I myself always like to try new things in software and applications. Especially operating systems which plays important part in our lives now a days. So whenever any thing comes up as beta I take plunge and test it in and out. I just like doing that. Currently I am having four operating systems on my system; Win 7 Pro, Ubuntu 12, Mac OS X Lion, and Win 8 RTM. In the past I have even installed Ice Cream Sandwich on my laptop and played with it! In the same way I tried my hands on upcoming OS from Microsoft – Windows 8, and so I would like to share my experience and show you few things in this latest innovation from MS which are totally new and those which confuses first time user.
Explorer
Variants
MS is launching its new flagship product in different variants – Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8 Enterprise, and Windows RT. Pro and RT are absolutely different platforms. What this means is Pro will run on Intel processors and it’s going to have both the environments, Desktop and Metro (Modern. More on this later), while RT (Runtime) will run on ARM chips having only Modern interface (Tiles) targeted towards tablets. So I can say Windows RT will be in direct competition with iPad and Android tablets. MS is giving out some nice offers on purchase of Windows 8. If you are buying Windows 7 PC between 2 July 2012 and 31 January 2013 then you will get the Windows 8 for just $14.99 (Rs. 699). If you already have a valid licensed copy of Windows 7 then you can make the upgrade for just $39.99. These offers are valid till 31 Jan 2013, after that prices will be as usual approximately $199-$250. So I don't find any reason not to upgrade because I am going to do it on 26th!
I have been using Windows 8 since its inception i.e. since Microsoft launched its Developer Preview (DP) back in early 2012. After the DP came Consumer Preview, then Release Preview, and finally Microsoft released the final version of Windows 8 called Release To Manufacturing (RTM). RTM is the version which is shipped to manufacturers such as Dell, HP for their testing. MS allowed everyone to download this version for free and to use it for 90 days. So currently I am on RTM. Microsoft was inspired to develop this new interface (which was till now called as Metro interface but a company from Germany already had this name so MS ditched the name and now temporarily calling it Modern) from its own products – Xbox and Zune. The same interface was reflected in Windows Phone 7 which MS launched in October 2010 as their upgrade to already diminished Windows Phone 6. MS has actually made this OS from ground up. Obviously lot of the part is taken directly from Windows 7’s firm foundation but Modern interface is totally new, intuitive, and quit responsive. Windows 8 now makes use of DirectX coupled with hardware acceleration for its operation which makes it so fluid. Basic idea behind Windows 8 was to make it touch friendly because MS has already seen itself to be late in the party, behind Apple and Android by huge margin, and so it needed a product which will fit in the existing world of desktop PCs as well as tablets. In order to compete with these two players it has to be fast, it has to have good ecosystem (lots of apps), and to top it all it has to be something new. And I think MS has delivered the exact thing – an OS which has traditional Desktop element in it and new Modern interface for tablets which has all new ecosystem of apps designed especially for Windows 8.
Apps & Cloud
Windows 8 is built around the concept of apps. Just like Apple’s AppStore, MS has its own Windows Store. Earlier the Store had very few apps and they were all Preview apps from MS and the basic ones were inbuilt such as Mail, Messaging, People, and Photos etc. But as the product grew the number of apps boosted dramatically. Currently it has over 5000 apps which is I think good amount even though the OS itself is yet to launch. When Apple launched iOS it also had roughly same amount of apps and so was Android.
Windows Store
Boot time & New Start
My first impression of Windows 8 was dull when I first installed Developer Preview as a virtual machine alongside my existing Windows 7 Professional. It seemed to be just another slow and sluggish OS from MS. But hey it was earlier beta version and on top of it I was running it as a virtual machine. After booting up, the first thing I noticed was its boot time. 7 seconds flat! And shutdown time is also remarkable, just 3 seconds. Lot of online bloggers are saying it’s somewhat faster than Mac OS X in boot time! Next thing I noticed is the presence of Start screen, with live tiles which you can scroll horizontally along the screen. Basically this was not new to me as I was already using Windows Phone 7 since 1 year and it has got the same tiled interface. With the introduction of this new Start screen MS has removed traditional Start button from the desktop. Now if you click Windows button on your keyboard it will take you to this Start screen.
Start Screen
Whole Windows community complained about this switch but let me tell you, all the things which you were doing with start menu can be done in the Start screen. I would say it’s more functional than the start menu. Once you’re on the Start screen just start typing the word you are looking for and it will present you with the thing you wanted. You also have the options of searching either in Apps, Settings, Files, also within the apps installed in your system, for example you are looking for meaning of a word. After typing the word just select any dictionary app installed and you are done.
Search
‘Charm’ed Shortcuts
Getting around the OS is a tricky part if you are using it first time such as how to find (My) Computer, Power/Sleep options, settings for each app etc. Actually when you install and power the Windows 8 first time, it shows you a tutorial screen on how to move around but I think that’s very limited. All that says is move your mouse to upper right corner for ‘Charms Bar’. But it doesn’t show us how to switch between the apps, how to close the apps, and how to open ‘new’ control panel. Let’s see it one by one. Charms Bar is basically a slide-in menu which gives you five things – Search, Share, Start, Devices, and Settings.
