Win 8 Pro

Odd to do a mini review for an OS rather than a game but as I have just finished installing it on my touch screen PC, I thought I would share my initial findings

Installing it is as easy as any OS. You select a minimum number of options and walk away for up to an hour. You need to input the serial at outset however and there is no option to try out for 30 days before M$ validate the software. You also are given much less control of options, for example it did not let me choose to format the HDD prior to install

I noticed that it certainly rebooted far more times than any previous Win install.

Once its finished it really wants you to log in using your Windows ID.
This does not seem to be an OS for anyone who does not want to be noticed.

The Start screen is bright and crisp and the icons are all neat and squared away for a much more modern look.
It does seem to be almost 2 OSes as you have the 'Metro' front and the old Desktop back ends

In no way is this set up to be easy to see everything you can do. The myriad of options available only seem to be found by nosing around in several places. Its very much akin to a tablets way of showing you stuff rather than the traditional PC users approach of storing stuff where you like and knowing everything thats going on.

It multitasks like a bastard and you can have several things going on in several places without too much choking

I whizzed on some of the free apps onto my front screen and they all worked nice and easy and its a very polished piece of programming.

I did find getting out of a certain app or program to be a hoooj PITA as it seems you can go back and forward but you can never leave. Head programmer must have been an Eagles fan

The touch interface is bright and responds well but you need a mouse to get into the nuances of setting everything up right and for getting rid of the curse that is Bing. At least switching to Google for the search engine is eaiser than in Win 7 IE9 where M$ seem to hide that away as far as they could behind the sign marked beware of the Leopard.

All the drivers installed automatically for my machine which was nice and by delving deeper I was able to customize the updates and stuff to my way rather than Win 8s recommended path.

Would I switch a non touch PC to it....well no
Would I move my business PC to Win 8 ...definately no

Will I keep it on the Touch PC and use that as a glorified hoooj tablety connected webby entertainment PC.....certainly

Which leads me to start to worry about working in the future. Win 7 must have some sort of shelf life. WTF does anyone do about work PCs after that point is a concern because Win 8 is much more akin to phone or tab software rather than a decent OS for people still in the real world.

If you like to tweet faceblog skype messenger or all the youth shite trending stuff then its a winner
As a serious OS its sadly bollox

I like it for what it is, but the steep learning curve and the narrow bands it tries to lead you down make it too Orwellian to consider doing much other than having it as a social machine

At only 40 notes its not a bad buy but unless you have a touch device or have no need for a work pc then its one to be avoided

I can see why folks are calling it similar to the closed enviroment of Apple. Trouble with that is that as a PC user who revels in the open nature of previous OSes, M$ are alienating me.

Spooky indeed, definitely one of those great minds situations.

I see your point about the work side of the OS and to be honest I hadn't given that much thought.

As the for the teenager/young adult FB apps etc I completely agree. It's a complete waste of time and the apps are too 'in your face' (I know that may sound strange from someone my age but hey, call me old-fashioned )

Unfortunately it seems that the marketing is going is the Social and media center route. There is no escaping it - which is one example of what I mean by technology taking more steps back than forward at times. Thankfully I have found the ability within myself to simply ignore the twitter apps, entertainment packages and adverts on my Xbox and PC, Though I often wonder how much further gaming could go if the companies responsible put the same level of commitment, time, effort and cash into furthering the capabilities of what the 360 and gaming aspects of the PC and WP were intended. Gaming!

Great review big E!

You raised all of my concerns there! It doesn't seem to be an OS for anyone who wants to manually change the setup. It's a front end for a media device with ads! It'll be nice to have on a tablet, but i'm gonna cling to my win 7 and XP desktops as long as I can thank-you! Oh, and my Gamecube and PS2 are getting plenty of use atm too! They don't throw ads at me constantly!

I am typing this response on my surface tab

Its a great OS for a tablet but like anything you do need to learn the finer points and ins and outs.

this is very beginning of the new journey for m$ and I can't wait to see where we are in two years time with loads of cool apps and added features.

xbox live gaming, standard usb port, flash and fast surfing, 10.6inch lovely screen.

happy days

Agreed Kent

You are backing up my point by enjoying using 8 on a tablet. Its where it should be.
My points were about the OS on a desktop and not about its use on a Surface device.


As with win 7 ages ago there are some great sites for help though

This is certainly one of the best

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/


He backed up my thoughts on not being able to close apps on the desktop cleanly. On a tablet I know you can just button press to come out or switch. On a normal PC this button is not there.
Apparently Alt+F4 closes an app. My point is WTF is there not a simple Close/Minimize option at the top of each app screen. Not having a taskbar or Close/Minimize and having to swipe or mouse point to open the Charm (makes me want to vomit using that word) bar seems to be at odds with the whole point of making things easier. Adding an action before you can use an action just adds an extra step into every move. And IE10 is a two headed beast....totally unusable and annoying in Metro and fast and great on the Desktop. As someone who was using this Touch PC I bought with Win 7, I knew in my heart already that touch is something really aimed towards tablets and phones. Its just not practical on a large desktop PC. Yes its great for a few mins but try and do anything other than launch an app and you struggle. In fact everytime I type anything it just points more and more to the OS being a tablet OS. So yes a Surface device is probably going to be the ideal place for Win 8 and I can see why you would enjoy in on that type of device.

Another scary thing is the strength of its sharing search on your network. The Touch PC was picking up all sorts of files from a work PC and trying to display them as pictures even though I had not joined it on the Homegroup and the files themselves were not set up as allowed to be shared. I foresee a stack of data thefts from people and with Win 8 wanting you to be connected the security implications are massive.

Reading around the web it seems that businesses are shunning the new OS and if my experiences are anything to go by then I understand why.

As I said before my fear is that there is not going to be a decent OS for serious work use that allows you under the bonnet once Win 7 stops being supported.

I'm hoping for some great customization for the people using Windows 8 on a desktop. On the plus side it is very fast and has games!

Using alt + tab to cycle through open programs is ok, but right clicking the top of the screen to change tabs is a pain so hoping they add an app or you can download just a small toolbar for open tabs. A permanent clock would also be nice for me as the PC is how I tell the time and if my 360 is off it is the only way I know the time lol.

I do wonder what businesses will do for their OS. I think they might continue using win 7 or switch to Linux like a few companies did a few years back.