Two weeks ago, Microsoft made available to the
public the much awaited consumer preview of Windows 8, the newest version
of their highly popular and successful Windows operating system. A lot is
riding on Windows 8, especially given the fact that its predecessor, Windows 7
is considered as one of the most popular and most widely used OS for laptop and
desktop computers all around the world. Moreover, Apple’s OS is expected to
slowly gain more ground in the market share of computer operating systems in
the coming years.
With this in mind, does Windows 8 really
have something to entice and excite current Windows 7 users to upgrade to a
newer OS version? And does it have what it takes to convince Mac OS users to
migrate from their beloved Macbooks and Imacs to a new operating system? We
know it’s too early to tell but here’s our simple review of Windows 8 (Consumer
Preview).
Installation. Windows 8, or at least the consumer preview version has almost the
same pre-installation requirements as Windows 7. In order to install Windows 8
on your computer, you will need at least a 1Ghz processor, 1GB (for 32-bit) or
2GB (for 64-bit) of RAM, at least 15GB of HDD and a graphics card that supports
DirectX 9 or higher. The installation files (around 2.5GB in size) are
available for download from Microsoft’s website. You can either save the
installation files on a USB flash drive after download or burn the ISO file on
a DVD. Users can then select to install the operating system from within
Windows 7 or any other OS using the files on the USB flash drive. Advanced
users on the other hand can use the bootable DVD from where the installation
files have been saved and then reboot to proceed with the installation.
In contrast to previous Windows versions
like the XP and 7, the installation process for Windows 8 seemed a little bit
faster. It took us around 15-20 minutes to setup our machine right after we
downloaded the OS. In addition, the installer also pre-checks all existing
hardware attached to your computer before initializing the installation. We
find it best to start the installation on idle mode as the installer can
sometimes return an error saying that your computer doesn’t have the necessary
CPU speed or available RAM for Windows 8. Screen resolution is also important,
a screen with a resolution of 1280x800 is needed for Windows 8 to install and
if you like to have the Snap feature
to be enabled, you will need to have a screen with a resolution of 1366x768 or
higher.
Users will then be asked if they want to
upgrade to Windows 8 and overwrite their existing OS or install from a
different partition. Installing the OS in a different partition will make your
machine into a dual boot computer. If you decide to do the upgrade, your
computer will reboot into Windows 8 directly and once the installation is
complete. On the other hand, if you chose to put W8 on a different partition, a
boot menu screen will be shown right after you reboot your computer and you
will be asked to choose which operating system to use as default. Inactivity of
3 seconds will automatically choose W8 as default. Be very careful with this
selection as choosing W8 as the default OS will disable the boot selection menu
in the future.
Again, once the OS selection is complete,
you will then be asked to choose your theme colour and create an account which
will also become your login username and password.
User
Interface. Windows 8 was designed for touchscreen,
mouse, keyboard and pen input. But we can’t help but think that this OS is more
for touchscreen devices as it has the same look and feel of Windows Phone 7’s Metro UI. Just like WP7 devices, Windows
8’s home screen is filled with tiles for different applications which scroll
horizontally. The horizontal scrolling of tiles is very easy to achieve on
tablets with touchscreen surfaces. If you’re using a mouse, you can swipe
horizontally through the list of tiles by either dragging the scroll bar
horizontally with the mouse pointer or using the scroll wheel of your mouse.
You can also do this with your keyboard by pressing the left and right arrow
keys.
If you’re on Metro UI or within
applications, doing a right click anywhere on the screen will show you more
options to choose from. Right clicking will also show you a feedback button
which will ask for comments and suggestion on how Microsoft can improve the OS.
If you don’t like Metro UI, you still have
the option of having a good old Windows desktop. However, you’ll be surprised
to see the lack of a “Start” button. Instead, the only icons in the taskbar
would be the Internet explorer icon and the My Documents icon. Pressing the
windows button on your keyboard will bring you back to the Metro-style
interface. Another way of going back to Metro UI is to point your mouse at the
top-right or bottom-right portion of the screen and press the windows icon.
