King Damager
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Windows 8 Consumer Preview Review
Introduction
Windows 8 brings a completely new way to look at operating systems. Now we have a joint operating system that should work on both PC and tablet. This has come with benefits and setbacks. App development is a big positive, and the Metro UI does bring a reasonable amount of potential with it. However some of the old Windows traditions are gone. Metro replaces the start menu, and this sets the precedent for a wider trend, in that the way we navigate computers has completely changed with Windows 8.
The consumer preview does still have some driver issues. My Xonar sound card flat out refused to work, and my HP touchscreen monitor did not seem to have all the touchscreen gestures, which I must admit was a shame because I was interested to see how Windows 8 changed the way the device functioned. Despite this, we must be aware that this is a consumer preview, and small niggles are to be expected rather than be something to complain about.
Installation
Installing the Consumer Preview is incredibly easy. Visit the download page (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/download), and download it. Then you can either run it straight away, burn an ISO, or create a bootable USB. I would recommend either partitioning your drive or at least dual booting for the time being though, as it is better to be safe than sorry. Installation is, as is now the norm, basic. However it should be noted that there is not the traditional Windows login, and now one must login via a WindowsLive account. I am hoping this is going to be something solely for the consumer preview, however unfortunately expect that it will also be a feature of the retail edition. This does not sound like a major issue; however I am sure some people will not be fond of it. I must say however, once the ISO disc had been recognised the install was quick. Faster than any previous Windows OS I have installed.
System Requirements
The requirements for the consumer preview are fairly low, which explains why this works so well on relatively old hardware.
Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device or higher
Additional requirements to use certain features:
To use touch, you need a tablet or a monitor that supports multitouch.
To access the Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768.
To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768
Ease of Use
The first impressions for many people when using Windows 8 is relatively negative; it is not the easiest OS to pick up and start using. I have to admit that I wrote a short review just the other day, whereby I heavily criticised the ease of use due to these faults. I must say however, that once you get used to it, the system is not too bad. This being said, I still think it is more heavily aimed at the tablet market with some adaptations to try and make it work well on the Desktop PC. I am still sceptical about how well these adaptations work, but I have to admit once you get used to them they are not as bad as I first thought.
One of the ways Microsoft have attempted to improve navigation is by creating a wealth of new keyboard shortcuts to help bring up the ‘charms’, search for anything easier, bring up the desktop and many more options.
These charms are often brought up, like the Metro UI, through using the corners of the screens. I must admit that these are slightly annoying. As with any program where you have to hover over, there can be a delay in bringing them up, or if your mouse is not in quite the right place they cannot pop up. Then of course when you do not want them to pop up and you are just trying to visit the corner of your screen they do pop up. One of the most annoying features here though is that the bottom left corner is reserved to bring up the Metro UI, so gone is the start menu button, and now we have an annoying way to get to Metro. Perhaps the worst part of the whole start menu fiasco though, is that it is something that has been removed in between the developer and consumer preview.
This links in I guess with the whole navigation system.
On the whole it needs some work. I was trying out a touchscreen, and whilst there were driver issues, I noticed that sometimes it did not quite recognise the swipes I was trying to do. Relatively frequently when trying to close apps for example, by simply grabbing the app at the top of the screen and dragging it down (an action that also works with a mouse), it would think I was trying to scroll through a page, so I had to resort to using the mouse. Even when it did work however it simply was not smooth enough, and it is clear Microsoft need to do some tweaks to get it smoother, otherwise it simply will not be able to compete with the smoothness that both Android and iOS have on tablets. This simple way of closing apps in itself brings me onto another point. As I have already mentioned, it can be quite hard to work out how to navigate the app to begin with, however once you have worked it out, there is a moment of satisfaction as you realise that many tasks have indeed been simplified. The exception to prove the rule is shutting down a computer. It is quite frustrating, and now takes at least four clicks. A process that takes far too long in my mind. As an interesting side point to this, when I was feeling more cynical about Windows 8, I asked a selection of friends to attempt to shut down my computer whilst running Windows 8. All of them are relatively computer literate, but all of them gave up. It is a process that is as challenging, if not more so, than starting a KTM X-Bow.
