Windows 8 Beta (Consumer Preview) first impressions

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whooleo

whooleo

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Short story is keep Windows 7 for your desktop and laptop but don't count out Windows 8 for your tablet, because it has the potential to be pretty good for tablet use (READ: TOUCH FRIENDLY).

Long story:

When I first installed it and ran through the initial startup I noticed right away that simple was the name of the game for Windows 8, with a plain background and a few questions and your off. Right away your greeted with the Metro sexual a mean Metro interface.... Not so bad at first look but when you need to get to it from the desktop (it replaces the start menu) you might be a bit lost at first and frustrated because it took me about 5 to 10 minutes to realize how to get to it from the desktop! You have to mouse over to the very bottom left corner of the screen (I mean the very last few pixels of the corner of the screen) and click on it but the thing is its blank, just a blank piece of the task bar from where the start orb SHOULD be. So how I'm I supposed to do that on a regular basis? They should have just kept the start orb and let that be the thing you click to get to the Metro interface.... If anybody is familiar with the Ubuntu Unity bar than this should sound similar, If mouse over to the very bottom right corner of the screen a little dock shows up on the right side of the screen with buttons for settings, start (Metro), search, and something else I can't remember at the moment.It's pretty useless and ends up feeling tacked on just like the rest of Metro. The only thing I found it useful for is easier access to settings but it ends up being a necessity while in Metro as it's needed to access settings for Metro and other things. Overall they should have left that in Metro only. Another thing that took me awhile to find was the control panel, you have to go through the Metro/side dock to get it! Bad thing is the control panel is the same as in Windows 7 for the most part but where is the bad part you say? Well to change settings for Metro you must go through the Metro interface to do it making you juggle between two interfaces and settings. That is exactly what Windows 8 feels like, a juggle between two different interfaces that don't seem to play nice together. However there still is good to be found for power users. For those that like (including me) ribbon has made a comeback! but into Windows Explorer this time which provides a lot of options, configurations, and the like. In addition to this, the task manager has gotten an overhaul, adding much more functionality to it and ease of use. We may still be in the Beta phase but for power users and just desktops/laptop users in general, you should stay away because this OS seems much more oriented to touch based mobile devices and to think that if Microsoft would have actually integrated Metro instead of tacking it on, Windows 8 would be much better. All in all, there is not much incentive to upgrade especially considering that Windows 8 is still based on the Windows NT 6.x kernal just like Vista and 7 (6.2 for Windows 8, 6.1 for 7, and 6.0 for Vista) meaning most programs should compatible between the three OS'. They probably well even have DirectX 11.1 for Windows 7 and maybe even Vista.

But you know, you don't have to take my word for it so I just recommend you try it while you can (VirtualBox anybody?).
 
I also found the CP version to be a bit of a mess. Personally, I think they should give users the option to outright disable the Metro interface if a non-touch device is being used (and go directly to the desktop without having to find the Metro style button to get there every single time you boot your machine up). For desktop users, Metro only gets in the way, so let me get Metro out of my way.

For tablet users any any other touch devices that come along, I suspect this is going to work great. We finally have a version of Windows built with an interface that has touch only devices in mind.
 
It was a bit of a mess for a while, but now that I'm a few hours into it, and I've cleaned up the metro screen and replaced the useless tiles with all of my apps, it's starting to grow on me.
 
I'm starting to figure it out as well, I just worry about the less technically savvy users who are going to take one look at it and start the FUD slinging all over again as we see with every single version of Windows.
 
But when comes down to it I don't want a mobile touch-centric interface on my desktop, give me the option to disable it. I really hope they listen to the feedback....
 

But if you disable it you won't be able to enjoy the new immersive and content rich programs that are designed for windows 8... you know.... like that finger painting thing... :)

Jokes aside, I knew something was up when the metro interface popped up and the desktop tile was nowhere to be seen. My first thought was 'Oh, you have got to be kidding me... wait, there it is!" and I promptly moved it to the front of the list. After organizing it (Into Home which has control panel, desktop, e-mail, weather, and other 'useful' tiles, People, Games, Applications) then it started being a little more useful. I still think I will mostly use the desktop, but I find the new start screen at least a slight improvement over the old start menu that I hated for all these years.
 
