Windows 8 totally new tablet touch screen look

[Coke Robot]

I'm going to be shocked if the Start flag ends up being removed in the last build. But thankfully, beta builds are when Microsoft's idealism and practicality come together where beta builds of Windows are usually curtailed with their radical changes and features...

 

[lehnerus2000]

Invisible Hotspot!

Allegedly the "Start Button" has been replaced with an invisible hotspot.

ZDNet
Microsoft removes 'Start' button from latest Windows 8 build | ZDNet

 

[Influx]

Metro UI is better with smartphones and tablets. I'd like to see the same UI concept in Windows 8.

 

[yowanvista]

Metro UI is better with smartphones and tablets. I'd like to see the same UI concept in Windows 8.

Metro UI is more like some kind of touchscreen optimized interface but Microsoft is probably thinking that the average person would like that on regular non-touchscreen PCs

 

[lehnerus2000]

Update

Summary: Is there method ot Microsoft’s madness, or is the decision pure madness?

Over the past few days I’ve seem a number of Microsoft pundits come up with lame excuses to try to justify Microsoft’s decision to drop the on-screen Start button in Windows 8. Is there method ot Microsoft’s madness, or is the decision pure madness?

ZDNet
Making lame excuses for Microsoft's decision to drop the Start button in Windows 8 | ZDNet

Summary: WOA looks like Windows, quacks like Windows, and is Windows. Microsoft has pulled off what it promised, and has taken its desktop OS and put it across multiple platforms and onto various screen sizes.

ZDNet
Microsoft gets it right with Windows 8 on ARM, and why Apple should be worried | ZDNet

 

[M1GU31]

Speaking of hiding, the latest leak of the beta seems to show that there is no longer a start button at all. You have to jam your mouse into a corner to even get the start screen to show :/ (Not sure how that works with a finger on a touch screen too well either).

Mac users have been avoiding that feature for some time now (disabled in OSX by default and those that turn it on seem to be overwhelmingly sorry they did and shut it off), maybe MS should look at UI features which even mac users hate before implementing them in windows

I frequently run into activating peek when I don't want to because I was moving the mouse off of something I was looking at...

Eh imo windows 8 is a bigger fail then vista was. IDK what Microsoft is thinking, so far everything i keep hearing and seeing about windows 8 i dislike it. WIN 7 and XP FTW

 

[flashdrives]

Well, as expected from Windows. Continuously improving! I'm really impressed by its looks.

 

[jimbo45]

Speaking of hiding, the latest leak of the beta seems to show that there is no longer a start button at all. You have to jam your mouse into a corner to even get the start screen to show :/ (Not sure how that works with a finger on a touch screen too well either).

Mac users have been avoiding that feature for some time now (disabled in OSX by default and those that turn it on seem to be overwhelmingly sorry they did and shut it off), maybe MS should look at UI features which even mac users hate before implementing them in windows

I frequently run into activating peek when I don't want to because I was moving the mouse off of something I was looking at...

Eh imo windows 8 is a bigger fail then vista was. IDK what Microsoft is thinking, so far everything i keep hearing and seeing about windows 8 i dislike it. WIN 7 and XP FTW

Hi there
BUT have you actually TRIED it yet.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[galaxys]

8 sounds like a winner!!

 

[flirno]

I have seen and used every version of Windows (yes I'm that old lol) and yes they all looked different. If they didn't change the look no one will buy. LOL

Remember this is still beta and many part are left out from the final version.
I'm sure we will lots more information in the coming months before the release.
As far as I have heard it may be released in 2012 but no one is saying that in concrete. Actually I don't think we need another version for desktops because I feel Win7 has been the most outstanding Windows ever developed. For now I'm sticking with 7.

Sometimes no one will buy anyway due to reviews or first impressions -- Win ME or Vista for example. I completely skipped those iterations and based on what has been published about Win 8 it looks like I will be skipping it too.

That plus I (this includes my mother's 2 computesr and 3 of mine) switched over to Win 7 (I had been on XP Pro and XP x64 Pro for quite a while) only a year ago and I am not about to shell out for another OS this soon OEM prices or not.

By the time I am looking to upgrade OS again I expect Win 9 to have been out for a while.

First version of windows I used is 3.0 (briefly then 3.1 and 3.11 for a long while). Although this was more as an alternative to the command line interface (made heavy use of the DOS shell from 2.1 all the way up to the last version of 6.xx).

I did 'play' with Windows 286 and 386 but they were not good for much of anything at the time and competing environments like GEM seemed more functional.

Green is ugly, that's why we thank hackers to allow us to change it whatever color we choose.

I think it's funny how people are so against shelling out money to Microsoft for their software, but are totally fine shelling hundreds of dollars for apple products and media bought on itunes, that if deleted, has to be repurchased.

It is funny but I don't buy any apple products (not on purpose, they just have nothing that I want) or use itunes (I grew up on mods, never branched out into mass market audio outside of broadcast radio) so it is moot for me.

 

[Layback Bear]

1. Windows 8 loads quicker than 7. So what we don't do that everyday all day.
2. Remove the Start button, why? When did it become a problem. If one can't figure out how to use the Start button you shouldn't have a computer.
3. Some say nobody uses the Search, well I and many do. It works without cluttering up the desk top with wall to wall icons. They spend more time look through all those icons that I do with Search.
4. Some say you loose some functionality if you don't use the new interface with all the little picture you can move with your finger, why? You should loose anything except all those little square pictures.
5. If Microsoft want to create a operating system that suites the tablet market fine but create a Windows 8+ for serious users of PC and Laptops.
6. I don't need a option to switch back to the Classic look. The Classic look is what should be there in the first place. Let the kids piddle with Androids.
7. Windows 8 has better security and that's good. I expect that to come in a Windows 7 Update.
8. Application market place. Windows users don't care what Mac does or doesn't do with App's.
9. Faster boot time. Get a SSD. If the few seconds it takes with Windows 7 set up correctly isn't fast enough you don't have operating system problems you have self problems.
10. Improved automatic updating. That should come with a Windows 7 Update. You should not have to buy Windows 8 to get it.
11. To Microsoft. If you make Windows 8 better than Windows 7 we will buy it. You don't have to make it look like a cell phone toy or work like one.

 

[JerometheGiraff]

Windows7 I'm sticking with, besides I'm getting to grips with this OS. If I want Windows8, I'll buy a Windows Mobile Phone, in the mean time I don't need a smart phone which is just an expensive palm computer.