Windows 8 Developer Preview: For Your Tablet PC

Transitional Pains On the Way To the Tablet

Within ten minutes of starting to use the Windows 8 Developer Preview on my desktop PC, it was apparent. It was apparent that this build was aimed at satiating the eagerness of the "post-PC" crowd. Its features, including the much-vaunted "Metro UI" were certainly nice. On a non-tablet desktop PC without a touchscreen though, it has been quite a pain to use.

Admittedly, this is a snapshot of a work in progress. Elements are scattered with the picture not being whole, and it could yet change radically in the coming months. The final release is almost a year away. To that extent, it shall get some leeway from me. But the intended direction and broad contours are clear.

The irritants and good features pointed out in this article, shall be only on the merit of what is already available; with a full product review to follow after the public release of Windows 8 in mid-2012.

Let us start right at the beginning and go sequentially, while discussing what's new in this Operating System.


Install and Boot
When starting up from the installer DVD, the logo and loader screen come into view. The boot progress bar has been replaced by a circle (hopefully temporary). The installation procedure is the same as Windows 7/Vista, with even the Shift+F10 debug command prompt functioning exactly as expected. I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted with a graphical boot-loader on first run! The GUI allows picking the OS to boot into, and also offers options to change the boot-timer and OS-repair.

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The boot screens will probably become even prettier this time around, but while Windows 8 Preview was quick to bootup, it was sinfully slow to shutdown.


OOBE
The so called out-of-box-experience (OOBE) in the Windows 8 Developer Preview has seen a change in colour and number of settings. Remember, Windows XP/Vista/7 had a maximum of three simple OOBE dialog boxes on first-boot, just after OS install (excluding screens that OEMs add). What I saw with this Preview though, was quite overbearing in comparison. It was a small shock to be greeted first by the EULA, then a green-coloured OOBE screen asking for your name, the settings which could be customized in fair detail, your Windows Live ID, and finally the login screen.

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Microsoft at least can't be accused of being humourless - the EULA (license) starts out by saying, "Make the lawyers happy by reading this carefully. (There won't be a quiz later.)"


Standard User Interface (aka Metro UI)
This is what we have all awaited - the new "Metro UI" that Windows 8 would bring. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I shall leave you to see the images for yourself. The below is what you get, upon first boot. Yes, this interface opens directly after first boot. See anything missing?

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That is right, this greenie is the whole of what you get. Touch-friendly, a tablet's dream, scroll left-right, and all that.


End of the "Start Menu"?
In case you missed it in the third image above, notice how the Start Menu has changed. That small menu on the bottom-left is all that lives to continue the tradition of showing a menu, when hovering over the Windows/Start button on-screen. While helping a friend over the phone, no more can you rattle off, "Click the Start Menu, then click All Programs…"
Also notice the "user tile" above. Touching the username at top-right (or clicking on it) will reveal a drop-down menu for managing User-Logins on the computer.

Perhaps non-tablet users will be offered a choice of the old Start Menu, considering that unofficial registry hacks are available online to "unlock" it.


Metro UI Home Screen (contd)
A touch-friendly home screen must need a new way of conducting basic operations right? Microsoft thinks so. Thus you have to search for the power on/off options in the lower-right side of the "Settings" pane. Similarly, the venerable "Start >> Programs" menu is now accessed by touching "Start >> Search >> Apps". The "Wireless Networks" notification dialog box that used to be a pop up on Windows 7, now occupies the entire height of the screen.

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Perhaps the power operations are tucked away, because you'd simply press the hardware Power button on Tablets, either to put the device on Sleep mode or wake it up.


Metro UI, Split Screen
To simultaneously be able to see two or more running applications, is yawn-worthy news for desktop/laptop PC users. However, the luxury of doing so has not quite percolated down to Tablet devices so far. This feature makes an arrival with the Metro UI, and can single-handedly sway purchase decisions if it matures into an easily usable feature. Browse through your mail, view stock prices, and generate content; doing all of these tasks side-by-side, with no application-focus switching involved.

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Of course, this far-reaching development could have been incorporated into other OS platforms by the time Windows 8 finally releases in 2012.


