Windows 8 Review

Microsoft straps a tablet operating system to Windows 8. Should enthusiasts make the big upgrade?

Windows 8 is not a want, it’s a necessity. Not for you, the consumer. For Microsoft.

We’d like to think that somewhere, somehow, a group of user interface experts like to meet up for lunch in one of Microsoft’s (likely) sprawling Redmond cafeterias. They talk about their days, their families, and how horrified they are at Microsoft’s decision—and need—to unify a single user experience across its entire product line.

That’s the real reason why Windows 8 looks and feels like a tablet operating system slapped overtop Windows 7 (with a few tweaks here and there). It is. Users are given no way around it—Microsoft has made sure of that fact. And, in many ways, there’s no way around it for Microsoft, either. The company has decided that users cannot have dissimilar Windows experiences across desktops, tablets, smartphones, or any other kooky gadgets on the horizon, but refuses (or can’t) cut the cord of the traditional desktop experience just yet.

Windows 8 is the natural, necessary hybrid—the last time you’re likely to see the “core” Windows experience of the last decade mashed together with the multicolored, touch-sensitive, “Metro” boxes of the future. A word on that: While Microsoft has elected to not call the tablet-ized portion of Windows 8’s user interface Metro—it’s now just called “Windows 8,” we think—we’ll keep using the old nomenclature just to make this review easier to process.

However, we’re willing to bet you’ll have many other colorful names for your experience with the new OS.


Read more at source:
Maximum PC | Windows 8 Review
 
I would agree with this;

At its core, Metro feels… undone. To put it another way, Microsoft’s treatment of its tiles, Metro’s interactions with the “normal” half of Windows 8, and the lack of customization present in this Hyde to Windows 7’s Jekyll does a disservice to those who want anything beyond an operating system set in “easy mode.”

Yep;
Organizing tiles is as easy as dragging them around to new columns based on whatever internal organization scheme you’re going for. That said, it’s still annoying that you can’t adjust their shape at all, nor edit their size beyond one of two set limits Microsoft has put into place. Microsoft does give you the option to assign a name to columns of tiles, but you might miss this feature unless you go hunting (hint: use the lower-right-hand “minus” sign to expand your Metro UI to the full, zoomed-out view, and then right-click a column)

And this has certainly come up many times here;
Windows 8’s biggest Metro killjoy occurs when you go to install a new app—like, say, the Combined Community Codec Pack. For Windows 8’s Metro interface is, for all intents, its start menu. And when an app like CCC comes with eight or more shortcuts that would otherwise be simple links in said menu, they transform into a whole heckuva lot of tiles within Metro. We can count on one hand the number of times we’ve needed to delete extraneous or unwanted links on a conventional Windows start menu. Within Metro, you’ll be doing this a lot, if you’re actually trying to keep your horizontal interface (ugh) clutter-free.
 

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I read the comments. Similar words exchange situation that have been happening somewhere in this forums :)
 

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Hi there
I think the vast majority of traditional Desktop application users (Office, Photography--Photoshop, Backend corporate apps --SAP, ORACLE, Multi_media editing, Pre Press applications, Application Developers, etc etc) still need Multi concurrent Windows and Multi screen / monitors and W8 makes this all but impossible to do.


It IS possible for a typical HOME user or Gamer to use the new interface - but it most definitely is NOT fit for purpose in the complex Desktop application scenario I've outlined above -- where in most cases as well Touch would even be a HINDRANCE.

(I think there are many remarks already concerning this on the Forum already and it's pretty obvious there are two totally different types of users - the corporate professionals using apps like I've outlined above, and the more typical home users).

It would appear to me that Windows 7 will definitely also need like XP an "Extended Life" type of support and is going to last a lot longer than expected unless MS sorts the current "Schizoidal" system that is W8 - it doesn't know if it's a Mobile / Tablet OS or a Desktop -- and does neither perfectly either.

That said the improvements in performance and security are very welcome --pity they couldn't sort the GUI out properly.

cheers
jimbo
 

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For all the improvements, I just can't stand the user interface. I won't be upgrading to... that. Even if I use a start menu replacement to kill metro(and that annoying popup bar that now pops up when I put my mouse cursor over there to get it out of the way), buying windows 8 would just tell them "This is good, keep it."

To me, it's not good, so I won't encourage them to keep Metro. No reason for a full screen, a single program per full screen, based interface on a desktop. It works on a tiny tablet screen on cheap low power devices, but not on a home computer as many have said.

I like Microsoft Windows, not Microsoft Window.

For fun as it it's not related, I'll also call it Microsoft Bob version 2. No reason, but it's just funny bad, like good old BOB
 
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Well I just started playing with it yesterday. From what I see I can pretty much ignore the metro side after booting and one click to the desktop. After that what can't you do? I can still everything I use to, the difference being it's done slightly differently.
 

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the metro is not the desktop

Without analytical data, no pun intended, there is no evidence that Windows 8 cannot handle virtually any application "compatible with it." (the metro is not the desktop) The so called learning curve may be steep "for some" but that does not equate with a desktop application not being able to function because of the start screen. In fact, according to a Microsoft blog explaining the start screen, They expect that "most users" will not be able to understand "the advantages of it" by reading their analysis. This idea of a tablet OS on top of Windows 7 is inaccurate and misleading. It is a unified structure and one side does not have priority over another. WinRT and Win32 have a seamless relationship. Powerful graphics production, developer platforms and serious business networks would not be affected by the existence of the "metro." Making statements like "this is junk" , "What is this crap?" , "Windows 8 has no place on a desktop computer" are illogical / irrational and does not convey wisdom.