I personally kinda like the idea of Metro. I don't like having to flip between UIs. But I do dig having the apps directly in front of me. Basically just a click away from every thing I need. IE, Mail, Media, etc. I'm gonna have to play around a bit more to really see the ins and outs. But the concept is pretty cool. Dont know why they couldn't just SP Metro into Win7...something to the effect of a toggle. Hide the taskbar and the Metro apps display on your desktop...or both at the same time I suppose.

I ran in a VB last night...think I'm actually gonna bite the bullet and actually install and hope all goes well. 😉
 
If Microsoft can make switching between UI's feel a little less like you're switching UI's, Metro could really work on the desktop/laptop side. After playing with the CP build in a VM for a few hours last night, I'm starting to warm up to Metro a bit. Once you realize how everything is organized and how it's supposed to work when using a mouse and keyboard, it's actually not all that bad.
 
I actually enjoy the split in UI. This lets me know what world I am in. Metro --> Apps and Desktop --> Power Use. I don't want my desktop to be a playground for apps. and this works well.
 
I really like what they did with the task manager.
And yes metro is ok I liked the start menu more but metro is ok. (After 2-3 hours of moving stuff)
 
So far I dont like that the local account doesnt offer sign-in and out options on the different apps. I would also like to see close buttons as well. Other then them two things Im really liking it. Im sure as I mess around with it Ill find other annoyances, but for now it isnt bad.

Oh, driver support could be better as well (I know it just came out and all that :) ).
 
woo hoo! rt click on a metro app on the left of the screen and you get an option to close it! That was a feature sorely missed in DB.

I did the 'upgrade' option from 7 home 64bit to CP8 and everything went very smoothly. All of my productivity software seems to work (office and Adobe suite). Adobe Audition still requires permission to run every time I open it, but at least it does not turn off the class UI look like it did back in 7. Only program I had to uninstall was Security Essentials (which is pretty much the same as Windows Defender anyways), and there were a few very old video converter/transcoder/cleanup tools I had to re-install, but they appear to be working fine. The thought was to just do this as a test, but I may stick with it for a while as I have not lost any functionality.

It is rough going from my netbook with a touch interface, and the desktop with keys/mouse as they behave a little differently, but I'm sure I will get over it.

Win8 really needs some sort of voice text input option (think google search) to avoid using the screen keyboard. Screen keyboard works fine (especially thumbs layout), but voice would be even better.

I find the video/audio/picture apps to be entirely useless now that I have had a chance to use them. I have thousands of pictures and it has a rough time displaying most of them (and they are simple jpg files). Music app is only finding ~30 CDs (thankfully WMP works fine at least), and the Video app completely ignores my filing system (movies, shows, AMVs, Projects, Funnys, etc.) and throws everything in one huge heap of unsorted insanity. Also, the music app displays album art in the background of the player... which is a great idea, except that it is not my music, nor is it music I like, and it is not they type of images I want displayed on my PC when my kid and wife are around. grr.
Neat idea for each of the multi-media apps, just poorly executed.
 
My short story:
I Have checked out the Windows 8. There are some great new features,
but i doubt if it's worth calling a new OS. I myself find it more a new expansion
for Windows 7*.
*This without the metro GUI in it.

My long story:
Once again Microsoft manages it to make a system full of crap*.
For instance the whole metro GUI. It just doesn't work fine on
a desktop. However on a tablet it would be awesome.
Than again i asked myself, what tablet? There is no good working
Windows tablet yet. (like an Ipad) the smoothness of the Ipad, ive
never seen it in a Windows tablet, YET.

I also don't like the almost forcing way of Microsoft to login with
you're Windows Live ID. I mean for hacking purposes this is
awesome. But for a safer computer, this is a plague. I mean,
instead of just getting the credit-card information or bank information
using social engineering we now get a free bonus.
We get all his personal files*, since windows is syncing your
data with the Live server aka Windows Skydrive/dive?
So now we know a lot more of the person to border him/her in
future.
*Please don't take me wrong, there are also lots of good things.
*You can turn this feature off. but the ugly truth is that the average
pc user won't do this.

Now the positive side of Windows 8.
-I love the new Task manager, i only hope i don't have to click on
'expand' every single time.
-I really really love the new file copying GUI. It makes things much
more clear, specially with multiple files.

