Microsoft announced that the Windows 8 beta would start sometime in February 2012 and will feature a completed operating system designed to allow developers the ability to start building apps for listing in the Store.

Windows 8 will feature the new metro experience and start screen and is built to be run on PCs as well as tablets.

In other Windows news, Windows 7 has proven to be the best recent operating system released by Microsoft, its just passed the 500 million licenses sold mark. Win7 is now the #1 used consumer operating system in the world, with a 41.13% market share. That's followed by Win XP at 37.91%, Vista at 11.12%, Mac OSX at 7.5% and Linux at 0.84%