Windows 8 Consumer Preview

I still have my eye on Windows 8 and what Microsoft is attempting to do with its latest operating system. The consumer preview was released a few weeks ago and I’m a bit disappointed. I had hoped that with this release Microsoft would have given us reason to put our minds at ease regarding some of the keyboard mouse navigation concerns. It’s obvious that Microsoft had touch navigation in mind when they built this interface because navigation stills feels clumsy with a mouse and keyboard. The word in the blogosphere is that Microsoft went back to the drawing board after the developer preview and rebuilt the keyboard/mouse navigation from scratch. Too be honest I’m not really seeing it. I still find myself “stuck” in certain areas with no idea how to back out to previous screens or return to key menu areas. Sometimes the system simply won’t respond to any of my mouse movements. To make matters worse many of the applications that come with this release aren’t ready for prime time, adding to the already confusing issue of navigation. Microsoft has put together a video attempting to sell us on navigating Windows 8 with a keyboard and mouse. It’s actually called “Rediscover your mouse and keyboard”. Despite how smooth it all looks in the video the true test will still lie with millions of users who are stuck or trapped in the Windows eco-system because of work or legacy apps. If they become frustrated with this release and decide to ditch the operating system because traversing it is only suitable on touch screen devices then Microsoft will have an even bigger problem to solve.