SyngthaSuyeon
Specialty: Rare types & UU/NU
- 227
- Posts
- 15
- Years
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- Seen May 23, 2024
I skipped dev and I'm typing this on the consumer preview (which I installed today) with my traditional laptop.
It was strange to use a metro interface at first, but I've gotten used to it. Quite painless, though learning the mouse shortcuts (drag the cursor to the bottom right (til you can't see it) to get to the charms; drag it to the bottom left to get to the start menu from "desktop"; to get to another window/program that's open (and right click to close it), use the same shortcut for the start menu on the bottom left and move the cursor directly up past the start peek) took a few minutes. If you have a ton of programs, in metro you can arrange the tiles from the left screen to the right screen by drag-&-drop so the ones you use the most will be right in sight when you go into the menu. The start menu does have a scrollbar so you don't have to rely on hand like swipes with the mouse. You do have to be careful about moving your cursor too fast across the screen in metro or it will be treated like a finger swipe and take you half way to the other side.
Things I'd like to see:
-A metro version of Firefox/Aurora. I don't mind the latest IE, but it's unfair that there's only IE and the apps that come with the preview that's metro-ified (as far as I know since I haven't tested other browsers). Maybe a pipe dream but in fact, a metro version of everything and the ability to seamlessly switch between the two styles if you switch to desktop and want to keep the metro app in view without jumping back and forth (and be able to size the windows in desktop). Currently IE has 2 separate versions of IE9 (and the desktop version takes up more memory usage, like 24-27Mb compared to 4-7Mb) and no, they are not interchangeable. Windows will treat them like separate applications with nothing related to each other. Any customizations you make to metro version won't be in the desktop version and vise versa. They should have made it possible to have one of everything that can adjust in style according to the interface you run it in/switch to. It may seem minor, but it would cut down on possible bloat-ware and disorientation.
-There is a quirk where if you close a windows explorer window (like to get to your user folders) through the task manager, it kills your desktop and you have to restart explorer.exe. They better fix that in the official release. In the mean time, close windows like that through the x button.
Other than those grievances (that have nothing to do with the metro menu itself, merely the integration of styles for applications), it's not bad. Download the 5Mb installer (so you can check your drivers for compatibility). Make yourself a new partition, dual boot, and try it in consumer. It is free and usable until 1/2013 (though by then the real deal will be out), so the only thing you have to lose is the time it takes to download, burn (or load to a 4Gig usb drive), and install.
It was strange to use a metro interface at first, but I've gotten used to it. Quite painless, though learning the mouse shortcuts (drag the cursor to the bottom right (til you can't see it) to get to the charms; drag it to the bottom left to get to the start menu from "desktop"; to get to another window/program that's open (and right click to close it), use the same shortcut for the start menu on the bottom left and move the cursor directly up past the start peek) took a few minutes. If you have a ton of programs, in metro you can arrange the tiles from the left screen to the right screen by drag-&-drop so the ones you use the most will be right in sight when you go into the menu. The start menu does have a scrollbar so you don't have to rely on hand like swipes with the mouse. You do have to be careful about moving your cursor too fast across the screen in metro or it will be treated like a finger swipe and take you half way to the other side.
Things I'd like to see:
-A metro version of Firefox/Aurora. I don't mind the latest IE, but it's unfair that there's only IE and the apps that come with the preview that's metro-ified (as far as I know since I haven't tested other browsers). Maybe a pipe dream but in fact, a metro version of everything and the ability to seamlessly switch between the two styles if you switch to desktop and want to keep the metro app in view without jumping back and forth (and be able to size the windows in desktop). Currently IE has 2 separate versions of IE9 (and the desktop version takes up more memory usage, like 24-27Mb compared to 4-7Mb) and no, they are not interchangeable. Windows will treat them like separate applications with nothing related to each other. Any customizations you make to metro version won't be in the desktop version and vise versa. They should have made it possible to have one of everything that can adjust in style according to the interface you run it in/switch to. It may seem minor, but it would cut down on possible bloat-ware and disorientation.
-There is a quirk where if you close a windows explorer window (like to get to your user folders) through the task manager, it kills your desktop and you have to restart explorer.exe. They better fix that in the official release. In the mean time, close windows like that through the x button.
Other than those grievances (that have nothing to do with the metro menu itself, merely the integration of styles for applications), it's not bad. Download the 5Mb installer (so you can check your drivers for compatibility). Make yourself a new partition, dual boot, and try it in consumer. It is free and usable until 1/2013 (though by then the real deal will be out), so the only thing you have to lose is the time it takes to download, burn (or load to a 4Gig usb drive), and install.
