Experience the Windows 8 Consumer Preview

So if you have a Windows 7 touch-capable PC today, don’t hesitate to use the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and take advantage of the Metro style user experience that we’ve built. The core experience will work well, but you’ll need to be mindful of some of the issues we’ve covered above. On new Windows 8 PCs, these issues won’t be present.
If you don’t have a touch-capable PC, you can still experience the Metro style UI with a mouse and keyboard. Last and not least, if you develop applications for Windows 8, the developer tools include an emulator that you can use to simulate touch. It will give you a close approximation of how your application will work, and we encourage you to take advantage of it. We hope you agree that we’ve come a long way in ensuring that Windows 8 has the best touch experience. We’re excited to provide a way for you to be more hands-on with your PC.
Thank you!
- Jeff Piira, Test Manager, Human Interaction Platform Team
- Jerry Koh, Group Program Manager, Human Interaction Platform team

Managing "BYO" PCs in the enterprise (including WOA)

One of the major trends in IT in recent years has been the drive towards “consumerization of IT,” which is a term describing how consumer technology, from phones to PCs, is bleeding into business organizations in all forms and fashions. And increasingly, the devices that are showing up are owned by and liable to the employee rather than the organization they work for. We see this most notably in the smartphone device category, but more recently also in tablets or other portable PC form factors that are increasingly showing up in the workplace. As organizations embrace consumerization, IT must consider how much control they can exert over a user’s personally-owned device, and how much management is “good enough.” These questions were top of mind for us as we began our journey to Windows 8, and particularly, as we built Windows for the ARM processor architecture. Our focus has been on how we can continue to deliver PCs and software that users need, like applications and data-access on any device, with enough IT control to assert that the device is trustworthy, while avoiding any compromise of the user’s privacy on their personal device.
In Steven’s earlier blog post about Windows on ARM, or WOA, he talked about how the bulk of the Windows experience remains the same on ARM as it is on x86/64, and the products share a significant amount of code. So, while this post will focus primarily on WOA, many of the features discussed are equally applicable to both processor architectures. In addition, this post covers the capabilities on the PC, itself, not the overall management infrastructure and tools used by IT. Also, please keep in mind all the security capabilities built into Windows that come with WOA from the basics of networking all the way through drive encryption.

Line-of-Business applications and the WOA management client

Demand for access to the business apps that users rely on - from email to licensed software from an independent software vendor to home-grown apps developed by IT - is one of the most important use cases for “consumer” devices in the enterprise. We know that developers are going to find it easy and convenient to build elegant Metro style apps that automatically work on any Windows 8 system including WOA, and developers of line-of-business (LOB) apps won’t be any different. But many organizations want to directly control and manage access to their internal LOB apps, including the distribution of the app binaries for installation. For these organizations, publishing their LOB apps to the public Windows Store doesn’t make sense, since there is no reason to broadcast these applications to others or to have their application deployment managed through the Windows Store process. And access to these resources and the data that they expose requires an assurance to IT that the systems accessing them meet an established bar for security and data protection.
Organizations have been dealing with apps on x86/64 machines for a long time using a variety of tools and methods, including management products like System Center Configuration Manager and Windows Intune. Management of Metro style LOB apps on x86/64 will be able to leverage those same existing tools and methods and only requires that the client be configured to trust the apps that come from a source other than the Windows Store. For more information on the base capabilities of adding and removing Metro style apps on x86/64, see How to Add and Remove Apps. Developing WOA, however, provided us a unique opportunity to architect how LOB apps can be delivered to users in a way that meets the needs of IT while continuing to guarantee a consistent and reliable end-to-end experience over the life of the PC.
For WOA, we have integrated a new management client that can communicate with a management infrastructure in the cloud to deliver LOB apps to users. You’ll hear more about this management infrastructure at a later date from our friends on the System Center blog, so this post will focus on the benefits and capabilities of the WOA management client itself.
There are actually two parts to the WOA management client: the built-in system component, which we’ll call the agent; and a Metro-style app, which we’ll call the self-service portal, or SSP, that the consumer uses to browse for and install LOB apps made available to them. Both parts of the WOA management client are well behaved Windows 8 apps in terms of user experience, power management/battery life, network awareness (for metered networks), and overall functionality.
The agent does most of the heavy lifting on the client. It configures the client to communicate with the organization’s management infrastructure; periodically synchronizes with the management infrastructure to check for any updated LOB apps and apply the latest settings policies configured by IT for the device; and handles the actual download and installation of any LOB apps that the user wants to install. Finally, if the user or the administrator chooses to remove the device from the management infrastructure, it clears the configuration of the agent itself and disables any LOB apps the user installed from the SSP.