The aforementioned charms also need a small amount of work, as I have already mentioned I am not the greatest fan of the hover over system, but you really start to come across issues when you start using more than one screen. The charm corners stay on your central screen. Now this would not be an issue, apart from to bring up the charms you often have to go right to the corner of the screen, which often means you just move your mouse to the other screen.
One of the nicer elements however is that the ‘ribbons’ toolbar, that many have now adapted to and enjoy using from Office 2010 now appears across the entire navigation system. As an example if you open up your ‘Video Library’ folder and pick a video file, Windows 8 automatically brings up a nice, elegant and attractive menu where you have a variety of quick video related options.
My final issue brings me back to navigation, and the Metro UI. Whilst it was nice and easy to scroll across the screen if apps took up more than the screen real estate with my touch screen, it was not pleasant with a mouse. Traditionally on Windows, programs are designed so that you only have to scroll down, and mice are designed around this with a single up-down scroll wheel. This means, when Metro came along and I had to scroll left to right, I resorted to using the buttons on the scroll bar, and I am disappointed to say that Windows still have not managed to create smooth scrolling, so I had the not enjoyable experience of a slow and juddery scroll when using the mouse. So much so that I gave up trying to scroll with the mouse, and resorted to using my screen. This option is clearly not available to everyone.
Metro UI Appearance
I cannot deny that the Metro UI looks slick. If we disregard the navigation issues, then it looks impressive and elegant. It is easy to rearrange apps, and get them into a neat and organised fashion. The way the programming works, means they also fit to a nice grid that works as well.
The biggest problem with the Metro UI is that it has only a limited selection of colour choices to choose from, and the same is true of background choices. You cannot set your own design or pattern, however again I would expect Microsoft to work on this by the time the full retail version is released to give users the ability to choose on perhaps more of a sliding scale their colour choice.
Desktop Appearance
Desktop appearance has not changed too much. Ultimately you still have the Windows 7 desktop. As I mentioned already, the start menu button has been lost in favour of a hover over option.
Small elements however do look nice. I am quite a fan of the new volume control pop-up for example.
It should also be worth noting that some of the Aero features have been lost. No longer can you use Win+Tab to scroll through your apps in a fancy manner, however frankly, I do not think many people actually used this feature in Windows 7, and instead used the traditional alt+tab.
Another gripe with the Desktop Appearance is that programs themselves seem have lost their curved edges. As such, everything now looks squarer, flatter, and not quite as nice. It is hard to explain, but my best way of explaining is that it seems to have lost depth.
Below you can see Windows 8 and Windows 7 open with Chrome, and the difference in depth and shape of windows.
Windows 7:
Windows 8:
Applications
Applications bring a huge amount of promise to Windows 8 desktop users. I have already enjoyed using some of the apps in development such as the cookbook. Whilst all the information is clearly on the internet, having it all in one app is nice.
Something I immediately noticed however is that none of the new apps have toolbars. Instead the entire screen is used for the app. Now whilst this is probably a good use of screen real estate on tablets, and whilst it does admittedly does make the app look good on a PC, I am worried if this will result in traditional programs slowly trying to drop toolbars. There is the option to bring up a small amount of items with right-click, however these are remarkably limited.
Bundled with Windows 8 was Internet Explorer 10, and whilst I figured I should try and use this new version, it did not take me long to switch back over to Chrome.
Other features that have been brought in are nice however. There is now an app wide spell checker, which whilst basic, no doubt will be useful when using apps. In addition there is the new image unlock function, which is quite neat and does work well, however I do feel this may be somewhat of a gimmick.
I also feel it is necessary to point out that the way the Metro UI works; it now seems very much that your whole PC, desktop experience, that previously was the OS, is now just another application.
Of course, one of the key parts of having access to apps is the app store. Now the app store is designed on the traditional Metro UI. So it looks the part. It is also relatively easy to navigate, and already has a relatively large selection of apps available. The more this development can take place, the more I see Windows 8 being a success.
Speed
Windows 8 is rapid. It was fast to install, and it was fast in performing tasks. I admittedly had it installed on a SSD, which probably gave it a bit of a boost, but it was still quicker than Windows 7. I did run a couple of benchmarks, however the scores were pretty much the same, which I generally put down to a lack of optimisation, and therefore I am not going to bother including them in this review.
