Windows 8 is
available for download today,
complete with a new tiled, touch-friendly interface as well as some
enhancements to the traditional mouse-and-keyboard desktop. Here's
everything you'll find in the newest version of Windows.
Microsoft's
"re-imagining" of Windows is focused very heavily on a new, tiled,
touch-centric interface for tablets. However, it's still somewhat usable
with a mouse and keyboard-and no matter what device you're on,
you can switch between the simple Metro interface and the traditional 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
first 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 (after all, we've seen Windows run on
netbooks).
Microsoft knows your fears, and has addressed them:
Windows 8 is slated to have better performance than Windows 7, even with
this metro interface running on top of a desktop.
We
ran a few tests back when the the Developer Preview came out and found
that to be the case, especially when it comes to boot times. Tablet
users and netbook users especially should notice a fairly significant
performance increase with Windows 8. Especially considering that any of
your tablet-based apps will suspend themselves when you jump into the
traditional desktop, so all they take up is a little of that extra RAM.
The Lock Screen
Windows
8's lock screen is pretty much what you'd expect: 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. You can swipe up to unlock,
or press the spacebar if you're on a desktop keyboard. You can then
proceed to type your normal password, or use one of Windows 8's "picture
passwords," which let you swipe or draw an invisible gesture that only
you know, using your lock screen photo as reference, to let yourself in
(though this is really better on tablets than it is on a PC). For
example, in Microsoft's original demo, they used a photo of a person,
and the password was to tap on their nose and swipe left across their
arm).
The Start Screen
Once
you log in, you're taken to Windows 8's new Start screen, which
replaces the old Start menu. The screen should be familiar to Windows
Phone users: You've got a set of tiles, each of which represents an
application, and many of which show information and notifications that
correspond to the app. For example, your email tile will tell you how
many unread emails you have (and who they're from), your calendar tile
will show upcoming events, your music tile will show you what's playing,
and so on. You can also create tiles for games, contacts, and even
traditional Windows apps that will pull you into the Windows desktop.
The tablet-optimized apps are all full screen and "immersive", though,
and you can rearrange their icons on the home screen easily (just as you
would on any other tablet platform). At any time, you can press Win+D
or click on the Desktop tile to go to the familiar Windows desktop
instead.
The Desktop
Once
you get to the desktop, you'll be in much more familiar territory.
You've got your taskbar, your desktop icons, and your normal windowed
applications as you're used to (though they have a new, flatter,
Aero-less theme). The Start menu, however, is gone—instead, you can move
your mouse to the bottom left hot corner and click to return to the
Start screen, or press the Windows key as normal. Like the old Start
menu, you can start typing any time you're on the Start screen to start
searching for an app or setting, giving you quick access to everything
on your computer.
It isn't nearly as convenient as the old Start
menu was, but you can get used to most stuff pretty quickly. Pressing
the Windows button and typing in an app or setting is faster than
browsing the Start menu anyway, so it's a good habit to get into, and
you can always access a more traditional menu by pressing Win+X—this
will bring up a small menu in the corner that has shortcuts to the
Control Panel, Run, the Command Prompt, and other stuff advanced users
may want to access.
Full Screen Apps
While
you can pin your favorite apps to the taskbar, as usual, most of your
apps will reside on the Start screen, just like they used to reside in
the Start menu. Just fire up the Start screen and tap or click on the
tile for the app you want to launch (or, as we mentioned above, type it
in the search box). Tablet-optimized apps will go full screen, while
others will shoot you back to the desktop.
The full-screen apps
that come with Windows 8 are really nice: most have touch-based
controls, like pinch to zoom and copy and paste, but you can also use
them with a mouse and keyboard if you so desire. Each has options like
search, share, and settings through the Charms bar, which you can get by
swiping from the right edge of the screen or pressing Win+C. Apps can
share information one another easily, such as selected text or photos.
After picking your media from one app, you'll then be able to choose
which app you want to share with, and work with it from there. For
example, you can share photos to Facebook, send text from a web page in
an email, and so on.
None of this is brand new to touch-based platforms, but what
is
new is the ability to not only multitask, but run these apps side by
side. Say you want to watch a video and keep an eye on your news feed at
the same time. Just like in Windows 7 for the desktop, you can dock an
app to one side of the screen while docking another app at the opposite
side, which is a seriously cool feature. Imagine being able to IM and
play a game at the same time, or browse the web while writing an email.
It's a fantastic way to fix one of the big shortcomings of mobile OSes,
thus allowing you to ignore the full desktop interface more often and
stay in the touch-friendly, tablet view.
The Windows Store
The
Windows Store looks much like the home screen, with tiles that
correspond to different categories and featured apps. From there, you
can look at a more detailed list of the available apps in a given
section. And, the store contains not only touch-based apps for the
tablet interface, but some of the more traditional desktop Windows apps
you're used to, so you have one portal to discover all your Windows apps
no matter what interface you're using. The Store has free and paid
apps, and you can try paid apps before you commit to buying, which is
really, really nice.
Sync All Your Data to the Cloud
The
cloud is taking center stage in Windows 8, with your Microsoft account
driving all the syncing. Your address book, photos, SkyDrive data, and
even data within third-party apps can sync up to the cloud, and you can
access them on any Windows 8 device—even a brand new one. Just sign in,
and you'll have access to everything (
not unlike Chrome OS,
which immediately loaded your themes and extensions when you logged
in). The address book also syncs with other services like Facebook and
Twitter as well. You can even sync all of your settings from one Windows
8 PC to another. Just sign onto your Windows 8 with a Microsoft account
and you'll get all your themes, languages, app settings, taskbar, and
other preferences will show right up. It's a pretty neat feature if you
have multiple Windows 8 PCs and don't want to set them all up
separately—just a few taps and you've got all your preferences ready to
go (you will have to re-download your apps, though).
Windows Explorer
Windows
Explorer has gone through a few changes this time around, most notably
the "Ribbon" interface we've come to know from Microsoft Office. Instead
of traditional menus like View, you now have three Ribbon panes: Home,
Share, and View, that give you access to the features that used to be in
the menus. If you're in a folder designed for certain file types—like
the "Pictures" library—you'll get a few extra Ribbon panes centered
around photos, which is pretty cool. Windows Explorer also has native
mounting of ISO files, a one folder up button like the old days of XP
(thank God), and a really cool "quick access" toolbar in the left-hand
corner that lets you add your favorite shortcuts to the title bar. It
also has a new file copy dialog that makes it easier to manage
move-and-replace actions with lots of files.
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.
Built-In Antivirus with Windows Defender
Remember
Microsoft Security Essentials, our
favorite antivirus app for Windows?
Well, now it's built in to Windows 8 as Windows Defender. It has nearly
the exact same interface and feature set; the main difference is that
you no longer have to install it.
Other Features
Along
with these cool features, Windows 8 also comes with other features we've
come to know and love to see in desktop and mobile OSes alike. It's got
system-wide spellchecking, so you don't have to rely on a specific 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 (not to mention better support for
multiple monitors in general—like having the taskbar on both screens).
It
also has a really cool feature called "refresh your PC", where you can
do a clean install with the tap of a button. Whether you're selling your
machine or just want a cleaner, faster installation of Windows, you can
do it all in one click. You can even set refresh points, similar to
restore points, so you can refresh your PC to the way it was at a
certain point in time.
