The tablet UI runs separately from the standard Windows desktop, making use of its own applications. These apps are written in HTML5 and JavaScript, which may come as a surprise for some users who would have expected the interface to use the the same environment as the latest Windows Phone.

The interface has been designed to be fully compatible with touch capable devices and screens. The start screen displays custom applications, like weather reports, stock quotes or the latest emails that the logged in user has received. Touch is used to open apps, bring additional apps to the front and for practically every other operation imaginable.

The start screen replaces the standard Windows start menu. It is fully customizable and will show up to date information and live notifications next to static contents. The switching between apps is fluid, which you will see when you watch the video that demonstrates the touch capabilities.

The touch interface supports multitasking. This is demonstrated by resizing Microsoft Office to make room for Twitter on the sidebar in the video.

The press release confirms that Internet Explorer 10 will be the default system browser of Windows 8. It also confirms that the Windows 8 operating system will be fully compatible with “all Windows 7 logo PCs, software and peripherals”.

The Windows 8 video demonstrates the touch interface of the new operating system. Microsoft states that the video showcases only a few elements, and that the company intends to reveal a lot more on the developer event BUILD which takes place September 13 to 16 in Anaheim.

The improved onscreen keyboard, that seems to have taken inspiration from Microsoft’s ergonomic keyboard, the ability to switch between the touch interface and the standard mouse – keyboard desktop, as well as apps multitasking and integration on the start screen appear to be the biggest new features showcased in the video.

One interesting thing to note is that Microsoft has uploaded the video to Youtube, and that the title of the video is Building “Windows 8″ – Video #1 . Yes, quotation marks are used but it is nevertheless interesting that the company uses the term Windows 8 and not Windows Next or another term for the video title. (via Microsoft unveil Windows Next Tablet UI, Windows 8 News)

Microsoft has changed their stance on providing additional codecs with an operating system in Windows 7. Windows 7 will ship with a few codecs preinstalled (Divx, H.264) which is great but not enough to play all multimedia files.

The Windows 7 Codec package has been created by the same author who publishes the Windows Vista Codec Package. It will automatically install a number of missing codecs in Windows 7 and uninstall several other codec packages that might be installed on the computer system to avoid compatibility issues.

There are obviously two alternatives to installing a codec package on a computer system. The first is to install codecs only if they are needed to playback a multimedia file. The other to install a software player that comes with binary codecs that can play virtually any file without having to be installed on the computer system at all. The SMPlayer comes to mind that can play virtually any multimedia files out of the box.