Windows 9 accidentally leaked by Microsoft China
The software giant has revealed information about the platform on its Chinese social network
Microsoft China has accidentally leaked the Windows 9 announcement on its Weibo social network account.
The company asked: "Microsoft's latest OS Windows 9 is coming soon, do you think the start menu at the left bottom will make a come back?", on the public network, along with the Windows 9 logo that was leaked earlier in the year.
The post was removed shortly after Microsoft China made the slip-up. Presumably, it wasn't signed off by Microsoft worldwide, despite the return of the more traditional Start menu already being leaked.
Microsoft will reportedly hold an event on 30 September to formally announce the operating system previously known as Windows Threshold.
It will also offer developers a technical preview of the platform either at launch or shortly afterwards in early October.
Few details about Windows 9 have been announced, although it's likely to include a desktop version of Microsoft's personal assistant, Cortana.
Other rumours include a new mini Start menu - the one referred to by Microsoft China - and the removal of the Charms bar.
There are probably going to be some UI changes, most notably to the desktop version that will allow both Metro-style app icons and the more traditional pre-Windows 8 apps to be shown together.
The mobile or tablet versions and desktop versions will be completely different, according to the information we've seen so far, with a mouse-friendly UI for desktop and finger-friendly interface for tablets.
There have also been some rather more far-fetched rumours suggesting Microsoft may remove the desktop view from mobile deviceswith Windows 9 and the Metro view from PCs.
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