With a recent demonstration of the new 'Metro' tablet control system on Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows 8 operating system leading to a situation in which a demonstration unit 'froze' and could not be resuscitated in spite of frantic attempts, reports are making rounds that the incident was a reminder of some other earlier launches by Microsoft.

According to some reports, the freezing of a demonstration unit during the ‘Metro’ demo indicated that though the Windows 8 OS boasts a new look, it still shares part of the goof-ups associated with Microsoft’s previous launches.

The ‘Metro’ demo incident – first reported by tech site The Register – is being likened to some of the earlier situations wherein Windows devices crashed to the infamous 'Blue Screen of Death,' which beleaguered the previous versions of Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

However, pushing the incident to the background with the rationale that Windows 8 is “a work in progress,” a Russian Microsoft executive, Kirill Tatarinov, said that the freezing issue during the demo reveals that “this is actually real stuff that we're showing.”

The upcoming Windows 8 OS – which will likely be released in October – is the first OS which has been so designed that it can work effectively across a number of different devices, including desktop PCs, laptops, and tablets.

The new software, which also shares apps with handsets that run Windows Phone, is largely being seen as a make-or-break chance for Microsoft to offer some substantial competition to Apple and its Mac OS X and iOS software.