There are a lot of seasoned brands that can learn from Apple and this includes Microsoft – the Windows 8 previews have been appearing on YouTube and in articles after a detailed hands-on, and most of these previews are shouting the word “Simplicity“. If you spend enough time with an iPad you’d understand how easy it is to use when compared to a laptop or desktop, and this is the very reason we’ve seen a growing number of people dumping traditional computers for a tablet PC like the iPad.

Microsoft understand this and want to offer as much simplicity as possible with their new operating system, and this is why the Windows 8 refresh is one of the most simple concepts to date, especially from Microsoft. You only need to look at the MSN homepage and compare it to Google’s homepage to see the different approaches with making things simple, and we hope Microsoft bring this simplistic approach to many more products and services in the future. In fact they’ve already started with the naming process and we’re seeing Microsoft simplifying the names of the products and services they offer.

Do you like the direction Microsoft is moving and would a more simply approach make you want to stay with windows, or return if you left already? It’s our opinion that Microsoft only needs to keep the existing Windows users happy, and push for these people to upgrade. There has been a growing number of Microsoft’s customers leaving for Mac OS X, and it will be hard to get these people back now they have changed to something totally different and in many cases fell in love with Apple.

If you’ve not had time to go hands-on with Windows 8 then you might enjoy the videos we’ve embedded below, which give you some good insight into the new OS and how good it stacks up to Windows 7 and Mac OS X. The first video is a 6-minute Windows 8 walkthrough, which shows how the metro interface is inspired by phones and tablets.

The second video has the aim to show how “real people” would find the new Windows 8 UI, and it’s interesting to see how a novice would use the new interface but we’d like to point out we know a lot of older parents that are experts at computers, although it does show how complicated the UI could be to those that don’t know a lot about computers. The third video shows the same novice explaining the difference between using Windows 8 and Mac OS X, which he was unfamiliar with both operating systems.

In the last video you can see a review of Windows 8 from a performance benchmark point of views, and its being compared to Windows 7, which is just what some upgraders would want to know. The short video includes some key details on boot up times and other information. It seems that novice computer users could find a totally new UI hard to use, and changes should be made in small steps rather than a massive change at once.

Watch the videos below and let us know if you think making too many changes could harm Microsoft Windows?

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If you have a spare laptop which you don’t mind formatting, or you have an additional hard drive which you can use you don’t really need to follow our method of dual-booting, however if you’re planning to install the Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a desktop PC / laptop which only has one hard disk drive you’ll want to follow this guide closely.

Prerequisites

Before setting up your dual-boot configuration you need a few things, firstly you need to head over to this page and check to see whether your PC meets the minimum requirements for the version of Windows 8 you want to install (pretty much all Windows Vista and Windows 7 computers should run it just fine). For the 32-bit version you need at least a 1GHz processor, 1GB or RAM and 16GB of free space, whilst the 64-bit version requires at least a 1GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and 20GB of free space. No-matter what version you choose to install you need a GPU which is DirectX 9 compliant or higher.

Once you’re sure that your computer is beefy enough to run Windows 8 you’ll need a second partition to install it on. Most laptops these days come with a single hard disk with two partitions, this second partition is essential for this particular dual-boot configuration. Luckily for me the Toshiba laptop which I’m using has just this, as you can see below there is a ‘C:’ and a ‘D:’, the ‘D’ drive is where I’ll be installing Windows 8, you should be doing the same. If you only have a ‘C’ drive you’ll have to setup a second partition manually, this is easy, but requires a partition tool such as Partition Magic or EASEUS Partition Master 9.1.0 – the latter can be downloaded here, realistically you should make the secondary partition at least 20GB in size, but I would recommend 30GB+.

Now that you are sure you meet the hardware requirements you must download the correct ISO file and burn it to disc. Downloads vary between 2.5GB and 3.3GB depending on the edition you choose, but all editions can be located here. You must also write down the following product key: DNJXJ-7XBW8-2378T-X22TX-BKG7J – I took a photo of this with my smartphone to ensure I didn’t get it wrong. Once your download is complete (it may take some time) you need to burn the file to a blank DVD using a program like ImgBurn. Once complete shutdown your computer ensuring that the newly created disc is in the drive.

