Features of Windows 8 that differ completely from Windows 7

Windows 8 has been officially released on 26 October and there are a lot happening in the computing world after that. To be frank, there is nothing happening as expected. In a week or a month there will be lot of news coming out- positive and negative about the new operating system. More of the Windows 7 vs Windows 8 feature comparison will be seen viral.

Let us see some of the features of the new operating system.

Windows 7 vs Windows 8 features

Start Menu

The very famous Start button of the previous operating systems is missing in this new software. Instead, it has the Start screen interface that uses dynamic tiles rather than the computer icons. There is a hotspot in the lower left corner of the screen, through which the Start screen can be accessed; also via the Windows key, and the charms bar.

Aero Glass and Flip 3D

The Aero Glass theme of Windows Vista and Windows 7has been removed completely from Windows 8 to make way for the Metro-style theme. Also, Microsoft has cut out the Flip 3D windows switching feature.   The Flip 3D is replaced with a Modern UI app switcher in Windows 8. The app can be accessed by moving mouse up from the bottom-left corner or down from the upper-left corner.

DVD Playback

The integrated DVD playback support will be removed by Microsoft from Windows 8. The shipped systems will not have DVD drives and Windows Media Player will no longer include codecs to play DVDs. However, the user can always use third-party DVD players.

Windows Desktop Gadgets

Popular desktop widgets of Windows 7, like Calendar, Clock, Contacts, Currency Conversion, Feed Headlines, Notes, Stocks, and Weather will not be available in the Windows 8  sidebar any longer with the new operating system. However, most of these widgets will be present in the Start Screen.

Update Notifications

On Windows 8, there will not be any notification balloons about the updates and hotfixes on the desktop. All the Windows 8 Update related messages would be shown on the login and lock screens. This however might not be seen if the user automatically log into the PC.

These are some of the features of the Windows 8 OS, which are different from Windows7 OS.