Windows 8 Review

I've had this system for a week or so now, and whilst it's graphically very nice and possibly boots faster than Windows 7, the whole dual-system thing for a PC is a bit of an overkill (although you could say you are possibly getting value for money).

Unfortunately the apps available are usually extremely primitive - take the Dropbox one for example : You can't upload or download files; just view them. So if you need to do that you have to use the desktop version...

You can't search for specific apps in the store; the email and web browser apps are primitive too - I hope they will be significantly upgraded in a service pack or something.

There is only one program that has been a bit of a bother - Star Wars : Force Unleased II plays fine. However, it's patch wont run (keeps saying that the program isn't installed). No great loss as I've completed it (multiple times).

Shortcut creation during installation is amusing. Sometimes they go on the desktop, and sometimes on the Surface tiles, but usually not both.

The lack of the Start button is a real pain as it means switch back and forth between the two systems to run an application - plus, it also introduces an extra step to switch the machine off.

However, on the plus side, a scan disk on the boot drive no longer requires a reboot, although I don't think that does the full 5 pass check.

Some of the horizontal bars are hard to see (especially in the Store), with light grey on white not being a terribly good colour scheme.

All in all, its a nice, pretty non-essential upgrade (the only reason I have it is that I needed to check various things work with 8), which needs some serious upgrades.

I couldnt do without a Start Menu so installed Classic Shell which gives you the option of Win 98, Win XP or Win 7 start menus and to boot to desktop. I do use the start panel every now and again as it is quite easy to use with a mouse that has sideways movement on the wheel you can skim across the screen quite quickly and choose the program.

I class the apps as Fisher Price programs. Pretty basic and take up the whole screen when I like to keep my eye on other things simultaneously.

One problem I have found with the start screen is that because there are no folders for example I have 3 shortcuts for command prompt one that runs on the desktop, one that runs as admin on the desktop and one that runs under xp mode that I installed post installation. I have to remember which is which and when quickly selecting start tiles its quite easy to select the wrong one.

Other than that I like it and it starts a lot faster than XP which seemed to take forever, maybe I had too many startup programs.

You can't search for specific apps in the store;

One correction for you. You can search the store. Whilst in the store open the charms bar (either by moving mouse to bottom right or swiping in from the right if it's a touch screen) and select search. The search context will default to the app you are on (so in this case the store).

I find the web browser to be pretty good - whilst it doesn't have flash/java/etc if any of that content is on the page then it asks if you want to open it in the full browser (assuming you aren't using RT).

And it all works so much better with touch.

Your point about searching the store underlines the fact that you have to understand how the Charms menu works. It is context-sensitive, so a searc in one context will be different from a search in another. Same goes for "Settings". It's one of the really nice things about 8.

The lack of a Start menu, which so many people mention isn't important. If that's what you want it's trivial to implement. I find that on my desktop I work almost exclusively in Desktop mode, so have set it up appropriately. But on the laptop I boot into Start Page mode.

The interface changes don't really bother me. I've used so many interfaces in the past - and still do now - that change doesn't bother me. If for nothing else, Windows 8 is worth it for the performance alone. And I find the development environment kinda neat.

I like 8.

But then you're an Essex man Alf

I'm not keen on 8, much prefer XP (most probably an age thing)

Edited by deleted (Fri 01-Mar-13 13:59:14)

I wouldn't class them as Fisher Price applications - they are more like Kinder Surprise...

I am really a London man, Upton Park born and bred but we got sensible and moved out of London years ago.

I use startisback and I have not seen the metro UI for weeks. I tried it for a week, but it really got on my nerves, it is like too different Os.

I used that for a month, then tried Classic Shell.
I like it better, and it's free