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Windows 8 is still a couple of years away, but Microsoft (MSFT) is already telling partners what to expect in the next generation operating system. Luckily for the public, Microsoft planning documents shared with HP and other OEM partners were leaked this week, providing a wholly unexpected Windows 8 sneak preview.

[ For complete coverage on Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system -- including hands-on reviews, video tutorials and advice on enterprise rollouts-- see CIO.com's Windows 7 Bible. ]

Thanks to Win7Vista.com, I was able to download the documents, consisting of more than 15 confidential slide decks Microsoft has shared with partners in the last few months. Some of the details are sparse, and Microsoft's plans are likely to change significantly between now and the actual release of Windows 8. But, based on Microsoft's current planning, here's a look at 8 amazing things you'll be able to do with Windows 8:

Log in to your PC with your face, instead of a password

By 2012 sensors such as microphones, cameras, GPS, accelerometers, and temperature and magnetic sensors will be common in most PCs, allowing Windows 8 to interact with the user's environment in new and interesting ways.

One scenario uses facial recognition software to verify a user's identity.

"Amish walks into his home office," Microsoft writes in one of many fictional scenarios outlined in the Windows 8 slide decks. "The proximity sensor on his PC detects motion, and wakes the PC. By the time Amish sits down, his PC is powered up. It scans his face and logs him in. finally, when Amish gets up and leaves, his PC notices that he's gone and locks itself and powers down."

Windows 8 may also eliminate the need for remembering passwords across multiple websites.

"Password pain has reached a tipping point," Microsoft says. "Windows 8 could include a way to securely store usernames and passwords, simplifying the online experience"

Make Windows 8 follow you across devices

Microsoft wants to make your Windows identity user-centric, rather than machine-centric, meaning your settings and preferences would roam with you as you move from a desktop to a laptop, and to smaller devices like slate machines (read: a Windows 8 version of Apple's iPad).

"Windows accounts could be connected to cloud to make it easy to roam settings and preferences," Microsoft says.

Users of tomorrow may have a laptop for productivity applications, writing e-mail and organizing photos, movies and music, and a slate optimized for web and media consumption, causal gaming, IM and social networking, and reading and sorting e-mail. With the same Windows 8 login across devices, a user might start a game on one machine and then finish it on another.

Importantly, the software license will roam with a user, Microsoft says in one slide.

Use iPad-like touch screens

Microsoft is telling partners it will outdo Apple by building a better touch screen for slate PCs. Windows 8 will also support accelerometers and location-awareness for gaming and other functions, while adjusting the screen brightness to changes in light.

"Users are able to hold their slate/tablet PCs in any orientation and Windows will smoothly and automatically change the screen orientation to accommodate," Microsoft says. "Users never have to think to interact using touch on their slates. Users can type confidently and efficiently on the soft keyboard with touch. The soft keyboard is easily launched, text prediction is more accurate, the UI is more usable, and throughput is increased for everyone. We can adapt to changes in ambient light, so that the display is always easy to see."

Watch HD movies on your wireless TV

Windows 8 will integrate with a variety of technologies to let users pick out TV shows and movies and stream them to any screen. Turn on your laptop, find a movie online or in your hard drive, and with a click of a button you'll be able to watch it on whichever TV screen you choose.

"Users can easily discover and connect to a wide variety of modern displays like wireless televisions and monitors, wireless docking stations, and USB-connected monitors," Microsoft says. "The user can easily light up displays around him with all his content and media, whether it is online or local. Developers can build modern experiences around display devices by leveraging Windows 8 support for premium media experiences, such as stereoscopic 3D and wireless TVs."

Download apps from the Windows App Store

A new app store based on the model made popular by Apple is mentioned in many of Microsoft's Windows 8 slides. While Microsoft insists that users still need an operating system in the age of the Internet, the App Store is one of the ways in which Microsoft is adapting Windows to the web world.  

There isn't a lot of information about what types of apps the store will contain, but Microsoft is trying to appeal to developers by letting them create apps in whichever language they prefer. The hope, obviously, is to provide a wide array of applications to rival the offerings of the Apple and Android stores.

