Wh-wh-wh-Windows 8?

It's not controversial to say that Windows 8 has not won the hearts and minds in the technology community. In fact, recently, Windows 8 and Microsoft were blamed for the slide in PC sales. While I personally think there are plenty of other reasons for said slide, IDC isn't exactly nobody in the tech business so people will take note.

I am a pretty technically savvy person so my concerns and needs do not exactly mirror that of a more every day consumer. Nonetheless, people like me buy a lot of computers, advise others what to buy and often support those systems at home and in our business. What we think does matter beyond what our ownership or market presence bespeaks.

Let's start with a few key issues. These arise from my use of Windows 8 over the course of the last month on my HP ENVY dv6 laptop. It is not touch enabled so this represents the vast majority of desktop and laptop computers in existence today was well as most new units shipped for the foreseeable future.


The Start "button" from Windows 7 has now been transformed to an infinitely growing screen that puts all of the apps you choose to see on your desktop. To a degree, this pleases me. My real life desk tends to be organized in piles of paper that I visually catalog and work through. (Yes, I know - you'd think I'd be far more electronic. However, in a business, paper seems to make its way to me without fail.) 

However, it's important to note that while you can put virtually any application as a shortcut on the start screen, only Windows 8 applications do things like provide live updates on the individual tiles. It's also nice that you can control the layout to some degree with different size tiles. Personally, I would like an even larger size for non savvy folks I might setup a computer for as well as some way to lock the tiles. 

Every application that I use to get anything done, including Microsoft's own Office applications run the "Windows 7" classic desktop environment. This zone feels very comfortable and looks identical to Windows 7 with the notable exception of the missing Start button. So, as nice as the tiles are, they are like the proverbial tree falling in the forest.

It's almost as though Microsoft should have just stuck with the stillborn Active Desktop from the Windows 95/98 days. Perhaps leveraging embedded apps or widgets along with window transparency would have been a smarter way to go. People really, really like having an image on their desktop. It helps personalize their computer and make it their own. Windows 8 takes that away unless, yep - you're in Classic.

Windows 8 gives you two worlds to live in and that's one too many. Rumors have it that Microsoft is rethinking that particular paradigm shift. The funny thing is that the tiles work great on a stuff that is not a PC. And Microsoft should definitely embrace non-PC devices even though I disagree with any sort of notion that we're in a post-PC era. We're actually in a PC Everywhere in Everything. Just take a look at your car, phone and TV and try to tell me I'm wrong. But, I digress.


Unfortunately, you have the learning curve without the benefit of being able to ditch old habits. In order to be as productive and effective, plan to learn new tricks to be as functional as you were in Windows 7. The most important tip I can give is that you are best off searching for apps and control panels using the integrated search feature. Don't try to stumble around through the multiple and confusing duplicate control panel system.

All of the above is the part that you're going to notice. There's some different stuff going on, that's for sure. The part that you aren't is that Windows 8 is rock solid. Stable as any operating system I've ever used. Remarkably so. Now, it certainly helps that it is running on brand new hardware but that's hardly ever been a guarantee of success for me. Power management is good. It wakes up when you want, goes to sleep when it should and doesn't do weird things that confuse you... well, beyond the ones mentioned already.

There are a million other things that other reviews have covered so I won't bother. The key take away is this. It's not as bad as you think or hear but it's not something you need either. If you are thinking about purchasing a new PC, try to order from one of the vendors that let you (for now) get it with Windows 7. It's just a more familiar environment for most people. 

As for me, I think I'll stick with Windows 8 for now. Perhaps it will grow on me.

Note: For the first time ever, Blogger crapped out on me while I was attempting to edit this post for final publication. As a result, some content changes were lost so there may be future edits to this post. I'll be keeping an eye on this situation and report back if Blogger develops systemic memory loss.