Microsoft partially answers Windows 8 hardware question

Until you’ve tried Windows 8 on a touch-sensitive tablet, you really haven’t tried Windows 8. But if you’ve been testing Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a tablet, there are good reasons why it may not work very well — and at least some hope that tablets branded as “Made for Windows 8” will work better.

A new post on the Building Windows 8 blog talks about tablets — specifically, touch-related hardware problems that the Windows 8 team has encountered with Windows 7 era tablets and what Microsoft will do to make sure that Windows 7 tablets work with Windows 8. As the team admits, there’s currently a great deal of variation in the touch capabilities of different Windows 7 tablets, including individual taps and swipe-from-edge movements that don’t always work; inconsistent implementation of swipe to select; and misinterpretation of swipe and slide.

The Microsoft team also posts an updated list of Windows 7 systems that they themselves use. While that may not qualify as an endorsement, it certainly narrows down the field for those of us who are trying to figure out whether Windows 8 Metro will ever work inside our organizations. If you’re looking for a tablet that’ll do Win8 justice, you can start here:

• HP Elitebook 2760p convertible
• ASUS EP121 tablet
• Dell Inspiron Duo convertible
• Lenovo x220t convertible
• 3M M2256PW 22-inch display
• Samsung Series 7 slate

A few sobering thoughts:

• The Elitebook 2760p and ASUS EP121 run at 1,280 by 800; thus, they don’t support Metro Snap.
• Testers are reporting problems with Fn keys and tablet buttons and Bluetooth on the Lenovo X220T.
• The 3M M2256PW has a gorgeous display, but it’s an all-in-one, so it doesn’t feel or work like a tablet.
• The Samsung Slate 7 finally received updated device drivers from Samsung yesterday. The drivers allow users of Windows 8 Consumer Preview to “right click” with the tap-and-hold gesture. They also enabled portrait mode — earlier this week, the Slate 7 didn’t even know that portrait mode existed.
• The recently updated Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 with an Intel Atom Z690 also has reported problems with its multitouch driver.

Owners of other brands report numerous problems with drivers, as well. Installing Windows 7 drivers frequently results in Automatic Repair cycles on reboot, rollback to a System Restore Point, and lots of frustration.

For once, the problem with Windows drivers isn’t so much backward compatibility — the bugaboo of almost every Windows version since time began. Now it seems that the driver manufacturers can’t keep up with the demands of Windows features, multitouch being the lowest common denominator.

Word to the wise: if you’re going to give Windows 8 a fair workout on a tablet, make sure the drivers are up to snuff.

This article, “Microsoft partially answers Windows 8 hardware question,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.