Windows 8 user reviews

Anonymous 1 March 2012

Good: Amazingly fast boot, easy to use, fun and super sleek

Bad: Still struggling to separate the Metro/Win7 interfaces...

Comment: I've installed Consumer Beta, and first of all, let me say how impressively stable, fast and fun to use it is. I'm blown away by the 9 seconds boot up I get on my middle of the road laptop.

The Marketplace is already fairly busy with great apps, and it all seems to run super smooth and fast. Played with the Windows Phone OS, and this is definitely taken the best from that but made it all grown up.

The only draw back for me right now, is that it's a bit dis-concerting having to switch between Metro and older style Windows for things like CorelDraw and other programs, but maybe in time, integration will be smoother.

Karl Mantle 25 February 2012

Good: The new Metro interface is awesome, if you have a touchscreen...

Bad: Metro was forced upon me, and I didn't like that.

Comment: OK, the big "thing" about this new Windows is the Metro styled start menu. I would first like to say that I love the menu and think it's awesome. I have a Windows 7.5 phone and think it's a wonderful menu, easy to navigate, looks great etc. However, my Windows phone is touchscreen and my laptop is not. I find this menu to be very difficult to navigate with a mouse and frankly quite pointless as most of its features are designed or appear to be designed with tablets and touchscreens in mind. Now, as if that wasn't annoying enough I now enter control panel and I'm not presented with any option what so ever to turn off Metro and default to the Windows XP/Vista/7 style start menu nor was there an option to have the "desktop" app open as default on startup. That really broke it for me seeing as there were many good things about the OS too such as ISO mounting, the speed, power consumption and the great looking log on menu. It's a shame they tried to force change this time.

CrazyJohn 25 February 2012

Comment: I have played around with the preview, and find it absolutely useless! If this is the way Microsoft is going, then I am switching over to linux!
Meanwhile I will continue with Windows 7

BigD 14 February 2012

Comment: Microsoft haven't quite got it yet (I don't think). In my opinion, you can't have the same OS for both tablet devices and desktop/ laptops.

To me, the interface seems somewhat disorganised - granted the current version is still in pre-beta and there is still time for change (I hope),

I'll stick to Windows 7 thanks, and in due time will move over to Apple products...

mae1000 13 February 2012

Comment: so, will next Galaxy Note run on Windows 8? am waiting.

James Hogg 13 January 2012

Good: Really good for a Tablet of Phone

Bad: Horrible for a Desktop/Laptop

Comment: This is too Tablet friendly. I've been messing around with the Developer preview. Yes if you have common sense applications will still be in the same places you're use to. This is in no way designed for the business world of Laptops. Windows 7 is still a great OS. If by the time the Release Candidate is out and it's still too "Tablety" I would avoid it for businesses. However saying that this is my opinion and wouldn't change the minds of those I work for. Also with a Rumour Windows Server 2012 is set to look like this...

Loadit 5 December 2011

Good: not much

Bad: too constricting

Comment: Ill stick to win 7 thank you. If I wanted a kiddies OS I would get a Mac.

Jordan-Findlay 3 October 2011

Comment: I prefer osx 10.7 lion

Jed McInnes 27 September 2011

Comment: Having seen some of the features of windows 8 i am dreading the day it is released, i'm still half hopefull it is MS's idea of a really really bad joke, but that aside could cnet do a windows alternatives piece, covering linux, mac and the pros and cons etc. where can i suggests this?

ScottyJavea 26 September 2011

Good: Fast Boot, Fast Touch

Bad: Can't add some programs to the Metro screen

Comment: I am a fan of touch screen operation and Win 8 has a decent interface and, in the main, has a configurable Start Screen.
Unfortunately all my programs are not found in the Apps listing via Search.
I can run them from the Win 7 type Task Bar and I think that this Apps problem is due to the fact that I have 95% of my programs installed in a non-OS partition, e.g., D or E.
I have a touch tablet (7") and a Gigabyte T1028X convertible touch netbook (10") so for me MS is heading in the right direction.
On my 2 year old netbook Win 8 boots in 25 seconds and 10 seconds from Hibernate .... excellent.
If the finished product is polished up I will buy it subject to price.

Regards,
ScottyJavea