Considering that a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium costs north of $80, we think it’s completely fitting that a standard Windows 8 upgrade costs $40: Metro’s worth can be counted on one hand for a typical desktop user, but the improvements found across the “Windows 7” version of the OS are certainly worth paying for. Even with Metro’s annoyances—and we haven’t even covered the full list in this extended review of the OS—Windows 8 is a good-to-have, but not supremely necessary upgrade. Those who made the jump straight from Windows XP to Windows 7 know the feeling we’re describing here.
Windows 8’s more advanced Storage Spaces tool allows you to add new storage sources at any time—hard drives, flash drives, or other external storage devices—to create giant storage ”pools” with redundancy policies you decide on.
The features we’ve touched upon, and some of the operating system’s more hardcore elements that we haven’t—like Windows 8’s Storage Spaces or File History feature—just about balance out the general issues you’ll deal with when confronting Microsoft’s “newbie mode” head on. It would be wrong to fear Windows 8 because of the sweeping changes (and poor follow-through) Microsoft has introduced into an otherwise fine desktop operating system. Upgrade your OS. Bask in your faster boot times. Synchronize your settings and files with Microsoft’s fluffy clouds. Heck, burn and mount ISO files—that’s a new one for Windows!
Fear Windows 9 instead. Once Microsoft cuts the cord on the classic desktop, kiss your productivity goodbye. Say hello to Microsoft marketplaces accompanying everything on the OS—much as they do now with a handful of Metro apps. Us? We plan to prepare for the desktop apocalypse by stockpiling copies of Windows ME. $100 per. Cash only.
Windows 8’s File History setting, buried deep within the Control Panel, is yet another “backup” technique that saves shadow copies of your data to other hard drives, external devices, or network-based storage.
Granite
September 14, 2012 at 5:26pm
The way I see it, Win8 is the bridge to the future when the keyboard and mouse will be gone. We will, instead, use touch, voice and motion to interact with our systems. Personally, I'm eagerly looking forward to this future. For the time being, however, I won't get Win8 for my desktop. I DO intend to get a Win8 tablet.
lordfirefox
September 14, 2012 at 8:09pm
Desktop gamers don't use touch screens to play games. So I don't see touch-screens as the future. PC gamers already have the best interface for playing games. The keyboard and mouse. A touch screen is nothing more than a gimmick like the Kinect sensor for the 360.
brentrad
September 15, 2012 at 3:13pm
I don't agree that mice are going away, but I also don't agree that touchscreens are a fad. I think they can coexist, and I predict they will for the foreseeable future. There's some things that are just easier or better with touch, and there's a lot of things that are easier with a mouse.
Choices are good.
Granite
September 15, 2012 at 2:29am
Gamers do use touchscreens to play games...I use them on my tablet and phone every day. PC gamers will use them too, along with voice and motion.
It's not fully developed yet...but it will be. Win8 will spur that developement. The keyboard and mouse will be ancient history.
You can either live a meager life in the past...or embrace the future.
Your choice.
blackcat77
September 14, 2012 at 4:59pm
IIRC Windows 7 got a Kick Ass rating and deserved it. Windows 8 gets a 7 with about as many negatives as positives. Metro is Fugly. Having to look at that be enough to make me hate the OS no matter if it was marginally better than Windows 7. I have had no icons on my desktop at all for years and now MS acts as if they can demand that I change that. Wrong. Windows 7 is going to be around longer and stronger than XP was and MS has only themselves to blame.
BryceBooth
September 15, 2012 at 10:25am
With the addition of the Start screen (Metro) you can still keep your Desktop clutter-free.
abowlofsoda
September 14, 2012 at 4:07pm
For the first time ever I might actually BUY a Windows OS instead of obtaining it (Early bird pricing).