Connecting to the management infrastructure

Let’s explore some of these elements in more detail, starting with connecting the client to the management infrastructure. In truth, this step begins with the IT admin who specifies the group of Active Directory (AD) domain users who are authorized to connect devices into the service. The admin also has the option to specify the maximum number of devices allowed per user. For authorized users, the actual steps to connect a device are quite simple. Using a new Control Panel applet on their WOA device, the user supplies their company email address and password, just like they do to set up an Exchange email account. The agent then performs a service lookup to locate the organization’s management infrastructure based on the user’s email address.

Connecting to your management infrastructure is as easy as entering your company email address and password

Once the agent has found the right address, it establishes a secure connection to the management infrastructure using SSL Server Authentication and authenticates the user. If the user is successfully authenticated and has been authorized by the admin to connect devices, the service issues a user certificate to the user who initiated the connection. This certificate is sent back to the agent along with the organization root certificate and instructions for the agent, which it uses to configure its ongoing communications with the management infrastructure. All of this happens in a matter of seconds and typically requires no further interaction from the user. Once complete, the user is directed to install the SSP while the agent completes the connection in the background.

Completing the connection

Next, the agent automatically initiates a session with the management infrastructure, using the user certificate to authenticate. This session and any subsequent sessions are performed using SSL Mutual Authentication to ensure the security of the connection. This initial session completes the registration of the device with the service by supplying some basic device information such as the make and model, the OS version, device capabilities, and other hardware information. This allows IT admins to monitor what types of devices are connecting to the organization, so they can improve the apps and services they deliver to users over time.
Following the initial session, the agent initiates communication with the management infrastructure in two circumstances:

• First, as a maintenance task that runs daily at a time that the user can configure on the client. The activities performed during these maintenance sessions focus on reporting updated hardware information to the management infrastructure, applying changes to the settings policies for the device, reporting compliance back to the management infrastructure, and applying app updates to LOB apps, or retrying any previously failed LOB app installations initiated from the SSP.
• Secondly, the agent will communicate with the management infrastructure anytime the user initiates an app installation from the SSP. These user-initiated sessions are solely focused on app installation and do not perform the maintenance and management activities described in the first case.

Regardless of whether a session is initiated automatically by a scheduled maintenance task or manually by the user, the WOA management client continues to behave well relative to the state of the battery on the device and its current network conditions.

Settings policy management

As already discussed, access to LOB apps typically requires systems to comply with basic security and data protection policies. From the management infrastructure, the IT admin is able to configure a set of policies that we believe are the most critical to give IT the assurances they need without seriously affecting the user’s experience with their device, including:

• Allow Convenience Logon
• Maximum Failed Password Attempts
• Maximum Inactivity Time Lock
• Minimum Device Password Complex Characters
• Minimum Password Length
• Password Enabled
• Password Expiration
• Password History

Although our new WOA management client can only connect with a single management infrastructure at a time, we may decide to add other policy sources before we release Windows 8 and so we’ve architected the policy system to handle this. In the case where more than one policy exists for the same Windows 8 device, the policies will be merged and the most restrictive configuration will be selected for each. This resultant policy will apply to every administrative user on the Windows 8 device and every standard user with an Exchange account configured. Standard users who do not have an Exchange account will not be subject to the policy, but Windows 8 already restricts those users from accessing data in other users’ profiles and from privileged locations, thereby automatically protecting your corporate data.
In addition to the configurable policies described above, the agent can also be used to automatically configure a VPN profile for the user, so that WOA devices easily connect to a corporate network without requiring any user action. Finally, the agent can also monitor and report on compliance of WOA devices for the following:

• Drive Encryption Status
• Auto Update Status
• Antivirus Status
• AntiSpyWare Status

Leveraging this compliance information, IT admins can more effectively control access to corporate resources if a device is determined to be at risk. Yet once again, the user’s basic experience with the device is left intact and their personal privacy is maintained.
Before we move on, let’s consider a couple of the policies listed above and how they practically affect a Windows 8 system. First, we’ll look at Allow Convenience Logon. Windows 8 offers users convenience login features, like biometric login or the picture password feature. These options maintain a high level of security for Windows 8 devices, while solving one of the biggest headaches for users and IT alike: forgetting your password. Yet some organizations may require additional time before they are ready to embrace these alternative logon methods, so the Allow Convenience Logon option lets IT manage when to allow convenience logins in their organization.
Secondly, let’s look at how drive encryption and Maximum Failed Password Attempts work together. You probably know people who’ve picked up their smartphone only to find that the device has wiped itself after their young child was playing with it and inadvertently entered the wrong password repeatedly. Nothing so severe will happen with your Windows 8 devices, fortunately. Windows 8 provides strong data protection already out of the box. So, when a user exceeds the password entry threshold, Windows will instead cryptographically lock all encrypted volumes and reboot the device into the Windows 8 recovery console. If your device has been lost or stolen, this effectively renders the device unreadable. But if you’re simply the victim of your young son or daughter trying to get to Angry Birds while your device is locked, you can easily recover with the use of a recovery key that Windows 8 can automatically store on your behalf in your SkyDrive account. This way, you are able to get back up and running without enduring a lengthy wait to re-install all of your apps and copy down all of your data.

LOB app management

The features we’ve covered so far are obviously focused more on the mechanics of the management client and infrastructure along with the needs of the IT admin, but ultimately the entire solution exists to benefit the end user by enabling access to their LOB apps. Without such a benefit there's little reason a user would go through the trouble of using the enterprise management infrastructure. So let’s dig deeper into LOB app delivery on the WOA platform.
In our previous blog post about WOA, we told you that “consumers obtain all software... through the Windows Store and Microsoft Update or Windows Update.” Now, with the addition of the WOA management client, we’re adding a fourth trusted source of software for the WOA platform. As mentioned, the Metro style self-service portal app, or SSP, is the day-to-day interface for the corporate user to access their management infrastructure. Here they can browse to discover LOB apps that have been made available to them by the IT admin. There are actually four different types of apps that IT can publish for users in the SSP:

• Internally-developed Metro style apps that are not published in the Windows Store
• Apps produced by independent software vendors that are licensed to the organization for internal distribution
• Web links that launch websites and web-based apps directly in the browser
• Links to app listings in the Windows Store. This is a convenient way for IT to make users aware of useful business apps that are publicly available.

Since the user specified his or her corporate credentials as part of the initial connection with the management infrastructure, the IT admin can then specify which apps are published to each user individually, based on the user’s AD domain user account, or as a member of AD user groups. As a result, the user only sees those apps that are applicable to them in the SSP.

Browsing for LOB apps in the self-service portal (SSP) for a fictional company called Woodgrove NOTE: This screenshot shows an early prototype of the SSP and may not reflect the final product.

Before any LOB apps can be delivered through the management infrastructure, there are two things that happen on the client. First, an activation key is issued by the management infrastructure and applied to the WOA device to allow the agent to install apps. Second, any certificates used to sign the LOB apps must be added to the certificate store on the device. In most cases, both the activation key and the root certificates are automatically applied during the first session after establishing the connection with the management infrastructure. Otherwise, they are automatically deployed during a subsequent session after the IT admin has turned on the feature in the management infrastructure.
When the user chooses to install an app from the SSP, the request is sent to the management infrastructure and a download link is provided to the agent. The agent then downloads the app, verifies the validity of the content, checks the signature, and installs the app. All of this typically occurs within seconds and is generally invisible to the user. In the event that an error occurs during any part of this process (e.g. the location of the content is unavailable), the agent queues the app for a retry during its next regularly scheduled maintenance session. In either case, the agent reports the state of the installation back to the management infrastructure.

