I decided to take the plunge and install the preview over my existing W7 install. I got tired of trying to get it on a secondary drive and finally decided to risk it and hope that it would keep all of my crap. As it turns out, it worked perfectly, and I'm actually really enjoying the OS. First of all, the core experience is unchanged on the surface. Things look a tiny bit different, for the better, but other than that, day to day use is identical.
I haven't done a lot of moving and copying and deleting yet (though I will start soon) but I messed around with that stuff enough to confirm it is in fact awesome and a huge improvement.
The Multi-monitor stuff is also really, really cool. Having the taskbar only contain what's open on a particular display is really awesome, especially for a heavy multitasker like myself. My only qualm with the system as it is right now is that you can't pin, as far as I can tell, anything to the taskbar on other screens when you are using this feature.
The biggest thing I want to talk about though is Metro, as it's obviously the biggest change to the OS. And I think people are over-reacting about it. First of all, if you don't want to use it, you'll barely have to. Second of all, it's actually pretty cool for someone who wants a very connected, almost Smart Phone-esque set of live data. The core apps need some work, and I'm not a fan of the gesture to bring up the charms when you're in the desktop, considering almost nothing on there is useful when you are in the desktop that can't be accessed by hitting Windows key, and potentially typing if you want to search.
Having a contact list that, like WP7, does an excellent job of pulling multiple social sources together in one place is pretty awesome. I can see someone's Facebook, Twitter, even messages to me in one location, and it's pretty useful if you have a large social pool that uses multiple social sites.
I've been working on getting more organized with things like working out, and I find that the calender is a cool concept. Having it connected to my Live account (I used Live features pretty often, especially during school) is pretty awesome, and I really look forward to having that same data available when I get a new phone (Lumia probably) in the near future. That said, the app needs a fair amount of work. Clicking on tiles doesn't bring you to that particular day, but rather lets you add an item. With the size of the tiles for each day, there could easily be a small plus button in one corner for that and let me click the rest of the tile to see a detailed view. Some more shortcuts to switch between day, week, and month few would be nice too, in fact I'd like to see CTRL+MOUSEWHEEL being used for stuff like that across metro.
The mail app is almost gorgeous, I love it. It's got the more powerful features I want from a dedicated client (easy deletion of more than 10 emails at a time, for example), it's attractive as all hell, and just pleasant to read test from. Now, that said, I do take something of an issue with the color scheme. It's a fairly simple app, which makes the white background a bit much to take, especially on my large-ish 24" 16:10 monitor. I'd really like to see metro apps have at least an option to match my start screen color scheme (I am currently using green on a dark grey backdrop). As many of us know from using this site, white is not really the best option for a massive and very bright screen, and it also presents contrast issues. Plus, customization is always a plus!
The Camera App was surprisingly good. My webcam has some issues with starting out pitch black every time I start it up, but I was impressed at how many of the features the app had access to for my camera, from exposure to anti-flicker. It worked quite well, and sharing the file was pretty easy too.
I do have a few over-arching issues with the interface, but it's mostly minor. For one, I don't like the scrolling in metro apps. I don't want to stroll like I would an article on a website, I want to tab between pages/screen widths, much like one does with the Xbox 360 dashboard. I think that would be a much more comfortable and appealing use for my house wheel.
Another issue I have is closing apps. It's not impossible, but most apps don't seem to have an on screen button you can hit to exit the app properly. So you're only option is to either close apps in your little multitasking drawer, or to hit ALT+F4, which is far from ergonomic. I would greatly prefer something along the lines of CTRL+W like closing a tab in a web browser, because I'm so familiar with it and because it's easy to hit from a natural keyboard position.
Obviously, this isn't a TOTALLY final build, and I expect the apps in particular will see some significant improvements by launch, but all in all, I"m really pleased with my choice to switch over. I kept all of my files, my programs all work fine, even my games on Steam. Now I just have to decide what to use when I build my new rig in the next couple of months, this or Windows 7?
I haven't messed around much with the apps, but in the Consumer Preview I found them to be mostly shit. But that's due to the teams working on them only started when everyone else did when the Developer Preview hit. I noticed that they all still say "App Preview" when one of those core apps first launch, so they won't be final for a few more months probably. Thankfully, unlike Windows Live stuff, they're all separate from one another so they can be updated when ever they're ready.
