In 5 Things I Love About Windows 8 I listed five features of Microsoft’s upcoming operating system that I really like. If you read that article you may have noticed that those features are all “desktop” related. They do not have anything to do with the new Metro UI of Windows 8, and that is for a reason.
Metro UI in its current form is something that I have no intention of using. I can see how the UI shines on tablets, touch enabled devices and maybe even netbooks and other low resolution devices.
On my desktop PC though, I feel like it adds weight to the workflow. As it stands now, I have to boot into Metro UI whenever I start the operating system. There I see buttons (Microsoft calls them Tiles) that launch applications, websites or information. It is like a full screen application launcher that you cannot deactivate.
Update: You can boot into desktop if that was active when Windows shut down.
I can type in there to launch applications that are not displayed as tiles, but that’s not that intuitive and I foresee an increase in support related incidents when the operating system launches.
Here are basic things that I had difficulties with:
- How to switch between apps (you move your mouse to the left screen border and cycle through them with the mouse wheel.)
- How to close apps (No idea
- How to add apps to the new Metro start UI (you type the app name, right-click the app in the search results list and select Pin)
- How to remove apps from the UI (you right-click and select unpin or uninstall depending on the type of program).
- How to access the standard Start Menu (see Registry fix here, but it disables Metro apps)
- How to stay on the desktop and not switch back to the Metro UI. Remember, there is no start menu, and you cannot use the Windows key either)
- How to shut down Windows 8 (press Alt-F4 with no Windows open in desktop mode)
I would assume that inexperienced users may have even more troubles with the new design and layout than I have.
The main issue that I have is the Metro UI. I know that I won’t be using it, and I hope that Microsoft will be adding options to disable Metro and stick with the classic desktop all the time.
This is not a question of adaption. It is just that I feel that work will take longer to complete with Metro UI enabled, than it would without. I mean, what is the difference between a Metro UI that displays links to applications and features, and the classic desktop with shortcuts, pinned Taskbar items and the start menu?
Then again, I may be biased as I have been working with the classic desktop for a long time. I will give the operating a spin on my desktop when it comes out. First in a dual boot scenario, later on maybe as my primary operating system.
Microsoft still has time to please everyone. Users who embrace the change and think that Metro UI looks pretty and is functional, and those who think that it will slow them down in their day to day activities.
I’d really like to read your opinions on this.
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I already said that. No Metro, if I’m not well-paid for using it. Metro is very ugly.
alt+tab definitely works. I just used it to swap between stocks and weather
Thanks Lee, strange that it did not work during my tests. Maybe it has something to do with suspending apps.
I have been scratching my head ever since I installed this … this .. thing.
No way to close application. I almost broke my ESC key hitting it, until I realized you have to move the mouse cursor to the edge. And apps don’t actually get closed, it gets “suspended”.
No start menu sucks. Microsoft is entirely ignoring desktop users. Windows 8 is for tablets.
Besides, MS has a history of f***ing up every alternate OS.
Win 98 – good
Win 2000 – bad
Win XP – good
Win Vista – bad
Win 7 – good
Win 8 — ??
Seems like I will be sticking with Win 7 after all.
Totally agree with you Kaushik. I don’t know why MS wants to put a tablet OS on a desktop. Although there is some overlap, tablet users and desktop users use their devices differently and for different things. One size does not fit all. Metro might be awesome for a tablet, but it looks like an irritating obstacle for the desktop user. I can see my corporate folks skipping this version the same way they skipped Vista.
I can’t agree. I think you meant “WinME” not Win2000, right? Win2000 is basically XP without DirectX and was a big step up from WinNT4. And Win98 was krap until Win98SE. I also think Vista was better than Win7. By the time I started using it, all the drivers for my hardware were available and once I turned off UAC, Vista was great. MS changed too many things in Win7 for no reason other than to distance it from Vista. e.g. WMP is severely crippled in Win7 compared to Vista for no reason and I don’t like the look as much as I did Vista’s. Realistically though, Win7 is so close to Vista that no-one could honestly say one was bad and the other good.
