Microsoft BUILD: Windows 8, A Pre-Beta Preview
by Brian Klug & Ryan Smith on September 13, 2011 12:05 PM EST- Posted in
- BUILD
- Windows
- Microsoft
- Windows 8
- Trade Shows
The Desktop User Experience & Business Use
While we’re primarily focusing on Windows 8 as a tablet OS since the hardware we used was a tablet, we also wanted to evaluate it some as a desktop OS. As the sample tablet was compatible with Bluetooth peripherals, we were able to pull out a BT keyboard and mouse and use it like a traditional laptop/desktop environment. With that said I’d like to preface our impressions with the following: as it stands Windows 8 is clearly focused on tablets first and Microsoft’s presentation was equally tablet focused, and it’s almost certain the experience will change before Windows 8 ships.
Overall Windows 8 is extremely jarring right now from a desktop user perspective. Metro is the Windows shell, no ifs ands or butts. Metro applications can only be accessed through the Metro shell (i.e. the Start Screen), and the Metro shell is always what the tablet will boot up into. Explorer as we know it is the Metro shell – if you kill it, you kill Metro shell with it – so at this time it’s not possible to boot up into the traditional Windows desktop. Even if you could, the Start Menu is gone, replaced with Metro charms.
So what we’re really evaluating is the ability to use the Metro shell and Metro applications with a mouse. For all the good Microsoft has done implementing multi-touch, the mouse has clearly suffered as it currently stands. Click & drag does not operate the same as tap & drag, which creates some oddities when you want to scroll around. In fact scrolling is probably the biggest oversight right now, as the Metro style dictates applications are laid out left-to-right rather than top-to-bottom. The mouse wheel will (slowly) scroll through tiles on the Start Screen, but in other places such as the Microsoft BUILD application the mouse wheel is useless. In its place you have to drag a scroll bar around, which is about as fun as it was prior to mice coming with a wheel.
Internet Explorer is particularly weird. Because it takes the full screen approach there isn’t a menu bar to speak of, and the tabs and URL bar are hidden. Invoking them requires right-clicking, with right-clicking pulling double duty as a way to open a link in a new tab and invoking the various bars. This also means that right-clicking for other purposes (e.g. View Source, etc) are unavailable.
The good news is that most of the traditional keyboard shortcuts still work, including Alt-Tab, WinKey + D, WinKey + E, and Ctrl-Alt-Esc. You can even Alt-Tab between launched Metro applications. The Start Menu search bar is also faithfully replicated on the Start Screen, so when you start typing Windows 8 will start narrowing down results of things to open. So overall keyboard users maintain much of their advantage in quickly executing applications. At the same time we’ve encountered fields that we can’t tab to, so not everything is working as it should.
While we’ve only had a short period of time work play with Windows 8 with a mouse and keyboard, at this point in time there’s not a lot to say that’s positive. Metro works well as a tablet interface, but with a mouse and keyboard it’s like using a tablet with a mouse and keyboard. Hopefully Microsoft will have a more suitable mouse & keyboard control scheme ready to go for Windows 8 farther down the line.
Windows 8 the Business OS
So far Microsoft has been focused on the consumer side of Windows 8, but business users won’t be left out in the cold. Windows 8 will also be the basis of a new version of Windows Server (also using Metro), and Windows 8 clients will have some new features.
The business additions announced so far for Windows 8 revolve around Remote Desktop and Hyper-V. Windows 8 Remote Desktop includes proper support for multi-touch controls, so tablets and other touch devices will be able to RDP into other machines and correctly interact with them. Meanwhile Windows 8 will add support for Hyper-V (previously it was Server-only), allowing Windows clients to spawn virtualized instances of Windows through the Hyper-V hypervisor.
Microsoft also used their discussion on the business side of Windows 8 to announce that Windows 8 will support installation onto and booting off of a USB drive, allowing business users to carry their copy of Windows with them. This has been a repeatedly requested feature for many years from more than just business users, so hopefully it will be everything everyone has always wanted.
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Zan Lynx - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
Interesting isn't it, that Microsoft has made versions of Server 2008 that don't have a desktop.I haven't run a server with a GUI in the last 12 years. Who would?
Text file based configuration that can be remotely managed, programmed and monitored entirely by script...
Using a GUI to point and click is horribly inefficient and doesn't scale to more than two servers.
Real sysadmins don't do pretty. They want it to work. Real sysadmins don't spend time clicking GUI buttons configuring new machines. They boot them and they auto-configure from the network. You never touch a GUI. Just the power button.
You might use a GUI to configure one user as a template in Active Directory. You'd never use the GUI to add 100 new employees to the system.