Hmm.. maybe not.
jordinyc
September 14, 2012 at 4:05pm
Finally Redmond proves once and for all that Microsoft BOB was a good idea all along!
devin3627
September 14, 2012 at 3:58pm
hey guys, f*** windows media center. this is the real deal, connecting xbox live with this and you have coolest home entertainment system in your bedroom too. but im not willing to spend money on unnecessary stuff.
TheMurph
September 17, 2012 at 1:28am
I wonder how long it'll take Microsoft to integrate all of the proposed Xbox functionality into Windows 8...
loozer
September 14, 2012 at 4:28pm
Do you have TV Tuner cards? Do you have an HTPC? Do you NOT own an xbox?
No? Then stop trolling.
brentrad
September 14, 2012 at 3:41pm
I installed the Windows 8 Pro RTM as dual boot along with my Windows 7 install on my desktop (non-touch) computer. Thought I'd try it out, and I expected to hate it and just switch back. Turns out I like it a lot, and I intend to uninstall Windows 7 one of these upcoming weekends.
It probably helps that I didn't use the Start Menu all that much, and what I used it for (the Run shortcut, quick access to the Control Panel, etc.) it's pretty easy to set up alternative ways to access things. I don't use any of the Metro apps (except the Weather app, MaximumPC is right, it's pretty sweet), and I just use the Metro/Start Pane for searching for stuff.
What I really like about Windows 8 is the speed (it's just faster than Windows 7 at most things), and the extra little things they added, like the souped up Task Manager, the File Copy dialog, how fast it boots up, etc. I have an older AMD x64 x2 5200+ processor and only 2 GB of RAM, and it runs faster than Windows 7 does. Of course I do have an SSD as my boot drive, and Windows 8 was really optimized for SSDs.
So to all those talking trash about Windows 8: actually try it out before you decide it sucks. You may like it, you may hate it...but make up your own mind. Although...am I going to install it on my wife's computer? Probably not. So it's definitely not for everyone.
brentrad
September 15, 2012 at 3:08pm
Don't get me wrong, if they kill off the desktop in Windows 9, I'm outta there. I can't believe they'd ever be that stupid though. A tablet interface will never be a viable replacement for the Windows desktop for business users who have multiple apps open and sit upright at a desk all day. I think Microsoft ceded this point by showing their vision of the ideal tablet/desktop interface in the Surface tablets, with a keyboard/touchpad and available USB ports.
I have a combo tablet/netbook - an Android 4.0 Asus Transformer - and I use it docked probably 80% of the time. Can't beat typing on a real keyboard, and the dock hinge allows the screen to be supported at any angle you want, sit it on your lap, etc. I find that I never use the touchpad though - I find it's much more convenient to use the keyboard along with the touchscreen to navigate. I'd be interested to install Windows 8 on it, if it were possible, to see what it's like. We'll see if someone makes that possible some day.
SkinnyZeroOne
September 14, 2012 at 3:59pm
Totally agree with your post. It just feels & snaps faster than 7. All the rest of its annoyances can be dealt with.
I'm really interested in what's under the hood.Oh - Great review by the way MaxPC
West996
September 14, 2012 at 3:22pm
I think I am going to like Windows 8. I will give it a shot.
I see what people are saying about liking to keep their desktop clean and neat with as few icons as possible, it makes your desk top look nice. Hide all your icons in other menus and such.
That makes for a nice looking desktop, but that isn't what it is for IMO.
My desk top is a work space, just like the top of my desk. I keep it neat, my icons are bunched into appropriate groups, but they are all right there in front of me for when I need them. I don't want to hide them.
Metro seems to take that approach. I actually uses your entire desk top space and turns it into a functional space.
It will take some getting used to for sure, but I think I will like the end result.
Engelsstaub
September 14, 2012 at 3:16pm
I'm getting an OEM copy when it comes out. I give less than a shit what others are in tears about.
gmvolk
September 14, 2012 at 3:11pm
One reason I don't like "Metro" is that I prefer a minimalistic approach on my desktop. Very few icons, but everything I do need is safely tucked inside rainmeter launchers and/or the start menu(but not so much there). About the only thing on the desktop are temporary downloads or things like that. Metro just looks too cluttered, busy, ugly, insert adjective here. It's not what I want on my desktop. Not sure how this will play out on a tablet, which is where it is meant to be.