Charms Bar
To get the Charms Bar move your mouse to either upper right corner or lower right corner. In case of touch screen just swipe your finger from right side of the screen. ‘Search’ lets you… well, search within the app or within the computer for files or over the internet using the browser. ‘Share’ allows you to share the content from the currently opened app. Unfortunately you cannot share anything from Desktop though. ‘Start’ brings you back to start screen. ‘Devices’ shows you connected peripherals such as camera, printers. ‘Settings’ is all you will need most of the time because that’s where you will go to access power/sleep options, control panel, and computer settings. Suppose you are into an app and want to access its settings, no need to dig deep this is the place you would come to which I like considering its ease of access. So in short the options on Charms Bar are universal. Another most basic thing we do every day is to switch between open apps or windows. Like previous Windows versions Windows 8 also supports Alt+Tab but what if you want to do with mouse or you are on a touch screen. Well just bring your mouse to upper left corner it will show you last used/switched app. If you want to see rest of them just drag the mouse down from upper left corner. Yes I agree it’s a bit tedious with mouse but believe me on touch screen it an easy and fluid with your fingers.
App Switcher
Now what if you want to close an app? Hmm now you are talking because that ‘X’ mark is nowhere to be seen on the app. Don’t freak out just hold the app from its top and drag all the way down. Nice idea but as I said before MS should have included this in the tutorial screen. Another cool thing in Windows 8 is Snap feature. If you remember in Windows 7 you can snap two windows side by side, in the same way Snap in Windows 8 puts two apps side by side but it doesn’t make them share the screen 50-50, instead one app shares 70% of the screen while another app gets the rest. This is helpful when you want to play music or monitor something in an app then keep that less important app on rest 30% and work on the more important one. In the same way you can snap your desktop because now in Windows 8 the good old desktop is just another app!
Snap
X Menu & Settings
Even though MS has removed the old start button it has introduced a new menu called X Menu. Again there's nothing which tells you this menu exist. If you go to lower left corner you will see a very small snapshot of your Start screen, clicking it takes you to Start. But if you right click on that you will get a menu which I think has all the important shortcuts such as Run, Control Panel, Computer Properties, Event Viewer coupled with other things. So in essence I am not missing the old sweet Start button.
X Menu
Way To Start
Let’s now talk about the new Control Panel. While using it you don’t feel that you are using Windows! It has a different UI specifically targeted for tablets. And the changes you make take effect on the fly, in contrast with traditional Windows where you have to click Apply. From here you can control most of the things such as User Accounts, Lock Screen/Start Screen wallpapers and colours, Sync Options to name a few. Basically MS has done a good job building this Control Panel because it’s pretty straight forward and don’t confuse the average Joe.
New Control Panel
Social Integration
In Windows 8 Facebook and other social media is deeply integrated. You can associate your Hotmail ID with FB, Twitter, and Google in order to make your Windows 8 PC/tablet a one stop shop for all your social interactions. I have done this myself when I purchased my Windows Phone 7. By doing this you are basically granting Hotmail the access to your social profiles, thereby getting all updates at one place. You don’t have to dig deep to find what’s new from your friends. Just open the People app and there you have it all. I will cover all the built-in apps including SkyDrive, Mail, Messaging, Photos, People in more detail in my next chapter so kindly bear with me.
SkyDrive Integration
If you are a Hotmail user then you must be knowing what SkyDrive is. It’s an online storage from MS. Initially MS offered everyone 25GB of storage for free but now they have decreased it to 7GB. You can get more space by paying some fee. I was among the lucky few who got 25GB free space and I am making full use of it!
IE10
IE10
We all know that MS had done a good job with IE9 but I think for Windows 8 they had planned something else, something new and attractive – IE10. IE 10 is supported on Desktop as well as in Metro/Modern by default. Snapshot here show IE10 in Metro. Web browsing is pretty fast and page rendering has also improved in the version. Like other browsers this also supports HTML5 and like IE9 it makes use of GPU for rendering. But currently it doesn’t have some features for example to switch from Metro to Desktop you have to open a separate instance, you cannot just port current browsing session over. I hope they bring this feature in the next update.
Windows Defender
Virus have always been the guest of Windows since Windows 95. No matter what you put as a software for defending it it will find its way in. In this process we often install anti-virus software which is very heavy on the processing and slows our system down doing nothing, and we blame the OS for that sluggish performance. So to ease out things, MS is bringing out this iteration of Windows with anti-virus/anti-malware built in. It's called Windows Defender.
Defender
Defender is not new, it saw the light of the day in Windows Vista, but then it was useless even in Windows 7 because all that was doing was some little function of a firewall in the background. Few years ago MS started rolling out its own anit-virus software Microsoft Security Essentials for free. But it didn't get proper exposure and not many people knew about it. So they thought of ditching that name and bringing Defender to play its role. Now Defender keeps running in the background without making any fuss but detecting unwanted guests accurately, and even if you scan the system with this thing it won't eat your resources too much. I clocked my CPU usage during a scan and it was hardly 20%!
My Take
Windows 8 is good, really good as far as speed and stability is concerned. On top of it it doesn't have any driver issues as many people must be assuming. I never face any hardware issue on my system which is three years old... it just worked. And the best part is that the minimum hardware requirements for Windows 8 are very low so that you can actually use your old desktop PC, no need to upgrade RAM or processor. However, lot of tech pundits are worried that there will be a steep learning curve for a lot of people but I don't think so with the new generation. Yes older generation will obviously find it a little confusing but don't forget human brain is the most adaptable thing in the world, and if it can learn Apple devices then obviously.....
Lock Screen