And so the're are many more new features!
Also i think using Windows 8 on a ipad for example will be a great
experience.

Metro.
Metro is not designed for a desktop/notebook.
Why? Like 'op*' earlier said, you have to go to the very last pixels of
you're monitor to get to start or something. It just doesn't work great
with a mouse. Beside that, i think its very ugly. Some call it clean
design, i call it a unfinished project. I mean just Green/blue/white
and stuff and thats it... It's 2012 Microsoft you really have to do
more to convince me to buy the OS.
*OP; Original poster.

Overall, you should test it yourself but i think it is nothing more than a
expansion pack for Windows 7. I mean without the new metro GUI i can't
call it a new OS. It's just another stunt to suck money out of civilians.

-Hypertraxx
 
I don't necassarily agree with all the criticism. But one thing that I dont like is that once you've linked social accounts(FB, Windows Live, etc) it will display photos from those accounts in the Photo App, but you have no manipulative authority over them.

If you have access to all accounts in one place, let me manipulate them from that place. Unless of course I'm mistaken.
 
I had messed around with the beta awhile back and find this consumer preview much better. I kind of like it actually, it's all pretty slick, certainly takes awhile to find all the controls but they are all there.

I am dual booting windows 8 with windows 7 and it all works well, Microsoft was requesting that the disk partition I had set up for windows 8 be at least 25GB instead of the 20GB I had allocated, installed it anyway and it all works fine, pretty fast too.

The metro GUI works fine for me with a keyboard and mouse but I probably have to agree it would better and make more sense on a touchscreen tablet or smartphone. However at home, just click the desktop icon on the metro screen and your basically back in windows 7 mode.

I have yet to figure out how to group the apps on the main metro screen but I am working on it, I also would like to know it the sidebar, start menu app and left hand views could be locked so they stay open all the time on the metro screen allowing a little less clicking around.

 
Surley all this new metro stuff greatly depends on the developers creating new software that make best use of the new shinny shinny.

Any one use Aero desktop's nice features? i know i dont. 3D alt>tab?

Microsoft really need to make an OS with no bloat, trimed down and fast.
 
I liked:

1. Task manager. Probably the biggest improvement I've seen. It shows everything: processor usage, memory usage, hard disk usage AND network usage for every process out there.
2. Weather forecast program (or app, as they call it).
3. Integrated PDF viewer, which looks nice and works faster than adobe reader!

I disliked:
1. Installation #1. Couldn't install windows on a separate partition, because for some reason Windows 8 needed GPT partition table, and MBR wasn't good enough. Even though there wasn't another OS on the drive, I still had 700 GB of important data on it, so I had to get another hard drive to be able to install it.
2. Installation #2. It asked me about configuration questions. The most annoying ones, were about privacy. Almost every other one "do you want to send data about programs you use" or "do you want microsoft to collect data about your location". What kind of question is that? Do they want to spy on me? The worst thing is that they are turned on by default.
3. I didn't like the fact that I have to log in to windows live to be able to open programs that are installed on MY computer. What's up with that?
4. Missing old start menu/button. I know it's possible to bring it back via regedit, however, my opinion is that there should be an option to do it in the control panel.
5. Word 'apps'. Is it even a word? What happened to good old programs, applications, or even software? Who Microsoft tries to address by using such wording? Inexperienced users wouldn't even understand what that word means, there are no explanations what it means, even if it's used in every other tooltip.
6. I miss the X on the right top of the programs. After using it for a few hours, I still didn't get it how to turn the programs off other than alt + f4, which, I think, shouldn't be the meant way to do it.
7. Ads in start menu. Why is it advertising XBOX? Isn't it famous enough? "GO GET GAMES FOR YOUR XBOX ONLY IN XBOX LIVE STORE".
8. Random lock-ups. Happened three times already, and it seems it happens when opening some programs, for example CPU-z or 3d mark. Though I am sure they will fix it before real release.
9. What happened to windows key + tab ? I really love it as it is in windows 7, though, it seems they 'nerfed' it for windows 8.



