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What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in

By | October 18, 2011, 7:25am PDT

Summary: Now that Microsoft’s Windows 8 Developer preview has been out for just over a month, what do some of the hackers of earlier leaked builds think of it?

Before Microsoft made a first public developer preview of Windows 8 available in September, a number of hackers had been tearing apart leaked earlier builds to try to discern what was new and different in the coming operating system.

Now that these same hackers have had a chance to tinker with Windows 8, I thought it would be interesting to see what surprised them and what they’ve learned since getting their hands on the developer preview release.

I asked three individuals — all of whom I’ve spoken with previously about Windows 8 — for their latest takes. The three:

Michael Brown (MB): Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in Client Application Development, and President Kharasoft, Inc., blogging at http://azurecoding.net/blogs/brownie, and tweeting at @browniepoints.

Jose Fajardo: Senior Developer involved with Silverlight “and other cool things,” who blogs at http://advertboy.wordpress.com, and tweets at @josefajardo.

Sandro Villinger (SV): Blogger, book author who writes extensively about Microsoft and operating systems for ITWorld and runs the TuneUp Blog.

Fajardo’s response to my query is worth noting, as he has been one of the most vocal of the hackers of early Windows 8 builds. When I asked about his perceptions of the Developer Preview release, he told me:

“Unfortunately I haven’t been playing much with Win 8 and it’s purely because I just don’t feel compelled to build anything for it until it can support my interests. What I’m waiting for is: 1. DirectX in WinRT so that I can use DirectX in my XAML apps; 2. XNA in XAML (SL5 3DApi has still to make it into XAML, I’m waiting on DrawingSurface etc.); and 3. Blend tooling to help create XAML apps, currently it only allows us to create HTML apps.”

The other two I contacted had spent a lot of time with the Developer Preview and had some interesting observations. Here are my questions and their answers:

MJF: What’s your biggest surprise about Win 8 now that you’ve gotten to work with the Dev Preview for a month-plus?

MB: Once Windows 8 was made available, I installed it on primary laptop dual booting Windows 7. I planned to just kick the tires around, but two weeks later I realized I had only booted into Windows 7 once (to get a file that was locked on the Windows 7 partition).

I didn’t have many surprises from a developer’s view. I think all of my assumptions based on what had gone public were all spot on except one: no emulation for “classic” desktop. The biggest surprise to me is that the “classic” desktop is full on Windows. (Previously) I was hypothesizing that classic mode would only be supported through Emulation/Virtualization similar to Windows XP mode on Windows 7. Instead, it is a full blown desktop. I have yet to have any application compatibility problems. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been surprised. It seems Microsoft swallowed a bitter pill with Vista and are cautious when it comes to breaking changes.

Another surprise came when I pressed the start button from the classic desktop. Instead of seeing the start menu it took me to the Metro Shell. It took me a second to figure out what was going on. Then I realized the new “Metro Shell” is in reality the new start menu. When I got the tip that typing in the start menu brings up application search including classic desktop apps, I was happy. In reality that’s all I use the start menu for now (on Windows 7). I think it’s a bold move but it makes the new Start Menu the star of the stage.

SV: Battery Life! I installed Windows 8 Developer Preview on my main machine, a 2011 MacBook Air which is powered by a Core i7 1.8 GHz. On my first trip, I was blown away: Instead of the usual 6 ½ -7 hours I had on Windows 7, the Air went dark after 7 hours and 45 minutes using Windows 8. We’re talking an hour of additional battery life here, which I couldn’t believe at first.

So I went back and did some serious testing, not only with the Air but also with a couple of other laptops (one HP netbook and an Acer 17” laptop) and confirmed it: The Dev Preview squeezed between 5-15% of additional battery life out of the laptops, which is quite a technical achievement in my opinion; I’m going to put together a comparison with a different scenario and compile a blog post in the near future.

Go to the next page for more on Windows 8 misperceptions and expected changes

More from “All About Microsoft”

Topics

Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows 8, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Desktops, Software, Hardware, Mary Jo Foley

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Disclosure

Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.

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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
VintageComputerGuy 5th Jan
Excellent article and feedback. These guys are making me feel even more confident in Windows 8 than I already am.

