Microsoft Windows 8, The TechSpot Review

I won't be getting 8 and hoping windows 9 gets back to being a desktop OS. Windows 7 will definetly be popular for a long while now.

I still don't understand why they are pushing it as Desktop OS.

I'll be sticking with Windows 7. That is an OS designed to be operated optimally with precision input devices. Which means that screen space is utilized efficiently throughout the interactive experience. Whether it is the resizable windows and their minimalist menu tree toolbars, or the compact icon-laden desktop and windows workspaces, or the feature dense configuration and interactive menus from general programs. Such UI efficiency is also most immediately evident in the excellent Start Menu. This one button centralizes all the functionality of your OS into one location - all neatly organized and easily accessible. Your personal files, pinned and most frequently used items, all program tree, universal search, computer explorer, control panel, devices, network, help and shutdown. Any one of those functions can be easily launched WITHOUT obscuring your multiple windows and desktop workspace. Productivity, research, entertainment, communication or a multitasking combination thereof, whatever task I want to accomplish on my computing device I do not want the UI system to get in the way. It is this unobtrusive and non-constrained nature of the Start Menu-Windows-Desktop-Icons-Pointer UI system of Windows 7 which I prefer.

Metroblox 8 has a full screen interface that is archaic and constraining in capability to both users and developers by comparison. Even the 'live' tile feature is not new, desktop gadgets/widgets of Windows 7 and XP provide identical functionality without being intrusive. I certainly hope that this mess of a UI system is discarded entirely or made optional in the next Windows.

I find it ridiculous that anyone would dismiss the Start button menu as irrelevant. Such people do not make full use of the functionality it provides so they obviously have no need for it.

One of the many frustrating things about Metro I found is that if you have multiple monitors you still can't leave any metro apps open (or start screen itself). As soon as you click on anything on the other screen it all minimizes.
For those who want start button there is a bit of help. IOBit has created an application for that. http://www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php. I am using it right now. It does not have the options as the original did,but it's a whole lot better than have to go to Metro every time you need something.

LNCPapa said:

"Windows 8 really isn't bad IMO. I've been very anti-new-ui but since I put 8 on my gaming rig and forced myself to use it daily it's kind of grown on me even more. The hardest thing I've had to accept is that the Windows 8 ui is actually just my Start Menu already fully expanded... problem is I never really launched my apps from the Start Menu. I thought about why I didn't do this and it's because of the time and mouse clicks it takes to expand the Start Menu - sooooooo... now I am getting used to launching from the NEW Start Menu (aka Metro UI). The Task Manager is just awesome and the file transfer windows are great! Being able to easily see live disk performance/activity without any third party tools is nice as well. I've had great gaming performance with it so far and haven't run into any problems yet. Overclocking my monitor took some different steps, but I was able to get things back to the way I want them after figuring out that I just had to use alternate methods. So far, I'm pleased."

I lost posts like these from users. Microsoft should recruit these people and put them into new advertising for Windows 8.

Best parts that would make excellent bullet points of the front of the Windows 8 packaging: "FORCED myself to use it daily". "The HARDEST thing I've had to ACCEPT". "Now I am getting USED to".

You could substitute some of these phrases into an interview with an incarcerated criminal and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Are they talking about Windows 8 or doing time in prison? Who knows?

Things to make you think. How many people reading these forums had to force themselves to use Windows 7?
I am not looking for an Operating System that I have to force myself to use. I am not looking for an Operating System that I can get used to over time. I am looking for an operating system that makes me say, "Hell yeah, I want that operating system because it does this, this, and this.

Humans can adapt to almost anything. But generally they only adapt when they have no other choice. Stop thinking there is no other choice. We the people, determine whether Windows 8 succeeds or fails. Use your power to influence the future. Don't adapt to something you have no interest in from the very beginning.

