It doesn't support tracing between keys like Swype does on the Android platform, but the keys do make a pleasant typing sound when you hit them.
We do wish that Microsoft included a number row above the letters instead of forcing you into a secondary menu. When we tried to use the desktop on the tablet, we ran into many of the same problems we've experienced on Windows 7 slates.
Icons were much smaller and harder to target than tiles on the Start screen, and tapping widgets like the close button or menu items in applications was a bit of a challenge because our fingers were often thicker than the object we wanted to touch. When we wanted to copy photos to our tablet from a USB key, we had to use file explorer and drag the tiny file icon from the window pane over to the tiny Pictures library folder.
This action proved difficult and resulted in several unwanted taps. Any time tablet users need to browse the file system with Explorer, change a setting in the control panel or run a desktop app, they'll be back on the desktop, dealing with these challenges. However, we were able to effectively drag windows around with some practice, and we found the desktop virtual keyboard as accurate as its Modern UI counterpart.
Though Microsoft appears to have focused more effort on the new Modern UI, it has added a handful of new features that only work in desktop mode. The most useful of these is File History, which creates a version of history of any files stored in your libraries or on your desktop, along with contacts and favorites and stores all those files on external drive.
To test File History, we went into Control Panel and configured a USB flash drive to hold our file history and set Windows to scan our files for changes every 10 minutes 1 hour is default. We then took a photo of a baby from our Pictures library and drew a goatee on it. After 15 minutes, we went back into the File History application in Control Panel and selected restore, where we were able to find and replace the original, unaltered version of the photo.
A more detailed task manager, which shows a more colorful list of apps, combines all CPU usage into one chart rather than one for each core. We particularly appreciated the tab that lists startup apps and how much impact each has on boot time..
We particularly like the App history tab, which shows how much CPU time and bandwidth each of your apps has used during that session. The file explorer has also been revamped a bit so that it now uses ribbon-style menus like those we've seen in Microsoft Office, Windows Paint and many other Microsoft programs. If you have a second screen attached to your computer, you'll appreciate Windows 8's improved multimonitor support, which now places the taskbar on all of your screens.
Strangely, the Modern UI only appears on one of your two screens, the primary one by default. The other screen always shows the desktop, even at startup. If you're using a keyboard and mouse rather than a touch screen, Microsoft provides other ways to change apps and pull up menus. With a mouse, you must hover the pointer briefly over different corners of the screen, a process we learned to live with, but found less-than-optimal because of the slight delay involved.
To pull up the switcher menu, you must hover in the upper left corner, wait for an icon to appear in the corner and then pull the pointer down. To pull up the Charms menu, you hover in the upper right corner. You can also get the Start screen by hovering in the lower left corner, though hitting the Windows key works better. Right clicking brings up the app bar. If you're using a touchpad and if that touchpad has appropriate Windows 8 drivers, you can use multitouch gestures to bring out these menus.
With gesture support, you can get to the Switcher by swiping in from the left. Pull up the app bar by swiping down from the top or open the Charms menu by swiping in from the right. Unfortunately, the testbeds we used did not have special Windows 8 touchpad drivers that would enable this functionality.
With the introduction of its new operating system, Microsoft is launching its own Windows Store to help users find both new modern-style Windows 8 apps, along with a few select desktop apps. The Windows Store appears as its own Windows 8 app with a tile on the Start screen. The store divides apps into several categories, including games, social, entertainment, photo, music, news, travel and productivity. As you scroll horizontally through the categories, each one has attractive tiles representing highlighted apps and most have tiles for top free apps and new releases.
Click to Enlarge Unfortunately, the selection of apps is pretty small at this stage. During our testing, we found that there were only apps in the store. A dozen of these were desktop apps that cannot be downloaded or purchased directly through the store; these included Microsoft Office, Adobe Lightroom, Visual studio, Adobe Reader and WinZip.
Some of the Windows 8 apps were written in non-English languages such as Chinese, Spanish or Russian. We didn't find any of the types of core applications we typically download on Android or iOS tablets. We didn't see any alternative browsers, Google apps, official apps from the major social networks, word processors, spreadsheets or file managers.
The games we saw were all casual games. There were no video editors and only one real photo editor, the appropriately named FotoEditor. We expect the selection of apps to improve dramatically over time. Our favorite applications thus far were from news services. We also enjoyed playing around with Fresh Paint, a drawing app that turns your screen into a canvas and lets you pick the brushes. Musixmatch is another cool app, which provides searchable song lyrics and links to music videos for thousands of songs, including some rare ones.
Click to Enlarge With Windows 8, Microsoft has upgraded the preloaded Internet Explorer browser to version 10, providing separate versions for both the Modern UI and desktop environments.
While the desktop version looks identical to IE 9, the Modern UI version takes up the full screen, with just an address bar at the bottom. To see a list of open tabs or add a new tab, you'll need to open the app bar. On touch-screen devices, the Modern UI version of IE allows you to swipe left and right to go back and forward through your browser history.
The browser also allows Web developers to build touch gesture support into their online applications. Where IE 9 introduced the concept of pinning sites to the taskbar, IE 10 kicks it up a notch by allowing users to pin sites to the Start screen and Web developers to provide updates directly to those tiles, even when you don't have the sites open.
In addition to its new features, IE 10 also provides better performance than its predecessor. When we ran the Peacekeeper browser benchmark on a Core i5 test system, IE 10 returned a score of 2,, which was significantly better than IE 9's mark of 2, However, that's still behind Chrome 21's score of 4, IE 10 also took just IE 10 was able to run Microsoft's fishbowl animation with 1, fish at a rate of 46 frames per second, which beats the tar out of IE 9's mark of 29 fps and Chrome 21's rate of 38 fps.
One of Microsoft's most important preloaded programs is its People app, which combines contact management with social media updates to help you keep tabs on all your friends. We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. Founded in , Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have 9 million users a month around the world, and assess more than 1, products a year. Home Reviews Microsoft Windows 8. In this article… 1.
Verdict 2. Pros and Cons 3. Key Specifications 4. What is Windows 81? Windows 81 6. Software: Windows 8 x64 win 8 Reviewed by: Maheswar jana Jun 3, Rating: Review: ok,after used it then i told that it is excellent nor good. DLL Injector 1. Mem Reduct 3. Adobe Creative Cloud 5. BlueStacks App Player 4. USB Redirector Client 6. SlimDrivers 2. BlueStacks 5 5. There might be a slightly steeper learning curve than with Android or iOS, but Windows 8 also offers more potential and many advantages — not least of which is its comprehensive stylus support.
Windows 8: Worth the Upgrade? Probably not. There are times when the complex innards break through its slick tile interface and we could have wished for a little more familiarity in its classical Desktop mode, but these are minor blemishes on what is generally a very slick OS. Throw in the fact that it not only performs every bit as well as Windows 7 but also runs smoother on older machines while potentially increasing battery life, and Windows 8 is a worthy upgrade — though it really does want touch to get the most out of it.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest.
To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct. We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. Founded in , Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy. Today, we have 9 million users a month around the world, and assess more than 1, products a year.
Home Reviews Microsoft Windows 8. In this article… 1. Verdict 2. Pros and Cons 3. Key Specifications 4. Trusted Score Share:. Pros Finally plays nice with touch Has its own style Maintains desktop environment Great performance even on old hardware.
Trusted Score. Score in detail Features By Ardjuna Seghers. Ardjuna Seghers contributed computing reviews to Trusted Reviews between and