The details page of an app in the SSP, where the user can initiate installation NOTE: This screenshot shows an early prototype of the SSP, and may not reflect the final product.

As part of its regular maintenance sessions, the agent will inventory which LOB apps are currently installed and report that information back to the management infrastructure so the IT admin can effectively manage their LOB apps. Only Metro-style apps that were installed via the SSP and the management client are included in this inventory from a WOA device. Apps installed from the Windows Store are never reported as part of the inventory.
Anytime the IT admin publishes an update for an app that has been installed on a WOA device, the agent will automatically download and install the update during its next regular maintenance session.

Disconnecting from the management infrastructure

Finally, let’s look at how to disconnect a device from the management infrastructure. Disconnecting may be initiated either locally by the user or remotely by the IT admin. User-initiated disconnection is performed much like the initial connection, and is initiated from the same location in the Control Panel. Users may choose to disconnect for any number of reasons, including leaving the company or getting a new device and no longer needing access to their LOB apps on the old device. When an admin initiates a disconnection, the agent performs the disconnection during its next regular maintenance session. Admins may choose to disconnect a user’s device after they’ve left the company or because the device is regularly failing to comply with the organization’s security settings policy.
During disconnection, the agent does the following:

• Removes the activation key that allowed the agent to install LOB apps. Once removed, any Metro style apps that were installed via the SSP and management client are deactivated. Note, however, that the apps are not automatically removed from the device, but they can no longer be launched and the user is no longer able to install additional LOB apps.
• Removes any certificates that the agent has provisioned.
• Ceases enforcement of the settings policies that the management infrastructure has applied.
• Reports successful deactivation to the management infrastructure if the admin initiated the process.
• Removes the agent configuration, including the scheduled maintenance task. Once completed, the agent remains dormant unless the user reconnects it to the management infrastructure.

Summary

Given the trend towards “consumerization” of IT and our introduction of WOA with Windows 8, we wanted to rethink the way systems management is done. We worked to strike a balance between the sometimes competing needs of IT admins and the consumer who uses the device on a day-to-day basis. With the new WOA management client connecting to a management infrastructure in the cloud, we believe we’ve accomplished those goals, and we hope you’ll agree when you see it all in action.
-- Jeffrey Sutherland

Making personal cloud storage for Windows available anywhere, with the new SkyDrive

Over the last year we’ve been hard at work building SkyDrive alongside Windows 8, setting out a unique approach to designing personal cloud storage for billions of people by bringing together the best aspects of file, app, and device clouds. Meanwhile, we’ve made our file cloud more accessible with HTML5 and mobile apps, improved integration with Office and 3rd party apps, and built a device cloud for Windows and Windows Phone.
Today, we’re excited to take another big step towards our vision by making SkyDrive far more powerful. There are new storage options, apps that connect your devices to SkyDrive, and a more powerful device cloud that lets you “fetch” any file from a Windows PC.  Taken together with access from popular mobile phones and a browser, you can now take your SkyDrive with you anywhere, connect it to any app that works with files and folders, and get all the storage you need—making SkyDrive the most powerful personal cloud storage service available.
Here’s what’s available for use, starting now:

• SkyDrive for the Windows desktop (preview available now). View and manage your personal SkyDrive directly from Windows Explorer on Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista with this new preview app available in 106 languages worldwide.
• Fetching files through SkyDrive.com. Easily access, browse, and stream files from a remote PC running the preview app to just about anywhere by simply fetching them via SkyDrive.com.
• SkyDrive storage updates. A new, more flexible approach to personal cloud storage that allows power users to get additional paid storage as their needs grow.  
• SkyDrive for other devices. We’ve updated the SkyDrive apps on Windows Phone and iOS devices, bringing better management features and sharing options to those devices. We’re also releasing a new preview client for Mac OS X Lion, letting you manage your SkyDrive right from the Finder.

