Microsoft previews Windows 8

While it may still be awhile from going on sale, Microsoft has previewed the next version of Windows at the D9 conference in California.

Windows president Steven Sinofsky took to the stage to show off the new operating system, which is designed to be an upgrade for not only PC devices, but for tablets.

The design of the system appears to be completely new, with the “home” screen featuring a number of multi-coloured tiles that link to various programs and folders, similar to the Windows Phone 7 design.

The system is also filled with small apps and widgets, such as a new Twitter app, a new stock-ticker app and a weather app. These slide in and out of each screen with a finger gesture or by dragging a mouse.

The preview features a tile called “store”, which has led some analysts to believe many of these widgets will be sold as apps through a Chrome-style app store, but Microsoft has not yet confirmed this.

“What we tried to do with Windows 8 was reimagine what we want to do with a PC,” Sinofsky said, according to Mashable. “We coloured outside the lines.”