Windows 8 First Impressions

We'll, I've tested the pre-beta, beta and release candidate versions extensively and have been excited to get my hands on the final version. Although I've had access to it for about a month, I finally installed it on an old IBM X41 Tablet laptop I had kicking around...... This laptop is freaking old, an antique by today's standards and yet, Windows 8 was quick to install and is operating better than XP ever did.... Everything just works.

It's not a good picture but this is the old X41 Tablet.... Built in late 2004

They stopped making the X41 in early 2006 and, in it's heyday, sold for about $2,000..... By today's standards, it's a dinosaur. Even with it's slow hard drive, slow processor and meager amount of memory, it works great with Windows 8. The Pen stylus is fully functional and it works better than it ever did with XP.


Missing Start Button:
I've never understood what the big deal was about.... who needs or uses it? Windows 8 is feature rich and really doesn't require a "Start" button. I really don't use it except to click it and click the search box to quickly search for programs I don't use frequently... With Windows 8, you just start typing and the search happens automatically.

So really, I don't need the start button but apparently it's a really big deal to a lot of people so I went about looking at 3rd party solutions which already exist. I won't get into all of them since they all pretty much do the same thing... but I did settle on one that I think most people would like. It's called Classic Shell, it's open source (FREE), doesn't prompt you to install optional crapware and is easy to configure and install... Check out the link that's located here http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/

Let's compare my various desktops (XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8). You can click on the images for a larger view.

 My Windows XP Desktop

 My Windows 7 Desktop

 My Windows 8 Desktop (With Classic Shell)

 
I'll admit that I am not a typical user but I am also not unique. I never did find a bunch of desktop icons useful to me. Once you have a program or two opened, you don't see those pesky desktop icons any way. I've always used the much more efficient Toolbars.... Guess what, they still exist in Windows 8 and you turn them on in exactly the same way.

With Windows Vista, 7 and now 8.... frequently used programs can be pinned to the taskbar....

Windows 8 First impressions? I Love IT!