Windows 8: One Week or So

I am about one week or so into the Windows 8 upgrade experience and have the following random thoughts:

1. This is a very App oriented as opposed to document oriented experience. Whereas Windows XP through Windows 7 drove you off the desktop or document list and hid the menu behind the Start – Programs button, Windows 8 drops you right into the main apps menu. Mine is below:

   

2. This initially really frustrated me since I don’t care much for the apps, I care about the documents. However, once I started using it, I began to see the method behind this. The Desktop is still there – just hit ESC or click the Desktop icon showing IBIS above – and is just as integral for documents as in previous versions. They just made the Start button a much, much better apps browser accessible from the Windows key (or hovering in the bottom left corner) or manageable on a touch screen.
3. The metro apps that come with the product suck – part 1: Well, to be fair, the calendar is adequate and looks very iPadish.

   

4. The metro apps that come with the product suck – Part 2: The email client also looks very iPadish. However, it has two major flaws: it doesn’t integrate with our email signature software AND it doesn’t allow you to accept and manage meeting requests. Big problem for me. It’s a decent concentrator for all my Hotmail accounts (I have 4, plus a gmail, yahoo and three personal domain accounts), so that makes it moderately useful, but since I’m working on the desktop most of the time and not using a touchscreen, Windows Live Mail is still a better product.

1. The metro apps that come with the product suck – Part 3: Actually, the Skydrive app really rocks.

1. The metro apps that come with the product suck – Part 4: Actually, Andy bought me an experimental new mouse design to mimic touchscreen behaviors. It takes some getting used to but its working pretty well and helping me enjoy the experience more.

There’s a host of new features that I haven’t even touched yet. But, for now, it’s a guarded “I kind of like it”. When the touch screens come out, I’m definitely going to be an early adopter and I look forward to using the same OS setting across phone, touchpad and laptop.

More to come later,

Dwight

About these ads