Paul Thurrott: Windows 8 Secrets

Senior Project Editor:Kevin Kent

Technical Editor:Todd Meister

Production Editor:Christine Mugnolo

Copy Editor:Mildred Sanchez

Editorial Manager:Mary Beth Wakefield

Freelancer Editorial Manager:Rosemarie Graham

Associate Director of Marketing:David Mayhew

Marketing Manager:Ashley Zurcher

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Production Manager:Tim Tate

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher:Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher:Neil Edde

Associate Publisher:Jim Minatel

Project Coordinator, Cover:Katie Crocker

Compositor:Craig Woods, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

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Cover Image:© Chad Baker/Lifesize/Getty Images

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Paul Thurrott,the author of over 20 books, is a technology analyst at Windows IT Pro and the editor of the SuperSite for Windows (winsupersite.com). In addition to his daily contributions to the SuperSite, he writes a daily Windows news and information newsletter called WinInfo , a weekly editorial for Windows IT Pro UPDATE, and a monthly column for Windows IT Pro Magazine. He also co-hosts two highly-rated technology podcasts: Windows Weekly with Leo Laporte and Mary Jo Foley and What The Tech with Andrew Zarian. You can follow Paul’s exploits on Twitter at @thurrott.

Rafael Rivera is a software developer for a VAR 500 company, Telos Corporation, where he works on mission critical systems. He is also a certified reverse engineering analyst and takes Windows apart for fun on his blog Within Windows (withinwindows.com). He has a growing interest in culinary arts and photography, and frequently shares his thoughts on Twitter at @WithinRafael. Secret: Rafael was born on the same day as Windows 1.0—November 20, 1985—which many believe is no coincidence.

Todd Meisterhas been working in the IT industry for over 15 years. He’s been a Technical Editor on over 75 titles ranging from SQL Server to the .NET Framework. Besides technical editing titles, he is the Senior IT Architect at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He lives in central Indiana with his wife, Kimberly, and their five wily children.

Thanks to the anonymous soulsfrom Microsoft who provided us with dozens of interim builds and important tidbits of internal information, both of which contributed to making this the best Windows 8 book on the market. We literally could not have completed this book in time without you and we hope that we lived up to the trust you placed in us.

This book was a truly collaborative venturethat included daily check-ins on Skype, document sharing on Windows Live Mesh and SkyDrive, and even some in-person meet-ups at all-too-infrequent industry events. Thanks again to Rafael for accompanying me down the rabbit hole.

Thanks as always to Stephanie, Mark, and Kelly for giving me the time to make this book happen and for understanding why things got grouchy sometimes.

Thanks to Jill Lovato and Greg Chiemingo at Waggener Edstrom for being islands of calm in a sea of insanity. You guys are the best and were always ready to help. Much appreciated.

Thanks to Kevin and Carol at Wiley for the help, support, and understanding. Books are always stressful to make, with less time than I wish for and more work than I expect, regardless of how many times I’ve done it. But you get that.

Finally, thanks to my readers and listeners from around the world. I’ve enjoyed the conversations and hope they continue well into the future. It’s always been fun, but what makes this worthwhile isn’t the products and technologies, it’s the relationships you make along the way.

Thanks to my parents and sisterfor supporting my interests 100 percent. I love you all.

Thanks to Paul, for giving me another opportunity to do what I love doing—digging into and documenting Windows.

Thanks to Jennifer Ortiz for understanding my crazy late-night hours and a huge congratulations on being accepted to the PhD program at University of Washington.

A special thanks to David Golden, Patrick Laughner, and Paul Paliath whom I spend hours with on Skype daily playing Minecraft and other games.

Big thanks to Cliff Simpkins and Brandon Watson for helping me convince Microsoft there were merits in my hacking work on Windows Phone. And also Chris Walsh and Long Zheng for helping make a product of that hacking work, ChevronWP7 Labs, a huge success.

Last but not least, thanks to all my blog readers and Twitter followers. It’s those conversations with real people that drive me every day.

In October 2009, I participated in the Windows 7launch at the World Forum in the Hague, Netherlands. It was easily the most beautiful theater I’ve ever spoken in, and while I have many memories of that all-too-short trip to Europe, one stands out.

After my talk, I was signing copies of Windows 7 Secrets for attendees and I received a wonderfully blunt question that forever altered the book you’re now reading.

“If Windows 7 is so easy to use,” a bespectacled Netherlander asked as I signed my name, “then why is your book over a thousand pages long?”

Time stood still for a moment while I pondered this question. And though I replied, “To be fair, it’s padded with screenshots,” to laughs, the question hung in my mind for some time to come.

In my defense— our defense, since Rafael is of course my willing partner in this crime against both trees and those who would safely read before going to sleep—I have always taken the position, both in my writing for the SuperSite for Windows and in the Secrets books, that Windows isn’t a standalone “thing”; it’s the center of a vast ecosystem of related and connected products and services. That is, nobody buys Windows for Windows, per se. They buy Windows because of its promise of compatibility with the hardware, software, and, increasingly, services that they use and trust.

With Windows 7, that meant applications like those in Windows Live Essentials—which weren’t technically included “with” Windows 7 but were very much required to “complete,” if you will, Windows—but also Zune, Windows Home Server, Windows Media Center, and a slew of Windows Live services.

But with Windows 8, suddenly, everything is different. Yes, Windows still stands at the center of a vast ecosystem. But Windows 8 itself is quite different from its predecessor, and the solutions that make up its supporting cast have changed quite a bit since Windows 7, thanks to changes in the market.

Microsoft says it is “reimagining” Windows with Windows 8, giving Rafael and I the chance to, in turn, reimagine our Secrets books. A year before Windows 8 launched, as we plotted this next version of the book, it occurred to us that it was time to make a break with the past, similar to what Microsoft was doing with the product we’re writing about. And so we came to Wiley with a tentative plan, since we feared failure, to not update Windows 7 Secrets . Instead, this next book, Windows 8 Secrets , would be an all-new book, with virtually no information taken and updated from previous books. It would be a shorter book, too, one that wouldn’t harm you if you dropped it on yourself.