Been playing around with the Developer Preview on a 2005 Dell Inspiron 6000. Runs smoothly, but has it quirks. So I went to the Control Panel and adjusted it for better performance, basically turned off all the bells & whistles (transistions mostly).. Runs light lightning!

Been working mostly from Metro Start screen, getting the feel for Windows 8 as a consumption device. Not bad, but there are still some mouse behaviors that need work.
View in thread
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
SlyOS 18th Oct
Give us the start button option between new and classical mode and it will be perfect

Posted from a Virtual Private Desktop "VPU"
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
Fletchguy 18th Oct
@SlyOS
This is pretty much a must. I have been using windows 8 dev and pretty much hate it. The metro side I have absolutly no use for. If I would use windows on a mobile device I would want the classic desktop and start options. I also really hate the ribbon format makes things so much more involved then needs be.Give the classic windows desktop and start button and it might be workable. I would even like to see an option to install just the desktop classic version with no metro ui at all to save space since the metro is pointless for desktop, or laptops.
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Not sure I understand....
xuniL_z 18th Oct
@Fletchguy so the main complaint of windows "slates" is the OS is not designed for a mobile device - phone, tablet etc. We've heard over and over that a full desktop OS is worthless on a tablet or smartphone. Possibly you were never in that camp, but I'm curious.
Do you really think you would not prefer metro in touch mode over standard windows?
Sorry to repeat this, but you did read the following about misconceptions, right?
From SV on page 2:
That the Metro-style interface is aimed purely at tablets and that it???s utterly unusable and unproductive. First of all, (Windows President) Steven Sinofsky acknowledged that there will be changes in and around the Metro UI (more on that below).

Second, how can anyone judge this UI without actually using some real Metro-style apps day in and day out? What we???ve got so far are samples written by summer interns (which Microsoft acknowledged during BUILD), that are extremely basic. Do we actually spend enough time in those apps to judge usability? No. Do we know what big ISVs will have ???in store??? (quite literally) when Windows 8 hits the market? No.

Right now, everyone who???s using Windows 8 Developer Preview lives on the classic desktop and not in the Metro UI, since there???s no real reason to spend hours in this new environment. Let???s just wait until the Windows Store goes live and see how the combination of ???real??? apps and the usability improvements promised by Microsoft change this perception.

And if even then you can???t stand the new (Metro) UI, just turn it off ??? there???s a Group Policy setting for that and it???s called ???Do not show the Start Menu when the user logs in???. Et Voil??!


Have you tried turning the metro UI off? Do you get a classic start menu then?
Sorry but I've not had time nor resources to load win8 but am interested in what's going on.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
Bakabaka 18th Oct
@Fletchguy
Yes this is all very true and I fully agree. It just that MS will have nothing snazzy and cool to market Win 8 with. It will just be another version of windows. Tablets need a simpler GUI than a PC or laptop. MS just missed the boat on it a few years ago. Metro is not going change that fact.

Seen those new MS commercials were they setup a windows store inside a person's house? The jist of the commercial is to get people to update their old PCs to a new one because people are content with their old computers.
MS is looking for that big buzz to sell their product, to sell more Windows PCs. It's too bad for them they never had a guy like Steve Jobs to show them how it's done.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
kris_stapley@... 19th Oct
@Fletchguy
Save space? You realize hard drive costs these days are dirt cheap? "If I would use windows on a mobile device I would want the classic desktop and start options." Sounds like you should pick up an old WM6.5 phone on ebay. Just know that you are in the tiniest minority.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
massagistas 19th Oct
@Fletchguy
i Agree in have been using windows 8 dev and pretty much hate it. The metro side I have absolutly no use for. If I would use windows on a mobile device I would want the classic desktop and start options.
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@Fletchguy ...Classic desktop (via Explorer) is available
thx-1138_@... Updated - 5th Jan
... in Metro. The Explorer button is right there in Metro to toggle you between the two UI's. I think, this is a classic case of blowing things out of proportion without a person having first investigated the functionalities available to them.

