Tag Archives: windows 8

microsoft, software development, windows

Microsoft really, really wants developers to build Windows Runtime apps

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Or should that be Metro-style apps? or Modern UI apps? or Windows Store apps?

I am not sure; but one thing jumps out at me as I look at the Windows 8 development platform. Microsoft is doing all it can to push developers towards Windows Runtime (WinRT) rather than desktop development.

Here is a small piece of evidence. The contentious new Start screen uses tiles for application shortcuts. These can be static images and text, or live tiles that update with current information. There is only one Start screen though, so desktop apps also have tiles which you click or tap to launch the app in question.

However, there is no documented way for desktop apps to have good-looking tiles. Here is the tile for Excel 2013, for example:

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It is mostly wasted space. A WinRT app on the other hand can fill that space:

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or display a picture

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or take up a double space

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The question: how difficult would it have been for Microsoft to allow desktop apps to have pretty tiles? I can understand why desktop apps cannot have live tiles, but there is no technical reason I can think of why desktop apps could not have a resource used for a decent tile.

Here is the official answer though, from Microsoft’s Rob Caplan:

Desktop apps cannot customize their tiles and will always use the icon and name from their shortcut.

I guess Microsoft can argue that it wants users to know whether they are about to launch a desktop app or a WinRT app. This could easily be done with a little overlay signifying the desktop. There was no need to ensure that all tiles for desktop apps look ugly.

Except that Microsoft wants these tiles to look ugly. Because it wants you to develop WinRT apps, not desktop apps, and is even willing to have its own Office tiles look bad for the sake of the cause.

Update

This post was picked up by Reddit and of course there are some interesting comments. First, the desktop tiles are improved in the RTM build of Windows 8 (my screenshot above is from the Release Preview):

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Second, here is a comment apparently from a Microsoft employee:

Wow, what a flimsy argument. The funniest thing about it, though, is that the desktop tiles look MUCH better in the RTM build (though customization is still left to Modern apps). Can’t seem to find a screenshot though.

But on the other hand, of course we want people to develop Modern apps. That’s why we built the platform. But the desktop tiles aren’t a part of that at all.

If I were the author, I’d bring up Contracts as a much better example. Desktop apps can’t support the Share Contract, or Search, or whatever; only Modern apps can. Of course, there’s no telling if this is simply a v1 limitation or a longer strategy; even I have no idea (I’ve only been at the company a little over a year). If we waited to release Windows until we had implemented everything we wanted to do, it wouldn’t come out for years. We have to draw the line somewhere.

Disclaimer: these are my thoughts, not the company’s.

In defence, I presented this only as a “small piece of evidence”.

Note the use of the term “Modern apps”.

microsoft, professional, software development, windows

Microsoft toughens logo requirements for Windows 8, forbids startup apps

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Today I came across the certification requirements for Windows 8 desktop apps. This is the successor to the Windows 7 Logo program, and represents a set of best practices required for software to display the official Windows logo.

In practice, I am not sure how many buyers check that software is certified before buying, though it might make sense for businesses to do this as a matter of policy if they want keep Windows desktops running smoothly and safely.

The requirements are also interesting as a guide to what Microsoft considers to be well-behaved applications.

The new requirements are tougher than before. Some guidelines that were in the “Beyond Windows 7” section in the previous logo program have now moved to become full requirements. Others seem to be completely new.

Here are some highlights:

  • Your app must not depend on any Windows compatibility feature, nor the VB6 runtime.
  • Apps may not start automatically on startup. You may not set the “run” registry keys nor install a shortcut into a startup folder.
  • Apps must use “strong and appropriate ACLs” to secure executables, directories and registry keys.
  • Apps must be compiled with /SafeSEH (safe exception handling), /NXCOMPAT (no data execution) and /DYNAMICBASE (random address space layout).
  • All executables must be signed with an Authenticode certificate – this was the same in Windows 7 but worth repeating.