Kill a virus, but keep your personal data

Viruses, unfortunately, often force users to restore their machines to the factory settings, a painful process that involves loss of applications and personal data. Microsoft, however, is working on a new reset option that will retain files and personalization settings while giving users an easy way to reinstall applications.

In one of the scenarios detailed in Microsoft slide decks, a user named "Jon" (no relation to me) decides to reset his Windows 8 PC.

"Jon notices that his Windows 8 PC is starting to perform poorly and he can't figure out what to do," the slide deck says. "He presses the reset button and chooses to reset his windows 8 PC. ... knowing that all his stuff is safe. Windows 8 automatically retains files and personalization settings, and migrates the user accounts. Windows is restored to the factory image and restarts. After restarting Jon can launch the App Store to reinstall applications he purchased there and see a list of other applications that he had installed outside of the App Store."

Boot your machine near-instantly

Microsoft seems to be putting a premium on improving the start times in Windows 8. A March 2010 Windows Planning Survey polled 545 customers about 21 user activities, and found that starting the computer tops the list when it comes to "highest importance/lowest satisfaction in terms of speed and performance."

Mean boot times have decreased from 40 seconds to 27 seconds from Windows Vista to Windows 7, according to the slides, but Microsoft wants greater improvement.

"Boot performance is getting better but it is not 'instant on'", as one slide says.

Technologies in development could cut boot time in half, Microsoft's planning slides suggest. Windows 8 may also include a "new off state combining the best of hibernate with a boot/shutdown look and feel."

Take more control over your machine

One goal of Windows 8 is to simplify the user experience, but Microsoft also wants to give the savviest users new ways of interacting with the operating system. The new user interfaces will make it easier for PC owners to understand the resources their machines use, and improve startup times and power efficiency by killing unneeded processes and applications.

"Windows 8 will arm users with an effective set of tools that will both deepen their understanding of the state of their PC and enable them to fine-tune their PC experience," Microsoft says. "Users will be presented with helpful and intuitive views of the system, applications running, resources being used, helpful personal and historical context, along with actionable, timely and pertinent advice and suggestions."

Follow Jon Brodkin on Twitter.

© 2010 Network World Inc.

PC World — That Jeff Lebowski was one cool dude.

Aside from the fact that he actually referred to himself as "The Dude," the iconic character from The Big Lebowski just had something about him--a kind of pure coolness that's hard to describe.

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His secret? He didn't try.

Tech companies, on the other hand, try with all their might to come across as cool. Sometimes, they succeed--Apple's "I'm a Mac" ads managed to project an air of coolness that stuck for years--but equally often, their attempts to connect with consumers make them look more out of touch than Mr. Magoo at a Megadeath concert.

Ultimately, it all comes down to something I call "The Dude principle of coolness": If you're actually trying, odds are, you're failing. And the harder you try, the greater those odds become.

Here are 10 times when tech companies' attempts failed miserably.

1. MSI Takes a Crack at Viral Video

MSI tried to hop on the pop culture bandwagon with this astoundingly disturbing video published to the Net in 2009. The clip shows a couple of guys in Spandex onesies (strike one) throwing laptops at each other (strike two) and catching them in certain unmentionable crevices (strike three...you're out!). Take a look:

MSI's concept, from what I can best surmise, was to show off the superthin profile of its new X-Slim laptops. And given the popularity of shows like MTV's "Jackass," you can see how a team of suit-wearing hacks might have seen the stunt as a cheeky way (so to speak) of grabbing college kids' attention.

What MSI failed to realize was that there's a difference between making people cringe and making them want to buy your product. This asinine stunt fails to accomplish the latter--no ifs, ands, or butts about it.

2. Sony Gets a Bad Rap

Talk about a flop: Sony's 2006 attempt at connecting with the "cool kids" was so bad, the company actually had to apologize.

Remember this one? Sony hired a marketing company to create what was supposed to look like a teenager's blog. That "teenager," of course, was an employee who blogged exclusively about how he and his pals really wanted a Sony PlayStation Portable for Christmas.

The crowning moment came when a video surfaced showing the blogger's "cousin" Pete rapping about the PSP. Pete's lyrics included such insightful prose as: "Games so crazy / they totally amaze me / gotta ask my mom for one / fo' shizzy."

