According to a job posting on Microsoft's career site, Windows 8 planning and preparation is currently taking place.

The job posting, spotted by enthusiast site CodenameWindows, hints at third-party application updating, updating virtual machines while they're turned off and delivering full applications, among others. Microsoft admits in the posting that updating virtual machines whilst they are off "turns out this is pretty hard!." The job is for a role on the Windows Update Client team, responsible for delivering software updates to over 600 million machines.

"As part of this team, you will help shape Windows 8. Components of our code include a core agent that runs as an NT service, an API layer and a UI application. We talk to the update servers using web services and we have special protocols in place to deal with the massive scale of the system" notes the job listing.

With Windows 7 out of the door, work is now starting on Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8. Expect to see more and more hints at what's to come over the coming months.

http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/11/12/windows-8-planning-and-preparation-underway