You can download the new SkyDrive apps now, but you might want to take a look at this video first, which gives you a glimpse of all the things you can do with the new SkyDrive.

Download this video to view it in your favorite media player:
High quality MP4 | Lower quality MP4

SkyDrive for Windows

In February, we announced a SkyDrive Metro style app for Windows 8, SkyDrive for the Windows desktop, and a feature called “fetch” that allows you to remotely access files or stream videos from a connected PC. When you combine all of these features, you can seamlessly access any file on your Windows 8 PC from anywhere. The SkyDrive Metro style app was first made available with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, and today we’re releasing a preview of SkyDrive for the Windows desktop including ”fetch” support. But first, here’s a little background.
Over the years, we’ve consistently heard from our most loyal customers that having SkyDrive accessible from Windows Explorer is important, and we’re happy to announce that, as of today, when you download the preview of SkyDrive for the Windows desktop, you’ll be able to access your SkyDrive from Windows Explorer on Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista. The benefits of SkyDrive integration with Windows are clear: you can now drag-and-drop to and from SkyDrive with files up to 2GB, access all of your files offline, and have the full power of Windows Explorer available to manage your SkyDrive files and folders. Files stored in your SkyDrive are in a plain folder on your PC, which means any app that works with local folders and files can now work with SkyDrive.
As we set upon the path to bring SkyDrive closer to Windows, we had a few goals that drove our plan. First, we wanted you to be able to “get up and running” as quickly as possible, with very few steps. Secondly, we wanted to “be quiet” on the system and make sure that all processing was entirely in the background, with your needs and your apps as the first priority. And third, we really wanted it all to “just work” as you’d expect it to, staying up-to-date automatically, and humming along without confusing dialogs or pop-ups. Here’s a bit more about where we’re at for each of those.
Downloading the preview of SkyDrive for Windows takes just a few seconds on most connections (the installer is under 5MB) and installs on most PCs in less than 10 seconds. There are just three simple setup screens and you’re finished.

Once it’s running, it’s out of the way in the system tray. A folder is created automatically for you in a default location or one you choose during setup, and your SkyDrive files immediately start to appear.

Once your SkyDrive is available on your PC, this special folder stays in sync with your SkyDrive. If you rename a file on your phone, it appears immediately in this folder on your PC. If you delete a file from SkyDrive.com, it is deleted immediately here as well. Or if you create a folder and move files from another PC, Mac, or iPad, those changes immediately sync, too.

Power users can have fun with the SkyDrive folder too

In Windows Live Mesh, which some of you have come to rely on, we allowed arbitrary folders to be synchronized.  Our experience has been that this introduced too many unresolvable complexities across different PCs, with the path on one PC synchronizing to entirely different paths on other PCs and the cloud.  In order to maintain our goal of “it just works,” we designed SkyDrive to be the same everywhere, and to work well with libraries in Windows. 
If you’d like your SkyDrive folders to feel less like separate folders, you can add your SkyDrive Documents and Pictures folders to your Documents and Pictures Libraries in Windows 8 and Windows 7. 
Alternatively, you could change the target location for special folders like Documents or Pictures (or others) to folders in your SkyDrive, basically treating your SkyDrive as your primary drive (right-click the Documents folder, click Properties, and then Location). You can also customize the default root of the synchronized folder (to use a different drive, for example), and this option is available during setup of the SkyDrive app.
So, as you can see, the simple and straightforward model of having a single folder for your SkyDrive still leaves lots of creative options for personalization.

Fetching files through SkyDrive.com

As we discussed and demonstrated back in February, with SkyDrive running on a Windows PC, you can also turn that PC into your own private cloud to browse your files and stream videos from anywhere through SkyDrive.com. This feature is great if you forgot something on your home PC and need to fetch it or just copy it quickly to SkyDrive.

Note that, in order to access a remote PC you will have to provide a second factor of authentication beyond your account password. You’ll need to enter a code that we send to your mobile phone or alternate email address even if you’re already signed in to your SkyDrive account (if you’re already on a trusted PC, you won’t have to do this every time, and it is easy to do this one-time setup). This means that anyone wanting access to your remote PC would have to have access not only to your account, but also to either an alternate email or your phone (which they would need to physically possess).

