By Dave Bailey 24 Oct 2011
Verdict:
The Windows 8 interface is basically lifted from Microsoft's Mango phone interface and transferred to the desktop. This is not bad, but the Mango interface part of Windows 8 is mainly concerned with content consumption, and works better with touch screen capabilities on user hardware, than standard non-touch hardware. When fine input is needed, a keyboard and mouse is easier to use. A key question resulting from our assessment of this developer preview is which versions of Windows 8 will have UEFI enabled, which could lock out other operating systems from being deployed. There is also the question of whether application developers will port their Windows 7-style applications onto the Windows 8 touch-centric Metro-style platform. Windows 8 is still at an early stage so the design of the interface may change in the next development stage - which will be the first Windows 8 beta.
Pros:
A good operating system for content consumption; good tools for developers to code Windows 8 Metro-style apps.
Cons:
USB 3.0 connectivity didn’t work on the tablet itself; keyboard and mouse users will find it difficult to use the new Windows Phone-like part of the user interface.
Microsoft's Windows 8 Developer Preview (W8 DP), which is now available for download, got its first major push at the recent Build developer conference, where every attendee was loaned a custom-built Samsung tablet PC loaded with the OS, Visual Studio 11 Express for Windows Developer Preview (WDP) and the Developer Preview of Microsoft Expression Blend 5 (see picture below).
This largesse is rumoured to have cost Microsoft £5m, which points to its determination to make sure Windows 8 launches with a large number of applications.
Microsoft is also setting up an app store for Windows 8 from which these applications will be available for download when the OS launches in 2012.
Test systems
Back at our labs we downloaded W8 DP and installed it on our Dell OptiPlex 980, and on the latest version of VMware's desktop virtualisation package, Workstation 8, running on one of our test laptops.
The Samsung system was running a 64-bit version of W8 DP. It included Microsoft Visual Studio 11 Express for Windows Developer Preview (WDP), the Developer Preview of Microsoft Expression Blend 5, Office Viewer 2007 and used mobile broadband from US mobile operator AT&T.
In use
Booting up the Samsung tablet took us through an initial configuration phase similar to a Windows 7 install.
After we accepted licences for the application development software, we were given the option to presonalise features such as wireless connections and the display.
Next, Windows prompted us to download the latest hardware device drivers and any other updates from Windows Update, and then configure settings for Internet Explorer (IE), such as IE’s SmartScreen filter, checking if we wanted to join SpyNet, and whether we wanted our location data to be used by Microsoft.
After this we got to see the start screen, and it's unlike anything that has appeared in a Windows desktop OS before. The user interface is a direct steal from Microsoft’s consumer Windows Phone 7 OS [see picture].
Users are presented with a selection of touch-enabled tiles that activate so-called Metro-style apps. The ones on our Samsung tablet at Build gave a good demonstration of what is possible with Windows 8's touch capabilities but were essentially consumer-oriented. That said, the application roster is likely to undergo considerable expansion when Windows 8 finally ships.
For users who are more comfortable using a mouse and keyboard, a tile marked "desktop" brings up a more traditional interface. On our test tablet, this interface was essentially Windows 7, but with a few tweaks to the Task Manager and an update to Windows Defender, as well as a preview of IE 10.
We found that the tile-based interface works much better with a touch screen-enabled device like a tablet, than with a standard mouse and keyboard.
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