It is evident that Microsoft has now shifted its focus to the next Windows iteration, believed to be codenamed Threshold. The company isn’t releasing any new features in updates for Windows 8.1 and recent reports suggest that it plans to ship a public preview of Windows 9 by the end of this year. Unlike in the past no pre-release builds of the next iteration have leaked as yet but reports about the expected features are still trickling out. Today we hear that Microsoft is going to revamp the Charms bar in Windows 9.
One of the biggest changes in Windows 9 would be that Microsoft would once again put desktop front and center, moving Modern UI to the back seat. According to WinBeta the Charms bar will longer be accessible by moving the cursor to either the top or bottom of the screen.
You might wonder how Modern UI apps would fare in desktop mode as many of them rely upon the Charms bar. The report claims that for exactly this purpose Microsoft is currently considering multiple ways to make a new charms menu that much more fluent. Apparently one of the methods being considered involves a button near the window controls which when pressed would reveal the Search, Share, Devices and Settings charms.
It warrants mentioning here that these changes are being considered for Windows 9 on the desktop. It is unclear right now if the revamped Charms bar would be extended to Windows 9 for tablets as well, and exactly how those changes would be incorporated into the tablet form factor.
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