Hands-on: What’s good and bad about Windows 8

Since Microsoft’s Build conference earlier this month, where Windows 8’s debut was the grand spectacle, I’ve been quietly exploring the forthcoming OS deeply. Now that I’ve spent real time with it, I can give you a fuller analysis than what appeared in the first days of its announcement.

I can honestly say that any “final judgments” you’ve read about Windows 8 are worthless. The preview edition of Windows 8 isn’t so much as half-baked, even down to small details such as the atrocious color scheme. It’s obviously in preliminary stages, as you can see from the video below.

[ Read InfoWorld’s coverage of Microsoft’s Windows 8 grand reveal of its new UI and capabilities. | Take a visual tour of Windows 8’s mobile-inspired Metro user interface. | Stay abreast of key Microsoft technologies in our Technology: Microsoft newsletter. ]

If you want to install Windows 8 preview yourself, download the files from Microsoft’s developer site, then watch my Windows 8 how-to installation video.

What I like so far in Windows 8

I like Windows 8’s ability to set up your PC with a local login or a Windows Live ID. This provides a more consistent user experience across devices and even between mobile and desktop apps. Your most commonly used Windows settings move with you through the Windows Live ID login, along with the settings and last-used state for your Metro-style apps. Credentials are retained for applications and websites that require login IDs, and they travel with you to any PC you log into. It’s completely controllable, so you can determine which items you want to sync and which items you don’t.

There is a fancy new Task Manager with much-improved display of CPU, memory, disk, and network utilization for applications and processes. But for the most part, I don’t see other changes in the administrative tools or computer management tool set, including Event Viewer and Disk Management. There’s an interesting change in the way Explorer works now because it has the ribbon UI with several ribbons that are fairly easy to work with. Also, after going missing since Windows XP, the up arrow icon has returned, restoring many users’ preferred method of navigating their folder structure.

You can look forward to other fun details, including the new look of Internet Explorer (the preview has IE10 Developer Preview, which comes in both a standard Windows 7 look and the new Metro look). It also advances HTML5 support significantly, rating a score of 300 out of 450 in the HTML5Test.com test, compared to just 141 for IE9; by comparison, Google Chrome 14 scores 340, Mozilla Firefox 7 scores 313, and Apple Safari 5.1 scores 293. I didn’t have a chance to test a feature called Refresh Your PC, but it promises to restore your system to factory settings — perfect for when you plan on selling your PC. You can also configure refresh points and restore to those point-in-time snapshots of your PC.

You can see more about what Windows 8 brings to the table in my Windows 8 video tour.

What I don’t like so far about Windows 8

Again reserving full criticism until I see the final product (or at least move into betas and release candidates), I’m not yet a fan of the integration of the tablet and desktop interfaces. I prefer the two to be separate. But as has been mentioned time and again, the Metro UI isn’t an app: It’s the Windows 8 shell. That is, it’s locked in, so it can’t be decoupled from Windows. According to Microsoft, it is Windows.

I can honestly say it isn’t a lack of desire to move into the world of tablets that is holding me back from loving the Metro UI. I’ve worked with and love my Android smartphone and Galaxy Tab tablet with Android OS on it, but I don’t want that look on my desktop. Also, I don’t like touchscreens. It’s bad enough I have had to get used to wiping off my phone screen every few many minutes to remove smudges. But now to have fingerprints all over my monitor at work? No thanks.

I also don’t like that when I click or tap the Start button in the bottom-left corner, it takes me back to the Metro UI apps when after 16 years of clicking that same spot, I’ve become accustomed to seeing my Start menu and related options. To view a minor menu, I have to hover and fish for it. The option still is labeled Start, but it really means Switch when you click it. I suggest that Microsoft leave the Start button alone and add a new option to the right for returning to the tiles, so I can use Windows 8 like I use Windows 7. Change is good, but I don’t want the company to break a feature that currently works.

Windows 8: Still exciting

Despite my initial criticisms, I’m excited. I know my complaints are minor and will be worked out once others weigh in. I’m happy with what I’ve seen so far and pleased that Microsoft will soon be in the tablet market with a competitive product.

My big concern is the inability of Windows 8 to run classic Win32s desktop apps for ARM tablets. Emulators are constantly made for apps to work across different platforms, and Microsoft is no stranger to this. In Windows systems themselves, you have virtual DOS and Windows on Windows and all sorts of options for running 16-bit apps on 32-bit OSes, and then XP Mode and so on. Why not build in an emulator so that ARM apps run perfectly on x86 and vice versa? There are rumors that Microsoft is working on some sort of Win32s-on-ARM compatibility feature, despite its current statements saying legacy Windows apps won’t run on ARM chips; my fingers are crossed.

Aside from that, I’m looking forward to seeing the many applications that developers come up with, now that they have this preview and can get a glimpse of what the next version of Windows 8 looks like.

This article, “Hands-on: What’s good and bad about Windows 8,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of J. Peter Bruzzese’s Enterprise Windows blog and follow the latest developments in Windows at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.