Sorry MotorMouth but if you’ve used Vista and 7 regularly there’s no way you could believe that. Vista is so buggy and memory hungry and just that bad I cringe anytime I see a Vista taskbar.
ie File copying or deleting under Vista is PROVEN to be buggy and slow, I’ve NEVER seen a file copy under Vista go faster than 20mb/s. But on my Windows 7 machine I can copy something from my Homeserver to my PC and it will go over 100mb/s.
Not to mention that Vista with 2gb of RAM is near unusable without lockups and buggy shit, but Windows 7 on 2gb of RAM is absolutely fine.
I agree with the list with and your correction for winme.
I disagree strongly with MotorMouth about vista Vista !
Is an OS that slow down the computer. Windows 7 are much better.
Dont even think anybody to install Vista. and this after experience of installing to many many computers vista before come the Win 7.
Your whole Good, Bad, Good, Bad would be right if you hadn’t left out ME.
So really is goes:
-98 Good.
-2000 Good – Have you ever actually used this or read about it?
-ME BAD.
-XP Good.
-Vista Bad.
-Windows 7 Good
-Windows 8 … Seems really bad from a desktop user’s point of view.
Oops .. in my previous comment Win 2000 should have been ‘Win Me’. :P
I really, really wish Microsoft would stop adding bloatware to their operating system. It seems like for every increase in hardware performance, Microsoft finds a way to eat up 80% of it. If someone were to develop a minimalist “Windows-compatible” O/S it would surely be the beginning of the end for Microsoft.
Jim Fell, WfW 3.11 with 12 MB (!) RAM: On-button to fully operational in 10 seconds! Then came “long file names”.
well jim… there is a windows compatible OS out there: ReactOS
http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html
and Multi-platform aplication WINE.
http://www.winehq.org/
@Jim Fell – Maybe, someday, ReactOS? (www.reactos.org)
I guess this is the alternative MS is giving in order to not have to create a Windows 8 Tablet version and a Desktop Version. They want the two of them to be one. But is kinda a weird, like some people said, you usually use a Tablet for one purpose and a Desktop for another. You usually wont be using or needing both on a single machine. I can’t imagine the benefits on having the Metro UI on a Desktop, unless I use it as a Instant Boot OS just to check something quicly on Internet, but that’s not very common. Or the other way around, I can’t imagine using the Desktop UI on a Tablet, unless MS improves the OS and makes it more Tablet friendly, but if that would be the case, then there is no point on creating the Metro UI on the first place.
Really weird decision.
i absolutely dont get why ms wants to put metro – which already failed in the smartphone-sector – in an otherwise very interesting os like win8…
I will not be using Metro UI or immersive apps on my desktop. Its called windows because its a windowing desktop, not a full screen only desktop. Phone/tablet interfaces are for, wait for it, phones and tablets. Paint MS as joining the idiots at Ubuntu (Unity) and Gnome (Gnome 3) is just not getting it.
Look, right now you are still stuck with classic apps on a windows 8 platform so you are forced to work with that, so of course youre going to be frustrated simply cos’ metro and classic are two diffent things.
When the full metro apps come around that will replace the classic version of software you work with currently, they will be fully oftimised for metro and you will be able to work comfortably with it so it will feel less of a chore than it is now with mouse input. Afteral, professionals are now adapting to the ipad since versions of their desktop apps are appearing on there, built specificaly to utilise that OS’ abilities…..the same will happen with Metro.
so right now it seems disjointed to people that are used to classic, but when the apps roll in you will see that you can safely transition to metro way of working. The classic is still there for those apps that wont be able to make the move, you have the choice afterall.
Honestly i dont understand this vitriol against Metro. THe company is thinking out of the box, they are designing something that is aesthetically pleasing and funtional, yet all you can do is bring up a timeline with “good or bad” of other releases.
You may have to rethink how you work, yes, it will be tedious at first, yes, but that is part and parcel of any major change to habitualized character.
I understand some will hate it and some will like it, thats life, but don’t be part of its needless murder before it even leaves the womb. This is what a preview and beta build is for, try it out, constructively feedback on it, develop for it to help make it better…which is what i’ll be doing….but dont just shit on it cos’ it different from what youre used to.
