Windows 8 might be a gamechanger for tablets, but it's designed for desktops too. How does it fare with a keyboard and mouse?
Posted 03.01.2012 at 11:05 am
23 Comments
Windows 8 Metro Start Menu
There's a mix of Metro apps (the brightly-colored ones like Photos, Store, and Weather) and regular Windows programs (like Internet Explorer) in this new Start screen.
Dan Nosowitz
Since Windows 7, Microsoft's been busily honing the interface for Windows tablets, which uses a bold bunch of squares and rectangles in flat neon colors and has been christened "Metro." Windows 8--undoubtedly the biggest change to the operating system in a few generations--finally brings Metro to the desktop. So how does it work with a keyboard and mouse?
Windows 8 integrates Metro with what in reality is a barely-changed version of Windows 7, with all the programs and behavior we've gotten familiar with for the past decade or two. It sounds disjointed, but functionally, after using it for a minute, I see what Microsoft is doing here, and it makes sense. For tablet users, Metro is everything. For desktop users, it's essentially Microsoft's new Start menu.
On a tablet, Metro is highly touchable, with big buttons and swipey gestures and pretty bright colors. Apps run in full-screen, with the additional option of sticking an app in a quarter of the screen on the left or right (great for stuff like Twitter or an instant-message client). On a desktop, Metro's still useful, but it's not where you'll spend most of your time. A desktop user triggers Metro by clicking, from anywhere, on the lower left-hand corner of the screen (or by hitting the Windows button on your keyboard), and there you are: home base.
Windows 8 Desktop: Windows 8 basically looks like Windows 7, Metro notwithstanding. My desktop is essentially unchanged--except the Start button has been replaced with a thumbnail preview of Metro that appears when I hover my cursor in the bottom left corner. Dan Nosowitz
Metro is where you see basic updates. You can go into a pretty weather app, check your email, look at photos, listen to music (no longer called Zune, which is smart; despite Zune being reliably excellent throughout its tenure as Microsoft's most-mocked property, it was also reliably unpopular), play some quick games, or do a little light messaging. It's also the spot from which you'll launch all your apps. Here's where it gets kind of tricky: there are two kinds of apps, Metro apps and regular Windows apps. You can "pin" both of these types of apps to your Metro screen, anywhere you want, but the Metro apps will launch in Metro and the Windows apps will launch in regular Windows (which, as I said before, looks pretty much exactly like Windows 7).
Metro is pretty simple to use. A right click brings up a sidebar on the bottom (bottombar?) with context-sensitive options. You scroll through your Metro thumbnails with the mouse wheel (or, once Windows 8 is optimized for laptops, with the trackpad). The hot corners, to borrow a phrase from Mac OS, work whether you're in Metro or not. Stick your cursor in the upper left corner to see a little popup of your most recently used app, which you can click on to be taken there. Or you can move the cursor down to see more of your recently used apps. At the bottom of this list is always a thumbnail of Metro--your new Start button. (I imagine many desktop users will stick to the tried-and-true Alt-Tab method of app switching--it's quite a bit faster.)
Over in the upper right-hand corner, you've got what Microsoft calls "charms." These are a couple quick, important keys: Search, Share, Devices, Settings, and another Start button. Not sure why there are two Start buttons available at all times, but there they are. The search function is Metro-fied and works well, but it's not universal--you have to tell it whether you're looking for an app, a setting, or a file. Mac OS X's universal search "Spotlight" is better, I think, but this works pretty well.
Windows 8 Search: Here's how you search. I'm searching for an app here, so it'll narrow down my list of apps as I type until it (hopefully) finds the one I want. Dan Nosowitz
Tablet users, I imagine, will stay pretty much entirely in Metro. It's just right for touch-based interaction on a small screen. But desktop users will be just the opposite: you might look at the weather app in Metro, or use the Metro calendar, or maybe check your email (though the email app has some issues; read more below in the "apps" section), but I can't imagine a desktop user wanting to use, say, a Twitter or instant-message app in Metro. For one thing, you'd have to keep leaping between your desktop and Metro, which is kind of jarring (Alt-Tab includes both Metro and regular windows apps)--even more than heavily using widgets on Mac OS or gadgets in Windows 7, and those are nowhere near as involved as Metro apps. For another, Metro apps are designed to be super lightweight and speedy and simple. That's fine for some stuff, but the email app is basically a touchscreen email app--if I'm using a desktop computer, with a keyboard and mouse and an ugly black tower filled with space-age components, why wouldn't I just use an email app like Thunderbird, or even a web-based client like Gmail, both of which are more powerful, flexible, and better suited for keyboard-and-mouse use than Metro's email app?
