Windows Blue leaks online, includes smaller Live Tiles, new side-by-side Snap Views,

JMH · Mar 25, 2013

Windows Blue leaks online, includes smaller Live Tiles, new side-by-side Snap Views, and IE 11

An early build of Windows Blue, the next version of Windows, has leaked online on the same day that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer celebrates his 57th birthday. Build 9364, a partner version that was originally compiled on March 15th, has been made available on file sharing sites and includes some of the new changes that Microsoft is building into its significant Windows 8 update. Leaked screenshots posted at Winforum show that the company is bringing smaller tile arrangements and even a larger desktop one to its Start Screen, along with greater control over the color personalization options, and a whole lot more.

Windows Blue leaks online, includes smaller Live Tiles, new side-by-side Snap Views, and IE 11 | The Verge

Trouble · Mar 25, 2013

Anyone else playing with this yet?
I have the 32bit version (the only one I could get my hands on) running in a Hyper-V VM.
Nothing special that I can see so far.... still early days I know.
IE 11 (metro / modern) looks pretty much the same as IE 10. The desktop verson looks even more plain, if that's even possible.
I suppose the 50 / 50 snap is more or less handy, if you're big into metro apps.
And the new start screen takes a minute or two, to get used to.
Moving tiles about seems to require a right click and your choosing "Customize". Maybe better as it prevents inadvertent moving of tiles, maybe worse as it requires an extra click.
And if anyone figures out how to sort and move tiles about once you have chosen to make them the new improved even smaller size let me know as I am at least temporarily stumped. They seem to inhabit their own space and are a bit jumbled about and apparently want to stay that way.
But it's new and I'm new at it, so with a bit more head-banging, I'll likely figure something out

niemiro · Mar 29, 2013

Trouble said:
Moving tiles about seems to require a right click and your choosing "Customize". Maybe better as it prevents inadvertent moving of tiles, maybe worse as it requires an extra click.

An interesting point. I think that for us, it is an extra click.

However, my mother, who isn't the most computer literate person in the world

, has already accidentally got into tile moving mode a couple of times, and couldn't work out why nothing happened when she clicked on tiles, having to resort to asking me for help.

I think that it is a good move in general.

Trouble · Mar 29, 2013

I could see this being really beneficial on an actual touch screen device. With all the tapping, swiping, pinching, etc., going on, an inadvertent moving of a tile might actually be more likely. On a desktop with a standard pointing device maybe not so much.

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Windows Blue leaks online, includes smaller Live Tiles, new side-by-side Snap Views,

JMH

Emeritus, Contributor

Trouble

BSOD Kernel Dump Senior Analyst, Contributor

niemiro

Senior Administrator, Windows Update Expert

Trouble

BSOD Kernel Dump Senior Analyst, Contributor