Easy to hate, braver to love.
Well, If it were that difficult to accept new things, how come the Ipad (or iOS) wasn’t welcomed with hate? Because unlike Metro, iOS is easy and functional, yet Metro tries too hard to be heap and it ruins windows.
The whole Widows experience is to open a bazzilion windows and work fluently moving from one to another. This operating system is not worthy of the name “Windows”, simply because you can only function with 2 apps at the time.
Oh, and It’s squerish design is just to old..
When I spend years adjusting my pc settings so it works just so, I do get upset when somebody then changes the os in a way that makes all that work useless.
When the os makes it impossible, or even just difficult, for me to accomplish my work I use a different os. But, when all the desktops aim to look the same life does get more difficult.
Metro, Unity, Gnome3 and the Office ribbon are all disastrous roadblocks to productivity. The click, click, click of the mouse presages many repetitive strain injury claims in the future.
Box computer manufacturers (e.g. Dell, HP, et al.) generally tweak the O/S settings, before delivering to the consumer for their own customer experience and PR reasons. With that in mind, I suspect that many of these box computer manufacturers will disable the Metro UI and find a way to get it to boot the the classic desktop. Microsoft probably assumes/expects this, and, equally so, they probably expect DIYers to be savvy enough to figure it out.
My workflow requires me to have multiple windows open at once, for example I am writing an email, referring to another and two excel spreadsheets.There is no use case that permits this to happen in Metro. The best you can do is open one app on most of the screen with another in a narrow column to one side. Metro is a serious step back from windowing desktops in productivity.
It will be very nice on a tablet, but not for my desktop.
Get rid of Metro in Developer Preview.
http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-pick/how-to-get-a-windows-7-start-menu-in-windows-8-20110914/
Never have to see metro again.
This option should not require a registry hack. Should be user selectable.
I tested that tweak. While it adds the Windows 7 start menu to the desktop, it does not disable Metro. When you press the Windows key for instance, you are still taken to the Metro start page, with the difference that tiles do not respond anymore.
You close apps using ctrl + esc! This windows 8 THING is a piece of shite. Metro UI should stay on WP7 where it belongs and fails.
Using Ctrl-Esc is not working on my system. It just moves the app to the background, but if you open the Task Manager you will notice that it is still running.
ctrl+esc is not supposed to shut down the apps. As far as I know, apps are just supposed to be suspended, not consuming any cpu (and memory I think). I’ve seen a video where this was demonstrated in the task manager
Patrick is right. If you look at Task Manager you will see that suspended apps use no CPU resources. It’s hard to get your head around, especially for a 3D animator like me, but if an app isn’t consuming any CPU, I don’t care if it is suspended or shut-down or killed or whatever. Yes, it might still be taking up memory but so is everything that Windoze puts into Pre-Fetch, so I don’t see a problem (I love Pre-Fetch).
Even if they do not use memory, they are still a privacy issue.
What I can’t work out is how to put shortcuts on the desktop like computer, control panel, libraries etc. Or any program for that matter?
My only solution so far is to open explorer, search for the program, and then send to desktop.
It used to be as simple as right click, ‘show on desktop’ or ‘send to desktop’
Where is that functionality now?
I managed to get “Computer Management” onto my desktop. I think I just right-clicked on the icon in Control Panel, or maybe the location bar. I’d love to get the whole “Computer” icon on there but I haven’t worked it out yet.
click desktop tile in Metro, right click on desktop, click personalize, look upper left corner of window, click change desktop icons, check desktop icons you want, apply and ok. All done.
I have yet to figure out how to close the control panel, aside from killing the process.
Also, for computers to improve and increase portability, you should probably eventually make an effort to actually *make* a semi-portable OS. Also, quit crying about change. The people who whined about vista like 7, the people who whined about 2k liked XP, and not much was changed in between those releases.
I mean really, this is a dev release and you guys care crying like it shipped half-done and you paid $350 for it.
(I agree about unity though, but i think it would work fine for a touchscreen. I don’t know why they would make it netbook-specific)
They should fork Windows with 1 common base.
