Microsoft aims for a simpler access to accretion with Windows 8, and that simpler access applies to the versions of Windows 8 you’ll see appear after this year. Back affairs a fresh computer or upgrading, you’ll accept amid four versions of Windows 8.
If you’re affairs a fresh computer or book for your home, you’ll apparently be allotment amid the aboriginal two: Windows RT or Windows 8.
Windows RT
Designed to attempt with the iPad and added accepted tablets, Windows RT relies on the Start awning and its ancestors of apps. Windows RT comes pre-installed on tablets or laptops; you can’t shop for it separately, and you can’t move it from one accessory to another. Microsoft’s fresh Surface book will run Windows RT back appear beforehand this year.
Microsoft’s aboriginal Surface tablet, due after this year, will run Windows RT.
You add fresh apps to Windows RT by downloading them from the Windows Store app, which serves as Microsoft’s storefront for distributing both chargeless and paid apps.
Like all versions of Windows 8, Windows RT includes a desktop, but that desktop can alone run what’s arranged with Windows RT: Windows File Manager, the Control Panel, and a few added Windows utilities. You can’t install acceptable programs on the Windows RT desktop; instead, you’re relying alone on apps.
To accomplish Windows RT added attractive, Microsoft tosses in a big perk: chargeless app versions of its accepted Microsoft Office suite: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
Although Windows RT lacks the ability to run the abounding desktop, that abridgement of ability brings the longest array activity of any adaptation of Windows 8.
Since the Windows 8 Start awning works best with touchscreens, apprehend to see Windows RT arranged mostly on touchscreen tablets and touchscreen laptops.
Windows 8
Some tablets and desktop computers aimed at home shoppers will appear with Windows 8. Added able than Windows RT, Windows 8 includes the Start awning and its apps, as able-bodied as a fully-functional desktop. It doesn’t accommodate the Microsoft Office apps tossed in with Windows RT; you can either shop for the Office apps separately, or shop for the abounding adaptation of Microsoft Office to run on the desktop.
Microsoft is casting Windows 8 on a book as accouterment the best of both worlds: You can run the Start awning and its apps while abroad from your desk; back assignment calls, you can amount the desktop and its acceptable Windows programs.
The tradeoff? The ability appropriate by the desktop agency the batteries won’t aftermost as continued as they would on a Windows RT computer.
Windows 8 Pro
Aimed at baby businesses and home enthusiasts who appetite everything, Windows 8 Pro includes aggregate begin in Windows 8, as able-bodied as avant-garde appearance like the Remote Desktop, encryption, basic adamantine drives, and added affection not often acclimated by home users. (Microsoft’s additional adaptation of its Surface tablet, accepted in 2013, will run Windows 8 Pro.)
No adaptation of Windows 8 can comedy DVDs. Because DVD drives are dematerialization from tablets and abounding ultra-thin laptops, that’s little surprise. Owners of Windows RT and Windows 8 can shop for apps that action DVD playback, however, should they charge it.
Microsoft gives addition DVD advantage to Windows 8 Pro owners: They can advancement to a Media Pack. Rumored to amount $15, the Media Pack adds DVD playback, as able-bodied as a archetype of Media Center: a Windows XP-era affairs that can almanac and playback TV shows back absorbed up to a TV tuner.
Windows 8 Enterprise
Sold alone by authorization to ample businesses, Windows 8 Enterprise offers added networking appearance to advice technicians run ample networks. Windows 8 Enterprise is mostly Windows 8 Pro with a few abstruse programs, but Microsoft’s licensing affairs gives businesses a aggregate shop for discount.
Note: At the time of this writing, Microsoft hadn’t yet completed Windows 8. Some of these capacity could change back Microsoft releases Windows 8 after this year.
