How Difficult and Confusing is Windows 8?
Microsoft is launching a new version of Windows this year. Windows 8 is a radical departure from anything Microsoft has done before.
“Windows 8 is less than optimal for a mouse-and-keyboard setup” says former Microsoft program manager Mike Bibik.
How Windows 8 works with mouse-and-keyboard setups, Bibik makes many points. Among them:
- No tutorial: When you first launch Windows 8, it just dumps you on the Start screen. This will likely be addressed in the consumer release, however.
- It’s difficult to see all your Metro apps: While the Start screen shows some of the apps in Metro, seeing all of them requires a right-click and navigating to an icon that says “All Apps.” Bibik says this is hard to find, and we have to agree.
- A Microsoft account is required for some apps: A few apps, like Store, require a Microsoft account (Hotmail or Live will do) to work properly, which can take new users down a cumbersome registration process.
- Scrolling is counterintuitive: The scroll wheel on the mouse scrolls left-to-right in many Metro apps, since that is the primary way to navigate in Metro.
- Metro apps don’t have window controls: There’s no way to minimize or maximize a Metro app — they either take up the whole screen or they’re in the background. It’s in this departure from traditional Windows that Bibik says he expects 75% of new users to just give up.
Bibik’s points are illustrated quite painfully in this video.
What do you think? Does Windows 8 work just fine with the mouse and keyboard or does it need major work?
