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Windows 8 Metro Nutshell Overview
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The best way to get acquainted with Windows 8 Developer
Preview is to dig right in and start looking -- so
here we go.
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| A Very Brief Getting
Acquainted Period |
My intent for this
article was to share my 'get acquainted experience'
with Windows 8 Metro user interface. Knowing it supported touch I
installed it on both a touch capable desktop and
laptop so I could enjoy the full Windows 8
Developer Preview experience. It only took a few
minutes to tell the Developer Preview was a very
rough, unpolished release, but that was expected at
this point in the cycle.
I knew going in the Metro focus was on touch
capabilities. What I didn't know in advance was how
heavily skewed the interface is toward content
consumption users versus content production users.
That's a simplification, of course, and I fully
understand why Developer Preview was released, but I
can't deny it left a bad taste in my mouth - not
because it's touch based, but because it's genuinely
clumsy on a touch capable desktop or laptop which I
had available for testing.
I'll revisit Metro when it becomes available on a
reasonably priced Android tablet, hopefully on the
ASUS Transformer, but as for wasting additional time
with Metro at
this point on a touch capable desktop and
laptop, I'll direct my efforts toward the underpinnings of Windows 8 that aren't
influenced by Metro or the current fad of touch
screen interfaces taking over the business desktop
and laptop.
I'll leave what little bit of my initial Metro 'getting
acquainted' experience I actually chronicled below
for those that might be interested, but if the
future of Windows 8 doesn't include a kill switch
for Metro, or even better, a way to install Windows
8 with
no trace of Metro, may Windows 7 live a long and
healthy life. |
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Metro Interface
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I don't believe anyone will
disagree that the Metro user interface is the first thing
you notice about this release. It's big. It's bold. Many
will say it's garish or just downright ugly. Make no
mistake, Metro, which first debuted on the Windows Phone, is
designed as a touchscreen based user interface. You can make
it work with a keyboard and mouse, but to really appreciate
it you definitely need a touchscreen device. In all the
previous versions of Windows the desktop was always the
central point of focus where everything took place. In Metro
just think of the Metro Start Screen as what used to be the
desktop, including the taskbar.
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Looking at the screen you may
think where are the icons, or you may think these squares
and rectangles are nothing more than huge icons, but in
Metro these are called tiles. Unlike icons which are static
and serve the one purpose of launching applications or
files, some Metro tiles are capable of containing live data
that can be continuously updated. Compare the Stocks,
Weather, and News tiles in the screen capture above to the
ones below and you'll see the difference. The ones below now
contain newsfeed data that will be continuously updated on
the Metro Start Screen.
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| Navigation in Windows 8 |
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I'm willing to bet one of the
least used keys on your keyboard is the Windows key - you
know, that one between the left side Ctrl and Alt keys that
has the Windows logo on it. Get ready to remember its
location because it's going to become a big part of your
life in the Metro interface. For the most part, no matter
where you are in Windows 8, tapping the Windows key once
will bring you back to the Metro Start Screen. Think of it
as a safety net. I've found myself in places in Windows 8
where there were absolutely no available options for moving
or escaping -- but the Windows key always seemed to get
things moving again, even if it was only back to the Metro
Start Screen.
Keyboard Shortcuts
- Since Metro is touchscreen based, in theory you can do
everything without the benefit of a keyboard and mouse. I
have my doubts that's true, but speaking as someone fortunate
enough to have an HP TouchSmart with Windows 8 installed on
it, I'd be lost without the keyboard and mouse. Full
disclosure; I don't have a smartphone or any touch devices
other than a Color Nook so this touch stuff is foreign to
me, but the keyboard and mouse are what's saved me to this
point.
In an effort to better
understand just what role the Windows key played in
navigation, I went through and tested the Windows Key + <any
key> combinations from the Metro Start Screen and logged the
results. It was an interesting exercise with a few
surprises. The
full list is here with descriptions and screen captures.
I'll list the most useful shortcuts below.
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Windows Key |
Toggles between Metro
Start Screen and Desktop |
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Windows Key + C |
Opens "Charms"
Icons/Menu |
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Windows Key + E |
Opens to the
Desktop with Windows Explorer open.
The focus is on Computer category. |
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Windows Key + F |
Search Files Pane -
Cleared Input Line |
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Windows Key + Q |
Search Apps Pane -
Cleared Input Line
All Available Apps Categorized and Displayed in
Columns |
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Windows Key + W |
Settings Pane -
Cleared Input Line |
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If you're using a touchscreen
device you can drag tiles around on the screen to rearrange
them to your liking, but only within a very severe
operating system imposed structure. For example, in the
screen capture below, I could drag and drop the news tile
(bottom left) beneath the NASDAQ tile, but doing so will
shuffle the weather tile down to the old position of the
news tile, always maintaining five rows of tiles.
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You can also resize the tiles,
but again, you are limited to operating system imposed
restrictions; smaller and larger. Some tiles cannot be made
larger. Example, desktop can be toggled between
smaller/larger but the Windows Explorer tile is restricted
to small size only. Very annoying.
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Another set of options are, what for lack of a better term, I'll call system tiles. In
the Command Prompt example shown below, right clicking on it
allows it to be executed with Administrator privileges,
although I have a hard time imagining why anyone would
bother placing a tile like this on the Metro Start Screen
because it's useless until you switch to Desktop view.
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Charms Menu - When you're in
the Metro Start Screen or the Desktop view, moving the
cursor all the way to the lower left of the screen with the
mouse will display the "Charms" menu as well as the date and
time charm. On a touchscreen, swiping right to left will
display the charms menu on the right side like a vertical
taskbar. The date/time charm will shift to the left of the
screen.
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Can you have a totally bare
Metro Start screen? You bet - the proof is below.
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As far as navigation and
shortcuts are concerned in Desktop view, things are pretty
much the same as they were in previous versions of Windows
-- with one big exception; there is no Start Menu, or at
least not anything that's of any use to someone used to
working with computers.
As you can see below, there is
still a Start button at the far left, but it's tied into the
useless 'charms' and displays nothing relevant to a
'production' oriented user rather than a 'content consumer'
oriented user. Opening the Properties sheet for the Taskbar
you'll see all the settings and options for the Start menu
have been removed, leaving only jumplist and toolbar
options.
To really make the Taskbar
useful you'll have to create Custom Toolbars of folders that
essentially replicate the items that were contained in the
Windows 7 and prior Start menus. Couple that with a
judicious selection of pinned taskbar items and the desktop
view starts to approach a degree of usability for someone
interested in work rather than consumption. If you'd like to
see what I did along these lines,
the article is here.
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Windows Key + L and the Lock
Screen - Unlike previous Windows versions which featured
static login screens, Windows 8 has the Lock Screen,
essentially an interactive 'cover' for the login screen.
Pressing the Windows Key + L will instantly log you out of
Windows 8 and bring up the Lock Screen. To expose the Login
Screen and sign back in, an upward swipe of either finger or
mouse will do the trick.
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As I said at the beginning of
this article, this is really as far as I got becoming
'acquainted' with the Metro part of Windows 8. I'll revisit
Metro when it becomes available on a reasonably priced
Android tablet, hopefully on the ASUS Transformer, but as
for wasting anymore time at this point with it on a touch
capable desktop and laptop, I'll direct my efforts toward
the underpinnings of Windows 8 that aren't
influenced by Metro.
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