Windows 8 Part 4

Windows 8 Release Preview Part 4

Brought to you by Niall Mulrine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continuing on from my review of Windows 8 Release Preview ups and downs of the newest edition of Microsoft’s Operating system, more points have being highlighted. First of all, my experience of using Windows 8 Beta versions have been a pleasure without much downtime and I am glad to see their framework went up an extra level from what I though Windows 7 could not get any better.

Some of the fancy features of Windows 8 have been discussed on many forums online and one of the main features that have had its ugly head reared above the surface again is the “Metro UI”. What is the “Metro UI”? Anyone familiar with Windows 7 Mobile will come across the tiles that featured on the screen for easy touch navigation will be at ease with the new “Metro UI”. The Operating system was built from ground up for touch use on computers, tablets and handheld devices. This is following the increase of people opting for touch screen phones and tablets, and Microsoft needed to follow the trend. But, keyboards and mice can still be used on the computers as we have done for years, so this will not annoy some of the die-hard computer lovers. With the Metro UI, we get the range of Apps that can be bought and downloaded from the Windows Store.

(Image of Windows 8 Welcome screen)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the term “Metro UI” has been controversial in the last week, as Microsoft now says that they are not calling this layout Metro. The reasons behind this are unknown but their PR team announced that “Metro UI” was used to describe design language and overall style of the Windows interface.

The old style Windows Explorer has been replaced by File Explorer. The File, Edit menus have disappeared and have now the same feel as Microsoft Office 2010 ribbon effect. Extra procedures such as buttons for moving files, folders, share and view are buttons instead of text boxes.

 

 

 

 

 

(Metro UI image below of Apps)

 

 

Shorter boot and shutdown times are another welcome to the system. After a quick installation, first appearances of speed can be noticed and the quick shutdown of the machine is matched with the quicker boot time. My first boot time was under 30 seconds and I was astonished. As normal, when software is loaded onto the machine, this slows down a little, but the average start up time is approx. 50 seconds which is still very fast.

More to come on the versions available when launched!!

More details to follow in next article. To play with Windows 8 why not go to download, Windows 8 from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download/

 

Related articles

• Windows 8 Makes Strides In Mobility
• How To Completely Remove Metro UI From Windows 8
• Microsoft reportedly changing “Metro” to “Modern UI Style”