Windows 8 Touchscreen and Traditional Desktop Review
Start Menu:Obviously the start menu switching its focus to apps and the fact that Windows 8 boots directly to this screen rather than the desktop is what makes Windows 8, Windows 8, rather than “Windows 7 service pack 2”. The live tiles for apps have potential as major apps are released but most of the live tile content on the default apps is as distracting as it is informative and I find myself turning off the live content in favor of a simple tile. Besides the apps all of the launchers to newly installed programs end up here in generic colored and titled tiles with the desktop icon in the center. Right click or swipe up from the bottom on a touchscreen to access the full list of app and program tiles you can add to your start screen.Windows Appstore:At launch the Windows appstore app simply titled “Store” in the tiles lacks most major apps that would truly make the whole start menu tiles worth looking at. Popular music players, official email account apps, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, video players, Amazon content apps, Google content apps, Steam, Origin, weather services,maps, etc. etc. are all currently nowhere to be found (outside of the Microsoft branded iterations so until these things start popping up the appstore is but a curiosity and the apps that are available now are hardly worth using over accessing the same content from a desktop browser. It will all come eventually but this is windows 8 we’re talking about here, the OS that all new PCs ship with, for those not proficient with computers in the first place the underwhelming app store is going to be a big turn-off. Developers have had access to the final app creation platform for months and months prior to 8’s launch so that lack of major apps found on Apple and Android appstores is simply the result of how incredibly hesitant bigwig companies are of Windows 8, their reluctance to jump on board from the getgo has caused this major platform to appear as a ship taking on water and appearing as if it may well sink. Once all the big holes in the appstore are plugged we will finally see Windows 8’s potential set sail but that may take awhile it seems. Until then you’ll be wearing out the “desktop” tile on your way to the content you want.App Snapping:By clicking and dragging from the top of the desktop screen or app you may move it to the right or left side of the screen and snap it into a smaller side-panel for viewing and managing content whilst running something else in the larger portion of the screen. You can grab another app or the desktop by putting your mouse in the left hot corner and moving down or swiping in from the left on a touchscreen. this is a great feature for use with social apps and media players especially so that you always have simultaneous access to relevant content and features.Charms:Accessed from the right hot corners or by swiping in from the right is the charms menu. the universal search bar as well as settings and social sharing of content are the main things to be found there. Under “change PC settings” found on the bottom of the settings charm list you can select windows customizations including lock screen types as well as start menu background and color scheme, universal app settings, and microsoft account sync settings. The biggest con to the charms menu is that the often-used power, sleep, shutdown, and restart buttons take far longer to access than ever before on a Windows OS, to do so now requires moving mouse to right hot corner > moving mouse up along the edge of the screen to fully display the charms > clicking settings > clicking “power” > clicking shut down or whatnot. With a mouse this is a 5 step process, with a touchscreen 4 as the full charms menu is displayed by a quick in-from-the-edge swipe. On previous iterations of Windows shut down was accomplished with 2 clicks or the full list of power options in 3. This is honestly my biggest gripe with Windows 8, these very necessary functions are just plain annoying to access when needed using the default method. With a tablet or laptop you have physical buttons to put the device to sleep but for desktop PCs it’s a real pain.Windows Explorer Ribbon UI:The ribbon interface on all “windows explorer” file folders seems unnecessary for mouse and keyboard use, yes all of the different actions are there in large buttons for easy access but some additional actions require you to switch ribbon tabs making a simple right click on the file and selecting your option from there quicker and easier, I just can’t justify selecting a folder or file then moving my mouse to a large action icon when I can just right click and left click off of the traditional menu that is right there. The ribbon UI first reared it’s head in “Windows Live Essentials” applications that were made available for download near Windows 7 launch.On a touchscreen the ribbon UI makes actions easier as right clicking accomplished by pressing and holding becomes the slower method and the larger buttons make accidentally choosing the wrong action with your fat fingers unlikely.Task Manager:Task manager has received a makeover with new ways of displaying the same old information, one notable addition is the startup tab where you can disable programs that by