I'm not really a developer, but the Win8 DP is available to anyone, so I thought I'd go ahead and give it a shot. See what Microsoft has been up to for a while. See what will be appearing on desktops around the world in years to come, especially since MS announced that Windows XP support dies once and for all in 2014.
I have Win8DP installed on a Dell Optiplex 755, which I'll grant you is not the most up to date and powerful computer in the world. It is, however, a computer that will run it and give me an idea of what the Win8 experience will be like.
Holy Cow.
It's a phone! Really, that's what they have made it. Sudoku is an app that comes with the system and when I open it, it says "Tap to start a new game". Tap?!? It has Airplane Mode. On a DESKTOP OS! It has a Lock Screen! You can select apps that are enabled to have notifications show on the Lock Screen. On a desktop. There is a Store, but it is not enabled in this release. Apps on the main screen also scroll information like in WP7. So is this a desktop OS or one for a phone/tablet? It might be pretty sweet for a tablet, but for a desktop? We'll see.
Windows 8 has a start screen, just like the one on Windows Phone 7. Hitting the "Start" button (and yes it is again called a Start button) takes you to the home screen instead of a menu. On this screen you will find square and rectangle icons that you wipe to move left and right. Each program in the system gets an icon on the start screen. They can be removed, and you can "pin" other things to the screen as well. Clicking one of these icons brings up a full screen program, which is ended by either tapping the Windows key or moving the cursor to the bottom left corner of the screen, which brings up the "Start" menu. This menu has 5 options: Start, Search, Share, Settings, and Devices.
Devices is not the Device Manager. It is the place to find connected devices like printers, MP3 players, and other peripherals. Settings, likewise, is not for the system. It brings up a very brief selection that has "Preferences" that only asks if you want to show Administrative Tools. Checking yes does nothing that I can see. It also shows icons for Network, Volume, Brightness, Notifications, Language, and the Power button to restart or shut down.
Share lets you share a screenshot. That appears to be about it that I can see. It does mention that you can only do that from desktop apps, and as I was in Windows Explorer with a file selected, that makes......sense? Being in Internet Explorer and clicking Share allows you to share to social media like Twitter and Socialite.
Start Screen icons can be moved just by dragging them, and the larger ones can be made smaller. Ones that started large and were made small can be made large again, but others cannot. Installing a program adds a small icon to the Start Screen to launch the program. Everything is fullscreen except when opened in the Desktop. Is the desktop the regular desktop, or is it just an app? I'm not sure right now.
All in all right now, I think Windows 8 has a long way to go to be taken seriously, especially by the corporate crowd that wants things simple and productive. This revision yet again complicates the OS. Everything is moved even worse than it was when Vista came out. I haven't yet installed much software on 8, but I am going to try so I can see how well it works.
More later.....?
House Call Computing
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