The automatic startup prohibition is particularly intriguing. It could not be clearer:

10.2 Your app must avoid starting automatically on startup

I hate unnecessary startup applications too; but I do not object to all of them. My password manager runs on startup and sits in the notification area. Some of Microsoft’s own applications do this, for example Lync, Skype and SkyDrive. I would have thought auto-startup is acceptable if it is under the user’s control.

One factor may be that Windows 8 desktop apps do not auto-start on log-in even if you set them to do so. Instead, they start when the user clicks or taps into the Desktop. Therefore, in a sense none of the normal auto-start techniques are reliable.

There is a way round this, which is to install an autorun service.

In general, tough certification requirements are a good idea, though if they are too demanding the risk is that vendors will simply ignore them.

.net, development, software development

Using Windows Runtime (WinRT) APIs from desktop applications

After trying out Windows 8 notifications from a Windows Forms application, I did a bit of research into using the Windows Runtime (WinRT) API from desktop applications.

It turns out that this is something Microsoft planned for:

Desktop apps should for the most part be able to use WinRT. This is an area where we should have more information moving forward.

says Microsoft’s David Lamb, in Developer Support. He was answering a question about the Proximity APIs.

How do you do it? In C/C++, according to Steve Harne:

For this to build, you’ll need to set the following compiler switches in the the C++ Win32 Console wizard generated project:

C/C++ / General Settings
    Enable Windows Runtime Extensions (/ZX)
    Additional #Using Directories (/AI) -> set this to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Windows Metadata" (modify as per your installation)

C/C++ / Code Generation
    Disable Minimal Rebuild (/Gm-)  -> this is not compatible with /ZX

In .NET applications you can set a reference to Windows.winmd. This is a WinRT metadata file, which you can browse in the Visual Studio object browser.

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You even get a short summary describing each class and class member.

Note that as Microsoft’s Larry Osterman explains here:

there is absolutely no (zero) il in the windows.winmd file – it’s a metadata-only assembly. This is important because winmd files only describe structure, they don’t contain code (note that the C# compiler can produce hybrid winmd files that also contain some code, this was to support certain C# scenarios)

While a lot of stuff works, there will be WinRT API calls that make no sense other than for real WinRT apps. It is also worth noting that all of this is specific to Windows 8 (and higher, I presume). Since most desktop apps will need to be compatible at least with Windows 7, this requires some care. Lamb also says:

WinRT APIs may be tied to Metro style apps, Desktop apps or potentially available to both. The documentation will list which environments (Desktop, Metro style or both) a given API works in.

and in fact you can see this in the documentation. For example, the docs for the ToastNotification class states:

Applies to: Metro style apps | desktop apps

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whereas if you look at the ContactPickerUI class, it says:

Applies to: Metro style apps only

For those APIs where desktop use is supported, you can go right ahead.

.net, professional, software development, windows

Notifications in Windows 8: how to display new-style toast from a desktop app

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This post was prompted by the discussion over the fact that Windows 8 boots into the Start screen, and cannot apparently be modified to boot into the Desktop (though no doubt someone will find a way).

What if, I wondered, you put a desktop app into your startup folder so it runs automatically on boot? The answer: it runs on the desktop, but you will not see it until you click or tap into the desktop from the start screen. This is different behaviour from actually starting a desktop app from the start screen, which switches you to the desktop.

So what if that desktop app has something important to tell you? The answer: you will not see it until you switch to the desktop.

To demonstrate this, I wrote a Windows Forms app that displays a MessageBox alert after a 5 second delay. I ran the app, activated the alert, and switched to a Windows Runtime Metro app. When the alert fired, I heard a little ding, but saw no message. Only after switching to the desktop did I see the message.

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To be fair, you might not see this even if you were working in the desktop, since Windows has complex (and sometimes unpredictable) rules about when apps are allowed to come to the foreground. Even calling the Activate method, which gives your window the focus, may do no more than flash the icon on the taskbar.

