Windows 8 | featured news

The device, running a new version of the Windows operating system, would be the first computer of the company’s own design — and would be aimed squarely at Apple’s iPad.

The world of Wintel - Microsoft, Intel and the Taiwan-based companies that build the computers their products power and run on - is taking a huge collective bet on Windows 8.

Microsoft has announced that it will be launching a new music service known as Xbox Music. Xbox Music will offer more than 30 million songs on Xbox 360s, Windows 8 PCs, tablets and phones.

Microsoft is launching the most complete preview yet of its forthcoming Windows 8 operating system, the biggest redesign since Windows 95.

Microsoft's usual plan is to offer a free upgrade to users of older versions of Windows to bump up to the next release version. This time around there will be a cost, according to sources.

We live in a post-something era. This much, Microsoft is willing to concede; the iPad's thundering success changed the landscape. It has shown that the buyer is willing to imagine a different form factor than the PC commanding her principal information delivery platform. Apple has yet to conquer that platform, but it has fired its third round of volleys and the castle walls have been breached.

Windows 8 is now available for anyone to download, and it already shows a ton of potential. Here are the top 10 ways Windows 8 is better than the iPad right now.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview was downloaded a million times in its first day of availability.

Microsoft unveiled Windows 8 for public testing on Wednesday in the hope that it will help the brand win back some of the ground it has been losing to Apple and Google.

Microsoft is launching a new interface for the Xbox 360 game console, borrowing the tile-based “Metro” look that started on the Zune music players, moved to the Windows Phone software and will spread to PCs next year with the arrival of Windows 8. The new version of the software will be downloaded to all users starting December 6.