Microsoft developed a set of gestures, which Burtoft called the Windows 8 Touch Language, that the company wants developers to use uniformly across all their applications. The gestures include tap, press-and-hold, pinch-and-zoom, and swipe-from-the-edge. "As long as different applications all use this same language, it will be easy for users to catch on" to how to navigate through their apps, Burtoft said.

For cases where gestures can't provide the detail an application needs, Microsoft also provides pointers. With pointers, every touch point on the screen gets its own "event object," which developers can link to directly with their application code. Pointers allow the user to execute tasks such as drawing or writing on the screen.

Another aspect to consider is design. In another Build session, Microsoft's principal user experience adviser, Will Tschumy, explained the philosophy behind the new Windows, in the hope that developers will build their apps in a similar way.

To the casual observer, the new interface appears less cluttered with boxes and menu choices. This look, said Tschumy, was actually inspired by high modernism, a school of design that has its roots in the Bauhaus art movement of the early 20th century.

"It's all about trying to get the OS out of the way," he said. Windows 8 tries to help users focus on the task, he said. Apps should have very little, if any, chrome -- the design term for boxes and menu selections that frame most applications today. Instead, the content of the application, such as a photo, video or text document, should take up the entire screen.