I’m in the midst of testing the Windows 8 Customer Preview. Some notes on my experience, in no particular order. Clearly they don’t have power users in mind!
Summary
- UI needs work but is a good start
- Not enough non-MS app support yet
- Buggy
- Need more ability to customize things
- A good OS for tablets, phones, and media centers, not powerful computers
Look and Feel + Interaction
- Great for everything MS
- Poor for apps that are not MS
- Give me more power to customize the Metro UI start screen
- Show active Metro UI apps in a flyout on the taskbar
- Right-side gesture options don’t work well if you have a dual-display to the right
- Why repeat my task bar on both screens?
- App-switching on the left of the Metro UI is good
- Make folders on the search menu in Metro UI collapsed by default – I don’t need a screen full of dutch language manuals for Nero
- Provide more windows-button hotkey bindings and shortcuts (customizable??)
- Can we integrate the whole control panel into Metro?
- Overall performance dropped ~10% according to benchmarks, can’t feel it though
MS Apps that are useful
- Explorer file transfer management is MUCH IMPROVED
- Internet Explorer’s interface is good…
- Bing Weather
- Built-in PDF and ISO readers
- System Rating – look I’m no longer the fastest possible!
MS Apps that need improvement
- App store – very little selection, give me the big names
- Maps – way worse than Google’s, let me manually input my location
- Photos – let me add/remove sources to my liking, and pick what goes in the live tile
- Videos/Music – let me control directory sources from Metro UI
Some stuff doesn’t launch
- Daemon Tools (SPTD 1.8 can’t be layered with 4.10 anymore)
- PowerDVD 11 (updated to a mid-level patch, probably works with a new one)
- Can’t recognize my Hercules webcam
- I’d bet most antivirus won’t work, I’m using AVG
Some stuff crashes
- Creative volume control (crashes at shutdown, works otherwise)
- LOL skin changer (.NET framework issues, can’t import skins)
Weird behaviors that have happened randomly, without repeat
- Drag and drop stopped working
- Couldn’t see files through Windows Explorer
- Icon images on Control Panel
- Bluray burner disconnected randomly while burning with Nero 10, disc toasted
Things they need to put back in
- Recently used documents as sub-menus on start items
- Make it easier for me to get to sleep/shutdown/restart
Things I haven’t played much with
- Anything that makes me sign into a MS Live account
- MS Email
- Skydrive
- Internet Explorer compatibility
