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your Windows® embedded community
Windows For Devices
your Windows® embedded community
Microsoft's openness in giving the world a preview of an operating system that may not go on sale for a year does a mighty job of setting it apart from (say) Apple. On the other hand, sharing a product that's -- no insult intended -- half-baked is not without risk.
By 10:30 a.m. PT on Sept. 14, more than 500,000 copies of the Windows 8 Developer Preview software had been downloaded, according to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. (Doubtless, the figure's even higher at the time of writing.)
Due to high demand, the Windows 8 Developer Preview could (and still can) take more than three hours to download. I was lucky, getting my copy of the bits within an hour on the evening of the 13th.
Naturally, I rushed to begin testing the operating system on multiple machines, both real and virtual. But it took most of the day for me to realize that -- since this is obviously a work in progress -- I have a lot less to say about it than I'd hoped.
For those who haven't already taken the plunge, know that the Windows Developer Preview -- available in 32- and 64-bit versions, and with or without developer tools such as Visual Studio 11 Express -- comes in a DVD-sized .ISO image. There are ways to finagle such files onto a USB stick many machines can boot from, but practically speaking, it's easier if you have an optical drive and can simply burn the Developer Preview onto a bootable DVD.
You can install the Windows Developer Preview over your current Windows 8 installation, but that's not a great idea, especially since it's set to time out next April. Instead, you can put it on a separate test machine, configure your system so it can boot into either Windows 7 or Windows 8, or even boot the Preview software from a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk).
I chose to try the Preview three different ways: as a "bare metal" installation on a tottering old pre-Lenovo ThinkPad with a 1.7GHz Pentium processor and 1GB of RAM, and in VirtualBox 4.1 virtual machines (VMs) on both a Core 2 Duo-equipped Apple MacBook and an HP laptop with an AMD A8 "Llano" CPU. (The latter two devices had a lavish amount of native RAM and disk space, but the Windows Developer Preview VMs were given 20GB of storage and 1GB of RAM apiece.)
Yes, that's right: The mighty WindowsForDevices possessed no Windows Tablet on which to try the Windows 8 preview. I'm sure that colored my opinions, as it will those of many others who are similarly bereft.
Before wiping Windows 7 off the ThinkPad, I measured how long it took from a cold boot to availability of the Windows desktop. The answer: 70 seconds.
I then installed the Windows 7 Developer Preview on the same machine, and restarted it several times. This obviously takes advantage of the operating system's ability to hibernate its kernel session instead of shutting it down, since the operating system now starts on the ThinkPad in just over 30 seconds!
Performance within the VMs was also excellent, though hard to compare directly with Windows 7 because of the many variables involved. (VirtualBox fans should also be aware that the hypervisor's specialized "guest additions" -- i.e., graphics and mouse drivers -- won't yet work with Windows 8.)
Once Windows 8 is running, you get a Start Screen (above) filled with Microsoft's "Metro-style" tiles, which will be familiar to the few folks with a Windows Phone 7 smartphone. I'll be entirely frank and admit I was less than adept in manipulating the applications provided here (which are mostly pretty basic). I could launch programs, but how to switch from Metro app to Metro app remains a mystery to me.
In my defense, not only hasn't Microsoft failed to provide any sort of user guide for this environment (as far as I know), but it's also less intuitive to navigate if you don't have a touchscreen device. Things become more difficult if you're using a virtual machine: For example, the Windows key along with the I key is supposed to pop out a right-hand menu for what Microsoft (rather nauseatingly) calls "charms" (below right), but what if you're using a Mac with no Windows key? And so on.
The Windows 8 Start Screen, with its collection of modifiable tiles, is a replacement for the Start Menu found in earlier versions of Windows. This can be a considerable annoyance to experienced Windows users (a registry hack for Windows 8 has been devised that brings the old behavior back, but also disables the Metro UI entirely, obviating the point of Windows 8).
I was considerably mollified, however, when I found that simply typing the first few letters of any program's name brings it up in a list. It's also readily possible to invoke a list (above) of all the applications installed on the system.
Should you want to run a legacy app, you can do so from within the Metro UI. But once started, such an app will push you over to what looks essentially like the traditional Windows desktop (below). All non-Metro apps live in that space, making it mercifully easy to shut down programs or Alt-Tab between them.
The desktop may also be entered without launching an app simply by selecting the relevant tile on the Start Screen. Once there, users can launch the redesigned Explorer (below), which now features a tabbed ribbon -- rather confusing, to me at least, but still in many cases operable via keyboard shortcuts.
Whether there will be a Metrofied Explorer equivalent remains to be seen. Microsoft probably wants Metro apps to behave similarly to those written for Apple's iOS, which means they'll store files in default locations that require little overt manipulation by a user.
But what about enterprise IT staff or power users who want to do "overt manipulation" of their computers? For such folks, Windows 8 -- at least in the Developer Preview version -- doesn't exactly present a seamless experience.
For example, the operating system has a nice-looking, Metrofied control panel (above). But for all but the most basic tasks, users are forced into the traditional Windows control panel.
We can readily expect that by the time Windows 8 is finalized, much more functionality will be accessible without leaving Metro apps. But it will take time -- and by that, I mean longer than a single year -- for Microsoft to incorporate all that Windows has to offer.
Ironically, this takes me back to the early days of Windows. At that time, it was a relatively attractive user interface, but accomplishing tasks such as defining a network interface or choosing a graphics driver required descending into DOS.
I was unable to experience it because of the lack of relevant VirtualBox guest additions, but Windows 8 will offer a mode in which users with dual monitors can see the Metro Start Screen on one of their displays, and the traditional Windows desktop on the other. For anyone who's trying to make the transition from one to the other, that looks like the way to go.
If there's anything to be concluded about Windows 8 yet, it's this: If you were looking to buy a Windows tablet anyway, Microsoft just gave you a reason. (But don't eBay your iPad.) But if you're an experienced Windows user with a desktop or laptop, there's no rush to start planning your migration.
Jonathan Angel can be reached at jonathan.angel@ziffdavisenterprise.com and followed at www.twitter.com/gadgetsense.
