In-Depth with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview
by Andrew Cunningham, Ryan Smith, Kristian Vättö & Jarred Walton on March 9, 2012 10:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Microsoft
- Operating Systems
- Windows
- Windows 8
Working with a mouse
To navigate all of this with a mouse, Microsoft has introduced something it’s calling the “four corners”—each corner of your screen becomes a hot corner with a different function. Clicking repeatedly in the top-left corner will switch between all of your running Metro apps and the desktop (if it’s running), clicking in the lower-left corner will invoke the Start screen, and moving your mouse pointer along the left edge of the screen from either corner opens up the app drawer that shows all of your running apps.
Hovering in either corner on the right of the screen will bring up the Charms menu, which we discussed before, and clicking at the top of the screen and dragging to one or the other edge of the screen (while in a Metro app or sitting at the desktop, but not while running a desktop app) will invoke Metro Snap.
If this all sounds a bit confusing in concept, that’s because it kind of is—there’s no obvious indication that the four corners of the screen do anything in particular, and the “hot” areas of the screen can be easy both to miss or to activate by accident—I found the Back button in a maximized browser window to be tough to hit without invoking the app drawer. There are also some slightly misleading visual cues—for example, when invoking the Start screen from the lower-left corner, one’s impulse is to move the mouse pointer from the corner to click the thumbnail of the Start screen that appears. However, in practice, this will make the thumbnail disappear.
The four corners are especially annoying to deal with on a multi-monitor setup—since the corners are only present on your primary monitor, you’ll frequently find yourself overshooting corners on the edge of the display that is shared with other monitors. You can get accustomed to all of this with some practice, but it’s not particularly efficient, and stuff like this is usually what people are thinking of when they complain about how bad Metro will be for the desktop. It works, but it lacks precision.
Working with a Keyboard
Where Metro actually shines pretty brightly on the desktop is with a keyboard, though there’s one major caveat: if you want to make the most of Metro, you’re going to have to learn your keyboard shortcuts. It has always been true that people who know and make frequent use of keyboard shortcuts in desktop operating systems can do things much more quickly than with a mouse, but in Windows 8 knowing the keyboard shortcuts can be the difference between hating Metro and making peace with it.
In Windows 8, the Start key becomes your PCs “home” button—it will always call up the Start screen whether you’re using a Metro app or the regular desktop. Pressing it again will toggle back to the app you were using. The Windows key will be getting even more of a workout after you learn all of these convenient keystrokes.
Charms:
- Windows + C: See the top level of the Charms menu.
- Windows + Q: Brings up Search. This can also be invoked by typing while on the Start screen.
- Windows + H: The Share charm.
- Windows + K: The Devices charm.
- Windows + I: The Settings charm.
Search:
- Windows + Q: Brings up Search, defaults to searching Apps.
- Windows + W: Brings up Search, defaults to searching Settings.
- Windows + F: Brings up Search, defaults to searching Files.
Others:
- Windows + D: Starts or switches to the Desktop.
- Windows + L: Locks screen without signing you out.
- Windows + Print Screen: Takes a screenshot of the screen's contents and saves it to the Pictures library in .PNG format.
- Windows + Tab: Brings up the application drawer. This keystroke used to bring up Vista and 7’s Flip 3D, a fancy and less-useful Alt+Tab, which mercifully seems to have been killed in Windows 8.
- Alt + Tab: Still switches between all open apps. Unlike Windows + Tab, Alt + Tab shows both individual Metro apps and individual Desktop apps.
- Windows + Z: Brings up menus for Metro apps. In Internet Explorer, for example, this invokes the address bar and the tabbed browsing mechanism.
- Windows + (period key): Invokes Metro Snap—by default, it snaps the currently running app to the right edge of the screen. Pressing it again will move the app to the left edge of the screen, and pressing it a third time will expand the app to take up the whole screen.
- Windows + (plus/minus key): Invokes Magnifier, zooms in/out.
- CTRL + (plus/minus key): Zoom in/out
- CTRL + ALT + DEL: Brings up menu to lock the screen, switch users, sign out, open the Task Manager, or power off the computer.
- Alt + F4: Closes Metro apps.
Metro conclusions
For most, the number one fear with Windows 8 and with Metro is that Microsoft is sacrificing current desktop and laptop users of Windows in an effort to chase the tablet market. Some may disagree with me, but I don’t think this is true. The Start menu is gone, but consider this: the best thing that Microsoft did to the Start menu came in Vista, when the new integrated search made it so that you didn’t actually have to go digging through folders and sub-folders. Not only is that search functionality alive and well in Windows 8, but the problem of folders and subfolders that it was created to avoid is also gone.
