Ten years ago, Dave Pugh was hired to clean windows at the home of Omaha philanthropists Sue and Walter Scott.

FORBES: Walter Scott, Jr.

And it will only clean windows in the vertical position.

WSJ: Urban Gardner: The Joy of Clear Glass

The modern UI of large typefacing, tiles and horizontal views has been pioneered and tweaked in many consumer products, From the first Windows Media Centers, through the Zune music players, and refined in the Windows Phone 7 range, Metro UI was the clean style of interface that has now been iterated into the latest products.

FORBES: Microsoft Missed The Open Goal To Rebrand Windows With Metro

"The Windows 8 platform has a clean, elegant, and fluid interface, " he continued.

ENGADGET: AccuWeather launches for Windows 8, lets you know if it's dry outside the Metro

We're happy to say we felt the same way when we first met the smaller, more colorful, 8S. Here too, HTC's inspiration comes from Windows Phone 8 itself, with clean lines dominating the overall aesthetic.

ENGADGET: HTC 8S review: a budget Windows Phone that doesn't compromise on style

Well, it looks like those hoping to do a clean install of Windows Vista with an upgrade-only edition of the OS may not be entirely out of luck after all, although they'll still have to jump through a few hoops to get it done.

ENGADGET: Clean install workaround for Vista upgrade discovered

For example, if it can scale bigger and keep the adhesion force, it could make for a great way to clean windows on skyscrapers.

FORBES: Paraswift is a Robot That Climbs Up Buildings and Base Jumps

Instead of opening windows, the new Royal London Hospital has 200 units that bring clean filtered air into the hospital's 3, 500 rooms.

BBC: Closing hospital windows 'increases infection risk'