At least that"s the claim by Paul Thurrott on his Supersite for Windows, he has also managed to get some inside information on a few features not covered elsewhere yet. Thurrott has covered pretty much all Windows releases well before official unveilings and can be considered a reliable source.
Microsoft will be showing off Windows 9 on September 30th, just over a week from now on Tuesday to select partners, and it was rumored that the preview would be made available then or shortly after. Bearing in mind that September is a 30 day month, we"re not too surprised that the build might not reach the public until October. Thurrott was unable to further elaborate on the source of the information but did confirm that he does not yet have a build installed himself.
So what don"t we already know?
According to Thurrott the most recent build is 9841, although it"s unclear if that will be the public preview build.
We already know that the Start menu will be a cross between the "Modern" Start screen and legacy Windows 7 start menu, it will also change color according to the theme you have enabled; but Thurrott also claims that the Start menu can even be resized, although no explanation for this feature was offered, it could just mean by however many Modern app tiles are pinned to the right pane as it"s not obvious in any leaks up until now how further menu resizing can be achieved.
Additionally, something we may have seen in previous screenshots but haven"t really touched upon is the new location for File Explorer, which now becomes "Home" rather than "This PC". There, not only library folders and drives are shown, but everything relevant to you, such as recent or frequent files, folders, favorites, drives and so on.
There is also a prominent new Share button on the Share tab in File Explorer, which works like the share button in Windows Phone, allowing you to share selected items using compatible Modern mobile apps.
According to Thurrott"s source, Microsoft has created a new Windows Insider Preview Program so that users can get more frequent preview builds(!) and provide feedback to the company.
It will work like so: Once you"ve signed up, you can use the Windows Feedback app to navigate through a menu of top-level choices (Recent Applications, Apps and Windows Store, Hardware and Devices, Download and Install, Internet Explorer, and so on) and then fine-tune it further (Mail, Maps, Messaging, Movie Moments, Music, etc.). You can search to see whether other Insiders have given similar feedback, add more details to that feedback, or start your own, adding text and screenshots as needed.
Microsoft will even trigger Windows notification toasts to ask you for feedback as you use Windows. These notifications are triggered by specific events.
All in all, it certainly looks like Windows 9 is shaping up to be what we wished for with Windows 8 two years ago. Aside from the possibly lengthy wait to get our hands on the public preview, it will definitely be worth it!
For a recap of all our Windows 9 coverage and reveals go here, or check out the rest of Paul Thurrotts reveals here.
Source & all but top image: Supersite for Windows | top image Winfuture.de