Windows 8 Metro Email App: Metro's email app is simple, but given the power of a desktop computer, keyboard and mouse, do we want it to be quite this simple? Dan Nosowitz
METRO APPS
Given that this is a preview and not a finished product, it's expected that there's a very limited number of Metro apps. There's no Twitter app, no Facebook. The only IM client is Microsoft's own, which doesn't support Google Chat or AIM, only Facebook and Windows Live Messenger (good for 14-year-olds and Europeans, respectively, but I am neither). There are a few simple games, and the Xbox app has some interesting possibilities--looks like you'll be able to send videos to your Xbox 360 in addition to the expected access to Xbox settings and friends.
The email app is super pretty, as is basically everything in Metro, but it's also super simple. When I'm on a desktop, I can't imagine using this app over a regular email program or a decent web app. There's not enough room left for the actual message, not enough controls, not enough information on the screen, compared to the alternatives.
The calendar app is excellent, much cleaner and simpler than previous Windows calendars or even Apple's iCal, with its silly digital leather stitching. The music app is far too basic for desktop use--I have a keyboard and mouse, why do I need to scroll through a billion giant thumbnails? (The Music and Video apps are tied in pretty thoroughly with the formerly-named Zune store.) On the other hand, the photos app is simple, but works nicely--I like having a simple photo app that just shows me my photos. It's not going to replace Picasa, which has much more robust uploading and editing and management tools, but to just take a look through some photos? Great.
WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF WINDOWS?
There haven't been any real major changes to the "normal" part of Windows 8. Windows Explorer is still Windows Explorer. There are some slight granular differences in the menu bars and things like that, but nothing will really be shocking to anyone who's used Windows 7. The Start icon is gone from the taskbar, but otherwise it looks exactly the same--you right-click on any app in the "all apps" section of Metro, and hit "Pin to taskbar" to stick it right there. All of those great Windows 7 previews are still here, so you can hover over the items on the taskbar for a preview and things like that.
Internet Explorer does not suck. I'm as surprised as anyone. It's pretty and fast and minimal. It doesn't have a killer feature like Firefox's scores of extensions or Chrome's search bar, but it does not deserve scorn, which is high praise for this particular dinosaur of a program.
Windows 8: Internet Explorer: Internet Explorer: Familiar, but less bad. Actually, not very bad at all! Dan Nosowitz
The Control Panel is still confusing as all hell. You can use the new "PC Settings" area in Metro for basic stuff--accounts, personalization, notifications, updates--but it's a pretty shallow set of options for a desktop, and you'll definitely have to close your eyes and plunge your arm into the toilet of Control Panel at some point. Microsoft promises that they've vastly cut down on the quantity and incomprehensibility of error messages, but as I didn't see any, I can't vouch for that. Or can I?
All of my Windows 7 programs worked. Actually everything seemed to work a little better than before--maybe it's just that Metro is so ridiculously smooth and fast, but the whole computer felt snappier than I remembered Windows 7 ever being. (For reference, I'm using a few-years-old Dell desktop with 8GB of memory and a triple-core AMD Phenom processor--faster than your average workstation, but by no means a speed beast. As a side note, I had to dig it out of my closet, where it was entirely covered with dust, and plug it into my HDTV, because I no longer have a monitor, so all things Metro seem impossibly bold and bright. I tried to install it via both Boot Camp and Parallels on a Macbook Pro, hoping to try out some multitouch, but had no luck in getting it to run in any reasonable way. This will probably change soon.)
