Windows 8: A first look at new features for business users

Resricted security context for Metro apps

While most attention on Metro is focused on the touch control and usability aspects, apps written for Metro should also be safer. Metro apps run in a restricted security context and the access they have to system resources can be specified. This setting is reached by tapping the Settings charm for an app and then the Control System Access option. An app’s user data is isolated to that app and that user. If some future version of Windows ran only Metro apps, Windows would in principle be more secure than it is today. Of course Apple’s iOS already has this model, because Apple chose to make iOS incompatible with apps for desktop OS/X. Windows on ARM will come close to the iOS model according to Microsoft, since it intends to make a new Windows Store the only way to deploy apps, and to require ARM apps to be Metro apps. There may be other ways for enterprises to deploy apps since not all the details of Windows 8 are available at this early stage.