My impressions of Windows 8 release preview

I installed Windows 8 release preview a few days ago and here are my impressions.

First, the good:

1) I like some of the Metro apps, like Internet Explorer and msnbc news.

2) Windows 8 is slightly faster than Windows 7.

Now, the bad:

1) Metro IE and Desktop IE are independent: they don't share your last viewed pages.

2) It takes 4 steps to shut down:
a. Move the mouse to the top-left or top-right corner.
b. Click on Settings.
c. Click on Power.
d. Click on Shut down.
Compare this to Windows 7 where you can just click Start, Shut down.

3) It is difficult to stay in metro: when you click on a pdf document, for example, it goes to the desktop.

4) Likewise, it is difficult to stay on the desktop: to search for something, you have to go back to metro. They should never have removed the start button.

5) The metro screen is ugly.

Due to these negatives, I won't be upgrading to Windows 8 when it's released. What about you?

Yes, Metro IE is basically just a Metro app. It's not the desktop IE, and therefore won't share data.

Shutting down is very simple. Press the power button on your computer. 1 step. Windows has, for 10+ years, allowed you to shutdown by simply pressing the power button. It does a graceful shutdown. It's easy.

Metro has a PDF viewer, so i'm not sure why clicking on a PDF brings you to the desktop. I'm also not sure why this is bad.. who cares if you stay in metro or not? Seems like a made-up grumble to me.

After release, the start screen will be pretty customizable. expect stardock and what not to come out with start menu designers and the like.

Remember, Windows 8 is targeted at Tablets and such. Tablets have physical buttons for things like start, shutting down, volume control, etc...

As much as I like Metro, I cant even see Windows without the Desktop, especially in a work environment. And I dont know what their hope for the future is, meaning MS. Do they envision a Windows without desktop as we know it completely? It would take a very long, long time to pull something like that off. They would find themselves basically starting anew and from the bottom with that idea.

I do like the Metro portion, but apps versions of things like IE, are just dumbed down versions of the real programs. If Im on a desktop and not a tablet, Im going to use the desktop version. Thats just all there is to it.

The biggest thing is how did they really envision all this and where are they going? I dont see how the Metro is supposed to work well with Desktop. Two completely different environments and I dont know they are supposed to exist together.

I dont find myself really even using Metro. I played around with it, but functionality is superior in desktop versions of everything. Perhaps time will change that. Perhaps im just too used to it.

I may stay with Windows 8 and see how things pan out though.

Coming from a guy who was completely against windows 8 in the beginning because of the issues like the start menu. After using it for awhile, I am starting like it more and more. Everything that I do, I am on the desktop 99% of the time anyway, so I don't even see metro. I found out that windows gadgets still work on windows 8 which is a plus for me until I get used to some of the metro apps.

If you look at my desktop now compared to windows 7, the only difference is, the evaluation copy marker on the desktop (which I hide with a gadget) and no start menu. Basically my thinking about the start menu has turned around. I removed all the unwanted junk from metro and placed what I wanted in there.

So now, I use the desktop like normal and when I need to use the start menu for something, I switch to metro which ends up being a really big full screen start menu with big icons . I went from being very resistant to it, to adapting and really liking it because I do like the eye candy and graphics of metro with a few of the cool apps like the weather. I just couldn't wrap my mind around how to make them work together but if you start to view metro as really big start menu, it all works out.

This probably wasn't their intention and it probably won't work for everybody but it works for me. I'll be staying with windows 8

As far as the shutdown steps, I use portable program that was designed by the windows club called Right Click Extender and added the restart, sleep and shutdown icons to the desktop context menu, it works great. Just right click and shutdown.

Process Explorer

If you use Process Explorer:

• Right click on the Sys Tray icon
• Choose the desired option from the Shutdown sub-menu.

I wish that the two browsers were more closely integrated, having 2 still feels a little strange. I find that that going through Shutdown to turn off my laptop doesn't work. It tells me I have a disc in my drive (I don't) and after clicking ignore, my computer goes to a blank screen but doesn't power off. However, turning it off via the power button doesn't seem to bother it.