I can see business abandoning Windows XP?/7 for Windows 8.
Nothing wrong with having 2 different product lines/models.
The change is too drastic and will cost business dearly with lost productivity and retraining.
sorry – should have said “I CAN’T SEE….”
Rene, the problem isn’t with what they’ve done, it is simply a matter of communicating the change to customers. Essentially, almost nothing has changed. They had already ruined the Start Menu in Vista and propagated that to WIn7. All Win 8 is doing is changing it again, to something that is more touch-friendly. i.e If you are using it on a desktop, the Metro UI part is just the new Start Menu and I think it is better than the Win7 Start Menu.
Here’s what I do – I start the computer, enter my WLID to log on, then click the icon for the application I want to use, exactly as I do in Win7 or WinXP. There is nothing new to learn, the process is identical, it just looks different. It is also much, much easier to customise the new Start Screen than the old Start Menu ever was, so there is a lot of scope for Win8 to be way better than Win7 (which I don’t really like much at all).
The main issue is not that you can use the start screen to launch programs as much as you can launch them from the Windows 7 desktop or taskbar. The core issue for me is when I’m on the desktop and want to load a program that is not on the taskbar or desktop I have to switch to the start screen to launch it from there. This is highly inefficient. Say I’m watching a video on my desktop and have Firefox open as well. I know want to launch Paint.net. I need to press the Windows key to go to the start screen to load it from there. When I do, I won’t see Firefox or the video for that time as the start screen opens up in full screen.
Closing an application is still a mistery. I could found another way to shutdown the computer:
- Click on your name at Metro interface
- Choose Logoff
- On the logoff window, roll the mouse wheel – The shutdown button will appear.
I personally think a shutdown button is missing.
You can also hover the mouse over the lower left corner of the display to get a new simplified ‘start menu’. There is a settings option and from there you can choose ‘Power’ which allows for Sleep, Shut down, Restart.
just right-click on the right side of the screen(both in Metro and Desktop views),you should get options to power down.
Settings -> Power -> Shut down
Windows key + r, type “shutdown -s” for shutdown, “shutdown -r” for restart. They stick in the run window so second time you use that it’s fast. :)
I am using windows 8 on my tablet. It is great, especially given this is a pre-beta. MS has to push windows to expend its horizons otherwise the fruit loops will continue to dominate. Anything that is different will be difficult to adjust to, we are all human and habits are easily formed, they take a while to overwrite. There is a pretty little button that says desktop on metro… and I am sure what we are looking at is very different to what will be realeased as beta and public versions. Enjoy… this is a massive step in a great direction!
Relax Buddies.
MicroSoft is trying to gain lost ground from Apple and Google.
They have taken lead on pad/tablet and MS is struggling still. In Win8/Metro, MS is trying to keep the developer/user of Win and lure the pad/tablet users, by giving both Desktop and Metro to satisfy both.
MS concept is, if you are happy with desktop, Win8 has it and I am sure final version will have all goodies of Win7 for it.
If you like pad/tablet then Metro is there for you to touch and sweep.
We know IPad success is on the vast Apps available for it. But we forget that we need a Mac to develop that App. Similarly you need a Win machine to develop Android App. Development on pad/tablet is simply not feasible.
MS knows it and is trying to give us both, as such;
1. develop the app for Metro in the Win8 desktop
2. switch to metro and check it
3. switch back and fix it
4. repeat.
This approach is wrong or right for MS, only future will tell, but now that is what I think, MS can do to get back it’s dominant position.
Regards,
Anand
Those that are complaining about Metro being enforced and the lack of shutdown (yeah, I’m puzzled about that one) are missing the fact that this is a preview, not even a beta.
I’m assuming that this will be a schizophrenic OS with an easy way (not reg hack) to configure whether you use Metro or not and will probably have an easy shutdown method at some point before RTM.
The drive from MS is to have 1 core OS that is capable of behaving differently for different machines (look at how similiar Win7 is to Server 2008 R2) – this makes coding for 3rd parties (drivers and apps) really easy.
Developers should be drooling at the prospect of writing 1 set of code that can be sold on desktops, tablets and phones.
