This is the Windows 8 Welcome and Lock Screen

Even if you're not looking at it with Apple products in mind, there is a clear convergence happening between smartphones, tablets and the traditional desktop and laptop form factor.

Just like how Apple is integrating iOS elements into Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Microsoft seems to be borrowing bits of Windows Phone 7 for Windows 8.

Uncovered on Within Windows is what is tentatively the welcome screen for Windows 8. See it below:

 

The background image is one of the pieces of artwork included in Windows 7. The actual image is changeable, but what is said to be set is the time, date, power controls and ease of access. There's also talk of being able to control music playback from the lock screen, which would be handy for when a PC is used as the music player at a party.

Different variations of Windows 8 may have different welcome screens. For example, tablet devices may have pattern-based unlocking instead of ctrl-alt-delete.

Discuss more about this and other Windows 8 features here!

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • proofhitter
    Is this a joke? I don't want my desktop to look like a phone... Looks ugly to me. I'd rather stick to my Win7 welcome screen thank you very much!
    Reply
  • lucuis
    Yeah I don't like it.
    Reply
  • joytech22
    Two things:

    1. The face of that man is disturbing
    2. I don't want a phone experience on my Desktop, I want it to feel as fast and expensive as it is, add lots of particle effects for the time or something..
    Reply
  • delazaren
    Relax guys, the image is changeable and what's wrong with adding a few extra bits on the welcome screen like date and time? Your uber CPU and uber GPU won't sweat over it. I assume of course that we'll be able to get the standard login prompt though... :-)
    Reply
  • amigafan
    I don't want to have to press ctrl-alt-delete to log on. I want to be able to quickly type my password and hit enter to log on like I do now.
    Reply
  • FlukieLukie
    amigafanI don't want to have to press ctrl-alt-delete to log on. I want to be able to quickly type my password and hit enter to log on like I do now.Erm.. In every version of Windows the home/login screen has a mode to force CTRL+ALT+DEL logins, the password + profile will still be there too just this option will stay as it always has been :S
    Reply
  • chronicbint
    Cant believe people are moaning about a single screen. Lulz.
    Reply
  • n3ard3ath
    Monopole=No Evolution. Nuff Said.
    Reply
  • duinchaileen
    See the date? April 1st
    Reply
  • mlopinto2k1
    Retarded. That's all I have to say about that. Oh, and.. I like the "lots of particle effects" idea.
    Reply