Review by J. Donaldson

I downloaded Windows 8 and upgraded from Windows 7 on my non-touch screen desktop computer. The first thing I liked is the desktop has very few changes and I can continue to use it just like was in Windows 7. That was quite comforting. I had created a disk image and recovery disk in case I wanted to go back to Windows 7. Within 10 minutes I knew I wouldn’t go back.

The Start Screen offers fun full screen or split screen applications. It extends Windows into the world that has become familiar to me when I’m using my iPod Touch. I think Microsoft is doing exactly the right thing by blending the touch screen world of apps with the traditional wide spread Windows application environment. When I buy a convertible tablet/laptop I’ll have the best of both worlds, a touch screen tablet, and the ability to run all of my applications like MS Excel, Quicken, TurboTax and others.

I don’t have trouble with the learning curve, I think within 20 minutes I was able to do everything I wanted including finding things like the Control Panel.

My complaints so far are a couple of little things but they bother me…

First when I bring the computer out of sleep mode it doesn’t come up in the login screen where I can just type my password. It comes up in a new screen showing a digital clock and some information like a mail message all on a user selectable background. I have to click Return to get to the password screen. This may seem little but I just don’t know why it is important to have this other screen. At least they could allow me to disable it but I haven’t found that option if it exists.

Second the new File Explorer has some nice features but they removed a feature that I used all the time and there is no decent way to get the same function back. When viewing photo thumbnails in the Windows 7 Explorer I was able to see the thumbnails, a large image of the photo, and at the bottom of the screen some details from the file such as the camera aperture setting. That details bar on the bottom is gone. You now have an option to view the large photo OR details but not both. This is a big disappointment to me.

The rest of the changes, and there are a lot, will just take some time to get used to but as I said just staying with the desktop is quite similar to the Windows 7 environment so it is easy to use.

Now that I have Windows 8 Pro for only $39.99 upgrade price I will be ready to buy a convertible tablet and have the same OS on both platforms. I hope someone comes out with an iPod Touch like device running Windows 8 so I can have the same OS on all three platforms.