IT Support | My Time with Windows 8
Posted by Anthony Checchia on Thu, May 03, 2012
Microsoft just recently released the Windows 8 Consumer Preview to the delight of many people, excited to get a hands on look at some of the new features in their newest version of Windows. Me being the curious person that I am decided why not check it out. I downloaded the ISO file from the internet, burned it to a dvd and popped it in my computer. Starting off the installation process was pretty quick and painless. Now I opted to plug in a spare hard drive and install Windows 8 onto that so I could keep my Windows 7 drive since this is just a beta after all, however Microsoft does offer several ways to install and will walk you through each step of the way.
Once the installation was complete I was introduced to the new Windows Metro start screen. I’ve never used a Windows phone which has had the Metro UI for a while now so this was all new to me, but it is pretty easy to navigate. If you’ve never seen Metro before then basically the best way to describe it is your screen will have many tiles that either provide information such as the weather or allow you to launch applications like Internet Explorer. Since Metro brings about a new look and feel most current apps are not designed to conform to it so Microsoft has kept the traditional desktop for those applications not able to work with Metro. The applications designed to work with Metro though are designed to use your entire screen and are not enclosed by a Window. Also interestingly enough there is no option to close apps in Metro, instead when you switch from one app to the other that app gets suspended similarly to the way apps work on mobile devices.
So far I’ve been personally enjoying the way Metro works. The full screen metro apps look really nice and underneath metro is just Windows 7. My only concern is that I can’t see business adopting Windows 8 if Microsoft doesn’t provide some means of disabling Metro. Like I said above I think it will be great for home users but Metro in my opinion might get in the way of productivity since users will now have to switch between two user interfaces in order to access their applications and data. On the whole I am looking forward to the release of Windows 8 and am looking forward to seeing the changes made between now and the release version. If after reading this article you’re feeling adventurous then head over to here http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/consumer-preview and download Windows 8 Consumer Preview. If you have any questions about how Microsoft products can help you increase the productivity of your business then contact us and allow us to assist you