New Windows 8 Wallpapers and Charms Bar Shown in Leaked Screenshots

Posted by ison Wednesday, February 8, 2012 0 comments

Chinese website PC Beta has released new screenshots from the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (beta) showing that the Start Screen wallpaper we’ve seen in the Developer Preview probably won’t be the only one available when we see the full beta later this month. While full details of exactly what and how many wallpapers will be available, until Stardock get their way, the image of the new rings wallpaper isn’t an unpleasant one.

The screenshots also show a modified Charms bar with new icons and a slightly modified Control Panel, now called PC Settings, where the descriptive text from items has been removed. Finally these is a screenshot reinforcing the news that the Windows Start Orb has now been removed from the desktop. Rumour has it however that it reappears if you mouse over to the bottom left of the Windows desktop taskbar.

Much still isn’t known about the Windows 8 beta, probably too much frankly and there are a great many quite legitimate questions that people are asking. It is clear though that Microsoft have done a great deal of work since last August when they would have signed-off on the Developer Preview build, and that they’ve taken on board much of the feedback they received from that build.

One piece of feedback concerned the blanket alphabetical way in which apps were treated in the search screen. One of the new screenshots shows apps now arranged into categories, as per the current Start Menu. It’s probably not a perfect implementation, but it is at least a significant improvement over what we’ve seen before.

What do you think of these screenshots and the new look? Do you like it? Why not tell us in the comments below.