A Week with Windows 8

I have been using the Windows 8 Developer Preview as my main operating system for a week now. All in all it's not horrible. It has it's quirks, it's gotchas, as well as it's oopses. The Metro interface is annoyingly useful but extremely limited. My biggest issue (as with most operating systems) is it's graphical design.

As a small caveat, my daily operating system for the past twenty-some-odd years has been Mac OS. I'm waiting for it, and no, I am not a fanboy.

Though it has not been my household OS, I have used every version of Windows (since 3.1 for Workstations) for about as long. I have never been a big fan of the Windows User Interface, but I really loved Windows 2000. I used it until I made the choice to upgrade to Vista. I still don't know what the issue with Vista is/was. It was just as much of a headache as any other Windows complete rebuild has been. It was no Me. And neither is Windows 8.

Windows 8 is loaded with all kinds of headache-inducing oddities. Do you enjoy force closing applications? You'll love Windows 8. If you thought iOS and Android were bad, whoa buddy. I hadn't realized that I would ever have to contend with this in a desktop operating system. Can someone explain to me why Microsoft has decided that my applications must run in the background, indefinitely. If you close an application (and you want to quit the application), you must fire up the trusty Task Manager to quit said process. Seriously? Isn't it enough that I did exactly what I have always done with a Windows machine? Microsoft, why the change is something as stupidly simple as closing a Windows application window, quitting an application?

Another oddity is the way that Windows Update is run. It's not really an application in the sense that I've become accustomed to. It is hidden in a menu after you have logged out. They seem to install in a similar way, but accessing the application seems to be like jumping through flaming hoops while wearing leopard-printed polyester. It takes a bit of hunting to find anything within the operating system, but why must we hide the way we receive system critical updates?

Speaking of hidden things that probably shouldn't be, why is it such a maze to shutdown? If I really need to close down this machine, why is it a three to five step process to complete an action as usually as simple as clicking shutdown from a single menu? Really? Come on Microsoft. Just give me a little "O|" symbol. I really need something easier to get to than: User menu > Log Off, Enter key, User menu > Shutdown. There are a whole lot of unneeded steps in this mess. I understand the rebuilding of a mobile operating system for the PC, but man. There are some things that a normal user needs to do. You really don't need to shutdown a mobile device, but you sure do need to shutdown a notebook.

I can't forget about the Metro interface. I understand the awesomeness that this could be for a touch experience. Honestly, it isn't horrible for the keyboard-mouse interface. It's kind of cool looking at a group of application squares that have segments of information from social, weather, and news sites. You get small snippets of information without even having to open a given application. My main complaint about Metro has to less to do with Metro, itself, and more with the fact that nearly no application that I use on a daily basis can integrate within Metro. If an application cannot be integrated with Metro, the normal Windows Desktop has to be loaded. What is the point of Metro, if I still need to have the Desktop loaded to use things such as Google Chrome, or Microsoft Office? I am sorry, but that just seems half baked and half retarded. In my opinion, there needs to be a little more work on a unified experience before this thing is rolled out. The wrinkles definitely need to be ironed out of the shirt and the pants dry cleaned, because I am constantly looking at food stains.

 

I really do like where Microsoft is going with this, but I think they need to iron out unifying the experience on the multiple user interface levels that they have created. It really wouldn't be a bad idea to pick one, would it? Pick one, Microsoft.

Upgrading From Windows Vista to Windows 7

My lovely wife, Tara, has a Toshiba laptop that she has owned for the past year. Being about a year old, it's a Vista Home Premium roll-out machine. She enjoys the benefits of the 64-bit Vista Home Premium install, the dual-core AMD Turion X2, ATI Radeon integrated graphics, etc.

She is also one of the few who enjoys using Vista. She likes the interface, the add-ons, and the ways that things are placed. It just seems to make sense. She isn't one of the crazy, anti-progress hermits who insist on running Windows XP Professional 32-bit on a Quad-Core processor with 2 gigabytes of RAM (because that's all it can utilize).

I digress.

Her only complaint has been her boot times (which are atrocious). I had been threatening her with Windows 7 since the Public Beta was released. She has been listening to different podcasts with me, and has been a little more receptive of my badgering.

Insert Windows 7 Release Candidate

Last night I downloaded the ISO of the 64-bit version of the Windows 7 Release Candidate, and have been attempting to install if for the last couple of hours. The installation has been going relatively flawlessly until this last part. The hard drive seems to be working on something (as the light is intermittently blinking, as normal). The problem is, it has been stuck at 42 percent on the "Transferring files, settings, and programs" part. It doesn't seem to be frozen, it just hasn't moved in the last half hour. I really hope nothing is broken.

Update on Friday, June 26, 2009 at 5:11 PM by Raymond Mendoza

About an hour and a half after my last post, we are now stuck at 60 percent. UGH! At least is isn't broken :)

Update on Friday, June 26, 2009 at 5:33 PM by Raymond Mendoza

After the first restart (at 62% complete), it's back to "Transferring files, settings, and programs." We are officially at 70% finished.

Update on Friday, June 26, 2009 at 9:08 PM by Raymond Mendoza

Wow, it is now 11:09PM and I have successfully finished the Windows 7 upgrade. Now, there were a few gotchas and caveats that I will explain. 

I started this mess at about 4:00PM. It was completed at about 8:15PM. That's over four hours! Then I did a disk clean-up to remove all of the Windows Installation files and old System Restore backups. I then ran the defragmenter. It did 5 PASSES! It was finally finished at around 11:00PM (around 2.5 hours just for defragmenting). 

Overall, there are many improvements. The boot up time is cut to less than half of what it was. I don't think Tara is going to be able to make breakfast while it's booting, anymore. The biggest change I noticed was the time going from login to useable desktop. That took about a minute! The menus and such are more responsive. The completely noticeable lag time is non-existent.

Now, I am not the main user of this machine, so it will be up to her to update me on the progress and changes (which I will report back at a later date).

Personal Update

Sorry for the digital absence these past months (nearly ten, if memory serves). I recorded this video as one part apology letter and one part personal/Ninjicity/ID10T update. 

Aside from the aforementioned apologies, the update portion of this video covered many new ventures in the Land of Ninjicity. First of all, we have a new channel on YouTube! While you can still follow my personal, and professional, exploits at http://youtube.com/user/spiralarchitect81 , you can follow all of Ninjicity's videos at http://youtube.com/user/ninjicity , and the all new http://youtube.com/user/greenchucksandham (specifically for Green Chucks and Ham videos and updates). 

I also spoke of my marriage, my wife and I moving cross-country multiple times over the last five-sixths of a year. From Northern California to Southeast Texas, and finally to Upstate New York, all of this took less than four months. 

Rather than rattle on and on about the topics of the video, I leave it to you, for your own interpretation.