Go back, restart Developer Edition and play around - with particular emphasis on toggling between Metro and Classic (i.e. Windows Explorer). Granted, the desktop in Explorer isn't identical to Windows 7 ... but then again, i mean .. honestly, why should it have to be??? After all, the optionality and key functions are near identical, isn't that enough for you? Don't answer that ... i get a distinct feeling i know what your answer's going to be.
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Start menu option
johnd126 18th Oct
I can see how the Metro interface could be useful for quick access to a few apps and widgets but I definitely don't want ALL my apps on the desktop. I've installed a suite of applications and then removed some rarely used icons. Now, how do I launch the ones I removed? I could search for them, if I knew what they were called or go searching through Explorer. Clunky, me thinks.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
bitcrazed 18th Oct
@johnd126 - you go to All Programs which lists - surprisingly to some - all the programs you have on your computer, including those that are NOT pinned to your start page.

Alternatively you just type the first few characters of the app you want and start it.

Your argument is like saying "OH NO, I unpinned an app from my start menu ... how am I gonna start it now?"
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
johnd126 Updated - 18th Oct
@bitcrazed And where exactly is this mythical 'All Programs'?

@ccrocket (can't reply to your message) ... all I see is an alphabetical list of my programs not organized in the folder tree. Again, this would be handy if I knew what the program was called but if it is, say, a utility that was installed with another application I wouldn't necessarily know.

Honestly, I like change ... but this is going backwards. From a system with some organization to a mishmash.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
ccrockett@... 18th Oct
@johnd126 On my touchscreen I just touch in from the right side of the screen and tap the "Search" button. All my programs are listed. Not sure what you do with a mouse / keyboard setup.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
bitcrazed 18th Oct
@johnd126 - hover your mouse in the bottom left corner of your Start screen and hit "search". If you're on the desktop, hit [Win] + [C] for the charms menu to appear and hit "search"

I STRONGLY encourage you to read this lengthy, but very interesting post which provides some fascinating background to the design of the start page:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/10/11/reflecting-on-your-comments-on-the-start-screen.aspx
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
Fletchguy 18th Oct
@bitcrazed
The issue is why make it so much harder and slow productivity? If you have the start button its like a central location area. You click start hoover over programs and then all show up right there. Quick easy and productive no relearning no extra typing no hunting. The button missing is a negative. Hopefully if Microsoft screws that up some one will make a classic start button skin like they did for windows 7.
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Sometimes change alone is the problem
jscott418 18th Oct
@bitcrazed I don't care to get into weather Metro is better or worse then classic start menu. But change for many is enough to ignore what may be a decent OS. Judging by the feedback so far I think Microsoft will get some heat for not allowing for a more traditional Start menu option for those who want it.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
bitcrazed 18th Oct
@Fletchguy: Again, actually try using it before you berate it. The start button is there on the desktop just as it always has been. If you can't be bothered to try Win8, at least read through a few articles or watch a few videos of it before you complain that something is missing ... that isn't.
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Microsoft needs to provide a choice
jscott418 18th Oct
@johnd126 I think Microsoft needs to provide a choice for how the Start menu works. You still have many on Windows XP and to convince them to switch to Windows 8 with Metro will be a issue for some. Who have already ignored the advantages of Windows 7. I think Metro will be a tough sell for Microsoft.
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Metro Start Screen
thewordofb 18th Oct
So, I was at Build and I was initially fairly skeptical of the metro start screen, but quite honestly, it's grown on me. To the haters...
1. It's easy to pin your favorite apps to the start menu. Just suck it up and pin away.
2. Don't like start? Swipe from the right and hit search.. everything is literally right there. I agree it could use some more polish, but app search is a million times nicer than win7's space-confined "all programs" list.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
bitcrazed 18th Oct
@thewordofb - I completely agree. While the start menu looks like a huge change, it BEHAVES just like you'd expect it to, but it gives the added benefit of more apps reachable from each page, is touch-friendly, gives apps the ability to update their tiles dynamically and allows app tiles to be richer and more polished.

And as many have pointed out - they're nowhere near 'done' with the new Windows8 UI yet - either from a Metro or a traditional desktop perspective.
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Metro = JUNK
itguy10 18th Oct
@thewordofb

The whole mess is a usability nightmare and something nobody asked for or wants. Tiles are a joke and failed on Win Phone 7 (Just like Win Phone 7) and will fail on the desktop.

