Category Archives: Reviews

As I’m sure most know, Microsoft released a free Consumer Preview (think beta) version of its up and coming OS Windows 8 at MWC last week.

Well having spent a few days using it, it’s time to give my thoughts on what is probably the biggest change in Windows since it launched over two decades ago.

With home computing changing quicker than the tide in recent years, with alot more emphesis on media consumption rather than production, Microsoft needed to re-think its flagship product that has server some many hundreds of millions well, and it needed to move fast.

Enter Metro, Microsoft’s new interface design which is being employed across all of the companies platforms (Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox 360). With all the swish fancy user interfaces around its actually a pleasure to see a company go a little more simple and cleaner. Metro is essentially a flat boxes type design with big buttons and bright colours.

With Windows 8 Microsoft has gone with throwing you right in the deep end with Metro by replacing what we would currently know as the start menu with a full screen, Metro launch screen with big Live tiles (Think large icons that constantly update with new information about that app, like weather has the latest weather info or latest emails etc). From here you can either launch these apps or search for others installed on the system. Its pretty simple and a very elegant way of displaying alot of information to the user without ever feeling over the top.

The classic desktop that we’re all used to is now relegated to an app and is displayed as a live tile on your Metro start screen. It would be possible to unpin the desktop tile and never know it was part of the system, while it works almost identically to the Windows 7 desktop (there are some great new additions that actually make it better), it is completely disconnected from the Metro side of the OS. In some ways this makes sense as Windows 8 has been designed to be as at home on your desktop as it would a small tablet. This can get a little frustrating though as you can’t switch to apps running on the desktop from Metro.

As I just mention, Windows 8 is designed for Touch as well as keyboard and mouse, which generally don’t go well together. However, the developers at Microsoft have found some clever way round this, for instance, the Windows button along with system search, settings and and new share button are hidden on a panel on the right hand side of the screen. With a tablet you run your finger in from the right of the screen to bring this panel up, with a mouse you use “hot corners”, so you move your mouse to the bottom right and up pops the same panel. It’s a clever design as hitting the corners of your screen with a mouse is a very easy and intuative thing to do. A click in the bottom left corner brings up the Metro start screen and point the mouse in the top left and click and you will switch between the last Metro apps you used (you still have to use Alt-Tab while on the desktop). Swipe down from this corner and you get a thumbnail of all currently running apps that you can click on to restore. All very simple, only after a few minutes with the OS and these commands feel very natural.

Apps

The make or break point of any OS now are apps and the OS’s app store, with Windows 8, comes the new Windows Store where you can buy and download apps from within the Metro interface. The consumer preview came with a number of preview apps installed, including an email app, photo app, music app and video app among others. Whilst these are no where near finished apps, they do give a feel for how a metro app would work. Take Email for example, you get quick access to all your emails where you and read and reply easily. This is the idea behind most of the apps. Nothing full featured like Office just basic apps to get the tasks most people want to do quickly.

Boot

I feel I should make a big point here, Windows 8 is by far the fastest booting OS I’ve ever used. From a cold boot to loging in out paces my iPad or Galaxy S2 startup times (We’re talking from cold here, not locked, although from lockeds not much different!). Very impressive from a full blown OS and clearly there is room for Microsoft to make it even faster.

Install

Installing Windows 8 is also one of the most pleasurable install experiences I’ve had too. Setup asks the same few basic questions as Windows 7 but install on a clean drive only takes 10 – 15 minutes at most. Of course this is an area that most users will never see as they’ll be getting Win 8 preinstalled on their new PC, laptop or tablet but it’s still nice to see the extra effort put in by Microsoft.

Conclusion

So does it work? This is one of the big questions. I’ve seen alot of commentary and discussion anround the internet about who Windows 8 is aimed at, and a big question over whether it works on a desktop with mouse and keyboard. Well after a weeks use I can say Microsoft have got usability spot on for both mouse and keyboard and touch screens. At the very minimum, Metro is just a very large start menu (For those that prefer the desktop). But I persoanlly believe the full blown desktop in the home is nearing it’s end. There are those powere users out there still (like me) that won’t ever be able to abandon the desktop but for most people, being able to check your email and browse the net is all they really want. Wundows 8 caters for everyone as best it can and the idea of having the same OS running pretty much on every platform kepy nicely in sync via skydrive is a mouth watering prospect. If you’re brave (or know what you’re doing) you can download a copy of the Consumer Preview now from

Of course Windows 8 is still around 8 months from it’s rumoured release date so theres still plenty of changes to come.