Will Windows 8 Fail The Desktop?
By: Arie Slob
OK, I've tried it... really I did. So let's start at the beginning: I'm a PC user. I work on it at least 10-12 hours a day, have a dual (2 x 19") monitor setup, and it is not uncommon for me to have 10 or 20 applications running at the same time. Some of these run full screen on a monitor; others only take a portion of the screen. If I need to use the application I just click the icon on my Taskbar and it pops up on top of any other application Window I have open.
I "get" what tablets are all about: they are consumer devices. Nice if you want to see the latest cool YouTube movie, play a (simple) game, read/respond to an email & browse some websites, but it's nothing I'm interested in. You see, I need a PC to get my work done, and as a bonus it can do all the other things too, and I can spend the $500-$1,000 a tablet would cost me on the finer things in life.
Oh, I may eventually get a Windows tablet, not because I really want one, but hey, I'm writing about Windows and this tablet thing seems to be here to stay.
I think Windows 8 is pretty cool on a tablet... I don't really know, but if you read some of the reviews they're pretty glowing.
Here are some of my observations from running the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 (after I also tested the Developer Preview).
Split Personality
When you start using Windows 8 on a desktop PC, or even a "traditional" non-touch laptop, it feels like it has a split personality. There's the new Metro interface, which seems to have been 'bolted' onto the classic Windows desktop interface (which got a lobotomy and had the Start menu taken out). You'll quickly notice the constant switching between the two. Launching any non-Metro app will switch to the desktop and then launch the app. The opposite also happens. For example, when you are browsing your files in Windows Explorer (which still is a non-Metro app) and would like to see an image, double clicking will switch you 'back' to the Metro environment and launch the "Photo's" app. Believe me: it get's old pretty fast!
Metro a failure?
OK, so this is Microsoft's great new... what? It pretends to be a replacement for the Start menu (why else would it say "Start"?) Have you seen how it looks on (just) a 19" screen (Figure)? The last few years it is not uncommon for PC's to be sold with 20", 21.5" or 23" monitors, I can't imagine how dumb Metro looks on these.
But that's just the start. Desktop users (and especially those with larger screen sizes) are used to arranging Windows applications running on their screen any way they want. Maybe they want one application running on the top half of their screen, and have two other applications sharing the bottom half. Currently you can have it any way you want. Not so with Metro apps. You can only share the screen (vertically) between two applications, one will use 320 pixels*, and the 2nd app uses the remainder. That's all the flexibility you get. You have multiple monitors? Tough luck; you can only run Metro apps on the main display (Figure). I should be able to run an application on any of my monitors in any size I like to run it. You'll also need to be running a screen with at least 1366 horizontal pixels to support the option to display two apps simultaneously, so on my 19" screen's native 1280x1024 resolution I can only run one app full screen.
*) It is actually 320 device independent pixels (DIPs), so it will be the same physical size on an 11.6" screen regardless if the screen has a resolution of 1366x768 (320px), 1920x1080 (448px), or 2560x1440 (576px).
"Hot corners" anyone? If you don't know what they are, pointing your mouse at the corner of your display will trigger some controls. For example the right top & bottom corner will slide the "Charms" menu in view (Figure) 
. The left top corner will let you see running apps (Figure) 
, while the bottom left corner gives you the option to return to the Start screen - if you are using the Desktp (Figure) 
. Now try using them on a multi-monitor screen! You have to be so precise that it'll slow you down drastically. A factor should also be that it is almost impossible for users to discover these "hot corners" if you haven't read/heard about them.
Let's have a look at "Search". When you start typing while on the Metro Start screen a Search is started. The annoying thing is that the search defaults to displaying results for Apps, even if there is nothing to show. So you have a large part of your screen empty and need to click on "Settings" or "Files" to show results (Figure) 
. I'm sure Microsoft could have come up with a better solution which would display a mix of results from various categories (Apps, Settings and Files).
What about the System Tray? Do you currently make use of it? I do: check on battery life (when using a laptop), the time, my network connection status, mute sound, and more. Here Metro is a failure too: you'll have to continually pop back and forth to the desktop from the Metro app you are using in order to be able to check the system tray.
In Summary: Microsoft has failed to explain to users what they can do with Metro what they cannot do with their desktop already (at least I haven't found any explanation). Let's see: Using Windows 7 I can "dumb down" my desktop just fine, I can maximize running applications, I already have a full screen feature in Internet Explorer. From what I see I think Metro is great for touch devices. Do I need touch features on my desktop computer without a touch device connected? Ehhh..... No.
So why Metro you ask? My bet is that Microsoft put Metro on both tablets and PCs as a means to 'force' developers to write tablet apps. Microsoft is trying to use their PC dominance to get a foothold in the tablet market.
"Classic Desktop"?
When Microsoft released the Windows 8 Developer Preview it was discovered that a registry key existed that would let you switch off the Metro part of Windows 8. This meant that you basically got the same look as Windows 7, including a Start menu.
Before Microsoft announced the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 it had commented that it would remove this registry key, and sure enough it did.
Probably they did this to gauge how much resistance this would get. There are several people that claim they 'know' that Microsoft will include the registry key in the final product. I think that would make sense; and if they do not, I for one (and probably a lot of PC users) will not bother upgrading. There are a number of nice things in Windows 8, but there's no "need to have" function, and Windows 7 is the best Windows OS I've ever used. I know some users argue that title belongs to Windows XP, but my Windows 7 is much more stable than XP ever was.
The Group Policy Editor in Windows 8 Consumer Preview does show an entry "Do not show the Start Menu when the user logs in", but it lists that this only applies to the Windows Server 8 Beta (Figure) 
. So we'll just have to see what Microsoft's decision will be.
My Conclusion
It really feels that Metro is being forced on computer users. The majority of users seem to agree that Windows 8 is probably a decent tablet OS, but not a good (desktop nor laptop) computer OS. The constant switching between Metro and Desktop modes gets real tiring and has a negative influence on productivity.
It sure looks like Microsoft has made the decision that they need to start offering a tablet OS (sorry guys, you missed the boat. Sure you sell some, but you should be very happy if you manage to take 10 or 20% of that market!) and no consideration for (desktop) computer users is being made. Microsoft insists that "Windows 8 is equally a PC operating system for non-touch devices and a "no compromise" OS for both PCs and tablets." No compromise for sure, but not usable on a PC for people that actually need to get work done on them!
As I wrote above, I think that Metro on PC's is being used to get developers to write tablet apps.
It does look like Microsoft realizes that Windows 8 won't be a hit on PC's: It has extended support for Windows 7 to 2020 recently.
Yes, this is the Consumer Preview, so we'll have to see what the final product will be. Feel free to add your comments below, or post on our Forum.