New, more flexible approach to storage

One of the challenges in building personal cloud storage for billions of people is scaling capacity and managing costs, while also meeting the needs of both enthusiasts and mainstream users. Different cloud providers take different approaches. Many promise unlimited storage or big referral incentives to attract enthusiasts – but then have lots of strings attached, which can make the service more confusing and less accessible to mainstream users. Do I really have to read multiple pages to understand my storage limits? Why do other people’s files count against my storage limit? Why does my upload speed slow down? Why do I get gobs of free storage but have to pay to sync my desktop files?
Our model for SkyDrive is friendly and accessible to all, and just as importantly, provides a gimmick-free service that strikes the right balance of being free for the vast majority of customers, and low-priced for those who want more.
Starting today, we are now offering:

• 7GB free for all new SkyDrive users. We chose 7GB as it provides enough space for over 99% of people to store their entire Office document library and share photos for several years, along with room for growth. To put things in perspective, 99.94% of SkyDrive customers today use 7GB or less – and 7GB is enough for over 20,000 Office documents or 7,000 photos. Since the current base of customers using SkyDrive tilts towards enthusiasts, we are confident that, as we expand the range of people using SkyDrive, this 7GB free limit will prove to be more than enough for even more people.

• Ability to upload large files – up to 2GB – and folders using SkyDrive for the Windows desktop or SkyDrive for OS X Lion.
• Paid storage plans (+20GB, +50GB, +100GB) so that power users who need more storage can easily add more at competitive prices (US$10/year, US$25/year, US$50/year). Please note that paid-for storage requires the ability to pay by credit card (or via PayPal, in some markets) and a Windows Live ID that can be associated with that credit card or PayPal account.

We know that many of you signed up for a service that offered 25GB, and some are already using more than 7GB of storage. So, starting today, for a limited time, any registered SkyDrive user *who has uploaded files to SkyDrive* as of April 22nd can opt in to keep 25GB of free storage while still getting all of the benefits of the new service. (For users who are already using more than 4GB as of April 1, we’ve automatically opted you in to 25GB of free storage to avoid any issues.) Just sign in here or view our FAQ.

SkyDrive for Windows Phone and other devices

SkyDrive has been available since 2007 from anywhere in the world through SkyDrive.com, but it wasn’t until the initial release of Windows Phone and our dedicated Windows Phone and iPhone apps in December 2011 that people had top-notch SkyDrive experiences from modern smartphones. These apps have been installed on over 2 million phones already by people taking SkyDrive with them wherever they go.
As a Windows Phone or iPhone user, with today’s release, you can now delete, rename, and move files in your SkyDrive, and access a full set of sharing options for all files and folders. We’re also bringing SkyDrive to the iPad, with all the same capabilities you now have available through the iPhone, plus support for the new iPad retina display.

All of these apps also have dozens of small improvements, including the ability to see your remaining storage space, landscape support, and various performance enhancements and bug fixes.
Almost 70% of Mac users also regularly use a Windows PC. Since we want every customer to be able to rely on SkyDrive to access files anywhere, it’s important for SkyDrive be wherever they are. Office for Mac 2011 already supports SkyDrive files, but starting today, you’ll also be able to manage your entire SkyDrive offline using Finder on the Mac. The integration with Finder means that any Mac app that opens from or saves to the file system will be able to take advantage of SkyDrive files as well.

Here’s where you go to try SkyDrive today:

• Get SkyDrive for Windows (preview)
• Get SkyDrive for Windows Phone
• Get SkyDrive for iPhone and iPad
• Get SkyDrive for OS X Lion (preview)

If you currently use Mesh, we have a few tips for trying SkyDrive for Windows or Mac (preview) side-by-side with Mesh. We think you'll find SkyDrive to be increasingly useful over time.
Thanks for supporting SkyDrive and we look forward to your feedback!
Mike (SkyDrive apps)
and
Omar (SkyDrive.com)
Note: Apps and the ability to purchase extra storage are rolling out now, and may take up to a few days to be available in all markets.