Windows 8 UI = EPIC FAIL
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
bitcrazed 18th Oct
@itguy10 - Considering it's nowhere near being finished yet, I think it's perhaps a little premature to pronounce a product that isn't yet even released yet as an "epic fail".

Oh ... and on the Windows Phone front, I've yet to see a negative review of WinPhone 7.5. Can you point me at one please?
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
ScorpioBlue 18th Oct
Considering it's nowhere near being finished yet, I think it's perhaps a little premature to pronounce a product that isn't yet even released yet as an "epic fail".

Oh I think it's pretty much finished. The basic concepts will remain in place. They're not going to get rid of tiles and Metro and the conventional desktop will be permanently fused together instead of having two separate OSes.

C'mon, you see this too. @itguy10 is right to feel that way.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
Michael Alan Goff 18th Oct
"Oh I think it's pretty much finished. The basic concepts will remain in place. They're not going to get rid of tiles and Metro and the conventional desktop will be permanently fused together instead of having two separate OSes."

Oh, you -think- it's pretty much finished.

You heard him, everyone, he has spoken. His thoughts have a ton of basis in reality, the team hasn't said something about working with criticism, you can all declare it a failure now.

After all, ScorpioBlue (a guy who won't even put his real name out there) says he -thinks- it's pretty much done.

Then again, one might not want to take anything ScorpioBlue or itguy10 say about Windows to have any weight, they never actually have anything good to say about the product.
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Mr. Goff, If I may paraphrase an old Earth colloquialism
Mister Spock 18th Oct
@Michael Alan Goff

When one can find nothing good to say about their product, then proceed to falsely disparage their competitor's.

I believe that is the issue both ScorpioBlue and itgu10 appear to be confronted with.
plain
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
kris_stapley@... 19th Oct
@itguy10
I asked for a touch friendly version of Windows. No one asked for a giant phone that can't make calls, and yet Apple released an iPad. At least MS is giving people what they want, despite your ranting and raving.
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itgay10 whom Scorpioblew are both major ABMers from Way Back......
xuniL_z 20th Oct
Don't allow yourselves to be bothered by a couple of MS haters whose lives have been spent on every forum they can find making ABM remarks. They are both huge losers and to be ignored. Make them dead to you.
  • Flagged
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itgay10 who scorpioblew are both ABM crust from way back.
xuniL_z 20th Oct
Don't allow yourselves to be bothered by a couple of MS haters whose lives have been spent on every forum they can find making ABM remarks. They are both huge losers and to be ignored. Make them dead to you
  • Flagged
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itgay10 who scorpioblew are ABM miscreants from way back.
xuniL_z 20th Oct
Don't allow yourselves to be bothered by a couple of MS haters whose lives have been spent on every forum they can find making ABM remarks. They are both huge losers and to be ignored. Make them dead to you
  • Flagged
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itgay10 who scorpioblew, are ABM miscreants from way back.
xuniL_z Updated - 20th Oct
Don't allow yourselves to be bothered by a couple of MS haters whose lives have been spent on every forum they can find making ABM remarks. They are both huge losers and to be ignored. Make them dead to you
  • Flagged
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
ScorpioBlue Updated - 20th Oct
Oh, you -think- it's pretty much finished.

Yup. I think the basic concepts are, yeah.

You heard him, everyone, he has spoken. His thoughts have a ton of basis in reality,

Absolutely. I'm not on a particular monopoly's payroll, so I don't have the burden of shilling to the public like certain folks. Isn't that right, goff? wink

the team hasn't said something about working with criticism, you can all declare it a failure now.

They're gonna have to make Metro optional and I don't see that happening.

After all, ScorpioBlue (a guy who won't even put his real name out there) says he -thinks- it's pretty much done.

We don't know if Goff's your real name or not. I can make up any name. Why should we believe that's yours?

Care to post your full biography here?

I thought not...

Then again, one might not want to take anything ScorpioBlue or itguy10 say about Windows to have any weight, they never actually have anything good to say about the product.

Because there isn't anything GOOD to say about the product, that's why. Not it the way it is.