Windows 8 has a new-style “toast” notification mechanism that works across both desktop and Windows runtime. I got this working in my Windows Forms app.

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So how do you do this? For some background, see Jim O’Neil’s series of posts which start here. However, I mostly used code from the sample Sending toast notifications from desktop apps. This is a WPF application, but I got the code to work in my Windows Forms application. Note that to reference Windows.UI.Notifications you have to add a reference to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\References\CommonConfiguration\Neutral\Windows.winmd

Update: in the release version of Visual Studio 2012 the way you reference winmd has changed. See this MSDN article and the section called Core Subgroup; however at the time of writing the method described there does not quite work. Instead, proceed as follows. First right-click the project in the Solution Explorer and choose Unload Project. Then right-click the project again and choose Edit [project].csproj. Add the following to the project file after the other Reference elements:

<Reference Include="Windows" />

then save and close the editor. Finally, right-click the project name again and choose Reload project. Do not add the suggested TargetPlatformVersion element, since if you do the project will not compile.

You also need the Windows 7 API code pack which is here.

Here is a quick summary though. In order to display a toast notification, you first need a shortcut to your app on the Start menu. In addition, the shortcut has to have an AppUserModeId, which you can set in code.

Once that is sorted, you can use the ToastNotificationManager class – for which you need that reference to Windows.UI.Notifications – and retrieve a standard XML template for the notification. You can add event handlers to the notification, so you can respond if the user clicks it. Then call:

ToastNotificationManager.CreateToastNotifier(APP_ID).Show(toast);

to actually show the notification.

Note that your event handlers will not fire on the UI thread, so you need to use thread-safe methods if you want to interact with controls on your form.

It is all somewhat laborious, but on the plus side you get notifications which are better than the old notification area toast, and much better than MessageBox.

Note that this is one bit of code applications will only have if they are modified to work on Windows 8. That is worth noting if you have an application in which notifications play an important role.

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microsoft, visual studio, windows

Windows 8 is done, available August 15th with final Visual Studio 2012

Microsoft’s Windows chief Steven Sinofsky has announced the release to manufacturing of Windows 8:

The Windows 8 team is proud to share with you that a short while ago we started releasing Windows 8 to PC OEM and manufacturing partners.

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The separate post by Brandon LeBlanc has more details. Microsoft’s developer (MSDN) and IT admin (Technet) subscribers will be first to get the new Windows, leaks aside, on August 15th. LeBlanc adds:

On August 15th, developers will be able to visit the Windows Dev Center to get access to all the tools and resources they need including the final build of Visual Studio 2012 to design, build, and sell apps in the Windows Store.

from which we learn that Visual Studio 2012 is also done, or will be by the 15th.

Windows Server 2012, which uses the same core code, has also been released to manufacturing, says Microsoft’s Jeffrey Snover:

the final code is complete and we are delivering it to our hardware and software vendor partners this week

The Windows Store is also open for business, kind-of. Antoine Leblond says that you can submit a Metro-style app from today, though you will need an RTM build to do so, so for most of us that will actually mean from August 15th. Apps can include free, paid-for, trials, and those with in-app purchases. Only Metro-style apps can be submitted for installation through the store, though desktop apps can be offered through a link to the vendor’s web site.

Windows 8 is a bold release. Despite pressure from existing Windows users, Microsoft has held firmly to its decision to abandon the old-style Start menu and to make the Metro side prominent for all users. There are several big unknowns:

  • How will users react to the changes? The early moments with Windows 8 tend to be difficult, and some may be put off completely.
  • How popular will Metro-style apps be, relative to traditional desktop apps?
  • How well will Windows 8 and Office 2013 really work on a tablet without keyboard or mouse?
  • What proportion of users will want the ARM version, Windows RT, as opposed to the familiar, messy world of x86 Windows?