It's not the fear of change. It's that this OS isn't for desktops. It's for tablets. It's not an improvement to the previous version, but simply a change to the UI that enables it's use on the touchscreens. On the desktop computer it actually feels like a step down. When XP and 7 came out they were hard because there was just so much difference between them and their previous versions and so many more features that it was scary.

"You could also apply those phrases to a student being taught in school or a person moving into a new job or a person learning to play a video game."

Very good. And who would want to take that job or go to that school or play that video game if you did?

LNCPapa said:"
People cried and moaned about Windows XP when it came out because it was "too colorful and flowery" but now we're still trying to pry it from their cold, blood constricted hands because they hate change so much and refuse to switch to Win 7 because of this reason or that. The biggest hangup I've seen in technology is the fear of change. I've been working in IT and with computers in general for over 25 years now and I've almost always at least given the changes a fair shake before either accepting them or writing them off. I worked with someone a few years ago who was very upset to have to come to me for help on some AD related issues because he said he had been a Novell admin for over 20 years and now he has to talk to this "youngbuck". All I could say to him was "You should have kept up with the changing times... this is an AD shop and you refused to look at it at all since Novell is the only thing you thought we'd ever need."

Don't fear change or your time in IT will be just one or two generations and you'll be that old fogie that everyone calls "oldschool". I'll give it a shot and see if the millions in research that MS did actually does improve my productivity or enhance my experience.

Your so far off the mark on this one isn't even funny. It's not about fear of change. When I sit down at my desktop I ask myself one question. Does it make sense to take my precision-pixel-pointing device and ability to type 40/50/60+ wpm on my keyboard, throw it all out the window, replace it with my index finger, and expect it to somehow be better? Show me somebody typing a document faster with 1 finger than using 2 hands on a full-size keyboard. Show me somebody playing quake 3 or Warcraft 3 with 1 finger doing it better than they can with a full-size keyboard and pixel-precise pointing device. You cant!

If people truly feared change alone then Windows 7 wouldn't be the success it is today. What people fear is change for changes sake alone. This change from Windows 7 to Windows 8 is insanity. Its whacko. It's slapping a tablet interface on a desktop OS and expecting everybody to be happy.

"Yeah but why are you complaining, you can still use your keyboard and your mouse?" So why the hell do I need to even start using a single finger to do things on my desktop? I can do everything I need to do on my desktop NOW. I don't need Windows 8 to do anything new.

Using a touch-interface makes "sense" on a mobile device. So that people don't have to lug around a full-size keyboard and mouse. It doesn't make sense at home sitting in front of my 21.5" monitor. I don't hold my 21.5" inch monitor in my hands. It sits at least 36" away from my face. If I sat any closer than this to my 21.5" monitor I would start to go cross-eyed pretty damn fast. How many studies did Microsoft do with a classroom full of children holding 21.5" monitors in their hands and seeing how long they can hold those without getting tired? I can't believe I seriously have to explain these common sense points about why Windows 8 fails on the desktop.

And your classifying everyone who hasn't upgraded their OS as people who fear change which is not likely 100% of the people. If people use an operating system for 20 years it doesn't mean they fear change. It might actually mean they are happy with what they got and don't see the need for change. Which, currently, is where I stand with Windows 7, and even more so when I look ahead to the disappointing options that stand before me.

Rip out the retarded UI from the RTM version of Windows 8, release it in six months, as Windows 8 for Desktops, and people will be happy. People will stop bitching, It's not that difficult to solve this problem. If Microsoft wants to keep giving desktop users the middle finger, let em. I ain't budging from where I stand.

When XP came out it was actually a really bad OS. It took them 2 service packs to repair the bugs and major security problems and even then XP still had a lot of bugs. But nobody said that XP was a step backwards like we doing with win8.
I don't care if they put metro in, I can ignore it. I can install a 3rd party start menu. What people are complaining about are the restrictions. They put so many restrictions in as a insurance that people will use the new UI. They wanted developers to feel more secure when they invested money in new metro apps. This has failed! Now they have an OS will lots of restrictions that people hate and no good apps to make them think that those restrictions are worth the trouble.