Internet Explorer 10
For the brave new world of touch, Microsoft seems to have decided their Internet Explorer 10 must go with the way the browser already does on Windows Phone 7. If you launch IE10 from the Metro Home Screen, you will get the new browser interface tailored for touch/tablets. Webpages now get the entire screen, with the tab-bar on top and address bar at the bottom disappearing after a few seconds. On desktop PCs, you can right-click your mouse to get them back and switch tabs.

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The old-style Internet Explorer is still available, but only if you launch it from the now "Classic" desktop interface, outside the ambit of Metro.


Control Panel, PC Factory Reset
The Control Panel has been similarly re-worked for the Metro UI. The options used most often, and simple touch-device settings are available in the new Control Panel. To a desktop user, the completely re-worked interface can feel surreal for a couple of minutes, before you dive right in. Note that 99% of the non-Tablet user's needs will still demand re-awakening the old (and familiar) Control Panel, Computer Management, and Group Policy Editor.
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Exciting additions here include the options to "Refresh" or "Reset" your computer's state. These options, although they may require a Product Key and are time-consuming, will make your PC feel the way it was when new.


Metro Apps
Microsoft seems to be concerned about every single pixel's worth of screen space on Tablets, because the Metro Apps simply have no "Exit" button! Try any special key or keyboard combination of your choice - these apps just don't pack up and go. Some workarounds can get you back to the Metro Home Screen, but the apps themselves are only in "Suspended" state, not really closed. This corresponds with the behaviour of apps on Windows Phone 7. At this point, it is not clear if the "Exit" button will be added to Metro UI later.

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I must say, the Metro games included were certainly fun. Interestingly, Metro apps/games were not exactly EXE files, in many cases they were being run off a folder instead.


Windows 8 App Store
This is a feature that was not active in the Windows 8 Developer Build. However, PC World India has covered this part of the functionality in other articles, with details of what is known so far.

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The place holder above is all that could be seen for now.


Task Manager
The last time a new Windows version offered such a huge boost in Task Manager functionality, was in 1996 with Windows NT4. Morphed now into a different animal, the Task Manager can be viewed in simplified form, or in detailed mode with statistics and graphs - a lot of functionality of Resource Monitor built-in.

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Transforming from the simplicity you see in the first screenshot, to what you see in the second and third ones, you can almost hear the beast roar!


Windows Explorer
The Ribbon UI has made its way into Windows Explorer. Finally worked its way from the intent of simplifying User Interface for complex MS Office applications, into the file manager that is used all the time. The upside is that you can pin repeatedly used functions to the Quick Access Toolbar, and collapse the Ribbon to get more screen space. Interestingly, the settings of "Folder Options" dialog box are present right there in the Ribbon, and there is no path offered to reach the old-faithful dialog box. The downside is that the old toolbars and menus are banished entirely now, and even holding down the "Alt" key does not show the Menu Bar, except in the legacy Control Panel window.

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Many users perceive Windows Explorer as a simple file manager and snigger at what they consider to be an unnecessary change.

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The "Open With" dialog box is not a movable window anymore. However, the "File Replace" dialog box, and File Copy status dialog box, are two changes to file operations in Windows Explorer that have been a delight.


Multi-monitor Support
If you happen to have a desktop with more than one monitor, the OS recognizes and utilizes them right away. It worked well on both, dual-monitor and triple-monitor setups when I tested it. The Metro Home Screen is present on the first monitor. The second monitor takes on the role of displaying the legacy desktop. The twist is, the legacy desktop screen does not have a Start Menu, making do with just a button that can move the Home Screen to that monitor. Also, if you go out of the Metro screen and fall back to the legacy desktop, you will see the standard Taskbar on all screens.

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Notice how the two screens are of different resolutions, and the Taskbar extends across both at exactly the same bottom positioning.


Usability Verdict
I found the Windows 8 Developer Preview taking me to exciting heights and then hitting rock bottom, so it is simply alright, on the whole. It did feel a bit dysfunctional at first, especially on a desktop. The interface does grow on you, though. The special effects and window transitions were smooth. There were no crashes or unscheduled issues despite pushing the hardware to its limits, so the software is pretty stable. Microsoft's internal versioning for this OS is v6.2, after 6.1 for Windows 7 and 6.0 for Windows Vista. So the base laid down with Vista turns out to have done a favour for today's users, since System Requirements have pretty much remained the same. But at the BUILD 2011 event, Microsoft demonstrated it as a Tablet OS, and for now, I'd suggest using it on an x86 Tablet or PCs with touch screens, as intended.