I have used Windows 8 intensively for some months now, both on desktop and tablet. It works fine, and seems a little faster than Windows 7 on the same hardware. On a tablet, the Metro-style apps are delightful but few, but desktop apps are a bit of a struggle, which is one reason I am looking forward to Windows RT devices on which those troublesome desktop apps cannot be installed.

Should Microsoft have made such radical changes in Windows? That is open to debate; but check out this report on how tablets, mainly Apple iPads, are eating away at the PC market to understand why the company felt that “reinventing Windows” was its only option.

security, windows

Windows 8 defeats booking.com virus

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Someone trying out Windows 8 release preview brought her machine to me to look at. She was having trouble with an email attachment. The email was in fact carrying a virus, one that purported to be from booking.com though it had nothing to do with that company. The supposed booking is in an attached zip file which the victim is invited to open. My contact had opened the zip and attempted to run the contents, a windows executable. She could not remember exactly what happened but said that a dialog had appeared and she clicked OK.

Clicking OK is normally the wrong thing to do with a virus but not in this case. I had a look at the virus and uploaded it to Comodo’s online virus analyser.

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This detected API calls that copy a file to the All Users folder and sets it to autorun. Comodo pronounced the executable “Suspicious+”.

But did it run? I tried it on an isolated virtual instance of Windows 8 Release Preview. Running the executable throws up this dialog:

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If you click OK nothing happens. If you click More Info, it says that SmartScreen does not recognise the file and offers a Run Anyway option. However the user in this case did not click More info, but instinctively clicked OK, therefore not running the virus.

As a final experiment, I tried running the virus on the isolated machine. It deleted itself but did not seem to succeed in infecting the machine. It is hard to be sure though, so the virtual machine has now been deleted.

Observations:

Windows 8 did not detect the file as a virus. SmartScreen merely did not recognise the file. It would do the same for any unrecognised file, and I have seen this dialog appear for files that I do want to run.

Even when I ran the file, Windows Defender did not (as far as I can tell) detect the virus. The test machine was offline (for isolation) but fully up to date.

What interests me most is how SmartScreen interacts with the social engineering behind the malware. The user actually wanted to run the file, being convinced that it was genuine, but clicking OK simply did nothing. This behaviour is annoying if the application is not in fact malware, but clearly it can on occasion save the day.

microsoft, Web, windows

BBC web site has a Metro look

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The BBC redesigned its web site last year borrowing elements of Microsoft’s Metro design language, as seen in Windows 8, Windows Phone, and Office 2013. Note the tiles, the typography, the horizontal scrolling, the way elements stand out against a pale background.

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The BBC site is the 5th most popular in the UK and 47th in the world according to Alexa.

This strikes me as a significant design win for Microsoft. One of the goals of redesigns is to make your stuff look fresh and modern, while other stuff looks dated, and it helps drive an upgrade cycle. 

Update: amended to clarify that the design update was last year. Details here and here. Also interesting to note considerable hostility from users. Another point of similarity with Windows 8!

tips

Desktop Windows 8 survival guide

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Microsoft’s new Windows is its best yet, under the covers. It does have peculiarities though, thanks to its combination of a new touch-friendly user interface which I will call Metro, and the old Desktop user interface. The first encounter with Windows 8 is usually pretty painful, as you struggle to do things which are second nature for seasoned Windows 7 or Windows XP users. It is not really so bad though: most things still work once you have figured out how to find them. Here is a brief survival guide for keyboard and mouse users – no mention of touch here. I am also mostly avoiding third-party utilities. This is for out-of-the-box Windows 8 as far as possible.

If you have a Windows 8 machine with a touch screen, see here for tips specific to touch.

Options are shown a, b , c etc where they are alternatives. Steps are shown as 1, 2, 3 where needed.

Where is the Start menu?

The Start menu is a now a full-screen Metro application. You can find it in several ways. Press the Windows key, or Ctrl-Esc together, or put the mouse in the bottom left corner where the Start button used to be and click.

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I have the Start menu or a Metro app running. How do I get back to the desktop?

