Despite giving other OS's such as Chrome OS, Ubuntu & OSX a try, I've always come back to Windows as my OS of choice. While it lacked it visual appeal, Windows 7 always seemed like the most all-round solid choice in terms of stability, UI design and compatibility. So I've been looking forward to the Windows 8 update, and the Metro interface appeared to be a big step up from Aero. Expecting the Release Preview to be a finalized, stable version, I decided this was the time to try it out.
Start Screen
This is the biggest change in W8, and one of the better ones. Instead of the fiddly scrolling menus of the old Start menu popup, the new screen present apps as a full screen grid of icons. Along with full screen search, it's much easier to find apps. The Metro interface here looks great too.
That said, I rarely used the W7 Start menu anyway, with all of my commonly used apps pinned to the taskbar, so personally the new Start screen in a welcome but unnecessary addition.
Taskbar
The taskbar is completely unchanged from Windows 7, even down to the glowing Aero style. The whole thing clashes horribly with the new task switcher and 'charms' menus, which are awkwardly brought up by hovering in the corners of the screen, which I often trigger by accident.
I can't see why Microsoft didn't redesign the taskbar to fit with the new menus, I can only think they expect people to rely solely on the full-screen metro apps while the old desktop/taskbar is phased out - but I don't see a chance of this happening any time soon.
Explorer
Explorer has had a subtle Metro style applied which fits better with the OS. The new ribbon menu is home to a vast array of new sorting and selecting options which range from useful to inexplicably unnecessary. I personally welcome the additions but it's hard to see an average PC user be anything but confused.
Settings
The Control Panel has been a mess in Windows for many years, so I was pleased to see that Start Screen is home to a beautiful new full screen settings interface, similar to Chrome OS with categories on the left and details on the right.
Unfortunately, this is only half the story. Many options are missing here, which requires the user to delve into the classic and cluttered Windows 7-style Control Panel. It would have been far better if Microsoft had moved everything to the new menu, but instead the settings are even more confusing than they were before.
Performance
Two days of use and three critical crashes already isn't a good start for W8, but I expect these bugs will be gone before the final release. Speed-wise I can't say I've noticed a huge improvement from W7 on my Samsung Series 7, but it's no worse either.
Conclusion
Windows 8 mixes well designed new features with disappointingly unchanged elements from Windows 7, which ultimately don't fit together and make the overall experience confusing and a headache to use. If this was a early alpha I'd be optimistic, but as a release preview which probably won't change much before release, I'm left wondering if Windows has any future at all.
I wouldn't recommend upgrading from W7 to the release preview, the (very) few improvements don't make up for the confusing user experience and poor stability. I'm hoping Microsoft have some big surprises to pull before the final release.
