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
Now that we’ve covered the bulk of Windows’ new UI elements, it’s time to get down to some individual apps, and there’s no app more important to Windows 8’s success than the Windows Store.
Unfortunately, at this point it's a bit difficult to tell how the store is going to work out—it seems like one of the less-finished apps provided in the Consumer Preview. There are basic categories for games, social apps, music apps, and a few others, but aside from the basic Search functionality (which is accessed from the Charms menu), there's just a sprawling "top free" list and a lot of scrolling. The Windows Store definitely shouldn't be judged on this early iteration, but a lack of polish (unlike in other Metro screens, more tiles don't show up when more screen space is available—if you look at the Store on a screen with a vertical resolution of much more than 768 pixels, you'll just see a big unused area of white space below the Store tiles) and missing features make it a rough demo at best.
As in both the Apple and Android app stores, you’ll need to sign in with a Windows Live ID to download anything from the Windows Store. If you used your Windows Live ID to create an account during Windows Setup, the OS can download and install apps without asking you for any extra information, but you can still use your Live ID even if you chose to create a local account. Once you’ve purchased an app, you’ll be able to download that app to any Windows 8 or Windows on ARM device you’ve signed into with your Windows Live ID.
All of the preview apps in the Windows Store are currently offered free of charge, but in the RTM version of the store developers will be able to offer both “Buy” and “Try” buttons for apps with demos—apps can have either timed or feature-limited demos available. Unlocking the full version of the app requires no separate download, and all of your saved data from the demo is still available. Info pages for apps also list compatible processor architectures—x86, x64, and ARM.
As seen above, when updates are available a small number will appear on the Windows Store tile. Entering the Store and clicking the "Updates" link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen will present a list of available updates, which you can install individually or all at once.
Apps submitted to the Windows Store have to make it through Microsoft’s approval process, which looks to be a more developer-friendly version of Apple's system: Windows 8 will be a curated platform, which should help curb some of the malware problems that Android is having. However, criteria for approval are clearly laid out, and developers whose apps are rejected will be given feedback on what changes they'll need to make to get approved. Microsoft is also updating its development tools to help guide developers through all the steps of the certification process.
For both advertisements and in-app purchases, Microsoft offers its own platforms but does not mandate their use. If a newspaper or magazine publisher has an existing database of its users and a pre-existing authentication system, that publisher is free to continue using them in its app. Apple began mandating the use of its systems for in-app purchases last year, meaning that all in-app purchases on iOS are subject to Apple’s 70/30 revenue split, and Google may be moving to prohibit third-party in-app purchases even as you read this.
Lastly, let’s assuage the fears of enterprise administrators: via group policies and PowerShell scripts, domain administrators can both permit and deny access to the Windows Store and to individual apps, and can also deploy Metro apps directly to PCs without using the Windows Store at all. This opens the door to volume-licensed apps, and will help IT admins to provide a consistent set of programs and features across different Windows 8 systems.
Whether the Windows Store will succeed remains to be seen—things like app discovery and user interface are important, but in the end the Windows Store is just a portal that will live or die on the quality and quantity of its apps. Those that are available are in a preview state, and while we’ll look at a few of the core Metro apps later on in this article, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to to do in-depth reviews of apps that are in beta-at-best states.
I will lay out one major concern up-front: while apps like Evernote and Cut the Rope do well on smartphones and tablets, I wonder how well more full-featured programs like Photoshop and Office will scale to Metro with their functionality intact. The Windows Store and its WinRT APIs are Microsoft’s future, but take this as a case in point: Microsoft is going to be shipping a copy of Office with every Windows on ARM tablet, but rather than providing Metro versions of Word, Office, PowerPoint, and OneNote to show developers how it’s done, it’s providing copies of those programs that will run only in the desktop environment, and it’s doing this in spite of the fact that no other developers will be able to use the Windows desktop on Windows-powered ARM tablets.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that Office apps will never get Metro styling, and it doesn’t mean that developers aren’t going to make some nice, feature-rich Metro apps, but Microsoft’s refusal to eat its own dog food in this case makes me a little nervous about the kind of programs we’ll end up seeing in Metro.