Click the Desktop tile in the Start menu, or press Windows and D together, or put the mouse to the top left corner of the screen and click the desktop image that appears.

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I hate the “live tiles” in the start menu, how can you turn off all the flickering activity?

Yes, I’m not sure about them either. In the Start screen, right-click a live tile so a tick appears in the top right corner. Then click Turn live tile off at the foot of the screen.

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There is also an option to remove personal data from live tiles. To get this, display the Start screen, move the mouse to the bottom right corner of the screen, then click Settings – Tiles. Click Clear.

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How do I organize the Start screen into groups?

The new Start screen is not hierarchical, but does support named groups. Two things you need to know:

1. To create a group, click and drag a tile right until it passes a grey vertical bar. Release to start the new group.

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Add further tiles to the group by dragging them under one of the existing tiles in the group.

2. To name and/or move the group, click the tiny horizontal bar at bottom right of the the Start screen.

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This will zoom out. Now, right-click the group you want to name. This selects the group. Then you can click Name group to name or rename it, or drag the group elsewhere on the Start screen.

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How do I start an application when I can’t even see it in the Start screen?

Can be a problem. Before you give up though, there are a few things to try:

a. The quickest way to find an application is by typing a search. Display the Start screen and type a few letters; all the matching applications are listed.

b. Right-click on the Start screen and click All apps in the bottom right corner to display all the icons in a smaller size. If you can’t find it in the alphabetical list (maybe you forget the name) scroll right to see the grouped list which follows.

c. Still can’t see it? Try showing Administrative tools. Mouse bottom right or press Windows key and C, settings, Tiles, Show administrative tools.

d. Still stuck? Windows key and R together brings up the Run dialog. Type the name of the executable, or click Browse to find the executable, which is most often somewhere in Program Files or Program Files (x86).

How can I avoid the Start screen? It is jarring to have it occupy the full screen when I am working in the Desktop.

a. Make sure your usual applications are pinned to the taskbar and start them from there. If you use lots of applications, you can make it double-height to fit more on, or it will scroll.

b. Use Windows key and R together to bring up the Run dialog and start an application there.

c. Right-click in the bottom left corner to show the Administrative menu. Here you can start most of the utilities that can be tricky to find. You can also get this with Windows – X.

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d. Put more shortcuts on the Desktop and use Windows – D to bring up the desktop when you need it.

Where is control panel? The real one, that is.

If you have read this far, you should know several ways to find it.

a. Start screen, type control, click Control Panel

b. On the desktop, mouse bottom left corner, right-click, choose Control Panel.

c. On the desktop, mouse button bottom right or press Windows – C for Charms, Settings, Control Panel.

d. Right-click in the bottom left corner for the Administrative menu, or press Windows – X.

How do I switch between applications, since Metro apps do not appear in the taskbar?

Annoying I agree, presuming you use both Metro and Desktop apps. The only thing that really works properly is pressing Alt and Tab together. This brings up a program switcher. Press tab again until you get where you want.

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Another thing you can do is to move the mouse top left of the screen and drag down. An odd movement at first but it works; or you can use Windows and Tab together. This shows all the running Metro apps as well as the current Desktop app. It is a bit hopeless though because it does not show all the Desktop apps. Then again, you can use the taskbar as your switcher for Desktop apps so it is just about viable.

I’m in a Metro app running full-screen. Where are the menus and settings?

There are two places to look. To get menus, like the tabs and address bar in Metro Internet Explorer, right-click with the mouse. To get settings, mouse to top or bottom right corner or press Windows key and C, and click Settings. The settings are contextual, so you will get the settings for the current app.

I’m in a Metro app. Where is the search function?

Quick answer: Press Windows key and Q.

Long answer: I was surprised to see reviews of the Wikipedia app bemoaning the lack of a search function. How could an encyclopaedia app not have search?

It does of course. It is just that it is not obvious where to find it.

