Windows 8

So… I jumped on the Windows 8 bandwagon and I must admit I’m not disappointed….yet. The biggest gripe I hear from Windows 8 users is the missing start menu, which I hear is returning in Windows 9 or sooner. Honestly, I don’t miss the start menu. Windows 8 does have a quasi start button that leads to a start window or “charm” screen. This screen serves as a landing page that displays installed apps, widgets, search box, and power options.

After a week of using Win 8 everyday I noticed several convenient features that makes Windows 8 better than I thought.

1. Seems that all windows shortcut or hot keys are still in place. I've been a heavy hot key user since XP and they have become second nature so transitioning those to 8 is a win for Microsoft.
2. The quasi start button thing is the gateway to the start window. The start window is a new concept introduced by Microsoft. Back to the start button, if you right button click on it, it has many sweet features. You can quickly get to tools such as run, the command prompt, power options, control panel, and even the device manage. You will save time using this trick. (see below)
   
3. If you didn't use widgets in Windows 7, you really didn’t miss anything. Basically, widgets connect you to online or PC content in a real-time fashion. For example, in Windows 7 I used a calendar and temperature widget on my desktop. Windows 8 has tiles, same concept as widgets. Tiles are tools on the start screen that are usually applications or fancy widgets. They are kind of cheesy and cool at the same time. Since transitioning to 8 I've noticed the News and Sports tiles pull news straight from Bing dynamically, which is rather convenient.  I hear windows might ditch tiles all together moving forward, we shall see.  (see below)
   

All in all, I’ve read how people HATE Windows 8 because of the tiles and missing start button, but I haven’t lost any productivity one bit. I can still get my work done efficiently. I love the search feature where you hit the windows key and just type and windows searches for content on the PC and online. I did notice with this version of Windows, Microsoft is promoting the crap out of Office 365 and One drive. They even go as far as including the latest version of Office and giving users the option to test out the application or purchase it. I’m not shock are you?