{"id":136,"date":"2012-05-14T19:32:26","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T19:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.it-girl.net\/bl_g\/?p=136"},"modified":"2013-01-31T05:13:47","modified_gmt":"2013-01-31T05:13:47","slug":"thoughts-on-windows-8-consumer-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.it-girl.net\/?p=136","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on Windows 8 Consumer preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Windows<\/a>
Snapshot of Windows 8 Metro UI<\/figcaption><\/figure>What follows are my thoughts on the current Windows 8 Consumer preview. This is not a full-blown review of the OS. There are a lot of full reviews online that you can read.<\/p>\n

I have an older laptop that I am loathe to part with, although low on the specs for Windows 7, I figured it was a perfect test case for Windows 8. It’s a (pink) Panasonic R7, only sold in Japan (a few years ago), equipped with an Intel Core2 Duo 1.2 GHz processor which maxes out at 2GB of RAM; it’s most limiting factor. I installed Windows 8 Consumer Preview 32-bit without issue AND it ran great. The integration with my Windows Live account, social media, and internet were extremely fast and easy. No complaints getting started.<\/p>\n

Now, I’m what Microsoft would call a “power user” or desktop user. I often use these systems differently and for different purposes than I do my tablet or smartphone. So, my complaints (below) center around issues related to the “touchification” of the Windows 8 OS:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Not intuitive enough<\/strong> – I was quite lost when I initially came in to Windows 8. Through trial and error I found the bottom left corner brought up a Start Screen thumbnail and, if right-clicked, a Windows 8 abridged version of the Start Menu. The bottom\/top right corner yielded another overlay with shortcuts to settings, devices, search, and start.<\/li>\n
  2. Closing an App<\/strong> – If you want to “kill” or switch to another application, you have to Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up the Task Manager to close it, or bring up a taskbar-like overlay on the left side of the screen. Why, then, the taskbar in Desktop view? Other than the Task Manager, none of the other apps would appear there.<\/li>\n
  3. Shutting down<\/strong> – rebooting\/shutting down\/sleeping are more of a chore now. It took me awhile to figure out how to do it through the interface. In my early frustration, I simply used the power button to shut down. I now know that you can find those options by using Ctrl-Alt-Del and selecting the power button in the lower right, or bringing up the right-hand menu overlay, clicking settings, and selecting the power button.<\/li>\n
  4. Start Menu<\/strong> – Where, oh WHERE is my full Start Menu? In Windows 8 it is replaced by the Metro UI Start Screen, which is an inferior replacement at this point. Now, I have to scroll left or right to launch applications, or use shortcuts that I’ve added to the Desktop view.<\/li>\n
  5. Swiping<\/strong> – Swiping is great when using a touchscreen, horrible when using a mouse. Enough said.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In conclusion, I’d like to say to Microsoft that my desktop\/laptop is NOT a phone, NOR a tablet…please don’t try to force it into that paradigm. It feels like many Android smartphones do with their vendor-specific overlays that don’t quite work. It’s like you slapped the Metro UI on top of Windows. It’s not fully a touchscreen experience, nor an input device experience resulting in annoyances on both sides. Work it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What follows are my thoughts on the current Windows 8 Consumer preview. This is not a full-blown review of the OS. There are a lot of full reviews online that you can read. I have an older laptop that I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.it-girl.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.it-girl.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.it-girl.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.it-girl.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.it-girl.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/www.it-girl.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460,"href":"https:\/\/www.it-girl.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions\/460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.it-girl.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.it-girl.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.it-girl.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.it-girl.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}