Breadcrumbs

[CodenStuff]

Windows 8 developer preview

As Microsoft start showing off Windows 8 to developers at the BUILD conference I decided to download the developer preview release and take a look at how Windows 8 is coming along and hopefully get an idea of what to expect when its finally released.
To be fair in my first look and "review" of Windows 8 I have to point out that this is a preview build and not a BETA and is purely intended for developers to get a feel for the new tile based touch screen UI and learn how to make apps for it.

The Install:
Installing the preview was identical to Vista/7 setup so no big shocks or anything there and it installed very quickly (5-10 minutes). It didnt ask me for one single driver and it setup everything for me including screen resolution and audio, nice one.

The boot:
After it completely stalled and crashed the first time it did boot up after an angry press of the reset button and I have to say the boot time was about the same as Win7 so I was happy with that. Once booted up to first time setup you get the usual security, network, user, timezone options to setup but this time the screen is green (its actually quite calming and feels nice) and I was asked for my Live ID/Password for my user account and im not entirely sure what it does but it was optional and you can choose to enter any old name and password as you would expect.

So once booted and suited you are instantly greeted with the all new tile UI which again I cannot deny that it looks good and was quite exciting seeing it for the first time whoosh across my screen.


After the initial excitement I found myself a little lost and wondering "where the heck is the taskbar?!" and then I eventually noticed a tile with 'desktop' written on it so I clicked it and eureka there in all its (basic, bland, boring) glory was the desktop, awesome.


Just like everyone else who installs a new Windows OS for the first time the first I instantly went for was the start button to see what new and exciting apps are awaiting me...there were none...no seriously!. The start button has been replaced with a black square button that takes you back to the tile UI which atleast for this preview build is where all the action is and on there you will find your calculator, wordpad, media player, paint etc..pfff!. The lack of an actual start menu isnt going to put me off though because I know Microsoft are going to add one for desktop PCs and people who dont/cant use the tile UI because if they dont then Windows 8 is already doomed to fail. Dont get me wrong I think the tile UI is amazing and PERFECT for touchscreens but from a desktop users perspective a proper standard start menu is going to be a must because flipping back and forth from the tile UI to the desktop is going to be so frustrating otherwise.

It also comes with a nice on screen keyboard and if you hover your mouse in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen you get a quick popup menu and a giant clock appearing on screen.


The menu doesnt really serve much of a purpose at the moment merely app settings, file search..I dont really get it lol - its another feature for touch screens. Also if you hover your mouse to the far left of the screen in lets you navigate back and forth through open windows.



So what exactly is new so far? well compared to Win7 and not including the tile UI the only differences I could find were that task manager has had a pretty good overhaul and so has explorer which now has a decorative ribbon menu at the top like office. When I heard that Microsoft were adding a ribbon to explorer I wasnt really sold on the idea but looking and using it now I can see the benefits of it and it will make life easier in the long run I think. Apart from the above mentioned I cant really find anything else thats new as paint, media player, notepad ect all appear the same as Win7 but that may change when the beta/RTM is released.







Performance
This thing runs faster and better than Win7 and uses a heck of a lot less resources which has made me very happy.

Ok lets have a quick look at some of the tile apps in this preview.

New style control panel (original in explorer is still available)


Facebook and Twitter. With these you can get instant live feeds from your social accounts and post messages/tweets really quick - I like this.




News shows you a heck of a lot of news feeds in every categorie you can think of with options to grab news from where you live etc.



NearMe - to this day I still dont fully understand the point of the nearme or people near you feature but its in here aswell and has an impressive map display.



LOADS of games including 5 in a row and some 3D ones which includes a fun maze game that I couldnt stop playing lol.



So yes those are a few of the tile apps available in this build and im sure 100s more will be available whens its released and I will probably end up making some myself.



The verdict
Crap, rubbish, slow, sluggish, always crashing, nothing works, resource hog....

Those are some of the things I said about Vista/7 which I still stand by BUT for the first time since XP I can honestly say with a big smile on my face that I am looking forward to the new Windows 8 and I think its going to be their best yet!.

Microsoft you are doing all of us proud and if Windows 8 turns out as good as I now believe it will be then my hats off to you.

I can not wait to get my hands on the official BETA and indeed the RTM.

If anyone wants to try the preview release of Windows 8 then you can download it from their site here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516

DO NOT use it as your main OS because its not finished and is only intended for developers to try things out.

Bring it on cooll;

[Danny]

wow looks awesome ;D I've heard about it on school, my teacher have one on his laptop ;D

[Vikhedgehog]

cool

i still like the old explorer UI more

but if it has so much games its probably gonna be cool :lol:

[CodenStuff]

It runs like a dream it loads apps fast and doesnt hog resources or appear to slow down at all. I almost dont want to uninstall it but I have to restore my system :(

Really looking forward to this one.

[comathi]

Awesome, it comes with Visual Studio 11

[mikethedj4]

Downloading it right now...

[MrAksel]

I think i liked the old explorer better, but i haven't tested it so i cant say anything. Mostly it looks like Win7, except for the tile UI, so i think ill stick with that. I really want to test it though, but i might wait till the BETA. I hope there are many new features for developers. I remember Vista/7 came with new taskbar features, so i hope Win8 has some great things too,

[zachman61]

Where can i get a hold of this Build?

[mikethedj4]

Where can i get a hold of this Build?

He posted the link on the end of his article.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516

[zachman61]

Where can i get a hold of this Build?

He posted the link on the end of his article.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516

oops my bad :oops:

Is there a way to boot this like ubuntu with windows (dual booting)?