The reason is that Windows 8 has a system search feature. You summon by displaying the Charms bar (Windows key + C, or mouse to top or bottom left corner) and clicking Search. Search defaults to the current app, but you can search elsewhere by clicking another option.

Better still, learn the following keyboard shortcuts:

Windows key and Q: Search apps

Windows key and F: Search files

Windows key and W: Search settings

I’m in a Metro app running full-screen. How I can see the on-screen clock?

This annoys me as well. However, Windows key and C will show it temporarily.

I’m in a Metro app running full-screen. How do I close it?

The idea is that you don’t normally need to close an app. Rather, you switch away from it, which you can do using techniques already described: Windows key, or alt-tab, or mouse to top left and (if necessary) drag down.

Metro apps may be hibernated when not in use, so they do not grab system resources in the way desktop apps sometimes do.

However, you might want to close an app because it is misbehaving, or just because you have a tidy mind. You can use alt-F4, which works here as it has done is Windows forever.

If you prefer to use the mouse, move the mouse to the top of the screen so it becomes a hand cursor. Hold the left button down, and drag down the screen and off the bottom. This closes the app.

Alternatively, switch to another app, then do the mouse to top left corner and drag down move. Right-click the app icon you want to close, and click Close.

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Having two versions of IE is confusing. I keep losing track of which sites are open in which browser.

Agreed. The best solution is to make Desktop IE the default, so that Metro IE rarely opens. Go to Control Panel, type Internet in the search box, and click on Internet Options. Click the Programs tab, and under Choose how you open links, select Always in Internet Explorer on the desktop. Finally, check Open Internet Explorer tiles on the desktop.

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How do I play a DVD?

Windows 8 does not include a DVD player. However your PC may come with DVD playing software bundled by the PC manufacturer. If not, download Videolan (VLC) from here. It’s free, and DVDs will play fine.

How do I shut down or restart the computer?

Windows key and I brings up the Power menu.

Alternatively, Windows key and C, or mouse to bottom right corner, and click Settings, then Power.

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This is somewhat hidden because Microsoft intends that normally power management, or shutting the lid on a laptop, or the soft power-off on a tablet, will be enough. Still, some of us like to turn the PC off completely.

If you want a quicker way to do this with the mouse, it is trivial to create a single short-cut. Right-click the desktop and choose New – shortcut. In the dialogue that appears, type:

shutdown -s

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Click Next, name it as you like, and then Finish. For a restart, use:

shutdown -r

These commands also work in batch files or in the Run dialog.

How do I log off or switch user?

Go to the Start screen and click the user name at top right to display a menu, including Lock, Sign out, and Switch account.

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How can I stop PDF documents opening in Metro?

Windows 8 is set up to open PDF documents in the Metro-style Windows Reader. It is not too bad, but can be annoying and does not have the range of features in the Adobe reader. To fix this, make sure that the latest Adobe reader is installed by downloading it from here. Once installed, right-click a PDF file and click Open With and then Choose Default program.

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In the dialog that appears, click Adobe Reader:

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Now PDF documents will open on the desktop in Adobe Reader.

Where has backup gone in Windows 8?

It’s still there, but for reasons best known to Microsoft it is now called Windows 7 File Recovery. Open desktop Control Panel, type recovery top right and press Enter. Click Windows 7 File Recovery.

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How do you run an application as administrator?

Several ways, but these are the easiest:

a. Hold down Ctrl and Shift together, then click the icon in the taskbar (for an application pinned to the taskbar)

b. Go to the Start screen (Windows Key), find the application icon and right-click. Then click Run as administrator from the menu bar at the foot of the screen.

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microsoft, windows

Intranet and Mail hassles with Windows 8

Microsoft has made changes to networking in Windows 8, mainly I presume for security reasons, but there are odd side-effects, at least in the Release Preview version.

One is that if you browse to a site on your intranet in the Metro-style browser, you are likely to get a connection failure. This is what I get when trying to get to my Logitech Media Server (the Squeezebox server):

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A bunch of useless, misleading suggestions and that is it.

