Windows 8 review awful

Hyde operating system " -- may be applied conclusively. While Windows 8 inherits many of the advantages of Windows 7 -- the manageability, the security plus integrated antivirus , and the broad compatibility with existing hardware and software -- it takes an axe to usability. The lagging, limited, often hamstrung Metro apps don't help.

In this review of the final, RTM version of Windows 8, I'm not going to reexamine what's come before; almost everything discussed in my Release Preview review and in my Consumer Preview review still stands. There's no Start button on the desktop, and the utilities that managed to graft Start onto older beta versions don't work with the final RTM Win8.

Moving from Metro to desktop and back again, especially on a large and touch-deprived monitor, will have you reaching for the Dramamine. I can confirm after months in the trenches and talking with many hundreds of testers that anyone who defines "real work" as typing and mousing won't like Windows 8 one little bit.

Let's take that as a given and move on from there. The bad Although the reintroduction of Start Button and Menu is a welcomed addition, ExtremeTech's hands-on review acknowledges that Windows 8.

Consequently, Microsoft's appeal to tablet users isn't necessarily ideal for "power users" who rely on a PC to be productive because these users may find that a touch-optimized operating system isn't fully addressing their needs. Perhaps there's a good reason why Apple has Mac OS for productivity and iOS for touch applications, as opposed to an all-in-one solution like Windows 8.

The ugly The reality of the situation is that Microsoft has to repair Windows 8's poor reputation while also managing declining PC sales.

The billion-dollar question for Microsoft is whether or not consumers have already moved beyond the PC thanks to the explosive rise of mobile computing. In the meantime, I'm not sure there's enough improvement built into Windows 8. Discounted offers are only available to new members. Stock Advisor will renew at the then current list price.

Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close. As of this writing, however, the Store listed only about apps, so Microsoft has a little catching up to do.

The number of apps available at the official Windows 8 launch on October 26 will be more telling. Since the Start screen consists of groups of tiles, moving your favorite or most commonly used tiles to the left side of the screen is pretty easy.

You can also specify the tile size normal or double-wide and turn off live-tile updates if you find them distracting. In addition, you can group tiles by program type, such as business applications, games, and so on. One configuration option that Microsoft has buried in the past is the startup configuration. In older versions of Windows, customizing which applications launched on startup required entering the Msconfig system-configuration utility.

In Windows 8, you can select which applications launch at boot-up with the new Startup tab in Task Manager, which you can easily launch in the simplified Start menu. Some customization configurations are less obvious.

When you install a game from Steam, the procedure asks you whether to create a desktop shortcut. Desktop customization is also available, except for the obvious lack of Start-menu tweaks. The taskbar is present, as it was in Windows 7, and you can pin applications to it as before.

Applications tell Direct2D what to draw in the form of 2D objects, such as circles and rectangles, plus additional features such as color and style. As a result, normal desktop windows will likely see substantial performance increases.

On top of that, Microsoft has added a new programming interface, DirectText, which offloads text rendering to the GPU. Text-rendering performance in desktop programs and in Windows 8 apps is double that of Windows 7—often better than double. Features left out include BitLocker, compression, and 8. Note, however, that ReFS works only on secondary drives, not boot drives.

Your boot drive will still be NTFS. The Reset option nukes the hard drive and reinstalls Windows from scratch. You can use this option to get the machine back to a factory-fresh Windows install, without the need for a new Windows key or the Windows setup disk. If you prefer something less drastic, the Refresh option resets important Windows settings but maintains your personal files and installed Windows 8 apps.

Using recimg makes an image of your current version of Windows—including installed desktop applications—and makes that the default image when you refresh your PC. The new operating system ships with a Windows 8 app for the SkyDrive cloud-storage service. Out of the box, SkyDrive shows up as a Windows 8 app, but it does not appear in the file manager on the desktop; to make that happen, you need to download and install the SkyDrive desktop application.

Once you download the application, install it, and link it to your Microsoft account, both the Start screen and desktop become coupled to your SkyDrive. Of course, that default setting could cause you to consume your 5GB allotment of free storage pretty quickly.

SkyDrive has several important drawbacks that for many users may make it less viable than local hard-drive storage or competing cloud services. Second, Microsoft restricts the types of files you may upload: Illegally copied commercial content is prohibited, and so are files that contain nudity or excessive violence.

Using Windows and Mac hardware? No problem; a local-file-like experience is on hand for either environment Linux users, sadly, need not apply for the time being. One facet of the OneDrive experience is Files On-Demand, where the content of files is not downloaded until needed for example, opening up a Word document. It saves disk space and means OneDrive only downloads what it needs when connected to the internet unless a user has manually specified that a file or folder be always available.

Dropbox's Smart Sync does something similar. Interview Supply chain woes continue to batter the tech industry but that didn't deter the makers of the diminutive Microlino from introducing a new electric vehicle amid a pandemic and chip shortage. We last looked at the Microlino in , when the bubble-like electric car was shown off at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Not that the two-passenger and three beer-crate Isetta-inspired vehicle would have won any prizes for velocity, thanks to a maximum speed of 90kph.

Still, in a market awash with concepts and dreams that are far from production, the Microlino looked to us to be an intriguingly practical proposition for urban transport. The Register - Independent news and views for the tech community. Part of Situation Publishing. Review and manage your consent Here's an overview of our use of cookies, similar technologies and how to manage them. Manage Cookie Preferences Necessary. Always active Read more These cookies are strictly necessary so that you can navigate the site as normal and use all features.

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