Conclusion
At first, the idea of Windows 8 struck me as ingenious: an operating system that could run both on tablets and computers. Like all the best ideas it was simple yet inspired. Desktop users gain the benefits of an app development community coming to Windows, bringing with it new programs and innovation. Tablet users, on the other hand, finally get to use a fully-fledged operating system rather than a cut down version lacking in functionality. Problem is there is a small loss in functionality, as not all tablets will run all desktop apps. It will be interesting to see how app development progresses though and whether people choose to write apps more for the tablet marketplace or for the PC marketplace, because this really could be a big selling point of Windows 8. It does however all depend on the developers.
My overall impressions of Windows 8 are not actually that bad. I know from experience that the first, the second and third time you use it, are all unpleasant experiences. Navigation is not intuitive, and does not come easily. I have fully explained the vast array of issues that I have had with navigation. This being said however, once you do work it out, it is not actually too bad. It does work, and some things are simpler. I must admit there is a clear trade off due to the Operating System being adapted for tablet use, however I do not think it is as bad as I first thought.
At my most critical I believed that Microsoft had simply cut corners, and tried a budget cutting exercise in an attempt to save them having to develop two new OS’s. To be honest, I still agree with this concept, however it did not result in quite the catastrophe that I previously thought. The execution however, is still far from perfect. This could easily be another Vista if they do not fix some key issues before release, and Windows 9 could easily become the success story that has been Windows 7. I also still maintain that this would have been a much better OS if Microsoft had simply replaced the traditional icon system in Windows with the Metro UI. Ironically, I feel the development costs would also have been cheaper.
All in all then, Windows 8 is not a bad OS. It just is not a great one either. It is a perfectly acceptable desktop replacement to Windows 7; but it does not take my breath away. It is not the stunning piece of development and forward thinking that it could have been. As with so many times in the past, Microsoft have had a fantastic idea, but left the field wide open for the competition to create the same product, but executed ten times better.
Some additional images of the apps etc…
Skydrive
Photobucket App
Mail App
Biological Piano
Xbox Live
kd
Introduction
Windows 8 brings a completely new way to look at operating systems. Now we have a joint operating system that should work on both PC and tablet. This has come with benefits and setbacks. App development is a big positive, and the Metro UI does bring a reasonable amount of potential with it. However some of the old Windows traditions are gone. Metro replaces the start menu, and this sets the precedent for a wider trend, in that the way we navigate computers has completely changed with Windows 8.
The consumer preview does still have some driver issues. My Xonar sound card flat out refused to work, and my HP touchscreen monitor did not seem to have all the touchscreen gestures, which I must admit was a shame because I was interested to see how Windows 8 changed the way the device functioned. Despite this, we must be aware that this is a consumer preview, and small niggles are to be expected rather than be something to complain about.
Installation
Installing the Consumer Preview is incredibly easy. Visit the download page (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/download), and download it. Then you can either run it straight away, burn an ISO, or create a bootable USB. I would recommend either partitioning your drive or at least dual booting for the time being though, as it is better to be safe than sorry. Installation is, as is now the norm, basic. However it should be noted that there is not the traditional Windows login, and now one must login via a WindowsLive account. I am hoping this is going to be something solely for the consumer preview, however unfortunately expect that it will also be a feature of the retail edition. This does not sound like a major issue; however I am sure some people will not be fond of it. I must say however, once the ISO disc had been recognised the install was quick. Faster than any previous Windows OS I have installed.
System Requirements
The requirements for the consumer preview are fairly low, which explains why this works so well on relatively old hardware.
Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device or higher
Additional requirements to use certain features:
To use touch, you need a tablet or a monitor that supports multitouch.
To access the Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768.
To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768
Ease of Use
The first impressions for many people when using Windows 8 is relatively negative; it is not the easiest OS to pick up and start using. I have to admit that I wrote a short review just the other day, whereby I heavily criticised the ease of use due to these faults. I must say however, that once you get used to it, the system is not too bad. This being said, I still think it is more heavily aimed at the tablet market with some adaptations to try and make it work well on the Desktop PC. I am still sceptical about how well these adaptations work, but I have to admit once you get used to them they are not as bad as I first thought.
