Copying, moving, renaming, and deleting are far and away the most heavily used features within Windows Explorer, representing 50% of total command usage (based on Windows 7 telemetry data). For Windows 8, we want to make sure that using these core file management commands, which we collectively refer to as “copy jobs,” is a great experience.

We have earlier seen the Ribbon UI in leaked builds of Windows 8, today Microsoft has officially posted on the Building Windows 8 blog showing the changes made in Windows Explorer. The telemetry data indicates that top 10 commands amounts to 81.8% of Explorer Command use, which includes Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Rename, Properties, Refresh, New and Command Bar while according to the information only 10.9% come from the Command bar which is the most visible part in Windows Explorer in Windows 7 or Vista.

Today, at the All Things Digital D9 Conference, Steve Sinofsky demonstrated the next generation of Windows, internally code-named “Windows 8,” for the first time. Windows 8 is a reimagining of Windows, from the chip to the interface. Windows 8-based PC will become a new kind of device, one that scales from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse.

The demo showed some of the ways Microsoft reimagined the interface for a new generation of touch-centric hardware. Sinofsky also revealed that Windows 8 will not require any additional hardware requirements above and beyond Windows 7.

We have earlier seen the Ribbon UI in Windows 8 build 7850 with orange circles everywhere. In Windows 8 build 7955 the folks at MDL Forums were able to get the new Windows Explorer Ribbon UI by removing the circles from the explorerframe.dll file. Here is how the Windows Explorer looks-

Windows Thin PC (WinTPC) is a smaller footprint version of Windows 7 that allows customers to repurpose existing PCs as thin clients without requiring the VDA license to access VDI desktops. WinTPC replaces WinFLP. In addition, WinTPC will offer:

Internet Explorer 9 has now been downloaded 2.35 million times in the first 24 hours since its Monday night release. That is over 27 downloads
every second, or over 240 downloads every 9 seconds. Wow.

Microsoft has officially stated that build 7601.17514.101119-1850 is the final RTM version of Windows 7.

WinRumors exclusively revealed earlier on Wednesday that the software giant is planning to release Windows 7 SP1 on February 22. Microsoft has now confirmed it has Released to Manufacturing the first Service Pack for Windows 7. “Today we officially handed off the final release (RTM) of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) to our OEM partners” said Microsoft blogger Brandon LeBlanc in a statement on Wednesday. LeBlanc also confirmed the build number in a blog comment on Thursday. “@Cosmin, the full build number is 7601.17514.101119-1850. ” said LeBlanc.

Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 SP1 will Release to Manufacturing (RTM) today. On February 16, both will be available to current customers of the Windows Volume Licensing program, as well as subscribers to Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and TechNet. On February 22, both will be available to all customers through Windows Update and will also come preinstalled on new servers ordered.

Microsoft has removed references to the final SP1 build for Windows 7 from an official blog post.

The software giant confirmed the golden version of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 on Friday in a Russian blog post. Microsoft officials edited the post late on Friday to remove references to 7601.17514.101119-1850 and confirmed that some details of the post were inaccurate. The post was updated with the following disclaimer: