Microsoft previews Windows for Tablets

Microsoft Windows President Steven Sinofsky previewed a touch-screen version of the operating system that can work on tablets, offering a glimpse of his company's response to Apple's iPad. Windows 8 resembles Microsoft's software for mobile phones and uses "tiles," rather than icons, to help users navigate between applications, Sinofsky said at AllThingsD's D9 Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Microsoft demonstrated Windows 8 on a 10.6-inch touch-screen tablet and said the operating system can also work on desktop computers. Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, is rushing to adapt Windows so it can run on devices that compete with the iPad, which dominates the tablet market. The new operating system won't be out until next year, people familiar with the plans said in March. Still, the company is eager to show it's making progress in developing software that can be used by computer makers and chip suppliers. "What we set out to do with Windows 8 was really try to re-imagine what we could do with a PC," Sinofsky said. "You could sort of say we coloured outside the lines." He declined to say when the software would be available but said it, "won't be this fall." Sinofsky said they would provide more information at a developer conference later this year.