Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Thank you for recommending "Windows IT Pro is the leading independent community for IT professionals deploying Microsoft Windows server and client applications and technologies.". Your recommendation has been successfully processed.

How you feel about Windows 8 depends on whether you accept that the Apple iPad and its tablet ilk are ushering in a new era of simpler, more approachable computing experiences. There's little doubt that Apple's devices are making huge inroads with both average users and businesses of all sizes. So Microsoft's response-what it calls a "no compromises" vision for Windows that addresses both the touch-friendly, iPad-like future and the more pedestrian, workhorse scenarios for which we use more traditional computers-is for the moment timely.

The strategy makes any sense

It's as well debatable whether the strategy makes any sense. Or rather than take the more aggressive Apple approach and abandon the past for a new, lighter platform, Microsoft has chosen to drag its past kicking and screaming into the future. In Windows 8, we see a strange mix of dual-and, dare I say, dueling-environments, duking it out for our attention. The result is powerful and backward-compatible, however confusing.

Figure 1 shows the first of these two interfaces, the Windows desktop. This desktop has been spiffed up with a handful of new features, including a new Ribbon-based Windows Explorer, a new file copy-and-move experience, a new Task Manager, and integrated browsing of ISO and Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk disk image files. However Microsoft makes it obvious that this legacy UI now plays second fiddle. The desktop that we know, love, and understand is not where the software giant's attentions lie in this release.

Instead, up front and center is the second and newer of these two user experiences, which doesn't even have a proper name. I call it Metro because it provides what Microsoft calls immersive, Metro-style experiences:

The interaction between Metro

The interaction between Metro and the desktop might be confusing at a glance. It might help to consider the desktop as an app of sorts, something that runs underneath Metro in other words than alongside it. That isn't what's in effect happening, for the moment not technically. Nevertheless when you consider that the desktop environment was in substance the OS in previous Windows versions, you actually do need a way to wrap your mind around its subservient nature in Windows 8.

So, the desktop works as a rule as it did earlier, aside from the earlier mentioned additions and a handful of UI deletions to accommodate the Metro UI. The real changes in Windows 8 come via that new Metro user experience. And it makes itself known from the get-go: Setup has been updated but again, to be faster and sleeker. The final phase of setup, called the out-of-box experience, has been significantly updated with a Metro look and feel.

That new Metro-style user experience carries on from there, with a Metro-fied lock screen that will right away be familiar to Windows Phone users. It has app-notification icons for such tasks as email, calendar, and even weather. And unlike the Windows Phone version, the desktop version of the Metro interface is in the extreme customizable. You can log on to the PC by using a smartphone-like PIN or picture password, which is fun. However the big news is that non-domain users can now log on directly to their Microsoft ID, instead of linking the accounts later. In Windows 8, this capability accomplishes a lot, as many settings can be automatically synced between PCs that use Microsoft cloud services.

Trademark of the Microsoft group of companies

Windows is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies. Windows IT Pro is used by Penton Media Inc. in accordance with license from owner.