The solution is to go to desktop IE, Tools, Internet options, Security, Trusted Sites, Sites and add the target URL to the list of Trusted sites. Now it works fine in Metro-style IE:

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I got exactly the same behaviour with Outlook Web Access on the intranet. It did not work from Metro IE until I added the URL to Trusted Sites.

I am not sure if this is “expected behaviour”; I hope it is not, because it is a significant annoyance. The answer may lie in Microsoft’s Enhanced Protected Mode, described here, but although this states that Metro-style apps cannot connect by default to a server running on the same machine, it does not suggest that the entire intranet is blocked. The security benefits are also compromised if you can easily bypass them by running desktop IE.

While I am on the subject, I am still puzzled by the problems the Metro-style Mail app has with connecting to Exchange when this is configured with a self-signed certificate. I obtained a free SSL Cert from StartCom and confirmed that using a cert from a recognised issuer does fix the problem, though it is not a perfect solution for me because of the detail of my setup.

I would still like to know exactly what is stopping the self-signed approach from working. There are numerous discussions on the subject (this is one of the best) but I have not seen any definitive explanation from Microsoft. Following a suggestion from that thread, I have tried publishing the CRL (Revocation List) on the internet but that has not fixed it for me.

Security is great but we do want to get stuff done with our computers and some of this stuff just seems obstructive. Even if Microsoft is doing the right thing here, that is no excuse for false error messages. Mail, for example, reports “Unable to connect. Ensure that the information you’ve entered is correct.” How hard would it be to report a problem with the server certificate?

delphi, development, embarcadero, software development, windows

DevExpress offering Metro-inspired Tile control for Delphi VCL, plans to drop support for Delphi 7

4 Comments

DevExpress has released an update to its VCL component suite, version 12.1, which includes a Metro-inspired tile control. That is, it looks like a Windows 8  Metro-style application, but in reality it runs as a desktop application. The VCL components support Embarcardero’s Delphi and C++ Builder, but not the FireMonkey library that runs cross-platform.

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The new release also adds a “Server Mode” for  the ExpressQuantumGrid grid control, which retrieves only those rows needed to populate the current view.

DevExpress CTO Julian Bucknall has posted about the update. He says it is time to drop support for Delphi 7 (though this is supported in 12.1):

12.1 will be the last version to support Delphi and C++Builder 2010. I will sound a further note of caution: it’s likely that in 2013 we shall drop support for Delphi 7 and Delphi 2007 (what you might call the “ASCII IDEs”), so that we can concentrate on the latest run-times and environments.

Delphi 7 is significant because it was the last version to use its own dedicated IDE built with Delphi itself, and by today’s standards is delightfully small and fast.

Bucknall has reservations about Embarcadero’s move to Clang and LVVM for 64-bit C++ Builder and eventually for the other languages too:

I’m going to say we shall treat it with kid gloves. Re-engineering a compiler so fundamentally says “breaking changes” to me, especially given the necessary extensions that are present in the current C++Builder to interface with Delphi. So, fair warning: if the changes are too severe, we shall not support 64-bit C++Builder in 12.2. It took us long enough to support 64-bit Delphi across our entire product line, and this year we don’t have the resources. That doesn’t mean we won’t ever do this (after all, Embarcadero are saying that they’ll switch completely to Clang/LVVM at some point), just that we won’t this year.

Returning to the Tile Control: it will be fascinating to see if this sort of approach, mimicking Metro with a desktop app, becomes popular. Microsoft is promising some of the same with Office 15, though we have not seen much of this officially yet. The advantage is that you can make desktop apps just as touch-friendly as Metro apps. The disadvantage is that you do not get Windows Store support, Contracts, app isolation, or other benefits of the Windows Runtime which underlies the Metro side. Users may be confused.

I doubt Microsoft will mind though. It all helps to promote the Metro style which is the distinctive feature of Windows 8.