Come up with two separate OSes. One for Metro tablets & phones and the other one for desktops. Stop trying to band-aid them both together into one unworkable mess.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
Michael Alan Goff 20th Oct
"Care to post your full biography here?"

I was born December 1st, 1987 in the town of Evansville, Indiana. My hometown of Mt Vernon doesn't have a place to deliver babies, it merely has a small doctor's office. My mother was named Pamela Goff at that time, though she is now back to her maiden name of Pamela Holder. I think she said she's going to remarry soon.

Not a lot of things happened for the first few years of my life. I lived in a small trailer with my mom, dad, and older sister Shauna Goff. We lived on Second Street, in my hometown of Mt Vernon, IN. When I was smaller (not sure what age... I know it has to be before 4 when my parents divorced), I got a nasty burn from some coffee. I still have scars from it on my arm.

Not a lot of exciting things happened in my life. I had to deal with 3 step-parents, and got additional siblings on the way. 2 more sisters, 1 more brother. All three of them turned out to be horrible people, and all of them were eventually left.

Along the way my oldest sister got married, and had a child.. He's six now, and he's quite a joy. I moved out of my mom's house around in 2007, moved in with my sister for a couple of months. I got my own apartment and stayed there for around two and a half years before getting kicked out from there as well.

I had to go back to my mom's for a few months before once again moving in with my sister. I stayed there for some months before we all got kicked out recently because we all lost our jobs. Well, I lost my job and my sister's husband did.

I should be getting another apartment soon.

For the past one and a half years, I've also been studying at Kaplan.

There you go, a small biography. If you'd like, I could even give you my exact phone number if you're still not sure that I am who I say I am. In case you can't tell, I'm bad a writing about me.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
ScorpioBlue 21st Oct
There you go, a small biography. If you'd like, I could even give you my exact phone number if you're still not sure that I am who I say I am. In case you can't tell, I'm bad a writing about me.

Yes, post your number here for all to see. LOL... grin

Btw, fairly good storytelling. Maybe you should give up on Microsoft and move to Hollywood. I hear they need some decent fiction writers out there.

more lol... grin
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Repeat...repeat...repeat...
ScorpioBlue 21st Oct
Don't allow yourselves to be bothered by a couple of MS haters whose lives have been spent on every forum they can find making ABM remarks. They are both huge losers and to be ignored. Make them dead to you.

What's this? What's this? Three posts of the same thing done by the dyslexic backward Linux hater?

You really should see a doctor about that spastic index finger of yours. Maybe he can give you something so it won't shake so bad.

lol...
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
Michael Alan Goff 21st Oct
I'm seriously not making it up, but whatever.

(812)550-7652.

That's my number, you can ask any specific question you want and I'll give you a very specific answer. I have nothing to hide. If you'd like, I could give you other ways of contacting me. Would you happen to have a Google Plus account?
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Silly goff
ScorpioBlue Updated - 21st Oct
Well there ya go, folks. Give goff a call. He's stupid enough to attract telemarketers and spam bots to his phone.

What's your Social Security number, Goff? Maybe I can look you up in the Social Security index. Hmm?

That is...if it really is his phone... wink
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
Michael Alan Goff 21st Oct
@itguy10

Telemarketing to cell phones is illegal right now.

You're not getting my SSN.

Call it if you don't believe me.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
ScorpioBlue 21st Oct
Telemarketing to cell phones is illegal right now.

lol... grin That hasn't stopped them.

You're not getting my SSN.

Why not? Your life's 'supposed' to be an open book for all to see. What are you afraid of?

Call it if you don't believe me.

What, and have caller ID identify me if it's true?

No pal, your just gonna have deal with my anonymous name.

Just like Mister Spock's

Just like xuniL_z's

Just like William Farrell's

Just like It'sTheBottomLine's

Just like etc..etc...

Ya know...like all your buds who hide the same way. wink
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
Michael Alan Goff 21st Oct
A)This is a cheap cell phone, cost me a whole 15$. No caller ID, just me seeing the number that called me.

B) My buds? The only people I respect from these talkbacks are Peter Athens and DTS. Both of them have put their name behind their work as well. Most of the ones you name are simply giant fans of different companies who hide behind false names.

