11 Feb Why we Love, and Hate Windows 8
Why We Love, and Hate Windows 8
There has been a lot of talk out in the Geek world about how terrible windows 8 is. There are some major downsides to Windows 8, most importantly the new “Metro” interface. This is the tool that Microsoft believed would replace the start menu, and lend itself to a touch friendly environment, they also wanted a unifying experience across all platforms, PC, Tablet and Phone. Unfortunately for Microsoft their tablets have been a major disappointment to the industry. Either they are too expensive (Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2), or they are unable to run the software we need them to run (Surface RT and Surface RT2). The Microsoft built tablets are not selling well at all, even their latest release of the Surface Pro only managed a 6 out of 10 from Maximum PC.
There has also been some complaint about the utility of the search features that were built into windows 8. Why do I get separate results for documents, system settings….? And of course there is the problem with the Bing integration into windows 8 that is just awful. Microsoft has worked really hard to make the bing experience visually appealing, unfortunately their search results are appalling. Fortunately there is a fairly simple way to improve some of the biggest issues. By installing classic shell (www.classicshell.net) you can get back the functionality of windows 7 while still taking advantage of all of the performance increases in windows 8, and the native SSD integration. The search behavior can be solved by upgrading to windows 8.1, which is a free upgrade (its still a pain in the neck).
Unfortunately for a great deal of our customers there is a great deal of software that just will not operate in windows 8.1. I have been speaking with people at eClinicalWorks, and they say that windows 8.1 is still in the testing phase but support should be out in force later this year.
There are a great deal of things that we love about windows 8 as well. First off, native SSD support. For us geeks that is reason enough to switch and make the upgrade, but I also recently built a system with an SSD running on Windows 7, and that machine was the fastest one I have built to date. There is also support for the latest version of DirectX which is the language that all video games are built upon. Without having the latest operating systems gamers will suffer lag time no matter what kind of video card setup they have.
Windows 8 is also MUCH better at supporting multiple monitors. A large number of our clients may not realize what a benefit that is as they have people on laptops or single monitors, but here at our office, we each have at least 3 monitors, and the support of multiple monitors in Windows 8.1 is truly beneficial, and helps increase our productivity. Imagine if you will being able to have data on one screen and the input into the database into the other. We firmly believe that people are going to go more and more to multiple monitor setups (Which of course we can help you move to!).
As for Windows 8? We must admit that once you get rid of the metro interface and apps, the operating system itself is quite robust and offers a great deal of advantages. One more word on the apps in the microsoft store, we have not yet found a SINGLE app that is worthwhile, mostly because you are tied to the interface in the metro screen only, and almost everything that the store has to offer in the way of apps, can be better served by simply going to the website, ie espn.com vs espn app.
