Finally stopped being lazy and installed Windows 8 to my spare harddrive in my PC this morning. The installation was retardedly easy, and initially, it looked fantastic. Groundbreaking. I love Metro, so I figured I'd love this.

After using it all day, though... Ehhhhh...

I'm wondering who else has the Windows 8 customer preview installed. Am I being too set in my ways? Everything seems to have too many hoops just to get to it. A lot of the cosmetic changes seem unnecessary for anything but a tablet. On a PC, it seems like I have to do five steps for something that used to take me two. I don't like it.

I just fail to see the huge appeal of the OS for a classic PC. It doesn't make things easier; it makes them more difficult. I was really excited for the games-specific section of the start menu, only to find that it's basically just Xbox.com with a new layout. Why can't I organize GFWL games there like I can on Steam?


Plus, they killed Zune. **** them.

I can't wait until the official Windows 8 operating system comes out.

W8 is tough because it will be a fantastic mobile OS. I definitely plan on getting a WP8 and quite possibly the Surface tablet (or the Transformer Prime's W8 revision, as I own an Android Prime now and it's awesome).

However, in an attempt to fight Apple's walled garden, MS is trying to make W8, W8RT/Pro Mobile, and WP8 an OSX, iPad and iPhone situation. So it's sort of necessary for W8 to have Metro UI.

Of course, W8 also has a classic side. Have you not used it, Grey? It's pretty much Windows 7, which is, you know, fine. With improvements.

Basically what I'm saying is that no bad can come with Windows 8 because it gives us normal Windows 7 plus Metro apps. So it's... harmless, you know? Maybe even good for developers.

But that's the issue. The classic desktop lacks the same seamless functionality of every major OS since, like, Windows 95. Essentially, it's missing a goddamn Start Menu.

Instead of having everything right there in front of me, I have a start screen that overtakes whatever it was I was doing, so that I can see all my programs in the form of apps. This can be amazing for tablets, but it bogs down my computer. Instead of simply finding what I want and being on my way, I have to move my mouse to the edge of the screen, click the pop up, find whatever "app" I need, then use the scroller just to navigate, slowly, page by page. It's all generated for a touch-based interface, one that I do not have nor want for my PC.

The desktop is like Windows 7, yes, but the confusion between "app" and "program" is my primary concern. If I want to play music, do I use the music app, or just download Zune and keep it right there in front of me? If I want to use a Newegg app versus just opening up my Newegg bookmark in Chrome, what's the benefit? A shinier screen?

I'm not trying to trash the OS yet. I'm still just messing with it. I just see it as a wholly superficial change with a backtrack in functionality. It'll probably be great on Surface (I own a Windows Phone, basically, for the Metro interface and design), but with a mouse and keyboard, it kinda sucks. At least until they can create a better transition between program and app.

I mean, what's the use of having an Xbox-specific "app" if I can't even play my downloaded PC games straight from there?

Oh. Yeah, that's pretty major. I haven't checked the preview out myself, but I was really under the impression W8 Classic was just a reskinned Windows 7.

Reading what you have to say, this may be a problem.

Definitely going to grab this and figure it out. Windows 8 as a final product is going to cause quite the stir.

You know what they say about Windows releases. Wait for the odd number versions.

I don't feel that Metro adds anything helpful to the desktop Windows experience. It doesn't seem condusive to multi-tasking, even if you can run in half or third-sized panels. I will be working in desktop-mode constantly anyway. As long as it remains easy to do that, and everything stays compatible, I welcome improvements to that interface. It doesn't seem like it's the priority, but some things that I've seen so far look kind of neat.

i agree

I have this weird thing where I constantly control-V to make sure I don't have anything stupid copied for others to see. I must have accidentally done it without noticing.

I also control-t and immediately control-w as some sort of tick, which has caused a lot of issues because sometimes my ctrl-w finger moves faster than the other.

Okay, I've tried it and I like it. It's as fast as 7, at least, gives my laptop better battery life (a whole hour, actually, though we'll see how it is when it's released), and boots faster. It's more optimized and its performance is just better. It's just that the design is worse. I can't see MS not fixing the bizarre classic design.

Basically I just really, really want the start menu back though. It's really a sort of confusing experience.

It also has native support for .iso files!

The quick booting is great, sure. But it really doesn't feel any faster than when I first installed Win7 two years ago (I reeeeally need to reinstall my OS, but I don't want to redo my entire game library in the process). One of the cool things about it, though, is that Win8 recognizes that I have multiple OSes on multiple HDDs, and when it boots, it offers for me to switch to Win7 on my other HDD if I so choose, eliminating the need to do so in the BIOS if I want to switch.

Still haven't tested how games run. I downloaded a few thinking I could run them through the games app/tab/whatever, and so far, I've yet to make that app do anything significant. It's just a glorified Xbox.com, by what I can tell.

Plus its setup isn't even as good as my Windows Phone Xbox Live app. Which can run games straight from itself.

Hey, speaking of which, will WP7 games be transferable to a Win8 tablet? They really should capitalize on that, rather than charge again, like they do for GFWL/XBL games.