Metro Apps for business are under development.
 
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Instead of "Windows8", I would say the Metro UI has no place on a desktop PC. But ok, I'm not going to redo the whole conversation here. As I said it's only a question of weeks until Microsoft changes its strategy about the next OS.
 

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Corporate users are no different or better than home users. Home users need the desktop UI. So does business. There is no superiority factor here and both have equal capability using 8. Complex desktop applications are fully functional in 8 as they are in 7 with the addition of the new UI. When getting into unusual features that are not typical, this would depend on the hardware and software compatibility with 8.


Fred, some of these issues relate to international philosophy in the marketplace. I understand, from your previous posts, that there is an objection to commercial interest. That's ok. But metro apps are optional...if you think the start screen is bogus, then that is ok too, it is a preference and Microsoft will be taken to task if 8 does not take off. There is a great deal of interest, in business, with new developing apps designed for mobile devices and that have a similar UI across platforms. There is a great deal of interest, in business, for the new features of 8.

The metro UI is welcome on my machine. I like metro apps and find them easy to navigate using the mouse and keyboard.
 

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Thanks MD.

That is funny.

Those MS PR releases are hilarious.
 

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Instead of "Windows8", I would say the Metro UI has no place on a desktop PC. But ok, I'm not going to redo the whole conversation here. As I said it's only a question of weeks until Microsoft changes its strategy about the next OS.

Ah,, no. MS is not going to change paths now or ever with the direction they are taking with the new OS. There are workarounds so no one is forced to use the Start Screen. It would be nice to have MS provide an option at instillation but that's not going to happen. What plan "B" do you think MS will go to??
 

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I report, you decide. :D

...always in favor of humor and the glass is half full rather than the glass is half empty.
Even if 8 gets burned in the market, it's still out there ... in the cloud. :shock:
 
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I just started playing with (I mean evaluating) Windows 8 last night and it will definitely take getting used to... Microsoft is in a "damned if they do, damned if they don't" scenario because "everyone" wants the new OS to be completely different and "better", but if M$ does it, then "everyone else" complains that everything changed and it's not the same...

Linux changes all the time... Apple changes all the time and the users just accept it. When M$ tries it, people scream bloody murder. I'll admit that I like Windows 7, but I'm looking for a simpler interface to put on PC's for my father, mother, other family and friends who are "novices" and don't want to see what's behind the scenes. We'll see....
 

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I just started playing with (I mean evaluating) Windows 8 last night and it will definitely take getting used to... Microsoft is in a "damned if they do, damned if they don't" scenario because "everyone" wants the new OS to be completely different and "better", but if M$ does it, then "everyone else" complains that everything changed and it's not the same...

Linux changes all the time... Apple changes all the time and the users just accept it. When M$ tries it, people scream bloody murder. I'll admit that I like Windows 7, but I'm looking for a simpler interface to put on PC's for my father, mother, other family and friends who are "novices" and don't want to see what's behind the scenes. We'll see....

That's what I've been thinking too and maybe they won't mess it up so much LOL. I'd have to make them all an outlook.com account and fwd their email they have now to it which would be easy since you can't use the store without a live account.
 

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arggghhh !

I suppose if one keeps current on conversations here and elsewhere, that the Windows 8, plus update, plus update, and/or maybe plus upgrade, not to mention the W8Pro update-upgrade confusion is something one can follow.... however, for others like me, it is difficult to follow the conversation because I do not visit the site every day. I had hoped that Microsoft would use a standard terminology or nomenclature when discussing its products; but even MS misses that boat at times.

With so many readers posting to the forum, I suppose it is impossible to have some sort of standard nomenclature to discuss Windows 8 issues. I will be glad when W8 is upgraded to W9; maybe I will find things less confusing. Throw in the bait that MS used a year or two ago for a very in-expensive product that would *upgrade any working XP_SP3 system (or later) to W8Pro and things really become confused... I hope my hard drive never crashes; this is product key hell. Any ideas ???? thank you.
 
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I suppose if one keeps current on conversations here and elsewhere, that the Windows 8, plus update, plus update, and/or maybe plus upgrade, not to mention the W8Pro update-upgrade confusion is something one can follow.... however, for others like me, it is difficult to follow the conversation because I do not visit the site every day. I had hoped that Microsoft would use a standard terminology or nomenclature when discussing its products; but even MS misses that boat at times.

With so many readers posting to the forum, I suppose it is impossible to have some sort of standard nomenclature to discuss Windows 8 issues. I will be glad when W8 is upgraded to W9; maybe I will find things less confusing. Throw in the bait that MS used a year or two ago for a very in-expensive product that would *upgrade any working XP_SP3 system (or later) to W8Pro and things really become confused... I hope my hard drive never crashes; this is product key hell. Any ideas ???? thank you.
BACKUP.....Clone your hard drive.....Simple.
 

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