C) My life is an open story, but I'd hardly throw around my SSD to let anyone on here just ruin my future. I'll do that myself, thank you very much. :P

Listen, if you don't wanna call me and hear my nasally voice? Fine. Just don't act as though I'm the same as those cowardly fanatics who do nothing but hide behind a false name while posting ignorance.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
ScorpioBlue 22nd Oct
lol... grin

Keep being petulant, goff. It's funny.

In the meantime go clean up xuniL_z. It seems he defecated all over himself again and needs your help.

more lol... grin
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
Michael Alan Goff 23rd Oct
Do you even know what petulant means? Don't worry, I'll put up the definition for you. I know that some people just use whichever insult sounds the best at the time, regardless of whether or not that insult actually fits with what they're trying to say.


pet??u??lant/??peCH??l??nt/
Adjective:
(of a person or their manner) Childishly sulky or bad-tempered.


When I state facts, such as the fact that I only respect people who will put their name or that my phone is a cheap 15$ phone, am I being sulky? No. Bad tempered? Still no.

How about when I make a sarcastic joke about my own increasing debt? Nope, neither of those fit.

You can call me a lot of things, insultingly, and they might be true. I can be quite lazy at time, and quite the coward. I could go on, pointing out my own various flaws, but it's much more important to simply point out that petulant was not what I have been with any of these comments.
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Oh look, he can use a dictionary!
ScorpioBlue Updated - 24th Oct
pet??u??lant/??peCH??l??nt/
Adjective:
(of a person or their manner) Childishly sulky or bad-tempered.

Well that's you. Down to a T.

Sorry to inform you about that. lol... grin
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
Fletchguy 18th Oct
@thewordofb
Again way to much work for what they already had made so easy. I actually skinned my windows 7 start with an xp start classic button with flyout folders as its so much faster to get around. The metro ui I have found little desire to use even for mobile I would want a full desktop and classic start button in order for me to use it on a mobile device. The tiles are horrid and looks for kiddie like and non productive.As is I doubt many would leave android for the poor metro design and look.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
kris_stapley@... 19th Oct
@Fletchguy
Again... MS has already tried that approach and it turns out that you are the only person that WANTS full desktop and start menu on a mobile device. Again... Windows Mobile 6.5 has been custom designed JUST FOR YOU. Change isn't as scary as you think happy
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
bitcrazed 18th Oct
@MJ: FWIW, I am completely blown-away by how fast and snappy Win8 is ... especially given how early it is in its product lifecycle.

The Start page is VERY smooth and fluid. I LOVE the rich, dynamically updating tiles. I really like being able to launch more of my most frequently used apps with fewer mouse clicks than ever before.

I can't wait to see the flood of Metro apps arrive that'll light up the Start page and make it useful. Right now, there are no apps for playing media, view photo galleries, IM, chat, email, etc. I fully expect many of these apps to appear at the beta and for a mountain of new apps to appear when the store opens its doors.

Frankly, even in its current form, Windows 8 makes iOS look dated, static and ... forgive me for this ... boring!

Hyper-V is an absolute slam-dunk winner for me. I used to use VirtualBox for my virtualization needs, but Hyper-V is AT LEAST 10-15% faster in most of my tests and is MUCH better for creating specialized OS' using differential-disks than VirtualBox. Even more surprising is how little overhead Hyper-V adds to my machines, combined by the fact that my machines still go to sleep in 3s when running two VM's, and wake up almost instantaneously!