One of the ways Microsoft have attempted to improve navigation is by creating a wealth of new keyboard shortcuts to help bring up the ‘charms’, search for anything easier, bring up the desktop and many more options.
These charms are often brought up, like the Metro UI, through using the corners of the screens. I must admit that these are slightly annoying. As with any program where you have to hover over, there can be a delay in bringing them up, or if your mouse is not in quite the right place they cannot pop up. Then of course when you do not want them to pop up and you are just trying to visit the corner of your screen they do pop up. One of the most annoying features here though is that the bottom left corner is reserved to bring up the Metro UI, so gone is the start menu button, and now we have an annoying way to get to Metro. Perhaps the worst part of the whole start menu fiasco though, is that it is something that has been removed in between the developer and consumer preview.
This links in I guess with the whole navigation system.
On the whole it needs some work. I was trying out a touchscreen, and whilst there were driver issues, I noticed that sometimes it did not quite recognise the swipes I was trying to do. Relatively frequently when trying to close apps for example, by simply grabbing the app at the top of the screen and dragging it down (an action that also works with a mouse), it would think I was trying to scroll through a page, so I had to resort to using the mouse. Even when it did work however it simply was not smooth enough, and it is clear Microsoft need to do some tweaks to get it smoother, otherwise it simply will not be able to compete with the smoothness that both Android and iOS have on tablets. This simple way of closing apps in itself brings me onto another point. As I have already mentioned, it can be quite hard to work out how to navigate the app to begin with, however once you have worked it out, there is a moment of satisfaction as you realise that many tasks have indeed been simplified. The exception to prove the rule is shutting down a computer. It is quite frustrating, and now takes at least four clicks. A process that takes far too long in my mind. As an interesting side point to this, when I was feeling more cynical about Windows 8, I asked a selection of friends to attempt to shut down my computer whilst running Windows 8. All of them are relatively computer literate, but all of them gave up. It is a process that is as challenging, if not more so, than starting a KTM X-Bow.
The aforementioned charms also need a small amount of work, as I have already mentioned I am not the greatest fan of the hover over system, but you really start to come across issues when you start using more than one screen. The charm corners stay on your central screen. Now this would not be an issue, apart from to bring up the charms you often have to go right to the corner of the screen, which often means you just move your mouse to the other screen.
One of the nicer elements however is that the ‘ribbons’ toolbar, that many have now adapted to and enjoy using from Office 2010 now appears across the entire navigation system. As an example if you open up your ‘Video Library’ folder and pick a video file, Windows 8 automatically brings up a nice, elegant and attractive menu where you have a variety of quick video related options.
My final issue brings me back to navigation, and the Metro UI. Whilst it was nice and easy to scroll across the screen if apps took up more than the screen real estate with my touch screen, it was not pleasant with a mouse. Traditionally on Windows, programs are designed so that you only have to scroll down, and mice are designed around this with a single up-down scroll wheel. This means, when Metro came along and I had to scroll left to right, I resorted to using the buttons on the scroll bar, and I am disappointed to say that Windows still have not managed to create smooth scrolling, so I had the not enjoyable experience of a slow and juddery scroll when using the mouse. So much so that I gave up trying to scroll with the mouse, and resorted to using my screen. This option is clearly not available to everyone.
Metro UI Appearance
I cannot deny that the Metro UI looks slick. If we disregard the navigation issues, then it looks impressive and elegant. It is easy to rearrange apps, and get them into a neat and organised fashion. The way the programming works, means they also fit to a nice grid that works as well.
The biggest problem with the Metro UI is that it has only a limited selection of colour choices to choose from, and the same is true of background choices. You cannot set your own design or pattern, however again I would expect Microsoft to work on this by the time the full retail version is released to give users the ability to choose on perhaps more of a sliding scale their colour choice.
Desktop Appearance
Desktop appearance has not changed too much. Ultimately you still have the Windows 7 desktop. As I mentioned already, the start menu button has been lost in favour of a hover over option.
Small elements however do look nice. I am quite a fan of the new volume control pop-up for example.