Windows 8: Charms: Not sure about the name, guys. Dan Nosowitz
SINCERELY, IN CONCLUSION
I like Windows 8 a lot! But it's important to remember that while Windows 8 is a huge, game-changing step for tablets, in the desktop world it'll be more like the step from Snow Leopard to Lion on Mac OS. It brings a whole bunch of tablet ideas, but it's still a desktop OS, and it's really not as different from the previous version as it sounds or looks at first. And, by the way, Windows 8 is going to freak the hell out of a lot of people--Metro is the first thing you see, and you'll keep going back to it for settings and launching apps and things like that, and it looks like Microsoft burned Windows to the ground and built a new OS out of neon construction paper and a T-square. But it's really not a huge deal--desktop users will treat Metro like the fanciest, best Start menu/app launcher there ever was. And it is, too; Metro's changes are infinitely more modern and welcome than Lion's weird, useless iPad-like app launcher and all the other mobile-inspired ideas Apple crammed into the latest version.
I have no hesitation in recommending an upgrade; I've had absolutely no hiccoughs or errors after my upgrade, everything runs perfectly smooth, and Metro is, though not a gamechanger, really, really cool. Especially if you haven't played with other Metro products like the new Xbox homescreen or Windows Phone, it'll be a shock--but after you figure out what Metro is and what it isn't, it'll be just fine. Better, even.
You can download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview from Microsoft here, for free. It'll expire in late 2013.
23 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Gadgets
Regular Features
140 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Innovation Challenges
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
February 2013: How To Build A Hero
Engineers are racing to build robots that can take the place of rescuers. That story, plus a city that storms can't break and how having fun could lead to breakthrough science.
Also! A leech detective, the solution to America's train-crash problems, the world's fastest baby carriage, and more.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Most Emailed
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Contributing Writers:
Clay Dillow | Email
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Colin Lecher | Email
Emily Elert | Email
Intern:
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
my desktop runs xp pro. my laptop is vista (no complaints here to report) my wifes laptop runs 7....i will not upgrade any of them to 8 til i have some user feedback. and from a real computer user not someone who keeps it in closet like hes ashamed of it.
That app-launcher you called useless? I use it multiple times everyday, and let me tell you it beats the hell out of using finder to open apps. Just saying.
I am curious, what is the difference between an "Application\App verses an Executable\EXE?
App is a great buzz word, but is it more than that and something that makes it different from an executable?
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.
@Robot
".exe" files are binaries from the age of DOS that have been carried over all the way to the current versions of Windows, including Windows 8. They are usually written in various flavors - C++, VB, C - then they are compiled into executable files that can be run in the Windows environment without the compiler they were written in.
OSX APPs are actually a collection of smaller assets and applications bundled up into a package. In OS X they usually have the extension ".app". If you actually did a right-click on an OSX app, then clicked on "Show package contents", you will see all the assets in that particular APP.
I like what i see so far. It could use a bit of tweaking, but they seem to have adapted metro to desktops very well. I was skeptical at first of how well it would work with a mouse and keyboard, but after seeing the consumer preview, i have high hopes.
The new sharing abilities are really cool, being able to directly share content from any app which supports it right within metro is much faster and more convenient than having to download a picture from facebook and go through the process of attaching it to an email with multiple browser tabs and file browsing.
Multitasking is nice.
The new file copy window, which integrates all copy operations into one, easy to understand window with the ability to pause or cancel operations easily, plus the new graphs showing progress and transfer speed simultaneously replacing standard progress bars, is really nice.
The task manager has some really nice improvements, such as being able to view the network, processor, and memory usage history of all applications over the past week, and see more user-friendly graphs of not only cpu and memory use, but also wifi usage and other things.
From what i've seen so far, 8 will be friendly to power users, developers, and normal users.
------------------------
NORML
I Think windows 8 is a great idea. For those of us on a budget who like metro but don't really want to upgrade. Rainmeter is a great alternate and it is free. If you use the Omnimo 4.1 theme you cna make it almost identical to metro.
menoc,
Thank you for the extra information and clarification, sir.
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.
FYI, perhaps my opinion is one in a kajillion and so does not matter, but I like Windows 7 and find it fun and by comparison this Windows 8 is visually a snore and no fun at all....
Gui and both useful, practical and has been fun. I am not a fan of Apple, but yet it always appears fun too. Windows 8 reminds me of returning to line code and dos..... I think we move past that, haven't we?!
