WHAT TO EXPECT IN WINDOWS 8

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The long awaited Windows 8, which Microsoft expects to make available on October 26, will offer a few major enhancements – one of them being a new look and feel. The new default Tiles (what used to be called Metro) interface will show and perform like a mobile application. This might be a welcome change for Tablet PC users and good news for apps that are built for them – but not so much for more traditional computer users. Thankfully, laptop and PC users out there who find that they’re missing the old Start Menu will also be able to access the de-facto Windows desktop.

Another big change is that Windows 8 includes beefed-up free Internet security. The new version of the Windows Operating System will come bundled with an enhanced version of Windows Defender, which is basically Microsoft Security Essentials — the same free security suite featuring free antivirus and firewall protection that Windows 7 users could download and install. It’s just now re-branded as Windows Defender, offering more than the Windows 7 version of the software by the same name, which was only an antispyware/antimalware solution. 

With the new Windows Defender, Windows 8 is definitely a step up when it comes to strengthening the security of the Windows operating system. But does it really offer enough protection to counter all sorts of attacks across the web? Many security experts say not quite.

We can now see how Microsoft has implemented its controversial decision to enable the Do Not Track setting in Internet Explorer 10 as well. During setup the Do Not Track setting is listed as the third item in this bulleted list:

If you choose the Customize option, there's a slider that lets you enable or disable DNT:

The most obvious difference after you finish setup is visual: there’s a new selection of custom backgrounds for the Start screen and the Lock screen.

There's a greater selection of background colors and "tattoos" for the Start screen than in the Release Preview. In addition, the desktop has the new flat look, with no more traces of Aero.

In PC Settings, the only noticeable addition is an Available Storage block on the General tab, which makes it easy to see at a glance how much disk space is free. That measurement is especially critical on tablets and small devices with limited storage, especially 32GB devices.

One change is momentous in symbolic terms. The built-in Windows file manager, which has been called Windows Explorer for 17 years, is now called File Explorer. You might not notice unless you right-click its icon on the taskbar or search for it.

During testing, performance was uniformly excellent, even on a nearly five-year-old Dell desktop PC. As was the case in the Release Preview, startup and shutdown are impressively fast, and every app used was quick and responsive.

Most of the built-in apps have received only modest tweaks from their Release Preview predecessors. In a note to reviewers, Microsoft said, "The in-box Microsoft apps we have built for Windows 8 (communications, entertainment, etc.) will be continuously updated over time via the Windows Store. Some of the applications will be updated at our next milestone, when Windows 8 is generally available."

My experience bears that out. The Mail app, for example, has no new features but a few UI changes. Music is now called Xbox Music and boasts new options in the Preferences pane (most notably an option that requires you to sign in before completing purchases).

One surprise in the Store was the first official appearance of the Xbox SmartGlass brand, which replaces the earlier Xbox Companion app.

 

The story with third-party apps is similar. Several bugs experienced with third-party apps were further fixed in the latest release. The RTM code seems, after very brief testing, to work very well with other Microsoft products and services that are still in preview mode: Outlook.com, Office 365, and Office 2013 all seem to function properly.

During the latest Release to Manufacturing (RTC), they were very few surprises in the Windows 8 interface itself. The Start screen is still on top and the Start menu, like Francisco Franco, is still dead. If you've been testing Windows 8 for any length of time, you've probably already formed an opinion about the new design, and nothing in the final release is likely to change that. The only significant (and welcome) change  noticed was in  file search results, where right-clicking an item now displays an app command that lets you jump to that file's location using Windows Ex... sorry, File Explorer.

Meanwhile one would say that this is an important milestone for Windows 8, but it's still just that—between now and October 26, it's still best suited for evaluation by IT pros and enthusiasts.