First, a disclaimer: I am neither defending nor assailing Windows 8 or Metro in Win 8. I’ll leave that to all the other pundits and zealots out there and the constant whining and opining I see going on everywhere. But a design disaster, really? C’mon. I’m only delineating those things I’ve done to and with it to maximize my own productivity and usage.
So let’s get down to it right away and start with the obvious – Metro.
For anyone who’s been hanging out with Consumer Preview or Release Preview let’s just take a big step back and acknowledge the obvious points:
- Yes, Metro is much more geared towards a touch interface, but
- It is, in fact, the Start menu (just like it says right there on the top left) and in Win8 it’s where you go first. I think that’s a big source of heartburn for a lot of people based upon my readings across the web, but one click to get to your desktop and that’s what you’re going to choose to lose your mind about?
I don’t buy the statements about it being a “bolt on” that doesn’t go. It’s just a different paradigm and, at least in my mind, the mental shift was/is equivalent to NT 4.0 -> Win2000, Win XP -> Vista/Win7 in that, initially, I found myself asking “Now where is this now?” And everything is still there, just in slightly different places. That is, without belaboring all the specifics, just remember this – mouse to any corner and things will make themselves obvious real quick. Case in point, head down to that lower left corner where the Win7 Start orb used to be and you’ll see a miniature version of the above. Simply click on it and you’re back to Metro/Start yust… like… that.
On to other points and further tweaks I’ve implemented to make Win 8 run the way I want/need/like. I run a LOT of application software and programs. On my ThinkPad W520 dual booting Win7 Pro and Win8 Release Preview right now, just as with Win7 on the ThinkPad W510 predecessor and Vista on a ThinkPad W500 before that, I organize my programs’ hierarchy like so:
(Note: Having a buttload of icons on the Windows Desktop drives me nuts too).
The above is from the Win7 Pro partition on my machine. Beyond shuffling around tiles on Start and adding and removing to my liking (right-click and say Unpin from Start to lose something on Start/Metro you don’t like), what is my equivalent on Win 8? Well, two things. First, I’ve added C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu to Metro (right under Desktop screen shot above). Second, I’ve added that location to my primary library in Windows Explorer (a nifty addition with the advent of Windows 7)
Look familiar? Click on that tile in Metro and I go straight here. Et voila… I have the start menu with my hierarchy (lots of stuff nested under each of those categories) with the same number of mouse clicks it takes me in Windows 7.
Minor, trivial tweaks in my mind, as far as I’m concerned, but productivity tweaks I’ve been making in one way, shape or another since Windows for Workgroups c.1994.
Now, my desktop under Win7:
And under Win 8:
Again, look familiar?
Under Win 7 and Win 8 both, I pin a number of items to the task bar that I run most often:
Oh, and that Win 7 Start orb you see on the far left? For those whose knickers are still truly twisted with the loss of that from Win 7 to Win 8, just amble on over to Stardock and grab Start8 for free and you’ll have your beloved orb back. Word of warning though, when you hit that you’re just going to get a smaller version of Metro, but you can still tweak that as well if you like.
I really don’t use it that much, I hit Start or the shortcut I’ve created in Explorer if I need to drill down for something in one of the program groups I didn’t put on Start that I access less often.
Now, ask me why I like Windows 8. Simple, it boots faster than Win7, it does file I/O faster than Win7. I currently have Win7 Pro x64 booting off an Intel 310 80GB mSATA SSD in the WWAN slot on my ThinkPad, Win8 RP booting off a 750GB Seagate Momentus XT hybrid in the machine’s main bay. Win8 is faster. Noticeably so.
After all is said and done I still have all my apps, I still have things organized the way I like to work and I have a faster machine. There’s a number of other standard tweaks I make to Windows on any new install or machine, but I think I’ve hit the main points that most are griping about above.
So what’s the moral of our story Mr. Peabody?
- It really is nothing more than a Windows version as some have said, and once you get to the desktop everything is as it was before sans Start and the orb.
- I wouldn’t bet against Microsquish putting the start menu back with the final release given the groaning from the notebook/desktop crowd.
- Consumer market aside I see the corporate world sitting on Win7 (hey, it’s a good OS) a long, long time just as they have WinXP and the jump in that world won’t be for several years and that jump most likely will be to Win9 when that occurs.
- After all these years people still love to bag and bang on Microsoft, but I make the following statements and ask you the following questions honestly:
- Who doesn’t/hasn’t tweaked Windows in multiple ways over the years? That’s actually a good thing.
- When was the last time any OS gave you everything you wanted, the way you wanted out of the box? (I can hear the Apple zealots already. Linux people, we all know we tweak non-stop).
- If you’re Microsoft you can only please some of the people some of the time and you’re gonna piss off a whole bunch of wannabe UX experts.
- If you play with or eventually get Windows 8, keep track of how many mouse clicks or key strokes it takes you do to do anything. It’s the same or less than in Windows 7 or any other previous version.
- You get out of it what you put into it. <shrug>
Will Win8 be an unqualified success across the board in the mobile market, tablets and smartphones both? Doubtful. Apple has too much of a head start in that arena. This is going to be like Microsoft vs. IBM in the ’90s with the former trying to get into the machine room and the latter trying to get onto the desktop and will go on for a good while. We’ll see.
Thank you and enjoy your meal. Did you want fries with that?
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