Rumor: Microsoft working on new OS 'Windows Blue'


Recommended Posts

Microsoft is busy preparing its next-generation Windows client, shortly after shipping Windows 8 in October. The Verge has learned from several sources familiar with Microsoft?s plans that the company is planning to standardize on an approach, codenamed Blue, across Windows and Windows Phone in an effort to provide more regular updates to consumers.

Originally unveiled by ZDNet, the update on the Windows side, due in mid-2013, will include UI changes and alterations to the entire platform and pricing. We?re told that Microsoft is aiming to make Windows Blue the next OS that everyone installs. The approach is simple, Microsoft will price its next Windows release at a low cost or even free to ensure users upgrade. Once Windows Blue is released, the Windows SDK will be updated to support the new release and Microsoft will stop accepting apps that are built specifically for Windows 8, pushing developers to create apps for Blue. Windows 8 apps will continue to run on Blue despite the planned SDK changes.

Yearly upgrades will be the norm for Windows soon

We understand that you will need a genuine copy of Windows to upgrade to Windows Blue. Built-in apps and the Windows Store will cease functioning if a copy is upgraded that is pirated. Sources tell us that Microsoft will likely keep the Windows 8 name for the foreseeable future, despite the Windows Blue update. A big part of Windows Blue is the push towards yearly updates for Microsoft?s OS. Microsoft will kick off an annual upgrade cycle for Windows that is designed to make it more competitive against rival platforms from Apple and Google.

We reached out to Microsoft for comment, however a company spokesperson refused to discuss Windows Blue.

Source: http://theverge.com/2012/11/28/3693368/windows-blue-update-low-cost

UI change, sounds interesting. Perhaps Microsoft have finally got the message that desktop consumers don't want a tablet UI.

I don't see why a desktop UI and metro can't work in harmony. If the story is too be believed, a mid 2013 update seems pretty rushed.

If the story is to be believed, then they're not putting as many resources into fixing the current release as I'm sure we would all like.

Windows 8 (8.0)

Windows 8 Blue (8.1)

Windows 8 Red (8.2)

Windows 8 Yellow (8.3)

Windows 8 Green (8.4)

Could maybe keep going with different colors up to 8.9... but if they're gonna release one per year and provide a complete upgrade to a new OS within about 5 years, then they'll just stop at 8.4 and move to 9.0. ....just a guess.

Windows 9

Windows 9 Blue

Windows 9 Red

Windows 9 Yellow

Windows 9 Green

:p

One of the most important things Microsoft has to do right now is a WinRT desktop, and more WinRT APIs to kill Win32. If they figure out a way to virtualize Win32 apps, they can then switch the OS to a completely different one (Midori) and apps won't notice.

  • Like 3

If the story is to be believed, then they're not putting as many resources into fixing the current release as I'm sure we would all like.

Windows 8 Blue will be an extension to Windows 8. Probably like a service pack but with added features.

My guess is that it will be free for Win8 users and the usual price for anybody else, maybe still around $40 to make sure everybody switches

I read somewhere they are working to make the start screen more customizable, like WP8, more different tile sizes,...

I think the SDK change will be just an update to the new Metro API, after all it's only a v1.0 release, we should be happy if they upgrade this as much as possible

There is no way they are going to make people get used to yet another API after this reboot with Win8, like some are thinking

Changes will happens 22/12/2012...

I don't see why a desktop UI and metro can't work in harmony. If the story is too be believed, a mid 2013 update seems pretty rushed.

No, we must choose wich we want to use. Hybrid OS is just something made not to loose money for Microsoft.

If application compatibility doesn't break, who cares?

doesn't matter. legacy and regression testing will still take place, and most companies don't like to be on the bleeding edge anymore. Those yearly updates will be rolled out the following year or two in medium-larger companies....and even skipping whole years to keep budget (for testing and maintenance fees) down...effectively defeating MS's reasons for doing this.

doesn't matter. legacy and regression testing will still take place, and most companies don't like to be on the bleeding edge anymore. Those yearly updates will be rolled out the following year or two in medium-larger companies....and even skipping whole years to keep budget (for testing and maintenance fees) down...effectively defeating MS's reasons for doing this.

Agreed. And updating thousands of computers plus retraining and testing is going to be a nightmare. Heck, it might be cheaper and easier to move to a Mac.

Agreed. And updating thousands of computers plus retraining and testing is going to be a nightmare. Heck, it might be cheaper and easier to move to a Mac.

Why would it be cheaper/better to move to mac? They also have OS updates every year? What would be the difference?

  • Like 3

One of the most important things Microsoft has to do right now is a WinRT desktop, and more WinRT APIs to kill Win32. If they figure out a way to virtualize Win32 apps, they can then switch the OS to a completely different one (Midori) and apps won't notice.

Why would (or should, for that matter) WinRT kill (as opposed to compliment) Win32? Yes - Win32 is an older API; however, there are still things that the Win32 API does that the WinRT API and its progeny can't, don't and (most importantly) won't be capable of doing - ever. While WindowsRT doesn't support Win32, it's not supposed to! WindowsRT is a *subset* OS, while Windows 8 (you know, that *flop* that's grabbed 40 million licenses since RTM) is a a *superset* OS.

Here's some food for thought (for the detractors) - could it be that the reason *why* Windows 8 has that many licenses already is *because* it's a superset OS - that it's more than Win32?

  • Like 1

I don't think WinRT should kill Win32 but it should be extended to the desktop side at least. Once developers can take advantage of the desktop as well with their WinRT apps then it will get very interesting. Hell I should be able to pin winrt apps to the taskbar if I want to.

As for the enterprise knee jerk effect, this is a non-issue. They don't have to upgrade, hell they don't have to install service packs for quite some time so they can test them. If they upgrade to Win8 and want to skip blue then that's just the norm for IT. They skipped Vista for years and stayed on XP, I don't see a difference here. If you think of these as beefier SPs then nothing has changed.

I am not sure i have understood what Windows Blue is gonna be.

Is it gonna be a major update for Win8 like a service pack that will also add a lot of features? If yes then why pay for it as some say?

Is it gonna be a new OS build on the basis of Win8? And if yes that means that Win8 lifespan is going to be short or we are going to have 2 operating systems getting support from Microsoft side by side?

I am a little bit confused.

If they drop the 8 which everyone pretty much regards as a big pile of poo, and call it Blue, or Green or whatever, and drop the touch stuff from the desktop version, then this update/upgrade would effectively be Windows 9, and the version that I would actually buy. Well maybe buy, depending if they added the stuff that should of been in Windows 8 in the first place and not dropped.

Im guessing thou that because its rushed (from the failure that is Windows 8, and how they want to get this out in 2013) - it will be more of a band-aid solution.

Hopefully, M$ will just scrap this whole silly idea of unifying the look of all devices, and just have a simple app on the desktop that says 'sync devices' and does exactly that.

I don't see why a desktop UI and metro can't work in harmony. If the story is too be believed, a mid 2013 update seems pretty rushed.

Imagine it is 2009 and Microsoft said = let's do Windows 8 in 2012 followed by an update in 2013 - we shall call it BLUE!

Now it's 2012, JJ_ learns about this plan and his reaction ZOMG Blue is the RUSHED!

Release planning is a multi-year thing man, it's not like they started planning next release after 8 was out.

Me and a billion other business folks ain't going to approve of that.

Enterprise will most likely get an equivalent of Firefox's ESR or whatever they end up calling it. In most cases, enterprise customers won't be upgrading to every Windows release anyway.

Metro isn't going anywhere. Those "UI changes", if anything, will be to fix any problems now with the UI, and possibly add more features to it. Not kill it. You're still not getting the Start Menu back.

Metro isn't going anywhere. Those "UI changes", if anything, will be to fix any problems now with the UI, and possibly add more features to it. Not kill it. You're still not getting the Start Menu back.

While I tend to agree with all of that. From what I've seen, the current state of 8, it's reception, I can't say that absolutely at this time. If Christmas sales fall flat all bets are off.

While I tend to agree with all of that. From what I've seen, the current state of 8, it's reception, I can't say that absolutely at this time. If Christmas sales fall flat all bets are off.

