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I installed the Win8 preview tonight to have a good look at it.
At first it is very disorientating after so many years with a familiar desktop environment from one version to the next.
After a few hours of poking around I can see that a lot of people will get frustrated with the new setup.
If it was something new on a mobile device they had never used then it would be a case of accepting that this is how it is done on this device and working though it.
In the pc environment it is something that will initially feel like it is getting in the way of 30 yrs of desktop tradition made worse by the need to configure things if it is a new install.
The preview copy comes with no "welcome to" video that I have found so you are left to work out the "why is it this way?" and "where is this?"questions for yourself.
The first screen at start up is the thing they call Metro and I can see it being a very good idea, it just does not seem that way for a start because it is not yet customised to what you want to have there plus there is the initial disorientation of "where is my desktop stuff".
Metro is good if you want to just get on the computer and do something, check the news or weather, look up something on the map, plus other apps and many more to come, or run a program.
It is all there on the whole screen instead of small writing on a scroll in a start menu.
I found that in the pop out side bar menu on the right (that you can access any time in the Windows environment), if you pick "search" from that menu you get a screen of both your apps and other things you would find in the start menu as well like, computer, control panel, system, etc all well layed out over the whole screen. This could be considered a stand in start menu if you like to see everything you would find in a start menu there in one place.
The side menu is where turning off the computer is hidden also. So picture this someone fires up Windows 8 for the first time and get completely lost what to do, which turns to frustration till they want to rage quit, but where is the thing to shut down, the start menu is gone so where is it. Well if you move the mouse to the bottom right corner a hidden side bar pops out and one of the things on it is "settings" and when you click on that the option "power" appears at the bottom of the side bar, click on that and there it is your usual shut down options.
Fine once you know, but there would want to be a good induction built in on the final version.
There is a traditional desktop that is quick to get to from Metro. My feeling is that after the initial leap to accepting Metro the desktop will become old school.
Apart from no start menu I don't see any difference in this desktop to the usual one. Installing a program puts a tile in Metro for it and a icon in the desktop.
I am used to getting to most things straight from the desktop so I tried replicating some of my usual setup.
I opened "computer" from where I said search was and from the "computer" window I dragged its address icon at the top on to the desktop making a shortcut to it there.
I did the same for each drive from "computer" as well as doing the same with "control panel", "system" and my "user" icon.
So no problems with creating a bit of home comfort while you workout the thinking behind the new stuff.
I like Windows 8 and I can see myself doing a new install to it from Vista and skipping Win7 (good as it is also) . I think people are going to take some time to understand Win8 but when it clicks they will never look back.
I do feel sorry for the ones who are just getting confident with standard Windows, or work in IT support.
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