For closing Metro apps with mouse and keyboard, the easiest way I find to do this is by "grabbing" it (move mouse to the top, click and hold) and dragging it down. This action can also be used to drag an app to the side of the screen for the side-by-side feature.
Check out this article for most/all of Windows 8's keyboard commands.
@Falcon: Huh, so you just drag it to the bottom and it closes? I knew about dragging it to pin it to sides/moving it to other screens, but not that. THanks for the tips, and I'll definitely look at that article. Hopeful W8 has some good tutorial stuff for how all that stuff works, because it's not immediately evident and there doesn't seem to be a good way to see those commands in the OS.
@MordeaniisChaos: I'm 100% on board with Windows 8, but yeah, Microsoft needs to have an unskippable movie or some sort of video game like tutorial at the initial start up of the OS and then maybe an app that people can go back to if need be. I mean, once you know what to do it totally makes sense, but Microsoft need to find a way to make people aware of these new commands.
@MordeaniisChaos: I'm 100% on board with Windows 8, but yeah, Microsoft needs to have an unskippable movie or some sort of video game like tutorial at the initial start up of the OS and then maybe an app that people can go back to if need be. I mean, once you know what to do it totally makes sense, but Microsoft need to find a way to make people aware of these new commands.
hell, even apple does videos for all their gestures. I don't think it would hurt if MS did that, I guess the question is if they will.
I was at a mobile app event and microsoft was there with a tablet running windows 8. I was really sceptical against windows 8 but after seeing in real life I'm completely sold! The switching on the tablet between the metro and win 7 was seamlessly. Ireally hope Microsoft let people who are using pc to boot in to the win 7 enviroment instead of the metro.
I'm not all-in as you are ... I've just been messing with W8 here and there on a work laptop, but I've been liking it so far as well. I'm looking forward to having it on my work desktop which is multi-monitor. Tabs to right-scroll is a really great idea. I was actually just scrolling through the Marketplace noting how these well-designed groups work so poorly with a basic click-to-scroll and wishing there were a neater option. I also find myself instinctively hitting ESC, wanting it to function like a BACK button ... Metro seems like it could be super keyboard-friendly, if the folks at MS were so inclined (prolly in W9).
-- EDIT
Should prolly have looked at that Thurrott link before posting rather than after. Page up/down does make sense for scrolling left/right, I suppose. Still think TAB would be more natural, considering. I wonder if we'll see hardware manufacturers re-arranging and resizing keys like these to make them more easily reached in W8 laptops ...
@MordeaniisChaos: I'm 100% on board with Windows 8, but yeah, Microsoft needs to have an unskippable movie or some sort of video game like tutorial at the initial start up of the OS and then maybe an app that people can go back to if need be. I mean, once you know what to do it totally makes sense, but Microsoft need to find a way to make people aware of these new commands.
This, I think it was you that told me about the drag-down to close metro apps. Not obvious at all to desktop users (though maybe if you are used to tablets and smartphone OSes you can figure it out). They definitely need to at a minimum bake a tutorial into the setup process.
I decided to take the plunge and install the preview over my existing W7 install. I got tired of trying to get it on a secondary drive and finally decided to risk it and hope that it would keep all of my crap. As it turns out, it worked perfectly, and I'm actually really enjoying the OS. First of all, the core experience is unchanged on the surface. Things look a tiny bit different, for the better, but other than that, day to day use is identical.
I haven't done a lot of moving and copying and deleting yet (though I will start soon) but I messed around with that stuff enough to confirm it is in fact awesome and a huge improvement.
The Multi-monitor stuff is also really, really cool. Having the taskbar only contain what's open on a particular display is really awesome, especially for a heavy multitasker like myself. My only qualm with the system as it is right now is that you can't pin, as far as I can tell, anything to the taskbar on other screens when you are using this feature.
The biggest thing I want to talk about though is Metro, as it's obviously the biggest change to the OS. And I think people are over-reacting about it. First of all, if you don't want to use it, you'll barely have to. Second of all, it's actually pretty cool for someone who wants a very connected, almost Smart Phone-esque set of live data. The core apps need some work, and I'm not a fan of the gesture to bring up the charms when you're in the desktop, considering almost nothing on there is useful when you are in the desktop that can't be accessed by hitting Windows key, and potentially typing if you want to search.
Having a contact list that, like WP7, does an excellent job of pulling multiple social sources together in one place is pretty awesome. I can see someone's Facebook, Twitter, even messages to me in one location, and it's pretty useful if you have a large social pool that uses multiple social sites.
