Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer offered the 2,000 attendees at Dell World conference a quick peek at Windows 8 and Windows Server as part of his address last Friday.

While the various capabilities demonstrated by Ballmer have long been unveiled and debated on the Building Windows 8 blog, the demonstration reinforced the confidence that Microsoft has in its upcoming operating system.

Ballmer started off with the Windows 8 lock screen and showed how incoming messages will update the appropriate counters to reflect unopened messages and social network updates automatically. He moved on to the new Metro-style interface next, which represents apps as tiles that can be rearranged by touch.

Finally, Ballmer demonstrated Metro Live Tiles, a feature in which specific data can be extracted from news feeds or other information sources to appear as a tile within the Metro UI.

On the server end of things, Ballmer had a Microsoft program manager demonstrate a powerful new feature called Live Migration in Windows Server 8. Using this capability, an administrator can shift virtual machines between physical servers without any downtime. In Windows Server 8, this can be initiated by clicking on a virtual machine, selecting the new host, and specifying a new folder location--which is much easier than on competing products.

In the meantime, administrators who want to get their feet wet on Windows 8 may want to get hold of the free Windows 8 Developer Preview.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at InformationWeek
- check out this article at Windows 8 News

Related Articles:
SLIDESHOW: Top 8 features to expect from Windows 8
Don't wait for Windows 8 to upgrade from XP, says Microsoft
Windows 8 will run on less memory