Windows 8 - It's all about the Metro



The now famous Metro home screen

Not long after I booted my laptop into the newly upgraded Windows 8 Consumer Preview, I tweeted : " Not impressed - too haphazard ..."  Well, this was like no other windows you had ever seen before, so I deserve to be forgiven if I may have over-reacted just a wee bit. I mean, this was as much out of your comfort zone as it gets. There was no familiar "X" to close off your application, no taskbar to switch between open apps, and the mystery of the missing "Start" button. So yah, I didn't feel so bad the next day when I actually started enjoying this Metro thing.

One get's the feeling Microsoft auditioned for the development team of Windows 8 at the local gaming hangouts. Gone are the drib drab grey windows, familiar menus, controls - and in comes funky coloured tiles that come to life, bold pastel coloured flat action buttons, and a host of touch optimized swipe functions.  But if you prefer your old fashioned desktop with your standard Windows apps - not to worry, as you can switch between the Metro Interface, and traditional Windows Explorer environment. I have a feeling many of the old school will be spending much of their time here. But if you are the adventurous type, the best way is to just dive into Metro and navigate your way around this new colourful world.



The beautiful Metro Internet Explorer

Here are some quirky issues I stumbled upon in my 2 days so far …

 My 1st boot into Windows 8, was somewhat late in the afternoon, I had a quick look around the new Metro UI, and then I needed to shut this thing down as it was time to go home. Hmmm - No shutdown option anywhere. I tried the usual Alt+F4. No joy here. Windows button. Nope. I'm not ashamed to admit, I turned to Google on more than one occasion for answers. Turns out - if you hover your mouse over  the bottom right of the screen, you get what's referred to as "Charms" appearing, Here you go to settings, and Voila - a Power icon. There are other easier ways to get this done, like "Windows key"+ I - or just CTRL+ALT+DEL - the three finger bogey.

Hitting your "Windows" Key by itself - will switch you between Metro, and Old Explorer interface.

 Killing open applications, has not been given much importance in Windows 8. Very similar to the iPad. You open an app and when you done, hit the Windows Key to take you back to the main Metro screen where you can open your next app. Windows 8 apparently suspends any app not in focus, and uses up its resources as needed, so there's no need to actually close it. But if you really want to satisfy yourself - hitting  ALT+TAB will toggle between apps. If there's an app that's not pinned to a tile on the Home screen, just start typing the 1st few letters of the app name, and this will activate a search feature which will give you access to the rest of your apps.

You can still run your old Windows apps, together with Metro Apps

There are various cool Metro Apps bundled, like the Video App, and Photos App, but my pick so far has to be the Metro Internet Explorer. This is what browsing should be. No added toolbars, links to half of the known sites on the web, or wasted screen real estate. Just you and the browser. You type your address and off you go. Everything else fades in the background. Of course the Metro IE is optimized for touch, but it works just as well with a traditional mouse & keyboard. It took me a while to figure out how to open new tabs in the Metro IE ( right click does the trick ). It works fast, efficient and looks beautiful. Below is a link to the Metro IE blog, showcasing some of its features. 

Metro IE Development blog - some really nice info here.

All things considered, I think I will eventually like this new Windows. It's fast, and Metro will be wonderful on a touch interface. It's definitely a move away from the old bulky, slow windows applications, and as more developers take to creating Metro applications, the eco-system will take off. Of course Microsoft has a lot of catching up to do with Apple still the undisputed King of touch, but I like that Microsoft has taken a bold fresh approach to the new Touch form factor, and not just ripped off Apple ( Like Android has). It will certainly be very interesting to see how the new Windows takes off, and with Nokia making waves with their new Windows phones, the future is looking a bit brighter for Microsoft.  If you'll excuse me now, I have some playing to get back to.