And talks ISO file mounting

Microsoft continues to drip feed us sneak peeks at the upcoming Windows 8 software interface, unveiling the start menu in a video that also reveals how ISO files will be natively mounted in the new OS.

Thrilling news on the start menu front, we think you’ll agree – and the headline is that it looks a bit like the Windows Phone interface, taking on the Metro UI stylings of the mobile system.

Hitting that familiar on-screen button currently brings up four options for Windows 8 users: settings, devices, share and search, which reiterates Microsoft’s new multi-device focus.
Let’s get it started

That may not sound like much, but don’t forget the company has also developed a tiled desktop Start Screen for quickly launching apps and other programmes, which you can just about see in the background of the video.

Windows 8 tiled menu screen

It’s not often that Start Menu fans get a story all of their very own, so we’re sorry to have to sully it with a bit of peripheral detail about the ISO files:

“An ISO file is simply a disc image stored as a file, composed of all of the contents of a CDROM or DVD disc. You can also think of an ISO file as a full-fidelity image (digital copy) of the optical disc,” explains Rajeev Nagar, Windows 8 group program manager on the storage and file systems.

“You can simply access the contents of the ISO file without needing to either burn a new disc or needing to find/download/install additional software just to logically access the ISO.”

So in Windows 8, you “just ‘mount’ the ISO file (you can select mount from the enhanced Explorer ribbon or double-click or right-click on the file), and a new drive letter appears, indicating that the contents are now readily accessible,” he concludes.