Microsoft event will reveal new revitalized Windows 9

By Samuel Gibbs and agencies

Microsoft’s next version of Windows will be unveiled next 

week along with a new name. Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

New version of Windows is hoping to bring back users and businesses alienated by Windows 8, and is expected to expand its mobile software.

Recent leaks indicate the start menu will come back in the next Windows, with an option of tacking on tiles if preferred. The Windows 8.1 update brought back the start button to Windows 8, but it simply opened the tiled start screen and not a start menu similar to Windows 7 or previous version of Windows.

The problem of users having to toggle between the modern interface and the old-style desktop for Microsoft Office among other desktop applications has yet to be solved.

Microsoft declined to comment on the new name, or what it plans to unveil on Tuesday.

‘Nadella’s holistic cloud vision’

Microsoft has said only that it will have a “discussion” about where Windows is headed at a stylish event space in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Microsoft under Nadella is keen to rebuild respect in Silicon Valley as it moves away from the PC toward a larger role in the mobile computing world with Apple and Google.

Nadella’s slogan is “mobile first, cloud first,” and although he will not be at the San Francisco event - he is traveling in Asia - that theme will be at the fore.

“This is a launching pad and catalyst for Nadella’s holistic cloud vision over the coming years,” said Daniel Ives, an analyst at investment bank FBR Capital Markets. “Windows 9 is a potentially game-changing product release for Microsoft.”

Nadella is resigned to the fact that sales of PCs have leveled off, and with it sales of Windows. With the explosion of smartphones and tablets, Windows now powers only 14% of computing devices sold last year, according to Gartner.

His response is to focus on selling high-quality services to people on whatever device or system they are using.

“Microsoft is changing from a company that was Windows-centric to one that is services-centric,” said Silver. “It has to be that way. Windows revenue is likely going to decline, and Microsoft’s task is to replace that Windows revenue with revenue from services on all sorts of platforms.”

The challenge is to come up with apps and services users can’t live without. 

“Microsoft built their business on being very good at delivering what people needed in the moment, for example Excel in the 1990s,” said David Johnson, an analyst at tech research firm Forrester. “That’s what Microsoft has to get back to, innovating and creating things that people find indispensable.”