Aside from the windows icon, the right-side
pop-up menu also gives users the search icon for doing local searches on your
device for apps and files, the share icon which is used to share content from
different apps, the devices icon which gives users control of the various
devices attached to the computer and the settings icon, which of course allows
users to tinker with the pc’s settings.
Applications. The applications that come with Windows 8 is one of the key
features of the OS. Just like in WP7, application tiles for W8, update with the
latest downloaded information from the internet. Basic apps that come upon
installation include the xbox game market that allows users to download games
from the xbox marketplace. Just like other apps, content is presented in a
multitude of tiles with different sizes.
There’s also a reader app that functions
the same way as Adobe’s Acrobat reader.
The music app for the system is very
similar to the Zune music player found on most WP7 phones and Zune players. If
connected to the internet, the application will automatically download relevant
information about the artists and genre included in your playlist. There’s also
a list of featured artists in which you have the option of downloading specific
tracks from their album.
The People app is another app lifted from
WP7. The application lists all of your contacts from your windows live account.
You can also connect your accounts from other social networks such as Facebook,
Twitter and Linkedin. It also shows updates from you and your contacts from
your various social networks.
There’s also a Maps application which is
pretty straight forward. The app uses Bing maps, and if your device supports
GPS, it will automatically obtain your location via Global positioning. Users
are allowed to zoom up to the street level but not in a less detailed manner
than Google maps.
The Finance app pulls data from Bing
Finance to bring you the latest information on stocks and the stock market.
A Messaging app is also pre-installed for
your instant messaging accounts. By default, you will be signed in into the
Windows live messenger but you can also connect other accounts such as Facebook
chat to the app.
Then there’s the Photos app that allows
users to view images stored in their computers. However, by default you can
only view photos that are stored in your My Pictures folder. If you have other
files in other locations, you will need to transfer them to My Pictures in
order for them to be readily viewable by the app. The app can also show images
that are stored in your sky drive account (if you have one) and images that you
have uploaded to Facebook and Flickr. Facebook and Flickr photos can only be
viewed once you have connected your windows live account to these two social
networks. Sadly, we weren’t successful in making the app work with Facebook and
Flickr even though our windows live account already says that we are connected
via Facebook and Flickr (a glitch, perhaps?)
The Mail app by default shows your emails
from your Windows live account, but users also have an option to see mail from
their Google or Microsoft Exchange email addresses.
To be able to browse the internet users can
either choose from Internet explorer 10 which is used from the desktop or the
Internet explorer application from the home screen. Yes, you read it right; the
desktop application is different from the Metro UI application although they
serve the same purpose. We find it quite weird that Microsoft has setup IE to
behave this way in Windows 8. Moreover, the Metro UI app for IE appears to
display lower resolution images and texts compared to the desktop version.
The lockscreen for Windows 8 was lifted
from Windows Phone 7 as well. In order to unlock the computer, users need to
pull the lock screen wallpaper up using the mouse or using your finger by
making an upward stroke or by pressing the Up arrow key on the keyboard.
If the native apps are still not enough,
users can download a few apps from the W8 app store. There are only a few
applications currently available in the market so there’s limited choice on the
number and types of apps you can download and install into your device. In
fact, some categories don’t even have applications yet. We figured this much,
since W8 is still in its early stages, but it would be inevitable that the
number of apps in the app market will soon rise once Windows 8 has been
officially released.
Final
Words. The eminent official launch of Windows 8
will be a turning point for Microsoft who has long been with us since the dawn
of the personal computer. The operating system has been totally redesigned from
the ground up to cope with the rising popularity of touchscreen devices like
the iPad and other tablets. Over all Windows 8 seems more at home with tablets
and computers with touch input and less with ordinary devices controlled by a
keyboard and a mouse. But since this version is just a sneak peak of what
Windows 8 will eventually become, it is still too early to say how Microsoft
will modify the OS. Overall, the consumer preview of Windows 8 is almost as
usable as Windows 7. However, it still at its early stages of development and
we’re still not sure if the majority of the features that come with this
consumer preview will be fully implemented by Microsoft upon its final release.
As part of the receiving end of consumers, we just have to be patient and wait
until the full version of the operating system is released and goes main
stream.
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