Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Microsoft recently announced a "Consumer Preview" of the Windows 8 operating system was made available for people who wanted to have a look at the OS that is touted as Microsoft's "next big thing". So with that in mind, I decided to take the plunge and grab a copy to have a look at.

Firing up the trusty Virtual Box I setup a quick VM and ran the Windows 8 installer that I downloaded from here. 

Firstly, the specs for Windows 8 are identical to Windows 7, so my VM didn't have a huge overhead on my system. I mounted the ISO file and began the install process. 

Installation is simple, very simple. It's been considerably cut down even from the current Windows 7 install which is minimal at best. A new colour scheme is noted amongst changes, however the biggest change is having to create (or use an existing) Windows Live ID such as a Hotmail account to integrate into the OS, which is very similar to what is done when setting up an Android phone. From what I could see, there is no way around this prerequisite, and it means that you need to have another account setup and password to remember.

The installation takes about 15 minutes on a VM which isn't too bad at all, and only requires one reboot at the end of the install process.

Once installed, you get your new desktop view.

Welcome to Metro, the replacement for the Start Button and Desktop in general. This is the face of Windows 8.

As you can see, Metro is designed for tablets taking queues from mobile OS's such as Android, IOS and Windows Phone 7. It's certainly a big change from the standard Windows desktop that we have known since Windows 95, that we came to love way back in 1995.

Now, I did say "replacement for Start Button" earlier in my article, and yes you read me correctly, there is NO Start Button. Now this is a problem, and it's something I just can't seem to get my head around. Sure you have Metro to launch your apps, and when you are in Metro you can type in what you are after eg Word would bring up Microsoft Word if installed, but if you aren't in Metro it's a pain.

Applications are now "apps" and certainly have a different look and feel than you are used to. Internet Explorer 10 does not remind you of the IE versions you have used previously. It's minimal in approach, and funky in colour scheme, however it still doesn't fill me with excitement in daily usage.

My concern is though that Windows 8 is just Windows 7, minus Start Button and with a somewhat frustrating touch based navigation menu that doesn't come naturally just plugged in over the top. It doesn't flow, it's confusing and I can't see my Mum getting to grips with this any time soon. I'd say that Microsoft have to make some significant changes to Windows 8 prior to release or lose a huge amount of market share to Apple and Ubuntu.

I've only scratched the surface on Windows 8 and there is a tonne more to see before I can pass a real judgement. My expectations aren't high at this point. Come on Microsoft, let's see something really stellar here!