default launch with windows, the same could previously only be accessed in windows by “msconfig”. Having those options in task manager makes good sense and makes it easier to make such changes.Touchscreen use:Touchscreen Use:Windows 8 truly was designed specifically for touchscreens and the fact is if you don’t have one some of the new gestures and start screen menus are a bit of a pain to access with a mouse. If you don’t read a guide to windows 8 features you will experience those fun times where you know what you want to do but just can’t figure out what gesture or action you must take to get there most notably in start menu app and tile navigation. Everything feels like an Android or Apple app from a tablet experience however certain settings, menus or controls aren’t always located in a simple logical manner and frankly the generic app settings are cumbersome and time consuming to get at without either memorizing the hotkeys or spending time swiping, then tapping, then getting to the settings rather than a simple, always accessible, small settings button that is always right there at your fingertips like I’m used to on Android tablets.Windows 8 is very precise about the touch enabled screens received signals from the user, very small icons and settings are generally easy to hit exactly what you intended and there is virtually no delay between start screen, app, and desktop navigation thanks to the higher-end hardware and ample RAM that windows 8 devices contain.I expect that touchscreen capabilities will be the next standardized upgrade since the desktop monitor market has been at a standstill ever since thin LED backlit displays have become as cheap as CFL backlit LCDs once were. Resolutions have been the same for years, OLED panels are still too expensive, and 4K hasn’t quite hit yet, so touchscreen capabilities are the next logical standardized feature. As desktop monitors with capacitive touchscreens become affordable the general populace will finally begin to see the benefits that touch navigation and gestures truly can provide. Windows 8’s touchscreen oriented design isn’t a gimmick but it is a gamble in the desktop market. Microsoft is counting on strong growth in the touchscreen tablet/ultrabook sector, it remains to be seen if their gamble will pay off in the short term or if this will just serve as the spark that makes manufacturers start bringing touch capabilities into their displays of all types. It may be that the market won’t be saturated with touch display options until Windows 9 comes around to receive glowing reviews at a time when the technology that windows 8 is encouraging now finally becomes affordable and commonplace.Multiple Displays:Windows 8 functions quite well in traditional extended mode far better than windows 7. Now backgrounds can span (properly) across multiple monitors, different backgrounds can be displayed on different screens, and taskbars can be enabled or disabled independently on each screen. Windows 7 extended mode felt like “attack of the clones” (pun) as every screen displayed the same background which was especially annoying when screens had different resolution. Also Windows 8 properly detects and enables extended mode on graphics cards capable of even more than 2 display outputs.Nvidia Surround / AMD Eyefinity:For those with NVidia 2D/3D surround or AMD eyefinity 3 screen software-created single resolution setups many apps including the windows store do not display correctly at such resolutions. Many apps aren’t designed to query the display resolution and scale accordingly and therefore cut off content that cannot even be viewed when scrolling, other games and the like attempt to scale unsuccessfully to the full resolution rather than sticking to the center screen resulting in an unusable aspect ratio. I’m not sure if Microsoft or Nvidia will fix this but Windows 8 has been available for a long while to developers so there isn’t really any excuse for this problem to remain at launch. If the issue must be fixed by Microsoft then it may be a long time in coming as they are likely deaf to power users with such capabilities. NVidia/AMD on the other hand would have to restrain the entire app screen to a single display with desktop showing on the others.Conclusion:So how different is Windows 8 really? Windows gadgets are gone, the start menu is now a list of square and rectangular tiles, a few smaller UIs received a makeover to make the same commands accessible in a different way, Aero glass is gone in favor of solid window borders, and smooth scroll is utilized for both touchscreens and touchpads alike. Honestly these changes are roughly the full extent of the meddling Microsoft did going from Vista to 7. Most of what was in Vista ever since SP1 is in Windows 7 and now 8. However 8 provides the most jarring changes simply by making its app start menu and hot corners unavoidable. Windows 8 requires you to retrain your brain as much as the transition from XP to Vista. Vista was widely hated yet all it did was reorganize where and how things were done which is why windows 8 has similarly received negative press and user reviews. Yes, it is different, yes we humans get flustered and bang our keyboards when something that we are used to working a certain way changes too much, but honestly