Yes, Metro is very different from what came before, and yes, Metro was clearly designed with touch in mind, but once you learn its tricks (and especially once you’ve got the new keyboard shortcuts dedicated to memory) it acquits itself as a flexible and powerful user interface. Even if you’re on a massive 2560x1440 display with multiple monitors and never, ever touch the Windows Store or a Metro app, the Start screen serves as a much more configurable and useful application launcher than the tiny Start menu ever was.
I don’t want to say that the Start screen is definitively better for PC users, especially those who rely on Windows 8's sometimes flaky mouse motions, but I strongly disagree with anyone who says that it’s worse. Microsoft has greatly improved Windows’ functionality on tablets (and if you’ve never used Windows 7 or something older on a currently available tablet PC, let me tell you: it isn’t pretty) while not greatly impacting the operating system’s usability on desktops and laptops. Metro's biggest problem right now is going to be what users bring with them: years of accumulated experience about how Windows should look and work. Windows is still Windows, but all of these changes add up to a new interface that is just different enough to spook users who rely on remembered actions to get around their computers, rather than an actual understanding of how and why things work.
Metro’s other problem (which will be a bigger problem on tablets than it is on desktops) is that too many of the more advanced configuration options kick you to the desktop—things like adding certain networked printers or VPN connections, setting fixed IP addresses, changing power settings and more all open up desktop control panels rather than integrating the functionality into Metro itself. This is OK on a PC, where many users will be spending a lot of time on the desktop anyway, but if this continues to be true of the RTM version (and if it’s also true of Windows on ARM), it could definitely be a problem. To be competitive with Android and iOS, Metro needs to be able to do at least most of the things that they can do without sending you to the Windows desktop. Not all of the desktop control panels need to be crammed into Metro, but advanced users are going to find themselves on the desktop a bit more than should be necessary in a touch-friendly OS.
Now, about the desktop...
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RavnosCC - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
Very annoying till I went through Microsoft Help and discovered I will not be able to "snap" apps with my standard 4:3, 1280x1024 screen. boofRESHOiL - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
This time around they added a great setting "Make Everything on my Screen Bigger".I didn't have to mess with loading my custom fonts, sizes, DPI, etc. to make my system visible from my couch on my 56" DLP. It did seem to make Metro Apps bigger but not desktop apps or the desktop experience.
Also, I've gone through a ton of small media keyboards and none are as easy as my remote. Since Metro, and all tablet/phone OSes are more geared towards consuming media/data rather than creating it... not saying they can't, but they do better at consuming, I thought for sure they would have accepted windows remote control commands in all the Metro Apps, to my surprise not one does. Of course the arrow keys and OK/Enter key work, but Info, Back, etc have no function in Metro Apps. Just a few changes and Metro becomes the best 10' full OS ever, mainly that it needs to work with remotes. Also, Media Center hasn't changed at all... I think it could use a little Metro and hope it does get it in the final product.
lilmoe - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
I wonder how your video playback batter test would perform with well encoded HD videos with hardware-accelerated playback...I'm sure most of you guys know all about video encoding and decoding... GPU video decoding (my personal experience) consumes a LOT less power than software decoding done on the CPU. Yes, GPUs generally consume more power than the CPU, but it's a lot easier for the GPU to decode Full-HD videos than it is for the CPU (by an order of magnitude), also arguably more efficient.
We all know that hardware-accelerated video players (MPC-HC and Windows Media Player included) support that feature. But you never mentioned if it was enabled in your setup. So I'm assuming you didn't use any sort of HW Acceleration, and therefore, you had 2 or more cores of your test setups running in each test for decoding the video while playing the videos.
On my HP DV6 Core2Due T6400 laptop, properly encoded MP4 videos run with almost 0% of CPU utilization, and with the right codec (I use the FFDShow with DirectX Video Acceleration) even high profile MKV files run with 5-15% cpu utilization (otherwise 50-100% of CPU utilization. I use Windows Media Player since it doesn't utilize as much CPU power as MPC-HC.
