The Windows 8 start screen merges the multi-touch, tile-based design of WP7 with desktop OS features for a completely new UI. Microsoft Windows president Steven Sinofsky gave a sneak peek of the next version of Windows — code-named Windows 8 — at the Wall Street Journal’s D9 conference on Wednesday.Today, Microsoft did a more detailed demo of Windows 8 at a news conference at Computex in Taipei (video below). The software giant has stated that Windows 8 will be seamless across PCs and tablets and slates by making the OS compatible with ARM-based chips as well as traditional Windows processors from Intel and AMD. Based on early slides and video demos, Microsoft has redesigned the user interface to be a medley of Windows client OS and the tile-based design of Windows Phone 7. This certainly appears to be a more flexible and completely different iteration of Windows. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe Microsoft: Windows 8 Won’t Require a New PC Windows 8: 5 Questions About Microsoft’s New OSThe Start screen for Windows 8 is a personal mosaic of colorful tiles and looks nothing like the traditional Windows desktop we’re all accustomed to. Every app on a Windows 8 PC is represented by a tile: e-mail, weather, calendar, photos, Twitter feed, the touch-based IE10 browser, etc. Each tile can be clicked on with the touch of a finger, and also can be accessed via a mouse and keyboard. Based on the Windows 8 demos, most of the apps are written in HTML5 and JavaScript and resemble mobile apps you would see on a Windows Phone 7, just on a larger scale. But the Windows 8 interface also maintains the files and folder system of a desktop OS as well as the popular Windows 7 feature Aero Snap.One eyebrow-raising app that showed up in Microsoft’s demo on Wednesday was for a Windows App Store, which all but confirms that Microsoft is going to wisely release an app store built into Windows 8. Application stores are a new thing for desktop OSes, but are integral to a tablet OS (Apple App Store for iOS, Android Market for Android, BlackBerry App World for QNX on BlackBerry Playbooks).Click here for a another video demo of Windows 8 from Jensen Harris, Microsoft’s Windows Director of Program Management.Shane O’Neill covers Microsoft, Windows, Operating Systems, Productivity Apps and Online Services for CIO.com. Follow Shane on Twitter @smoneill. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline and on Facebook. Email Shane at soneill@cio.com Related content opinion Last Words Before Closing Eye on Microsoft By Shane O'Neill Jun 05, 2013 3 mins Small and Medium Business Tablets Windows opinion With Rumored Reorg, Microsoft Tries to Simplify The mounting pressure on Steve Ballmer to streamline Microsoft is finally leading to some action. By Shane O'Neill Jun 03, 2013 3 mins IT Strategy Cloud Computing Computers and Peripherals opinion What You Need to Know About the New Lync and Skype Integration Audio calls and instant messaging are officially integrated between Lync and Skype, but no video connectivity yet. Here are some key points for users and IT admins about the new Lync-Skype connection. By Shane O'Neill May 29, 2013 3 mins Small and Medium Business Internet VoIP opinion Microsoft Should Leave the Competition Out of Ads Microsoft is in no position to disparage Google and Apple in TV ads, yet it keeps doing it. A new ad for Microsoft Surface turns inward and gets it right. By Shane O'Neill May 23, 2013 2 mins Small and Medium Business Tablets Internet Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe