Windows 8 preview

• Windows 8 mixes desktop and touch devices into one operating system - but will Microsoft's attempt to beat Apple end up a pyrrhic victory?

  Forget everything you know about Windows. While Apple's recent OS X Mountain Lion was a relatively simple polish of the Cupertino brand's OS, and even Windows 7 was largely Windows Vista with a few tweaks, Windows 8 is Microsoft's attempt to redefine the PC platform itself - not quite as a closed system like Xbox 360, but one it gets to control like never before.

  We took a closer look at the Windows 8 Consumer preview...

  Windows 8: Updates

  The most obvious change is the new Metro interface which greets you instead of the standard desktop, and is made up of panes like Mail, People, Photos and Video to give you instant access to your most important files and information via slick full-screen applications.

  You still have the classic Desktop view, which works much like Windows 7 did, but it feels like a poor cousin to the shiny Metro introduction, which was clearly designed around touch-screen controls rather than traditional PC interactions.
  
  The catch is that this isn't because Metro is a massive improvement, but because the Desktop has been hobbled - and in odd ways. There's no Start menu for instance - you can pin your most-used apps on the Taskbar, but to access everything else means jumping to a full-screen Metro page, and then clicking through again to an All Apps sub-screen.

  Likewise, where Metro apps get huge flashy colourful tiles, individual programs get tiny icons. It's not hard to see which interface has Microsoft's favour, even if the likes of Office are obviously going to live on the Desktop rather than in a tile.

  Windows 8: Features

  That's the core of Windows 8 right now - while Metro is a great concept for a touch device like the upcoming Microsoft Surface, and Windows 7 is a fantastic desktop OS, put together, they just don't get along. With Metro's prominence, that's a problem.
  
  There are plenty of other changes under the hood, including syncing your settings using your Microsoft account, and a cool search engine where you just start typing on the Start page to find things you need. However, as far as things you'll actually see go, the biggest differences are the number of hooks into web services.

  These include Twitter, Facebook and Flickr, but mostly revolve around Microsoft's own brand names and technologies. There's no dedicated Games tile for instance, or even Games For Windows. It's specifically 'Xbox LIVE Games'. Elsewhere, the "Videos" tile not only gives most of its screen priority to another marketplace, it shoe-horns in advert boxes. Rude.

  Windows 8: Performance

  
  On the desktop, things feel much the same as in Windows 7. Boot up times however are incredibly fast, and Metro apps spring into action instantly. They may be underpowered compared to dedicated desktop apps, but they're great at jumping straight into stuff you want - your mail, your photos, your videos, or whatever else. 

  
  For more in-depth tasks however, bouncing between Metro and the Desktop is extremely irritating, losing the entire monitor to very simple full-screen apps is just silly, and the number of inconsistencies and annoyances soon pile up.

  On a touch screen system, or even as an alternate UI to bring up on command, Metro would be great. As the new face of your PC though, it can be incredibly obnoxious - and really gets in the way.

  Windows 8: Verdict

  If the preview version is anything to go by, Windows 8 feels like Microsoft giving itself a highly profitable gift rather than presenting the world with a great new OS. For touch devices, it's superb - slick, fast, beautiful. It's going to be a credit to Surface and a great platform for new apps.
  
  On the desktop though, it's currently a mess - with at minimum a long way to go to convince us that this is the future, or that what's good for Microsoft is automatically good for PCs. Check back in October to see if the finished version has what it takes.