Very nice review - - well written and the pics are a great help.
It also confirms my lack of interest

MS should have given the end user the option for the traditional desktop or the new Metro look. However, they pulled this same "no choice" nonsense with Office and that stupid "Ribbon" concept. MS is once again attempting to force feed what they want instead of providing choice to the end user.

Rather than learn a whole new MS system, I think I'm going to do what many others are going to do and simply learn the Apple OS instead. I predict Widows 8 is going to be a massive blunder and they will rush a Windows 9 to market just as fast as they attempted to erase Vista in an effort to return to an updated traditional desktop look . . . which was all that was needed. Most major companies are NOT going to spend a fortune having their IT department teach a whole new system to all the employees. They'll ride Widows 7 till support ends and if MS hasn't returned to their senses they too will be migrating to the Apple OS.

Bought windows 8 pro, digital download only from Microsoft windows store.

installed.
logged.
happy.

'nuff said.

Just a final thought . . . what MS has essentially done here is merely rearrange the deck chairs and the cabins on the Titanic. However, it's STILL the same ship! They have essentially just shuffled everything around and are telling us all to go re-find them again in Metro. Why? This was not necessary.

Like so many, I've been with MS since the original DOS operating system, 3.1, 95, etc. I also became a Beta tester for them. I came to learn where everything was like so many others. It was not necessary to now re-hide everything and have us go find everything again in Metro. What was broke on this ship was not WHERE things were located or the look of the desktop! In fact, the desktop was the most configurable thing about the system. You could tweak it endlessly to whatever look you wanted. We had CHOICE! That's now gone and we've got this one size fits all thing.

In short, this Metro thing was unnecessary and millions are not going to appreciate "re-finding" everything all over again simply because MS wanted something that "looked" new. The start button and desktop were NOT what was broken! This hide and seek-again game called "Metro" was unnecessary. They could just as easily have made that interface an "option" for those wanting it in a tablet, but the PC's should have been left alone.

I grabbed Win 8 at the weekend for £14.99 (deal for newly purchased Win7 laptop), and the whole dual personality desktop and Metro UI does add confusion as Julio says. It nicely picked up my photos, linked to Facebook, hotmail etc. I can see how it can have it's advantages. Kind of like the natural progression from desktop widgets (which I noted aren't supported in Win 8).

The first major downside I found was trying to add "Dishonored" game link to the start screen. Since it lists itself within "Steam" I couldn't find a way to do this. Can create a desktop link but didn't spend much time trying to figure out whether I could duplicate the desktop link as a start screen tile. It really just feels like a UI patch for tablets/touch devices rather than a new OS version. Going to have to have a good thorough read through the change log to see what the actual measurable improvements are other than the FisherPrice coloured tile start screen.

Shortcut seemed to be in the format of a URL through Steam, but I'll search out the exe and try selecting with "pin to start menu". Never got that far with my quick play after it finished installing. Thanks LNCP.

I am in the msdn so can get windows 8 Pro for free. I will check it out on a partision first, duel boot it with my windows 7, install aload of programs, I student, can't afford a hardware upgrade anytime soon, if windows 8 runs better than 7 on my ageing hardware then I will certainly switch, I will try install all the crap I have runing on 7 to get a better idea of how it runs under load (and not just as a clean install!)

my housemate installed it, and it was using up nearly 2 gigs of ram sat on the desktop before he had even installed anything.

I don'want to live on that Windows anymore...

Win 8 revived my interest in full screen browsing. Though I gather IE 10 has no mouse gestures, which I think is / would be silly. Using Chrome instead with some extensions. Win 8 has some good keyboard shortcuts to help with this.

Upgraded from Vista for somewhat snappier and safer system that would also have TRIM-support for my SSD. I'm using low-spec laptop with 1200 x 800 screen.