It should also be worth noting that some of the Aero features have been lost. No longer can you use Win+Tab to scroll through your apps in a fancy manner, however frankly, I do not think many people actually used this feature in Windows 7, and instead used the traditional alt+tab.
Another gripe with the Desktop Appearance is that programs themselves seem have lost their curved edges. As such, everything now looks squarer, flatter, and not quite as nice. It is hard to explain, but my best way of explaining is that it seems to have lost depth.
Below you can see Windows 8 and Windows 7 open with Chrome, and the difference in depth and shape of windows.
Windows 7:
Windows 8:
Applications
Applications bring a huge amount of promise to Windows 8 desktop users. I have already enjoyed using some of the apps in development such as the cookbook. Whilst all the information is clearly on the internet, having it all in one app is nice.
Something I immediately noticed however is that none of the new apps have toolbars. Instead the entire screen is used for the app. Now whilst this is probably a good use of screen real estate on tablets, and whilst it does admittedly does make the app look good on a PC, I am worried if this will result in traditional programs slowly trying to drop toolbars. There is the option to bring up a small amount of items with right-click, however these are remarkably limited.
Bundled with Windows 8 was Internet Explorer 10, and whilst I figured I should try and use this new version, it did not take me long to switch back over to Chrome.
Other features that have been brought in are nice however. There is now an app wide spell checker, which whilst basic, no doubt will be useful when using apps. In addition there is the new image unlock function, which is quite neat and does work well, however I do feel this may be somewhat of a gimmick.
I also feel it is necessary to point out that the way the Metro UI works; it now seems very much that your whole PC, desktop experience, that previously was the OS, is now just another application.
Of course, one of the key parts of having access to apps is the app store. Now the app store is designed on the traditional Metro UI. So it looks the part. It is also relatively easy to navigate, and already has a relatively large selection of apps available. The more this development can take place, the more I see Windows 8 being a success.
Speed
Windows 8 is rapid. It was fast to install, and it was fast in performing tasks. I admittedly had it installed on a SSD, which probably gave it a bit of a boost, but it was still quicker than Windows 7. I did run a couple of benchmarks, however the scores were pretty much the same, which I generally put down to a lack of optimisation, and therefore I am not going to bother including them in this review.
Conclusion
At first, the idea of Windows 8 struck me as ingenious: an operating system that could run both on tablets and computers. Like all the best ideas it was simple yet inspired. Desktop users gain the benefits of an app development community coming to Windows, bringing with it new programs and innovation. Tablet users, on the other hand, finally get to use a fully-fledged operating system rather than a cut down version lacking in functionality. Problem is there is a small loss in functionality, as not all tablets will run all desktop apps. It will be interesting to see how app development progresses though and whether people choose to write apps more for the tablet marketplace or for the PC marketplace, because this really could be a big selling point of Windows 8. It does however all depend on the developers.
My overall impressions of Windows 8 are not actually that bad. I know from experience that the first, the second and third time you use it, are all unpleasant experiences. Navigation is not intuitive, and does not come easily. I have fully explained the vast array of issues that I have had with navigation. This being said however, once you do work it out, it is not actually too bad. It does work, and some things are simpler. I must admit there is a clear trade off due to the Operating System being adapted for tablet use, however I do not think it is as bad as I first thought.
At my most critical I believed that Microsoft had simply cut corners, and tried a budget cutting exercise in an attempt to save them having to develop two new OS’s. To be honest, I still agree with this concept, however it did not result in quite the catastrophe that I previously thought. The execution however, is still far from perfect. This could easily be another Vista if they do not fix some key issues before release, and Windows 9 could easily become the success story that has been Windows 7. I also still maintain that this would have been a much better OS if Microsoft had simply replaced the traditional icon system in Windows with the Metro UI. Ironically, I feel the development costs would also have been cheaper.
All in all then, Windows 8 is not a bad OS. It just is not a great one either. It is a perfectly acceptable desktop replacement to Windows 7; but it does not take my breath away. It is not the stunning piece of development and forward thinking that it could have been. As with so many times in the past, Microsoft have had a fantastic idea, but left the field wide open for the competition to create the same product, but executed ten times better.
Some additional images of the apps etc…
Skydrive
Photobucket App
Mail App
Biological Piano
Xbox Live
kd
