Exclusive: Making Sense of Our First Look at Windows 8 – AllThingsD

Check the full article for more Windows 8 details; also see Three Things We Still Don’t Know About Windows 8

At the heart of the new interface is a new start screen that draws heavily on the tile-based interface that Microsoft has used with Windows Phone 7. All of a user’s programs can be viewed as tiles and clicked on with the touch of a finger.

Windows 8 essentially supports two kinds of applications. One is the classic Windows application, which runs in a desktop very similar to the Windows 7 desktop.

The other type of application, which has to be written in HTML5 and Javascript, looks more like a mobile application, filling the full screen. Internet Explorer 10, which is part of Windows 8, has already been configured to run in this mode, as have several widget-like apps for checking stock prices and weather.

Exclusive: Making Sense of Our First Look at Windows 8 – AllThingsD