windows 9

For those of you who are still considering upgrading to Windows 8,don’t bother, Microsoft are about to release windows 9!

Yes, that’s right Microsoft are ready to release Windows 9 to the world (well at least the public preview will be released soon) only 2 years after the release of Windows 8!

OK, first question as always: should you upgrade to Windows 9?

Answer: Maybe!

Yes, I know, the usual techie answer to a question. But as always there are reasons to upgrade delay upgrading!

First of all, unless you have a good reason to upgrade don’t bother.

Good reasons might include that you are still running Windows XP and are concerned about the security issues associated with running an old and no longer supported Operating System (OS).

Or you may be buying a new PC. If you buy a new PC now from a retailer it will have Windows 8.1 installed and you will have no choice in the matter. However, if you buy a new PC from us we can still install Windows 7 if you prefer.

If you are in no hurry, then you may as well wait for the release of Windows 9, although I still go by the rule of not buying the initial release of any software, especially a release of Windows. This is because there are always a lot of bugs and missing elements in the initial release that are often fixed/replaced in the first dot (update) release (e.g. Windows 8 and Windows 8.1).

OK, so what about Windows 9?

 

The Start Button

The first thing that stands out for me and will please a lot of users is the return of the Start Button. As you are probably aware, the Start Button disappeared from Windows 8 and left mouse & keyboard users completely confused as to how to access applications and settings. The “Charms Bar” on the right hand side did not help either and just confused us even more. And just to put  your mind at rest even techies like myself were confused and left in the dark, it took me some time to find Control Panel and even the Shutdown button!

This of course gave rise to third party apps such as “The Classic Start Button” which I installed on all PCs I supplied to clients.

So, guess what, Microsoft are putting the Start Button back in Windows 9! Woohoo!

 

Desktop v Metro

OK, hands up PC users if you have any idea what Metro is? No? Well it doesn’t surprise me, I am still not sure myself!

Everyone outside of Microsoft is still totally bemused at Microsoft’s decision to install both a mouse & keyboard operating system (desktop) and a tablet, tiles screen (Metro) on PCs! Why would you do that? Who on a Desktpo PC using keyboard an mouse wants access to the Metro tiles display that is designed purely for a tablet touch-screen? OK, if you have a laptop with a touch-screen I guess there is a possibility that you may use Metro but only a slim possibility.

That’s another thing I have not got my head around yet, why would you want a touch screen on a laptop (you can even get them for a desktop)!

So why on Earth did Microsoft not only install Metro on keyboard & mouse PCs but also make it the default screen! I have to say the first time I looked at it I had no idea where to start!

So this time around, with Windows 9, Microsoft are apparently splitting Desktop and Metro. If you buy a tablet you will get Metro and if you buy a PC you will get the usual Windows Desktop, with a Start Button!

There are other changes as well apparently like on a tablet version of Metro all the legacy Desktop tiles will be gone!

Charms Bar

Yes, the Charms Bar is rumoured to be going! Hands up anyone who even knows what Charms are? I guess Shutdown and all the other commands will hopefully be back where they belong, with the Start Button.

Upgrade

I don’t know how many of you have ever done a Windows upgrade yourself? That is, install a new release of Windows over the top of an older release, upgrading it to the new version? If you have, then you know what a nightmare it often is and what a complex process it can be.

Well, apparently with Windows 9 they have simplified this process, aka Mac OSX upgrade, into a simple 1 click process! The upgrade process is performed much the same way as Windows Updates. However, this probably means that Microsoft plans to move to a rapid release model for upgrades.

 

Well, I think that is it for now and I’ll keep you updated on the release of Windows 9!