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jardows2 - Saturday, March 10, 2012 - link
This "new" Metro interface seems quite reminiscant of the Windows 3.1 Program manager. I actually prefer the program manager to the start menu, it seemed better organized and more efficient to me. I'll have to give this a try!Beenthere - Sunday, March 11, 2012 - link
...before I use Win 8.bigboxes - Sunday, March 11, 2012 - link
Ever try uTorrent?androticus - Sunday, March 11, 2012 - link
Please stop aping the Microsoft Marketing Machine (MMM) use of the term du jour, "fluid"--it is annoyingly littered throughout all their Win 8 materials, both promotional and technical. No one ever used this term to describe UI's before this new fetish introduce by MS. Please stop embarrassing yourselves by so slavishly following their lead. Thank you!jabber - Sunday, March 11, 2012 - link
I wouldn't call anything that involves me having to move far left and right across the screen to do stuff 'fluid'.Bloody stupid maybe.
Fluid as in a full fishtank in the back seat of car maybe.
samgab - Sunday, March 11, 2012 - link
I tried Win8CP for a day before I gave up on it and rolled back to Win7.Allow me to attempt to review it in three words:
I hate it.
noname3 - Sunday, March 11, 2012 - link
Nice article, but I disagree with some of the conclusions. Any program that goes full screen on my 30” monitor has to be either a game or a program that has some bugs in it. The whole premise of Windows is that you can control the size of the…Windows. This is a tablet oriented operating system pretending to be useful on the desktop.After >20 years of using and programming in Windows, I am seriously considering switching to a Unix variant. Enough of the Microsoft marketing bs, they have no respect for their legacy and they have completely alienated their strongest user base.
The Windows 8 kernel is a gem, but any benefits are obliterated by the brainless UI. Good luck to them trying to sell this crap. Experienced users will want proper Windows, business are just upgrading to Windows 7, Apple and Android selling like hot cakes, they will only have some dedicated funs upgrading to this abomination, the future looks not very promising for them. This is the worst time to piss off their dedicated followers.
The funniest thing is that they have applied the same brainless UI in the Windows Server 8 too. Using the UI over remote desktop does not activate the corner controls consistently and you end up using the console commands to achieve anything. If this is what I have to do why should I not use a Unix OS? If I have to learn how to use computers from scratch and basically keep searching for everything and memorizing shortcuts, I may as well move to Linux, there is no difference.
I installed Vista since the “beta” days and I found it more functional than XP (maybe I am the only one) but I likes it a lot (even though I found a lot of the controls scattered all over the place). Then Windows 7 came out and it was what Vista should be and so far I think it is the best OS, unfortunately it is the last one too. I am not going to wait until 2015 or 2020 for Microsoft to get their act together, I have a career to maintain.
Microsoft has turned the UI over to a bunch of marketing clowns chasing Apple and Google. I do not like this circus-type company anymore, Sinofsky and Ballmer need to get fired soon and get some serious and creative people at the top, enough we those “me too” mappets.
thebeastie - Sunday, March 11, 2012 - link
I say you will be able to download a dodgey complete release in late July more likely August.But I dont think you will see a Tablet in a store with Windows 8 on it until December, part of my gauge for that is that MS stock price has gone up %25 in the last 3 months and its ALWAYS about the money when it comes to MS releasing important new revenue generating software, sorry to you naive tech heads.
Just match the release dates in the past to their stock chart when its flat to dropping, it fits great, its that simple.
Robo2k - Sunday, March 11, 2012 - link
...and Microsoft tells you: "Your future computer experience: keyboard shortcuts"SERIOUSLY????
I mean they did so many things right with Win 7, now they're talking a huge step backwards in time. With defacto nonexistent multitasking, keyboard shortcuts and a terrible waste of screen real estate.
Never an OS has looked so damn stupid.
Hopefully the many issues will be corrected util it goes gold.
jabber - Sunday, March 11, 2012 - link
I must admit I never ever got into using shortcuts. Should I have done? I started using a mouse when I was 16 when I got a Mac 512k and thought I was supposed to use that for getting around. I found it far more useful than using the keyboard.Today I still only use the keyboard for entering text like I am now. The rest of the time its trackpad or mouse. I don't know any of my customers that use them either.
Now I'm having to learn Windows 8 (well I'm going to have to support my customers aren't I going forward) and having to learn all the keyboard shortcuts.
Just feels like going backwards.
I guess my training/install costs will have to rise as it's going to take more than the usual 5 minutes explaining Libraries and Shutdown in Windows 7 migration.
Plus at the end of the day...who wants to buy a Windows Tablet?