The Release Preview of Windows 8 , complete with a new tablet
interface and some enhancements to the conventional mouse and keyboard desktop.
HERE’S WHAT
IT LOOKS LIKE:
This is everything Microsoft
talked about in their preliminary proclamation of Windows 8, but if you want a
more exhaustively look at what's new, check out our test drive of the Metro UI, the desktop, Windows
Explorer, and the revamped Task Manager,
plus our video walkthrough of the Consumer Preview Below.
Microsoft's re-imagining
of Windows 8 is listening carefully very heavily on a new, Metro-style
touch-based interface. However, they make a big deal of saying that it's just as usable with a mouse and
keyboard and no matter what device
you're on, you can switch between the simple Metro interface and the habitual Windows desktop to fit
whatever your needs are at that given moment.
PERFORMANCE
INCREASES:
One of the issues that's been on our minds since they
previewed this new interface was whether this will keep bogging Windows down
with more running processes, and whether running a full Windows desktop on a
low-powered tablet was really a good idea.
THE LOCK
SCREEN:
It's got a beautiful picture along with a few little widgets
full of information, like the time, how many emails you have, and so on.
However, after swiping to unlock, Windows 8 shows off some pretty painstaking
touch based features, particularly a "picture password" feature.
Instead of using a PIN or a lock pattern to get into your system, you swipe
invisible gestures using a picture to orient yourself. Android molders might
find this similar to Cyanogens Mod's lock screen gestures.
The Home
Screen:
The home screen is very familiar to anyone who's used Windows Phone. You've got a set of
tiles, each of which represents an
application, and many of which show information and notifications that communicate to the app. For example,
your email tile will tell you how many unread
emails you have, your calendar
tile will show upcoming events, your
music tile will show you what's playing, and so on.
THE WINDOWS
STORE:
The Windows Store, which is now available in the Consumer
Preview, looks much like the home screen, with tiles that exchange letters to
different categories and featured apps. From there, you can look at a more
detailed list of the available apps in a given section.
A NEW TASK
MANAGER:
Microsoft's finally redesigned
the task manager, and it looks pretty great. You have a very simple task
manager for basic task killing, but
if you're a more advanced user, you can bring up the detailed task manager
filled with information on CPU and RAM usage, Metro app history, and even startup tweaking so you can get rid of apps
that launch on startup without going all the way into msconfig.
WINDOWS
EXPLORER:
They didn't show us a super comprehensively look at the new Windows Explorer, but we did get a
little peek. Most of it isn't new information, we'll have native ISO mounting in Windows Explorer, a new Office-style ribbon,
and a one folder up button like the old
days of XP (thank God). It also has a really cool "quick access" toolbar in the
left-hand corner of the title bar, that gives you super quick access to your
favorite buttons from the ribbon.
OTHER
FEATURES:
Along with these cool features, Windows 8 also comes with
other features we've come to know and love in our mobile OSes. It's got system-wide
spellchecking, so you don't have to rely on a unambiguous app to keep your writing top-notch, as well as a
system-wide search feature, that
lets you search anything from your music library
to your contacts to the web itself. It also has a really cool feature for desktop users that lets your run the Metro UI on one monitor while running
the traditional desktop on the other.
This is still just a small preview
of what you'll find in Windows 8. If you want to see more try it out. There's a
lot more to be found and played with, so if you find something particularly
neat, share it with us in the comments!