I will buy stock in Windows 7, but I am goanna hold off on Windows 8, I just do not feel it.
Oh and last, I have not yet toyed with Windows 8 or beta or what ever. THis is my first impression of what Microsoft is coughing up to the public so far and my response..
Maybe, I will change my mind.....
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.
Oh my God, Robot, you are the most awesome troll ever! I don't know why I keep reading your comments, as they are ignorant and downright stupid most of the time. But after reading some I have too clutch my stomach from all the laughing.
Windows 8, which is Windows 7 with an additional user friendly interface slapped on top of it, is a snore and no fun compared to Windows 7? No logical fallacy there, my good sir! This just made my day.
@Khaelmin HE's the troll! Let's see, Microsoft CLAIMS something as more user friendly and you use that "fact" as a Logical fallacy? Well there are some fallacies there but its not with Robot.
Question. Microsoft has no track record at all of "user friendly." What indicates to you that they got it right this time?
Reading these comments I have to say. This is really POP sci.
I LOVE YOU GUYS< BIG BIG HUG!
I made a comment about the article.
I am entitled to like or dislike something and so far I am not feeling the warm fuzzy yet of Windows 8. I did say later, I may change my mind.
For my opinion, you call me trolling and yet while you spend your time commenting about the article, you spend you time commenting on me. Hmmm, who is the troll?
Take care.
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.
Well, I try to convey myself better. A long time ago, I use to program in FORTRAN on IBM cards in my youth. In college I program on COBAL, PASCAL, toyed with Apple basic and a few other computer languages. It was all line code.
Over the years we have Dos to Windows. So we moved from line code to the JOY of GRAPHIC USER INTERFACE.
GUI, I love and adore. It has been a pleasure over the years. While everything on a flat screen is 2D in reality, as they add shading and we move to 3D and the wonderful graphics, in the process of doing my day to day work, have just enjoyed that entire GUI. FUN! FUN!
Well for Microsoft to introduce their shiny new sports car above and the illustration is so flat and simple in colors, it is not impressive. Still, I like Microsoft and have yet to drive the car and do have an optimistic and open mind for Windows 8. It’s just the introduction leaves me wanting and the above article illustration with the black and white dripping colors is a snore, following by more flat colors as we go further down.
I like graphics and I like GU and this new introduction of Windows 8, just makes me appreciate Windows 7 more with no desire to go out and buy the new product.
Still, ..... I have yet to really try the flat new product as of yet. Maybe there is still hope for GUI.
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.
@macrhino and Robot: Here we go again with the reverse troll accusation.
What you guys are missing, is the fact that Windows 8 is for all intents and purposes, Windows 7 with an addon. That addon is pretty damn user friendly, no matter what Microsoft CLAIMS, because it's designed for freaking tablets.
Onward to the logical fallacy bit. It's clear you two don't grasp the concept of logic fully, so let's do something fun: an analogy! Presume that Win 7 is a really nice car. Win 8 will be that very same car, but with cool leather seats. So what you're saying is that, the car is awesome on it's own, but throw in the leather seats and everything becomes a snore and no fun. Get it, now, first graders?
Khaelmin,
Huh, interesting, usually in life when people begin to make personal attracts and just say insults with no relations to the topic, it means they have logically lost the argument and now they resort to verbal or physical violence of some sort to control the outcome, " first graders," really..
Khaelmin, I have mention several times, if I actually experience the product, I may change my opinion. You did read that right? I was only voice my opinion from my first visual introduction of this new product, nothing more. Why are you taking my few negative comments so personal, odd?
Take care, time to move on.
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.
how is the control panel confusing? Use it all the time without problems. Sounds like some people are apple users...
Win8 is actually intersting. It looks like a REALLY good tablet os and it is the first major change to windows that i can remember (i'm 14). I am truely excited to see microsoft win in the tablet os market, i just hope they didn't join too late.
I certainly understand what Robot is saying. The flat two-colour tiles look unappealing to me also. It's more a style thing although I accept Robot's comment that this "style" looks retro. It's still a GUI, Robot ... you just don't like it from an aesthetic point of view.