TheMurph
September 14, 2012 at 3:56pm
Same here. I like running desktop-clean. I don't know why Microsoft couldn't just let you like, dump sets of Metro icons into a single, unified pop-out group, kind of like what I can do on Android...
That would certainly help to get things a little less cluttered!
einstein1971
September 14, 2012 at 10:06pm
Murph maybe this would be a good time to write one of your infamous "year of the Linux desktop" articles. Seriously, you have a long history of being wrong. I've seen several articles on how designers are praising Microsoft's new approach. And didn't you say in an article for PC World back in 2009 (and I quote): "One of the core problems with Windows 7, which Microsoft will invariably not fix, stems from its utter similarity to Windows Vista. ". And then you said: "As for me? I think I'll go back to Vista for now..." So quit pretending, admit that for you Microsoft could have done nothing that you would approve of, and admit that you would under no circumstances give Win 8 a fair review. I have been using it since the Consumer Preview and love it. It's fast, makes sense, and very modern. At least it's something bold and not the same safe crap that the Linux and Apple fanboys keep putting out.
TheMurph
September 17, 2012 at 1:36am
Also, how many years have you been trolling this site now? Lordy. You'd think you'd get tired of it after awhile.
Engelsstaub
September 15, 2012 at 9:54pm
Actually Apple and the main Linux distros have not been playing it safe (as I assume you mean. I'm not sure how the fanboys have come to run the businesses but w/e.)
OS X has been becoming more "Windows-like" (bloated and cluttered IMO) since the release of Lion.
Fedora started using the controversial GNOME 3 UI as default, which even Linus Torvalds blasted.
Ubuntu has Unity as default. I'm certain you must have heard some of the backlash against that. (OT: Actually I don't get why Linux-users shit themselves over UI when they can just install the one they want...that's what's cool about Linux. With Windows and OS X, on the other hand, one pretty much hast to take what they're "given.")
gmvolk
September 14, 2012 at 4:43pm
On my work PC, its a cluttered mess, albeit a cluttered mess that I can still use. My home PC desktop is squeaky clean. At least with 7 or XP you have that choice. With 8, MS is slowly forcing metro on us so when we get Windows 9 we won't think twice. Yes there are ways to get rid of it, but as you said "Fear Windows 9" when we can't get rid of it anymore. Maybe someday I'll go distro hopping again. And why would you stockpile ME? I would take 98 over ME anyday!
stige
September 14, 2012 at 2:52pm
the "under the hood" improvements alone make this OS worth the upgrade.
all MS should really do to clarify the Metro / Start Menu confusion is to make the keyboard "Windows" key a toggle in stead of just an 'Open' mechanism. let us quickly get in and out of Metro just like we currently can the W7 Start Menu and I'm sure most other UI/UX quibbles will be tertiary and specific to only certain groups of people.
and, as MS is learning, you can't please everyone.
captpuget
September 14, 2012 at 2:46pm
For the very first time not only won't I be upgrading Windows on the first day I can -- I won't ever upgrade to Windows 8. I don't remotely know what MS is thinking, but this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen.
loozer
September 14, 2012 at 2:25pm
"Fear Windows 9." So true. Windows 8 is still windows, with "metro" attached on top. I just hope that "Metro" really isn't the future.
jonathan1984
September 14, 2012 at 11:10pm
I absolutely agree. This brave new "future" that Windows 8 is supposed to lead us to? It's not a good place for consumers or computing. It's good for giving companies like Microsoft money and control over what we do with our machines. No, no, HELL no.
Xenite
September 14, 2012 at 2:13pm
The comparison to Vista has been more about the fact it's going to bomb sales and adoption wise.
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