I've been working on getting more organized with things like working out, and I find that the calender is a cool concept. Having it connected to my Live account (I used Live features pretty often, especially during school) is pretty awesome, and I really look forward to having that same data available when I get a new phone (Lumia probably) in the near future. That said, the app needs a fair amount of work. Clicking on tiles doesn't bring you to that particular day, but rather lets you add an item. With the size of the tiles for each day, there could easily be a small plus button in one corner for that and let me click the rest of the tile to see a detailed view. Some more shortcuts to switch between day, week, and month few would be nice too, in fact I'd like to see CTRL+MOUSEWHEEL being used for stuff like that across metro.
The mail app is almost gorgeous, I love it. It's got the more powerful features I want from a dedicated client (easy deletion of more than 10 emails at a time, for example), it's attractive as all hell, and just pleasant to read test from. Now, that said, I do take something of an issue with the color scheme. It's a fairly simple app, which makes the white background a bit much to take, especially on my large-ish 24" 16:10 monitor. I'd really like to see metro apps have at least an option to match my start screen color scheme (I am currently using green on a dark grey backdrop). As many of us know from using this site, white is not really the best option for a massive and very bright screen, and it also presents contrast issues. Plus, customization is always a plus!
The Camera App was surprisingly good. My webcam has some issues with starting out pitch black every time I start it up, but I was impressed at how many of the features the app had access to for my camera, from exposure to anti-flicker. It worked quite well, and sharing the file was pretty easy too.
I do have a few over-arching issues with the interface, but it's mostly minor. For one, I don't like the scrolling in metro apps. I don't want to stroll like I would an article on a website, I want to tab between pages/screen widths, much like one does with the Xbox 360 dashboard. I think that would be a much more comfortable and appealing use for my house wheel.
Another issue I have is closing apps. It's not impossible, but most apps don't seem to have an on screen button you can hit to exit the app properly. So you're only option is to either close apps in your little multitasking drawer, or to hit ALT+F4, which is far from ergonomic. I would greatly prefer something along the lines of CTRL+W like closing a tab in a web browser, because I'm so familiar with it and because it's easy to hit from a natural keyboard position.
Obviously, this isn't a TOTALLY final build, and I expect the apps in particular will see some significant improvements by launch, but all in all, I"m really pleased with my choice to switch over. I kept all of my files, my programs all work fine, even my games on Steam. Now I just have to decide what to use when I build my new rig in the next couple of months, this or Windows 7?
I haven't messed around much with the apps, but in the Consumer Preview I found them to be mostly shit. But that's due to the teams working on them only started when everyone else did when the Developer Preview hit. I noticed that they all still say "App Preview" when one of those core apps first launch, so they won't be final for a few more months probably. Thankfully, unlike Windows Live stuff, they're all separate from one another so they can be updated when ever they're ready.
For closing Metro apps with mouse and keyboard, the easiest way I find to do this is by "grabbing" it (move mouse to the top, click and hold) and dragging it down. This action can also be used to drag an app to the side of the screen for the side-by-side feature.
Check out this article for most/all of Windows 8's keyboard commands.
@Falcon: Huh, so you just drag it to the bottom and it closes? I knew about dragging it to pin it to sides/moving it to other screens, but not that. THanks for the tips, and I'll definitely look at that article. Hopeful W8 has some good tutorial stuff for how all that stuff works, because it's not immediately evident and there doesn't seem to be a good way to see those commands in the OS.
@MordeaniisChaos: I'm 100% on board with Windows 8, but yeah, Microsoft needs to have an unskippable movie or some sort of video game like tutorial at the initial start up of the OS and then maybe an app that people can go back to if need be. I mean, once you know what to do it totally makes sense, but Microsoft need to find a way to make people aware of these new commands.
@Falcon said:
hell, even apple does videos for all their gestures. I don't think it would hurt if MS did that, I guess the question is if they will.
I was at a mobile app event and microsoft was there with a tablet running windows 8. I was really sceptical against windows 8 but after seeing in real life I'm completely sold! The switching on the tablet between the metro and win 7 was seamlessly. Ireally hope Microsoft let people who are using pc to boot in to the win 7 enviroment instead of the metro.
@Falcon said:
This, I think it was you that told me about the drag-down to close metro apps. Not obvious at all to desktop users (though maybe if you are used to tablets and smartphone OSes you can figure it out). They definitely need to at a minimum bake a tutorial into the setup process.