I think this is mostly going to be attractive to folks that are running tablets and smart phones with this Metro interface. For example, if you are using the email app on your smart phone, you are likely to also want to use it on your desktop.
By the way, I only use MS and my main computer runs Vista. I have 7 on my laptop which I don't use much and so far have seen no reason to put 7 on my desktop. I suppose if there was a big performance difference going to 8 (as Dan suggested), I'd give it some thought.
Far Out Man,
BINGO!
WHERE CAN I MAIL YOU A BOX OF COOKIES SIR! :)
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.
@Robot. I see your point about the 2d graphics being a bit of a let down ,but also, I believe that metro is an efficient way to get things done. Just so you know , I also prefer graphics with depth.
gloryhawk662,
FLAT IS NOT WHERE IT's AT, LOL!
Second, if we all god back and put DOS on our currently computers, they will run a LOT faster. I have no desire to do this, do you?
Third, 3D\depth is fun and flat is my opinion is a market blunder. As a first impression, I am not wowed.
Forth, I really need to get a hold a beta and load this thing on my computer and toy around with it. Who knows, I may love it too!
Finally, I really do like Microsoft Operating systems as a rule!
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.
For the Desktop user (esp. non-touch)... Win8 is, so far, pretty 'ok' (speedier, yes, but I haven't loaded it up with all my...stuff), but using Metro for the Start menu... leaves a little/lot to be desired. The old start menu was more concise, easier to quickly mouse, when not using Search.
Now, in Metro, you have to move the mouse to the screen edges and wait for the screen to catch up or use the horizontal scroll bar (does -anyone- like horizontal scroll bars?). It would be MUCH better if we could 'flick' with the mouse... I don't see why they don't enable it... flick-and-click_to_stop is faster/better than bump-the-edge wait for screen reaction.
It's a little like they've replaced fine, precision tools with hammers and jumbo screwdrivers. 'Flicking' is 'natural' even for mouse-users.
A lot of Metro, unfortunately, is like the old Zune software... and a contradiction. Simple flat block tiles in Metro Start, but the Metro -apps- are Zune-stylistic 'graphics' as "art" (limited presentation, straitjacketing users), rather than graphics as in fluid user interface.
It looks to me like desktop users will stay within the desktop app practically all the time... and denigrate Metro.
Go to Metro ("Start"), right-click the background, see "All apps" on popup bar, click that... and you have a long wall of program-group -tiles- representing your program groups from earlier Windows pop-up Start/All programs menus. This is like going from poker chips to using children's building blocks for placing bets in a card game.
Otherwise... Win8 starts and shuts down much nicer... and I can rebuild my Desktop, but Metro, for desktop users, seems more like something for idle moments when you want to kill time. Yes, you can customize Metro with a few dynamic tiles for at-a-glance items. But I'll likely restore the Quick Launch bar, to recover a concise, speedy pop-up list of program icons... rather than clutter the regular destkop or taskbar.
Ok, lastly... when I get a touchscreen laptop (or PC/tablet transformer)... I'll like Metro a lot more.
Metro on regular desktop just seems to add a lot more clicks.
Metro apps... well, weather is a good one, I guess.
Maybe -somebody- can make a good responsive fewer click multi-social and email combo app for Metro. Maybe a good ereader/news app.
I think I'd like to see the Desktop as a 'sticky' end-wrap for Metro... bump into desktop at the ends of Metro... that might integrate better to me than an 'app'.
Rpd, Nice real response! I appreciate your feedback! THANKS!
...............................................
Rpd just give me a few future aspirations of Windows 8. One let other try and read their feedback too. Second, I feel Windows 7 currently fulfills my current needs just fine.
..............................................
Mr. Bill Gates, your current CEO is creating products that do now WOW on introductory. Perhaps you need to put your hands back into the cooking of the pie? But if you choose not too, that is fine, you are retired.
..............................................
Second, Mr. Bill Gates, I want to say thank you for all the cool things you are doing for the world. You do those things by freedom of choice. When you kick the bucket you can't take those dollars with you. It is nice you choose to give back. It is a choice on your part. I really appreciate to see it happen. Thank you again.
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense, ie. facts.
Religion sees beyond the senses,ie. faith.