Microsoft Windows 8 Desktop

There are over 375 million Windows PCs. The license fees generated for Microsoft were $18 billion last year. Its Office Suite made $23 billion. The market for desktop PCs has long been rooted to the success of the company’s operating system. It will be the same when Windows 8 officially comes out on Oct. 26. The company’s OEM partners, including Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Dell and Samsung, are already producing desktop models.

An Easy Cross-Platform UI

The Windows 8 desktop begins with the Start Screen. The Start button has been removed and all the functions of the traditional Start menu are layered into the corners of the Start Screen and the tiles. With the Modern UI of colorful app tiles in the Start Screen, Microsoft has recognized the trend that current users and newer ones are following in increasing numbers. More users are enjoying the immediate consumption of pictures, video, audio files and other media. Tablets are increasingly becoming choice devices for email and web surfing.

Microsoft used its Modern UI to transfer the benefits and ease of mobile computing to the standard desktop platform. The enterprise desktop models continue to feed the company good revenue from a large demand market. The Windows 7 Desktop Screen, on top of an improved Windows 8 engine, is still very much available, accessible immediately through the Desktop tile.

From the Desktop Screen, the File Explorer window comes up that is instantly identified as similar to Windows 7 Explorer and legacy Windows formats. The layout is improved with a cleaner version and better ribbon options. Legacy Control Panel and Task Bar windows are accessed through the Computer option on the Explorer ribbon.

There are several improved features that are enhanced by the power that desktop hardware can produce. File copying is fast and easy with a helpful copy information box that allows you to pause the process.

The Explorer ribbon options automatically change from File, Computer and View to File, Home, Share and View depending on context. User library folder get different options that depend on media file types stored in them. Ribbon options in the Explorer are customizable. The new operating system was polished to optimize advanced Intel and AMD core processors.

Hardware Show and Tell

Minimal requirements to run Windows 8 include 1 GHz processor with 1 GB RAM and a 16 GB hardrive for 32-bit systems and 20 GB for 64-bit systems. Monitor screen resolutions should be at least 1,024 x 768 or 1,366 x 768 for optimal performance.

Although the PC market has contracted in the United States by 3.7 percent, the market is still expected to expand in a compound annual growth rate 2013 to 2016 by 7.1 percent,, down from a prediction of 8.4 percent. Mature markets in Canada, Japan and Western Europe, with the United States, will  expect a detraction of 1.2 percent this year, yet a better comparison to last year’s 8.7 decline.

Samsung’s Early Dip

Samsung publicized three all-in-one desktop PCs that will run Windows 8 to be ready in October. The Series 5 will sell for $749 with a 21.5-inch display; a Series 7 desktop will sell for $1,099 with s 23.6-inch display and another one with a 27-inch display will sell for $1,699. An Intel Core i3 processor powers the smaller model with 6 GB of RAM and the i7 will power the 27-inch with 8GB RAM.

These models will have detachable keyboards and touchscreens with high resolutions. Samsung has made the models their distinct own by introducing a widget called the S-Launcher. This app acts as the traditional Windows Start button and is certainly to bring more Microsoft adherents to Samsung’s side.