The real use for the GUI is to distract the management while you get real work done behind the scenes using a laptop and an SSH command line.
A GUI for tiling your command windows might be acceptable. Barely.
smithg5 - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
My point wasn't that all sysadmins use GUIs now, but that the GUI hasn't gotten in the way of sysadmin work on a command-line, even though in most cases for Windows it starts up with the computer. This is a useful analogy for all these fears about Metro in a business environment.That said, most of the volume Microsoft sees for Windows server is that "two servers" size environment. Most businesses don't even have 100 employees. For the rest you'll still have your desktop, and that desktop will still have a command-line interface. And hey, they might even make desktop-less, Metro-less versions for the enterprise. If they don't, it won't somehow make your text-file configuration, CLI remote administration wizardry stop working. You'll just be a couple of clicks from that when you start up your server/laptop, and then you'll have something pretty to look at during your breaks. Those servers that you never see the desktop of will benefit from a smaller memory footprint. What's the problem?
piroroadkill - Thursday, September 15, 2011 - link
No, not really. For the vast majority, the gui represented a way to use a computer that made sense to more people.Metro is just a kind of gui, but heavily designed around touch and full screen tablet style use.
It's simply a bad fit for desktop users. I tried the dev preview, and I'm not impressed in the slightest.
This time, it isn't about resisting change for the sake of it. Really. The dev preview is seriously quite bad. Keyboard and mouse wise, it just sucks.
TEAMSWITCHER - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
I've got the Developer Preview Up and running on a machine and I must say that I absolutely hate it! Whenever I click on the Windows Start Icon (lower left corner) you go to the Start Screen (METRO GUI), the Start Menu is gone! That's just not cool. Also the full screen metro apps are real easy to get lost in, it's begging for some kind of Mac OS X like Mission Control to see all running processes. There is no Back Button, I have to hit the Windows key to get back to the Start Screen. The Desktop (which has been standard on every Windows machine since the dawn of time) is now a strange bolt-on appendage to the METRO GUI experience. I don't know...this isn't beta yet and things may change....but so far consider me one totally pissed off Windows user...this shit isn't Windows. Feels more like Vista meets Bob. Oh, and calling icons "Charms" is gay.UMADBRO - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
Well, at least you tried it. But try and remember, this is still a pre-beta, and isnt finished yet.Icehawk - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
What are they trying to achieve? If it is one OS to rule them all I think they are making some serious mistakes as I do not believe traditional computing will be dominated by cellphones or tablets, they serve a much different function and will continue to do so indefinitely IMO. The apparent dumbing down of the OS to mimic a smartphone seems like a terrible idea to me.*Assuming* the desktop/Metro experience isn't radically altered the paradigm shift to right-hand panes (ie, the "charms" menu) makes no sense, for the last 10-15 years we've worked from the left. Works fine if I'm using a tablet but that is it - on a desktop nothing could be more jarring. Especially when it isn't uniform, for example the Start menu still pops up on the left. Ugg.
Also why does anyone think I want a touchscreen on my desktop? How am I supposed to reach it my arms are not 3' long! I guess we'll be forced at the least to use multi-touch pads? I hope it will work in tandem with a mouse since I'm not sure how the hell I'd game using a touchpad.
Shinya - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
Microsoft,I really dont care for Ubuntu (lack of support and games) and OSX (lack of games, software, etc etc)
Please don't make me switch.
give us the ability to turn off Metro when it releases
ct82fl - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
I think if Microsoft really wants to succeed in the tablet market with their OS, they really need to figure out a new innovative way to navigate. I saw very similar things to Apple's OS and iOS. In order to beat the competition they are going to need to figure this out and figure it quickly.cyberguyz - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
Sorry but I am a power user of my computers. I don't want them looking or working like a tablet or my iPod.While I am usually on the bleeding edge with Windows, from beta onward with each release, this is one I am most definitely sitting out. It does not appeal to the way I want to use my computer at all. For a tablet that I am not expecting to use for heavy input or output, Win8 is just too cumbersome and tied to mouse or touch as primary inputs.
Rand - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
A few suggestions, make CERTAIN your applications all have different names. If your applications have an uninstall.exe they will all be grouped together on the start screen with no way to differentiate them or tell which is for what program.Similarly, if your apps have a config.exe you won't be able to tell which is for which without opening them individually. Any executables must have clearly differentiated names that indicate precisely what they are.
Also, you absolutely must trim down your bookmarks to only a handful. If you're accustomed to having a 100-200 bookmarks in various folders in your browser, that isn't going to work well at all in Windows 8. You'll end up with screen after screen after screen of bookmarks.
I don't think it's remotely practical or usable any longer to have more then a dozen bookmarks at the most.