New Windows Division head discusses why Windows interface was overhauled, more

Julie Larson-Green has given one of her first major interviews after a month at the helm of the Windows Division.

It's been more than a month since Steven Sinofsky left Microsoft, and now his replacement at the top of Microsoft's Windows Division is speaking out in one of her first major interviews.

Julie Larson-Green, the woman who is now in charge of Windows, spoke with MIT Technology Review on a wide range of topics in a new interview. Among the topics discussed were Sinofsky's departure and why Microsoft decided to overhaul its tradition interface with Windows 8.

On the latter topic, Larson-Green said the new interface is a product of a changing environment. The traditional Windows interface has been largely static for the past 25 years, she said, and the new interface provides information in a quicker manner. Larson-Green specifically touted the fact that previous versions of Windows were about launching from one window to the next, whereas Windows 8 eliminates the need for opening some applications at all.

"... with Windows 8, all the different things that you might want to do are there at a glance with the Live Tiles," she said. "Instead of having to find many little rocks to look underneath, you see a kind of dashboard of everything that’s going on and everything you care about all at once. It puts you closer to what you’re trying to get done."

Larson-Green later added that touch will be a very important factor in the PC market going forward, saying she can't "imagine a computer without touch anymore" and that it'd be hard to go back to a computer that lacks touch input.

On the topic of the polarizing response to the new Windows 8 interface, Larson-Green said Microsoft is "going for the over time impression rather than the first 20 minutes out of the box." She emphasized that it would be hard for people who are very invested in "the old way" to transition to the new interface, but that in two days to two weeks people would adjust to the new interface.

To read the entire interview, click here.

Source: MIT Technology Review via The Verge | Image via Microsoft