My laptop stays 2-2.5 hours on battery if i'm using software decoding, but lasts well above 3.5 hours with HW-Acceleration enabled... I wonder how that will affect your setup?
mutatio - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
I'm glad the reviewers found some redeeming qualities to the OS. All I can say is that I was not impressed with MS' mobile OS. It's strong in concept but just tacky in appearance, like some city traffic symbol maker was in charge of the design. Windows 8 does no better IMHO and this honestly looks like a crap sandwich waiting to blow up in MS' face. Serious? "It's very useful once you learn all of the 50+ new keyboard commands!" You have to be kidding me. I know you all are hardcore nerds here working at Anandtech but there is a reason W8 is getting slapped silly in the consumer oriented reviews. I saw a review the other day that quite literally said, "I enjoyed the review of Windows 8 so much I order a 21" iMac." Tempered indeed.FuzzDad - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
No issues with SLI, my watercooling programs...my configs for gaming...the install went solid. I have a mouse locking problem with Logitech keyboards but there's a work-around until they fix it. I didn't like the interface at first (it isn't intuitive) but once you get to the point where you accept Metro=Start Button it all kinda makes sense. I think the GUI is snappy and smooth and it grows on you. I also think they're probably writing off Windows 8 for the desktop/business use...unless they throw the start button on there...and only after that would there be any talk of it going widespread on desktops that have not yet moved to Win7.I think their strategy is simply get back to a three-year release schedule and into the tablet space as quickly as they can. TBH...this OS is as good as Win7 w/new interface...if they had offered the start button as a hard-core option I think all the howling winds we hear now would have been a soft sea breeze.
jabber - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
...who exactly is going to buy a Windows based Tablet?It's way too late surely? It's the Zune all over again.
The Corp bosses will all have iPads so will be pushing to use them in their work surely? The iPhone through this method is now becoming the standard corp phone of choice at the cost of BB.
MS isnt going to get a look in on this one.
I am a Zune Mk1 owner, just in case.
lilmoe - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
you'll be surprised how many people there are who didn't go with the hype and rejected iPads and Android tablets just because they're not "Windows"....What's amazing about this release is the first impression i heard from lots of people who saw it on my laptop. Lots of them said the very same thing: "Wow, Windows now has *windows*! Everything is in front of me an I don't have to look for anything!"... i haven't noticed that myself, but surely, what they said was true.
jabber - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
"you'll be surprised how many people there are who didn't go with the hype and rejected iPads and Android tablets just because they're not "Windows"...."Well good luck to the three of you I say.
somedude1234 - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
Great article, the efforts of the whole team come through in the depth and quality of the report and I'm looking forward to reading the follow-up articles.I use Windows 7 every day to get real work done.
I'd appreciate any feedback from the team (or other AT readers) on the following question: Will the UI enhancements in Windows 8 offer any benefit to me? Specifically, is there anything in Win8 that will help me be more productive in my daily use cases?
On my multi-monitor primary workstation I have the Win7 start menu running vertically on the side of one of my monitors. I often have 3 "pages" on my taskbar of windows open between: outlook, word, excel, powerpoint, firefox, PDF files, text files, explorer windows, putty sessions, and skype or MSN chat windows.
In other words, I am doing a lot of multi-tasking and waste a lot of time doing context switches as needed. Even with 2 or more monitors available, I never have enough screen real estate to have all of the various applications and windows open without ever needing to re-arrange all of the windows.
Win7 provided marginal improvements over XP, I especially like the ability to quickly snap a window to the left or right half of a given monitor. I wish MS would have expanded on this to allow me to snap to the top and bottom halves as well.
I've used a number of 3rd party applications over the years to enhance window management, but invariably they end up either being clunky, unstable or requiring so much additional effort to negate the goal of improving productivity.
Does Windows 8 actually add anything to make window management better/easier/faster/more powerful for those of us that are really multi-tasking all day? Metro seems to be completely consumer focused, what about the professional users?
Th-z - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
I've tested it, I don't think you'll find improvement for your usage scenario. In fact it can actually slow you down because they remove Start button. If you want to launch normal desktop apps quickly, you basically have to pin them to taskbar from Metro UI, or use the same enabling-Quick Launch bar trick that people use when they went from XP/Vista to Win 7. There are also third party programs such as Start8 that can bring the Start button back.I find it ironic that people have to use third party program for basic functions to circumvent Microsoft's devolution in UI scheme or stubbornness. I have to use a third party program to enable hovering scrolling in different panes in Windows Explorer (it's still not there in Windows 8).
There are so many ways they can improve desktop UI that I can list that would put OS X to shame, and you even suggest the horizontal snap that can improve desktop usage that many people would probably use. Unfortunately, they're too busy toying with Metro UI. I've always thought Microsoft is a company good at software engineering, but bad at user interface.