Windows 8 Final Review Part 3 – What Microsoft got right with Windows 8

Install and setup As someone who probably installed Windows 2000 and Windows XP over 100 times, I think that every IT geek has wanted that heavenly paradise described by the elders – the unattended install. Windows 8 comes as close to an unattended installation as I have ever seen and it’s awesome. It just asks for a serial number and with a minimal amount of prompting… it just runs. It also hasn’t crashed for me on either tablet or laptop which is great. The Windows 8 Developer Preview definitely had a bunch of hiccups during installation.

Visual visceral beauty

When you look at the live tiles after a while, you start to dig it a little. It’s new, original and fresh.

The Mail app

I love it. I love the Metro aesthetic. It’s different, pleasant and intuitive.

Typing begins your search

I LOVE that feature. In metro, once you start typing it starts to search apps based on the letter and word you are typing. Doesn’t get faster and more convenient than that.

Features and Applications

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on all the interesting new features and applications in Windows 8. There are a whole bunch of new Metro style apps from the video and movies apps [caption id="attachment_17047" align="alignnone" width="600"] Movie app[/caption] to the News apps [caption id="attachment_17048" align="alignnone" width="600"] News app[/caption] to the Weather Applications [caption id="attachment_17049" align="alignnone" width="600"] Weather App[/caption] to Internet Explorer 10 [caption id="attachment_17050" align="alignnone" width="600"] Inernet Explorer 10[/caption] to Xbox Live etc [caption id="attachment_17052" align="alignnone" width="600"] Xbox Live[/caption] and there’s lots to see in the Windows App Store as well. [caption id="attachment_17051" align="alignnone" width="600"] Windows App Store[/caption] You can read about those in detail elsewhere on this site. The point is, there’s a lot of eye candy to play with and you start to see the potential of the OS. Two major caveats

• Depends on the hardware (more about that later)
• Depends on the design aesthetic (more about that later)

 Performance

If you have a newer laptop or tablet, you’re in the money here. Windows 8 is a super fast Operating System if you have decent hardware. It boots up extremely quickly and gets you to the main screen literally in seconds. I’ve seen it boot up in less than 15 seconds and have started to get used to that level of performance.

Choice

You also have access to the desktop or desktop application as they call it. Yeah, the classic desktop is now just an application in Windows 8 and you have the option of going back to it. That’s kind of the good news (more on that later)

Cloud

Access to Skydrive is cool and is the future. The first step to syncing across all platforms. So far on the surface, it looks really cool. At first glance, it looks snazzy and impressive but now, we need to talk a little about what Microsoft got wrong.

Articles in the series:

• Windows 8 Final Review – Introduction and Disclaimers
• Windows 8 Final Review Part 2 – The Microsoft Vision
• Windows 8 Final Review Part 3 – What Microsoft got right
• Windows 8 Final Review Part 4 – What Microsoft got wrong – Metro Tiles
• Windows 8 Final Review Part 5 – What Microsoft got wrong – Usual Suspects
• Windows 8 Final Review Part 6 – Summary and Conclusions

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