But even more surprising to me has been the depth of changes Microsoft has made to its tooling - even at the very lowest layers of the OS! For years, driver dev's have had to debug their kernel code using serial cables and KD. In Win8, Microsoft has gone to town on dev tooling and has added kernel debugging via the network and have incorporated KD/WinDBG featured into Visual Studio! Kernel developers also get to code, build, deploy, debug and test their code from within VS just like regular programmers do. May not sound like a big deal to many, but this really is cool happy
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
bitcrazed 18th Oct
@bitcrazed - Oh ... and I forgot to mention how exciting it is that Windows runs on ARM. Can't wait to get my hands on an ARM Win8 tablet ... or even better an ARM-powered laptop with a detachable screen that becomes a tablet like the Acer Transformer happy
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Gush much?
jasonp@... 18th Oct
@bitcrazed
I especially liked the "I really like being able to launch more of my most frequently used apps with fewer mouse clicks than ever before." Most everyone I know can launch their most frequently used apps with double-click of an icon on their desktop. Some even go so far as to strategically place icons on their desktop in specific locations depending on use...VPN clients grouped together in one corner of the screen, developer tooks grouped together in another corner of the screen, office productivity apps in another corner... If you've ever had to click more than twice (one double-click) to open your most frequently used apps, I'm sure we can arrange a lesson on Right-click...Send To...Desktop (create shortcut). It really isn't that difficult...I'm sure you'd pick up on it after a few tries.
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Gush much? (pt. 2)
ScorpioBlue Updated - 18th Oct
@jasonp@...
Not to mention the fact that I drag and drop icons from the desktop to the start menu (and vice-versa) all the time. I get to set it up the way I want it to. This fanbui gushing over the Start menu page tiles will put an end to that.

The above you responded to is classic corporate spin at it's worst.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
Viper589 18th Oct
@ScorpioBlue

whoa you use windows?? could have thought you used linux from some of your post
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
bitcrazed Updated - 18th Oct
@jasonp@... I too know many people who save all their files on their desktop and shortcuts to all their apps. And at some point, they run out of usable screen real estate to now have some files on their desktop and some in their "documents" folders. Now they have files littering multiple folders and start having problems finding where the heck they left their payroll spreadsheet ... damnit.

Similarly, some people litter their desktop with a gazillion links to all the apps they use on a regular basis ... and a TON of apps they rarely use. Watch someone who does this when you ask them to launch an app. It ususally takes them several seconds to find the icon for a specific app. Each time they load an app. Several times an hour. Many hours of the day. This adds up and results in decreased productivity.

I also know A LOT of people who like to leave their desktops pretty empty. These people have often learned how to use the Vista/Win7 search feature from the root of the start menu. Hit [Windows], type the first few chars of the app/doc they want to open and hit [Return]. No reaching for the mouse. No dragging the mouse pointer to some arbitrary point on the screen to click a small icon. Twice. Rapidly.

Compare these experiences to Win8:
If you're already on the start page, click the tile for the app you want. Boom.

If you're on the desktop, hit [Windows] key and either

Type the first few chars of the app you want and hit [Return] (i.e. just as productive as Win7
Use your keys to navigate to the tile you want and hit enter
Drag your mouse to the tile you want and click it. Once.And you're free to customize the layout (and even size) of the tiles in your start page so I think you'll find that you can customize it a very great deal, organizing your apps into groups that make sense to you. And because the start page scrolls, you won't run out of space at any point.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
ScorpioBlue 18th Oct
whoa you use windows?? could have thought you used linux from some of your post

@Knix96
Unfortunately, I do. Thanks to the sheer monopolistic ubiquity of Windows, there's no escaping it entirely.

Hey, do you think you can tell some of my employers to stop using it? wink
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Jason, are you still using XP? It's now one left click....
xuniL_z 18th Oct
@jasonp@... on the Windows 7 task bar. At least for 20 to 40 apps, depending on your screen size, then you have to click the scroll to get to more.
A little things I like about Windows 7 taskbar is when I have multiple client sessions open on our HIS, I can hover over each session and even if the session has timed out and requires logging in again, you see the module/screen you were in last before it timed out, and not the login screen.
Otherwise it's a crapshoot picking the right session. I can have up to 10 sessions open on our HIS throughout the day.
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RE: What's surprising, misunderstood about Microsoft's Windows 8? Testers weigh in
VintageComputerGuy 5th Jan
Excellent article and feedback. These guys are making me feel even more confident in Windows 8 than I already am.

Been playing around with the Developer Preview on a 2005 Dell Inspiron 6000. Runs smoothly, but has it quirks. So I went to the Control Panel and adjusted it for better performance, basically turned off all the bells & whistles (transistions mostly).. Runs light lightning!

Been working mostly from Metro Start screen, getting the feel for Windows 8 as a consumption device. Not bad, but there are still some mouse behaviors that need work.

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