After using it for a few hours, I am quite disappointed and I know for sure I won't be upgrading any time soon. It just feels that those windows weren't made for desktops, only for computers with touchscreen. I don't know why, but there's an impression that they are trying to make their operating system feel like cloud SaaS (software as a service), just like Gmail or facebook is with their mini addons and widgets. What they fail to realize is that people don't need that kind of stuff on their computers, especially if they are built in and it's impossible to disable them (I don't know if it is). Those things just increase booting times and are just wasting precious computer resources.
 
I love how people can declare an non retail release OS useless and pointless after trying it for a few hours. This OS (if executed properly from here) will be the game changer. Its not perfect, but it's the starting point.

If people aren't willing to give it a shot, then just back to command prompt without a mouse...
 
I certainly like it better than the Dev Preview. Its a helluva lot more stable. I also think its not perfect- but it isn't bad. My bulldozer likes it, and its quite fast. I loaded Skyrim last night and played on Ultra settings til about 5am. I am happy with the experience overall.

Yeah Metro is for mobile devices only but it isn't that hard to work around. I wish they still had a start button for ease of shutdown/restart/etc.
 
Ok, after a few more hours Im really liking it. Im navigating through the start/metro screen like a pro,hehe. Once I realized about the four corners everything is simple as can be. Im also really liking the customization as far as what apps I want displayed. After seeing alot of complaints on other forums Im coming to the conclusion that people are not giving it a fair try. I think its the learning on how Metro works is what is turning people off? Which is a shame cause it really is an easy os to navigate once I learned a few things.
 
Yeah, The metro UI and "live" tiles will become more useful as developers churn out apps and modify existing apps to work with the UI. In the meantime, I'm just using the tiles as you would imagine, just as launch points for my existing applications.
 


The new Task Manager is excellent! I wish we had this in Windows Vista and 7.



The Consumer Preview can be installed on an MBR partition. I have 2 laptops and a virtual machine that confirm it. How big was the drive you were trying to install the Beta on?



Most of this has to do with the Metro apps (think about how Facebook and other social networking sites operate, and how they get their data. You get asked this stuff all the time) and how they will work once the OS hits RTM and everyone gets their hands on it. Microsoft already asks these types of questions in the CEIP (Customer Experience Improvement Program) in Windows 7 and prior, they just don't word the questions this way. If you're really that concerned, just opt out of it and move on.



These are Metro apps that were included as part of the Customer Preview. On the desktop, you do NOT have to use them (nor would I recommend using them for any length of time. They don't work very well unless you're using a tablet or other touch oriented device).



I don't mind the direction they are going with this, but I would like to see some kind of visual cue as to where you need to move your mouse on the desktop side to access the Start menu. I can see this initially confusing many users.



It's the new buzz word. Apple uses it everywhere and no one seems to be complaining. But when Microsoft does it, suddenly it's a problem?



No idea what you're talking about here. The X is still present in everything except the Metro apps. Metro apps don't get closed though. To back out of a Metro app, click and hold on the top of the screen and drag the window to the bottom of the screen. Release the mouse button and the app will move into the background. Windows 8 will automatically close the app after a period of inactivity, or when the resources it is using are needed for other programs.



Microsoft is tying all of these services together. It started with Windows Phone 7, and now all of their major platforms are being updated to tie into each other. It's not advertising per se, but if you don't like it, unpin the Xbox stuff from the Start menu.



First, this is still a beta release. I haven't had any lock-up issues myself, but given where we are in the development process for Windows 8, I'm not at all surprised that someone is having these kinds of problems. It's also up to the application vendors to fix their code so it runs under Windows 8.



I didn't use this a whole lot myself, but I know many people who used it and loved it in Windows 7. Would be a shame if they axed it in 8. I'll keep my fingers crossed that they've only temporarily disabled it in the Consumer Preview though.





After using this in a VM and 2 laptops over the last 24 hours, I can assure you that this will work quite well on a desktop or laptop. This is not being developed purely for touch devices, where desktops / laptops are being ignored. Microsoft wants people to get used to this type of interface, so they all but removed the desktop / laptop elements of the UI in the Dev Preview. Now they will gradually add everything back in so that we get a completely functional OS that works on both platforms (although I would like to see an option for the system not to throw up the Metro Start menu when I am booting up a desktop or laptop. Going straight to the desktop would be much more preferable).
 
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