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15 Free Enterprise Collaboration Tools

Whether your business is looking to start small or go big, many free tools can help jumpstart your enterprise collaboration efforts. Here's a look at 15 of the best -- some old, some new, some basic and some robust.

By Kristin Burnham

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Co-op

Co-op, a no-frills application with a simple user interface similar to Twitter's, is free for everyone.

Features: Post updates, ask questions, share links, track time. Co-op also lets you share your daily agenda with your coworkers, so everyone knows your current projects. The Web app automatically stores records of activity, allowing you to review what your team has accomplished each day.

How are others using microblogging in the enterprise? Click here for three case studies.

How should we be organized? It’s one of the most common questions I hear in the office of the CIO.

For IT leaders, it’s a critical part of how they get close to and provide services to the business of which they are a part.

Over the last 10 years, I have seen a number of instances where IT has been “configured” or “set up” as internal consultants to the business. In other words, these companies seek to apply the principles of the operating model used by consulting firms as the basis for the operating model for the IT group within a larger organization.

In some cases this merely means having two or three “consultant-like” managers who act as the primary interface to internal customer groups. In other cases, some go as far as creating a full consulting-like organization that issues proposals that compete with mainstream consulting firms like IBM and Accenture.

Before I share my feelings on this topic with you, let’s take a closer look at what’s behind the idea of having IT as internal consultants–the pros and the cons of this idea and what it’s trying to achieve.

The business case

There are three big reasons for setting up IT as a group of internal consultants. They go something like this:

1. Internal IT consultants are more invested in their companies. They put their companies’ needs and priorities first. External consultants are more concerned with their own financial goals and selling the next engagement.
2. Internal IT consultants save time. There’s less ramp up time on projects because the internal consultants already know the business and the people.
3. Internal IT consultants save money. External IT consultants have additional sales and marketing expenses, overhead, and profit requirements. Using internal resources to do the same work as external consultants saves money because the hourly rate is far less for internal people with the same skills.

Sounds like a winner

On the face of it, these benefits seem compelling. What’s more, configured as consultants, the IT group has a better opportunity to get closer to the business and to proactively meet its needs.

Unfortunately, this idea doesn’t quite hold up in the real world. In place of the expected benefits, I have seen instead a number of “sticky” problems brought on by this approach. They are usually some variation of:

1. Internal consultants often suffer from a skill gap. The title consultant brings with it an expectation of certain skills and expertise. Just calling someone a consultant doesn’t make him one.
2. Internal consultants lack external perspective. Internal consultants don’t have the perspective of working with other customers. They can’t bring the best practices of other corporations to their consulting roles.
3. Internal consultants lack the credibility of the outsiders. Right or wrong, there is a widespread perception that there are no prophets in their own lands. And this certainly holds true here. Internal consultants are viewed as colleagues not external experts¾no matter what we call them. This limits their ability to challenge the status quo and drive change.
4. Internal consultants quickly turn into salespeople. Configured as consultants and taking their cue from their business model, internal consultants can’t help but start to “peddle” their ideas and projects to their business colleagues. After all, they have to keep busy or else they will be “fired.”
   
5. Internal consultants are subject to internal political constraints. It’s not easy to be part of an organization and independent from it at the same time.
6. Internal consultants suffer from the negative perception of all consultants. Consulting is often referred to as the second oldest profession in the world with many of the same attributes as the oldest. ‘Nuff said.

My perspective-and it’s probably not what you’re expecting

Personally, I love the idea of having IT personnel function like consultants but I absolutely hate the idea of calling IT internal consultants.

I think the idea of having IT function like consultants is fundamentally sound. A lot of the value external consultants bring comes from their highly competent execution and management of pretty straightforward, non-expertise type functions, functions such as:

• Business analysis
• Process design
• Presentation development
• Meeting and workshop facilitation
• Project management

And last, but certainly not least, basic work practices like taking good meeting notes, following up proactively and generally being on top of things.

Reading the above list, I trust you agree that every IT department should absolutely be building these competencies in their people at every level of the organization. It’s not hard to see that a move in this direction will dramatically improve IT’s standing within the organization.

