A few days with Windows 8

A few observations since I went (mostly) all in with Windows 8 at home:

  • I love the SkyDrive integration, both with Windows 8 and with Office 2013.  The experience of working with files here or on my phone is easy and addictive.
  • My irritations have been fleeting.  Most of them have had to do with how to get to familiar places like Control Panel and Search.  Of course, once you get used to a new way to do it, those irritations disappear.  I did need a few hours of use before I was comfortable with the infrastructure.
  • I’m not doing much with the live tiles on the Start menu, but I haven’t used Windows 8 on a touch device daily yet.  I will say that I haven’t considered it any particular handicap to use a mouse.
  • I really dig the new File History backup system.  It keeps an hourly incremental backup, rather than writing big file sets like Windows 7 did.
  • Windows 8 runs significantly faster on my little beater netbook than did Windows XP.

As I wrote not long ago, Microsoft hasn’t done a good job telling this story.  I’m not sure how I would have approached it differently, but it’s clear the narrative hasn’t resonated.  Who knows what will happen?  As for me, I rather like the new Windows ecosystem.  I’d like to see it get some traction.

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2 thoughts on “A few days with Windows 8”

  1. Bo, I agree with you completely. I watched as Win8 was developed; I read the developer blogs and participated in the beta. I installed Win8 on my desktop at home and I really do enjoy using it. The multi-monitor support has been wonderful with three screens. The File History and Storage Spaces have me reconsidering my Windows Home Server (replacing it with a RAID enclosure attached to my desktop). I’m even starting to use the Start Screen because of the ease at which I can see the status of multiple programs (email, app updates, and weather, mostly).

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