everything is still there, and yes certain things take longer to get at just as other things are now easier. By the time Windows 9 comes out with minor changes just like 7 was to Vista it will likely be hailed as a solid OS simply because by then all of these navigational changes will be understood by us and the appstore will have been long-since established and filled to the brim with great content. Happy is he who takes the time to learn how to use the new rather than cry and swear at it. :)There certainly are reasons to hate Windows 8 if you are so inclined to react that way when you find your cheese has been moved to a new location but in the end this is still the same windows OS that we’ve had since 2007 with a shuffled deck and a new set of tiles on top. Is Windows 8 for you? For the tablet, laptop, and ultrabook there are definite advantages with the app start screen. It’s all about streamlined accessibility to content when you boil it all down. As long as you take the time to google the quirks on Windows 8’s navigation you will likely find the focus on apps and app snapping useful and timesaving. Other than that it’s just same ol’ windows, love it or hate it.TIPS & TRICKS:SKIP LOCKSCREEN AND MICROSOFT ACCOUNT LOGIN: When you associate a Microsoft account to Windows 8 you are forced to go through the lock screen and Microsoft account password login screen every time you turn on your PC. On mobile devices this makes good sense (pins and picture passwords can alternately be used) but for home desktops this extra step can be an unnecessary annoyance. If you wish to disable the mandatory lock screen and password go to the start screen > type “netplwiz” without the quotation marks > the command for netplwiz appears in the search results in the left pane, click that command > in the User Accounts window that appears select the account you wish to use to log in automatically > uncheck the box that says “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.” > Click OK. > Enter your password to confirm it. > Click OK. > Windows now bypasses the lock screen and the log-in screen taking you directly to the Start Menu tiles.RE-ENABLE WINDOWS GADGETS PLATFORM: do a google search for “8gadgetpack” download and install. This adds the directory that was available in Vista, 7, and even the consumer preview edition of 8.SHUTDOWN MENU HOTKEY: alt+F4 brings up an alternate shutdown menu from the desktop rather than the charms menu. Just make sure to (left click) select the desktop before pressing that key combination or it will close out whatever browser or window you were last using instead.GENERAL WINDOWS 8 HOTKEYS:Charms Bar: windows+cSettings Charm: windows+iSearch: windows+qCycle Running Apps: windows+tab

I’ve got two XP disks in my desktop Dell, so I thought I’d sacrifice the lesser used of the two to get to know Microsoft’s latest OS (until next year when Windows 10 appears). The price is irresistibly good for the Pro version.The whole process takes a very long time – mine was complicated by the constant restarts which booted into the XP disk (despite changes to the boot.ini file and the fact that I have a Linux partition). If I did it again, I’d disconnect the disk I wanted to keep. There were no hiccups that didn’t relate to my configuration and the main XP disk survived unchanged.In fact Windows 8.1 saved me a lot of time & effort recently. The first XP disk had been working perfectly after the 8.1 update to the second disk, but, suddenly, I couldn’t boot in, not even in safe mode. Changed the boot order and fired up 8.1. Immediately Windows 8.1 flagged up the fact that the other (XP) disk was corrupt and set about repairing it! It’s 2Tb and almost full, so the process wasn’t quick but it was successful and, up to now, both disks are working OK.The downside of the update is the huge number of broken programs. Most can be corrected by reinstalling but all of the GAOD programs have lost their registrations. Never mind; if I really need them, I’ll find freeware alternatives or pay for the commercial originals, but I don’t use any of them enough to be attached to them.Where I missed the simplicity of XP, I found freeware workarounds and still managed to enjoy the new features of Windows 8.1.Just one thought occurs: My Dell sounds a bit overworked (sometimes a lot) and I wonder if I could transfer the licence to a new machine when this one wheezes it’s last. Anyone know the answer?

A faster Windows than Windows, if you will. I find Windows 8 boots and runs very quickly. It is also rock stable. I did find Metro to be useful on occasion, but decided that I wanted the day to day desktop experience and start button back. So rather than crap all over the OS with low ratings, I went out and spent less than 10 bucks on three applications from StarDock — Start8 to get a better start button than Windows 7, ModernMix — to allow me to have Metro apps in windows on the desktop (because some of the apps are better than the Windows 7 versions, for example Kindle and Skype), and Fences — to perfectly organize my desktop. Once you do that, Windows 8 is a great experience. I wish more people would just do that rather than pounding the OS unfairly. Note that Windows 8.1 will fix most of these natively, although I will bet that StarDock will still do it better.