However, the idea of calling internal IT professionals “consultants” and asking them to face off with customers like an external vendor just doesn’t work. It saddles the internal IT folks with all of the baggage of external consultants without any of the benefits.

“Things went downhill when we had three family crises in a year,” said a new client who was explaining how her lovely home had evolved into a cluttered, chaotic mess.

It is very common for people to lose control of the order in their homes during times of crisis. Crisis situations that go on for an extended period of time consume time, energy and the motivation required to maintain an organized home.

It’s not uncommon for people to find that once they’ve gotten past the personal crisis–illness, death in the family, caregiving for aging or sick relatives, recovery from surgery–they have another crisis on their hands, a living space that is such a mess that they have no idea how they will ever get it back to its more orderly state.

Twice in the past year I’ve been thrown into crisis mode, first when my step-father began deteriorating mentally and had to have brain surgery and then when my disabled brother developed a serious infection in his artificial knee joint requiring surgery, weeks of IV antibiotics and another knee replacement. Both events were incredibly energy consuming for me because I was a key decision-maker, the coordinator of communication between family members, a key source of emotional support, and I had my own fears and other feelings to manage.

It was all I could do to get through each day dealing with the crisis at hand, much less tend to my small business and maintain order in my home. Those two crises were an opportunity for me to learn how to get through difficult times without losing control of other parts of my life.

Here are 6 of the important lessons I learned:

1. Identify tasks to be done no matter what.

Then do them! I am the money manager in our house. So, making sure bills got paid and that money was in the right accounts at the right time were two tasks I had to get done so we could avoid consequences like ruining our credit rating. Keeping us afloat financially during those difficult times helped ground me. I liked knowing that no matter what else happened, we were operating on a firm financial foundation.

2. Defer whatever tasks you can to other people.

Instead of trying to keep everything in order by myself, I asked my husband to do many tasks that normally I would have done to maintain our home and our lives together.
Also, people offer help during times of crisis. Let them! Last summer when I had bi-lateral bunion surgery I asked friends to help provide food and walk my dogs. They were happy to have something to do that would help me, and their help provided a type of emotional support I really needed.

3. Lighten your load by eliminating obligations.

It became clear to me pretty quickly that helping my mother and step-father through my step-father’s health crisis and staying healthy myself during that stressful process was more important than writing checks for a professional organization. I actually chose to resign from two volunteer positions because taking care of family and myself were the priority.

4. Control paper flow even if you can’t regularly process it.

You may not have time to do much with paper that flows into your house on a daily basis, but you can make sure that it all flows to the same place. That way, when you need to find something in that pile of paper, you have only one place to look. You might stack it in piles in your home office or get an open box and store it there. Just don’t let it float throughout your space!

If you want to go one step further, pull out bills and magazines/catalogs/newsletters. Put the bills in a highly visible location so you don’t forget about them and so they are easily accessible when you are ready to pay them. Place the magazine, catalogs and other reading materials in a location where you spend time reading. Removing those items from your paper pile will make it shrink and also make it easier to access things to read when you need a source of distraction.

5. Resist the urge to do nothing.

In times of personal crisis it is very normal to shut down because of overwhelm, fatigue, or just not knowing what to do. While it is important to take breaks to rest, recharge, and recover, it is not a good idea to go to ground and let everything go. It takes only a day or two for your space to go from being a peaceful haven to a chaotic nightmare. Then you not only have a crisis going on outside your home, but also inside your home. You have no safe place to retreat. Messy houses scream, “You slob! Why don’t you do something about this mess!” Make yourself do at least the bare minimum to maintain order, like controlling the paper flow, washing the dishes, straightening up daily.

6. Remember that maintaining a basic order will ground you during difficult times.

You may resist doing maintenance activities because you are exhausted, but if you override the urge to stop and plop on the sofa and instead do a few tasks to keep your space neat and organized, you will find that doing those things will help ground and calm you. You will then be better able to go out and deal with whatever challenge is going on. If you are physically incapable of maintaining order yourself, because of illness or disability, ask others to help you do that. Many people want to help in some way. Let them know that their help will ground you and facilitate your recovery.

Image: evelynshire

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