First up are the screenshots of the OS itself which will then be followed by screenshots of the Windows Live app.

The above image is similar to the file explorer on the Windows 8 Developer Preview however I think that the inclusion of SkyDrive as a Library is very important. I imagine that it won’t just be the Metro side of Windows 8 that features this Library but also the traditional desktop too. If SkyDrive is going to be integrated into Windows 8 then this will be extremely significant news. However, without knowing how this computer is set up it might be that a user needs to install the SkyDrive app, that we have briefly been shown off before, to allow the SkyDrive Library to appear.

The next image shows basically the same view but in a different colour, it looks just as good, but here we can see some of the control options that are available to users. It appears that the user has clicked on “home” to be shown these options. Now what interests me is that in this image the small arrow on the right of the “home share view” suggesting that the view of additional options can be collapsed. Also interesting to note is that there are more elements that just “home”. I think what we are seeing here is the Metro version of the Ribbon UI. This is another significant development and might just show how the Ribbon UI can actually look good.

The options available seem fairly simple ones, although I am interested to know what “history” offers and how that will look.

The next image is another very interesting one that I believe shows the Documents Library. It is good to see that the documents have a preview thumbnail of what is in them and I wonder if these animate. For example Word documents might scroll through the text and PowerPoint files could cycle through the slides. What i really like though is the coloured bar at the bottom of the preview image that shows what format each item is. I had wondered how people will be able to figure out what kind a file an item in the Metro file explorer would be but this shows it very easily. I do wonder how limited this feature might be though is only colours are used to distinguish between the different files.

I am not sure that there is anything new in the above image but it’s always good to see more Metro.

The first thing that struck me when I saw this was the the logo that is sitting in the top left of the of the app. That was first used by Windows Phone but now appears that it will be used by Windows too. I’m not sure what to make of it, not sure if it will help Windows Phone or hide it.

Anyway, on to the app itself. I believe this is the Windows Live app which will offer all functionality of Hotmail, Messenger and SkyDrive in one place. This because of the icons in the app bar at the bottom. The app looks good to me and seems to readily offer many of the features that users are going to want all within a lovely Metro design.

You’ll notice that on this image a different icon in the app bar has been selected so now we see the Messenger part of the app. Again this looks good and it appears that this section of the app features pivots that we have come to know and love on Windows Phone with “threads people what’s new”.

I can guess what the Calendar section of this app looks like but I am very interested to know what the SkyDrive section looks like and also what the Office icon indicates. I can’t image that the Metro Office apps for Windows 8 are going to be part of the Windows Live app so it seems a bit confusing to have the Office icon in the app bar. There are of course several explanations for the Office icon but none seem to make complete sense to me. If it’s to show the Office documents stored in SkyDrive then why not have a special pivot in the SkyDrive section. Maybe then the icon offers up basic Office features, just like the Office Web Apps, but I would have thought having free Office apps for Windows 8 would make more sense.

Just a collection of images of Hotmail.

Apparently when users to navigate to Bing using Windows 8 they will see a homepage design that is not all that new but what is new is the fact that the rectangles at the bottom are now true Metro inspired boxes. Before, whenever this design was shown off it was very cluttered with lots of text and whilst being a Metro inspired design it didn’t conform to the Metro principles.

With the launch of Windows 8 it makes sense that Microsoft will update it’s website to fit in with the same Metro look. What we are seeing here is potentially that very design. I have to say that both are great and are far better than the current design on the homepage that is meant to be Metro. I am not sure whether these are just fan made designs or if Microsoft is trialling both of these.

What do you think about these new screenshots? I know I am getting more and more excited for Windows 8. I am looking forward to hopefully hearing more about Windows 8 from CES and I’m looking forward to getting the beta version at the end of February.

I don’t know when this new design went live and I might be late to notice it but I thought I would share this anyway.

This design is available in the US and UK and possibly more markets too. As I have said before it’s worthy to note the bar at the top of the page, it’s something I have seen turning up on other Microsoft sites over the past few months and I think it points to a universal header for all Microsoft sites at some point in the future. If there was a universal header for all Microsoft sites it would be very helper for users visiting the sites and also it would help to unify the Microsoft family of products.

I have previously shown some alternative designs I have seen for the Microsoft homepage. What do you think about this simpler design?

Is the core framework, needed for your Metro Style Web Application. Is intended for web applications, used through a web browser.

It is possible to buy alternative themes for the framework or just use the default Essence theme that comes with Core Web. Below is a video showing how Metro Dynamis works and what the Essence theme looks like.

The features of Metro Dynamis are:

HTML5/CSS/JavaScript. Metro Dynamis Web is based on the latest Standards and Technologies for Web development present on modern browsers.

Auto layout. Define areas where you want Metro Dynamis to take care of the flow and let the framework do the rest. You can define auto columns and auto collections/lists. It looks at how much screen real state your users have and recalculate all positions, so your information is displayed beautifully on every screen.

Unobtrusive. Metro Dynamis stays out of the way on your development work flow. Just mark the elements with classes and the framework will do the rest.

Extendible. You can use CSS to extend the look and feel of your application with complete freedom, just define your own styles or overwrite the ones given using the cascade.

Resources. You have access to a increasing collection of resources like, Themes, Controls and Assets to enhance the User Experience of your application.

When I have a bit more free time I plan to have a play with this and see how easy it is to use, as far as I can tell it looks very easy. I look forward to seeing people use this on their own sites.

You’ve got nothing to lose from applying to be in the program, head over to the Microsoft Connect site to apply.

Not only are there lots of rectangles, blocks of colour and Segoe font used but also the site scrolls horizontally which is a very Metro paradigm.

This site is actually a very example of how Metro can work in the browser and its well worth a visit and you never know you might come away with being a bit more protected when browsing the internet.

Sadly I don’t own an Xbox but I plan to “soon”, I’m going to want to own an Xbox even more when the Metro UI arrives on the entertainment system.

Personally the site still feels too cluttered for metro but if things are still being tweaked then maybe there is still hope for a more Metro like design. One thing to note is the bar at the top of the site, I have spotted a similar bar on another Microsoft site that was recently redesigned to comply with the Metro UI which makes me wonder if all Microsoft sites will soon be featuring that navigation bar.

Currently the bar at the top only offers a drop down list of Microsoft products and online destinations. (The Windows Phone icon needs to be updated!)

It’s a shame that this more Metro like design is currently only available in the US.

What do you think of the design without the background image? Anyone know how long the site has looked like this?

This box artwork concept comes from @Windows_Romania or misaki2009 on Deviantart. What do you think of it?

What do you think of these concepts? I think they are pretty stunning, only reinforcing that Metro can work with nearly any kind of app.

In fact I’d go as far to say that it would only require the Segoe UI font to be easily mistaken for a Metro inspired design. The new design has very little chrome, instead letting images and text make up the formatting and design of the site, exactly like the Metro UI. Also the use of single block colours which allows news and sport to be easily differentiated is a very Metro like design. Equally the use of icons, such as the weather ones, look like they could have come straight from a new Microsoft product. Another aspect of the new design is that users can swipe to the left and right along the “carrousel” to view more content, this seems very like the pivot controls in Metro apps.

The overall design of the site is very different from anything the BBC has sported before on its homepage but it does follow a similar design from other in-beta pages from the BBC, such as its new radio page. I think the design is very interesting and I am looking forward to using on a permanent basis, it’s already my homepage.

What do you think of the new homepage design? How Metro like do you think it is?