In a twist of phrases from Microsoft official blog tech writers were able to uncover important clues about the company’s plans with its products and operating system. Apparently, Windows 8 will be able to support Desktop as well as Metro style apps on devices powered by ARM processors.
Despite previous rumors firing up the tech oriented websites and users alike suggesting that Microsoft plans to drop the Desktop from Windows 8 on ARM, the company apparently had a different agenda. At the time, Microsoft officials were reluctant to give any details abou the situation and didn’t comment whether all Windows 8 ARM apps will be Metro style or not. The same silence on the matter was at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
Just a couple of days ago, Microsoft published on the “Building Windows 8 blog,” details about the new features designed to save power and to enhance battery life of Windows 8 devices. Somewhat hidden in this announcement, lies a little piece of information relevant for our topic. ““(W)e’ve enabled a new smartphone-like power state for a new class of PCs that rarely get turned off completely. Typically based on “System on Chip” (SoC) architectures, these PCs are interesting because instead of turning off during periods of inactivity they go into a very low power state while still running,” writes Microsoft official. Under the name SoC architecture, analysts deciphered ARM-based tablets and PCs.
Later on, the blogpost says “The chart below shows behavior for both desktop and Metro style apps during connected standby. For this to really work effectively though, we had to consider both Metro style apps (which, as you saw earlier, we can very effectively ensure are conservative with system resources), as well as desktop applications, which presented a tougher challenge because they have been designed over the years to expect either full access to system resources (when running in the fore or background) or no access (when the PC is asleep.)” The references in the text could cast a different light on the Metro-style and Desktop apps which will be supported on Windows 8 on ARM, as Microsoft originally promised.
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