Martin’s “5 likes” comments are valid so there’s still reason to upgrade for anyone who does not like / will not use Metro.
At first sign of dissent:
“No decisions have been made yet – make your comments when the product is in beta”
…..
“This is a beta product – you can’t expect it to be perfect”
…..
“The product has been released – it’s too late to complain now. You should have bought this up at alpha!!!”
Metro UI needs to die. I NEED the option to turn it off and if i cant i at least want to change it from that crap colour of green! windows 7 = amazing, i like the updates apps e.g task manager etc, i like the new start buttion but
How do i close apps when in an RDP to windows 8?
Found it!
Slide from the right, select “settings” and then “power”
You can then choose to shut down!
There is always a bunch of whiners… This product is designed to fill its own unique niche and time will tell how successful it will be.
Desktop-only users won’t benefit from Win8… (personally don’t see why would I want Win8 on my office PC, Win7 is more than enough…)
However, it is a different story when it comes to the laptop/tablet market. I suspect it is the vision of MS that tablets with docking station will eventually replace laptops. Which is a wonderful idea in my opinion, kills two birds in one shot. I’d prefer such gadget to iPad without a hesitation.
I personally think that if that was Microsoft’s intention, that they should clearly state that.
I am the only one that loves it? I am currently writing from the metro style IE (I do love how Microsoft is trying to get everybody to use IE by having it as a metro app?). I love the clean look. I do agree it maybe slightly more geared to touch but after just 15 minutes using it I already feel it more fluid then older Windows OS’s.
Even on windows 7 (which I also like) I use auto-hide taskbar because I like the full screen experience which may make me slightly bias.
I am normally a what I consider a power user (e.g video editing/encoding, heavy use of IDE’s, image editing software, etc) and love the desktop experience but this version of windows is winning me over (even as a developer preview).
I don’t know if being 18 and probably less set in my way then most of people using the developer preview, but then again, if it was a truly great product, I think that age shouldn’t make a difference.
I couldn’t work out how to close app’s which got pretty annoying I tried pretty much every combination under the sun. I don’t like how programs are managed.
I’m not to sure on social network integration.
I’m missing the taskbar, though I think I’ll get used to the type to search idea on the metro screen.
Still getting used to the dragging to switch programs (though I’m more used to using alt-tab and I think I will use that more.)
I’m really enjoying the developer preview. It’s not right to judge it as a working OS — it’s a set of developer tools and SDK samples.
Re touch: MS are banking on laptops getting touch screens. And releasing Windows 8 will drive that into reality. In a few years, you’ll walk into a shop and you’ll see smartphones (touch,) tablets (touch,) and windows 8 laptops which will inevitably have touch. Once that happens, touch-based UI as the default makes a lot of sense.
But as to closing apps — just don’t. Stop it. You aren’t supposed to stop apps. Part of the style of ‘metro style’ is just switching to whatever you want to do, the same way you do on an iPad. The reason you don’t see an option to close is because it’s become somewhat redundant to actually close the app at all.
I think it is still fair to review the current state of the operating system, to criticize it, to praise it. As far as closing apps goes. I’d like to see that option alone for privacy reasons.
“But as to closing apps — just don’t. Stop it. You aren’t supposed to stop apps.” – dumbest thing i ever heard..
every application needs a usable way to be closed, thus freeing ressources it blocks – even your beloved ipad provides the appbar from which you can close running applications..
and i am 100% sure, that that obnoxious background music of “Copper” which currently blasts out of my laptops speakers despite its “suspended” state isnt the way MS envisaged it to work.
Blake I noticed the sound still playing in the background as well.
I just installed W8DP, and I did touch every key to find the shutdown button. So here it is:
In Metro mode:
WINDOWS KEY + i
Panel at the right, at the bottom, go to POWER
and you find the 3 options there: sleep, restart shutdown.
In desktop mode:
WINDOWS KEY + c
Setting option
Panel at the right, at the bottom, go to POWER
and you find the 3 options there: sleep, restart shutdown.
I hope this helps :)
Andres thanks, wonder how many average computer users will find the option..