Win8 Pains 'n' Pains- The Last Part

By Jan Fagerholm

I'm presently running the Windows 8 Professional version, and as with previous Professional versions you do not get any games be default. (I guess “Professionals” aren't allowed to relax.) This is fixed by going to the Store, where they now offer for download Microsoft approved versions of Solitaire and Mahjonng, as well as many others. The Store is beginning to look populated, though you can tour the entire contents of Store in about five minutes. It's no Apple store, though I'm sure that will change. (BTW, don't bother to rush to the store for the Microsoft applets if you are still running Consumer Preview or Release Preview – Store knows this and doesn't make the new Microsoft applets available unless you are running RTM.

One warning; If you happen to have one of those Windows 7 tablets and are looking to Windows 8 for improved performance, save your money. Most of these devices have screen resolutions of 1024 x 600 (this goes for a lot of Netbooks, too) and Windows 8 tile-based apps (nee Metro apps) will simply refuse to run on any screen that doesn't have at least 768 pixels of vertical resolution. Line up at the brick-and-mortar Microsoft store for a whole new tablet or netbook.

Final thoughts: this is not a casual upgrade for the desktop or laptop user. You are going to have to learn a whole new way to find and launch apps, for starters. Customizing the interface to your preferences requires a great deal of exploration, research and head scratching – for that matter, so does simply finding a lot of stuff. O'Reilly Books and others are going to make a lot of money selling third party manuals for Windows 8. On the plus side, optimizing Windows 8 for simpler hardware has forced Microsoft to streamline the system code considerably; this translates to a much snappier interface across the board. If you are running less-than-new hardware that is a bit pokey with Windows 7, you will welcome Windows 8 improved response. This goes triple for Vista users.

It's done. It's here. It's time to decide.