True. It's more a wait and see what happens. If sales soar then obviously they won't do anything.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • Waymo recalls self-driving software after cars enter closed freeway work zones by Paul Hill Waymo, the self-driving car maker owned by Alphabet – the parent company of Google –, has recalled some of its fifth-generation Automated Driving Systems (ADS). It did so after some of its cars drove through closed construction zones. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the affected vehicles were capable of driving through a closed freeway construction zone and continuing to drive at speed. The listing on the NHTSA website says that Waymo is currently developing a solution to fix this issue, but in the meantime, freeway driving is being restricted. Waymo will update its ADS software so that vehicles can detect when they can avoid entering construction zones. According to the Safety Recall Report, on April 20, 2026, Waymo’s Field Safety Committee began meetings reviewing an event from April 11, 2026, and five events from April 19, 2026, where Waymo’s autonomous vehicles didn’t recognize and drove past ramp closure signs into the pre-planned freeway construction zones. This took place in Phoenix, Arizona. Separately, on May 18, 2026, seven Waymo vehicles entered freeway lanes with active construction in the San Francisco Bay Area by driving between cones that were placed to show the lane was closed. On the back of both of these events, Waymo restricted freeway driving until it could address the issue. In June, Waymo’s Safety Board reviewed the issue and additional information related to ADS performances around construction zones; then, as a result, it decided to conduct a recall. This development is not good for Waymo as it adds to a growing list of technical hiccups its cars have experienced. Ultimately, it will lead to more scrutiny from lawmakers around the world who will be more cautious about letting autonomous vehicles on their roads without tighter regulation. For readers in areas where Waymo operates, does this news make you more wary about stepping into one of these vehicles?
    • I'm still on Windows 10 22H2 because I didn't want to deal with all the issues in Windows 11, so I waited almost a week before installing the latest Patch Tuesday update (KB5094127), I went ahead and did it, and it was a huge mistake—ever since then, my File Explorer has seen a performance drop of about 30% when transferring large files... Once again, Microsoft has outdone itself! This update cannot be uninstalled, either through the Control Panel (via Settings) or by accessing Advanced Startup Options. The only possible alternative would be to use system restore points, but I’d have to reinstall all app and driver updates (and there’s no guarantee it would work). Or there’s the “nuclear option” of a in-place repair without losing files or apps, but even then, all my customizations would be lost! Microsoft just can’t help but mess everything up! Way to go, Microsoft! But I still don’t want your c****y Windows 11!
    • Microsoft: Windows 11 could finally solve a major issue across AMD, Nvidia, and Intel GPUs by Sayan Sen While Microsoft has been trying to improve it, Windows 11 is definitely not flawless, as even today some issues are taking a year to publicly acknowledge. However, one area of trouble that may finally see much better results soon is graphics driver crashes. Work on graphics driver timeouts, also called Timeout and Detection Recovery (TDR), is not new as the latest WDDM 3.2 also has specific improvements regarding it. Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) version 3.2 is supported on Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2. However, with the upcoming version 26H2, TDR crash diagnosis could go to the next level as Microsoft is introducing a new DirectX 12 API feature called "DirectX Dump Files". Similar to how system memory dump files work when a system crashes or freezes or encounters any such major issue, DirectX Dump Files (DDF) will essentially record a snapshot of the GPU execution right at the moment a graphics-related crash or hang or freeze occurs, so that developers can better understand and diagnoze these TDR and timeout detection errors. The dump will be available as a .dxdmp file for analysis and it will be a comprehensive dump file generated with detailed insights about the hardware, drivers, Windows, as well as the affected application. This should be another welcome change in this department. Earlier at GDC 2026, when the technology was first debuted, Microsoft had shared more details regarding it. The company had explained how DDF is designed to gather data from every layer of the graphics stack into a single file, eliminating the need for developers to manually correlate logs from multiple tools. As mentioned above, the dump can contain a lot of useful details like GPU hardware state information such as register values, shader program counters, page fault virtual addresses, shader memory data, and command buffers. Alongside that, it also captures DirectX runtime and kernel information, including D3D objects, pipeline state objects, device error data, adapter details, and CPU call stacks. Microsoft says the feature has been built around two primary use cases: retail device removals and local device removals. The former allows developers to collect crash information from end users' systems in the field, while the latter helps QA teams and developers investigate issues on test machines. Developers will also be able to include up to 2 MB of custom application data through new D3D12 APIs, providing additional context for troubleshooting. In addition, Microsoft is introducing three dump collection modes ranging from zero-overhead capture, which has no runtime performance impact on supported hardware, to higher-detail modes that collect more vendor-specific debugging data. On compatible Tier 2 hardware, zero-overhead dumps will be enabled by default, meaning developers may begin receiving useful crash diagnostics without making any code changes. The table below explains the three tiers: Tier Description NO_OVERHEAD Enables crash capture with no runtime cost and is suitable for broad deployment MEDIUM_OVERHEAD Provides a balance, capturing additional diagnostic data with moderate impact HIGH_OVERHEAD Collects the most detailed GPU and driver state available, enabling deeper investigation at the cost of higher runtime overhead In terms of availability, the company expects broader release to be around the fall of 2026, which should be right around the time when Windows 11 version 26H2 lands. Right now, DirectX Dump Files are available as a preview and currently, only AMD has the compatible AgilitySDK Developer Preview driver version 26.10.07.02. You can find the official announcement post here on Microsoft's website.
    • And with SO much better perf than the laggy mess that is Files.
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      Sharbel earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • First Post
      BizSAR earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      Jordan Smith earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Reacting Well
      BizSAR earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • First Post
      AndreaB earned a badge
      First Post
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      598
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      190
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      79
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      76
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      70
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!