Installation

Installation time varies depending on your computer’s hardware, it took me about 25-35 minutes, but allow 1 hour just in case. The first thing you need to do is boot from the DVD (not into your current Windows installation), you may have to configure the BIOS to allow this or press a key such as ‘F8′, ‘F10′ or ‘F12′ to select you boot device – when you’ve done this correctly you should hear your DVD drive spinning rapidly and see text reading something like ‘Press any key to boot from CD or DVD…’, simple press a key on the keyboard and your PC will begin booting from the Windows 8 disc – you should then see a little image showing a fish blowing bubbles.

After some time you will see a screen asking you to choose the correct language, time, currency and keyboard setting – do this and then click next. The next screen allows you to choose from two options, you need to choose ‘Install Now’ – wait a few minutes and then you will have to enter the product key which you jotted down earlier – type this in carefully and click next when done, if it fails it means you’ve made an error. The code is: DNJXJ-7XBW8-2378T-X22TX-BKG7J.

You will then be asked to agree license terms, read these if you want and tick the box and click next to continue. The next step is the most important, you must choose ‘Custom Install’ not ‘Upgrade’ – select this and you will see a list of partitions where Windows 8 can be installed – you want to install it on the secondary partition which we spoke about earlier (D:). Select this partition and click next, the installation process will now begin and you’ll have to wait a while for files to be copied and features to be installed etc.

After some time your computer will restart and Windows 8 will begin, you’ll have to carry out some straight-forward setup and you’ll soon be seeing the beatiful Windows 8 UI – congratulations you’ve successfully dual-booted Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Summary

From now on when you turn on your computer you’ll see a boot selection screen where you can choose between Windows 8 and the other operating system(s) you have installed (see below), you can also configure more advanced settings if you wish to do so. Hopefully this brief guide helped you successfully, if not please leave your comments below and we’ll do our best to help you.

Are you impressed by the Windows 8 Consumer Preview?

More About: microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Windows 8

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Sales of Android tablet PCs have so far been well behind those of the iPad, but Google are looking to change this. According to The Verge Andy Rubin of Android said that the twelve million tablets sold on the platform so far was still significant. But admitted that much more is needed if the platform was going to win enough market share, and promised that 2012 will be the year the company will “double down and make sure we’re winning in that space”.

Rubin added that the biggest issue with tablet PCs on Android was that consumers have no structured way “to recognize it as a viable platform”. According to Rubin Google is not looking to coming third in the battle between the platforms, and he is convinced the company is doing a better job in getting consumers to better understand the ecosystem they are entering into.

Google has struggled to convince developers to create applications that are better suited to tablet PCs, but the company is hoping this is about to change and more software better suited to the larger screen of the tablet PC become available.

Even though it is catching up, presently the Android Market is still lagging behind to what the App Store can offer owners of the iPad. Google will have increased competition on its hands once Windows 8 slates become available besides the release of the iPad 3. Whatever platform gets the largest market share the biggest winner will be the consumer with more choice available.

Pricing has been found to be a major factor regarding the success of any device, and if recent reports are correct the iPad 3 may come at a higher premium. At the other end of the scale though is the recently released Amazon Kindle Fire, which has a much lower entry price but has left some owners disappointed.

Do you think the Android platform can beat the competition?

More About: Android, Apple iPad, google, Windows 8

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Android ICS is only on around five percent of devices on the platform and we already starting to hear about the next version of the operating system. An article on Droid Matters is reporting that sources have said to Digitimes that Google is likely to release the software during the second quarter of this year.

It is being claimed that Google is looking to launch the software to take on the release of Microsoft’s Windows 8. Android 5.0 is believed to be optimized for tablet PCs, and will also focus on Google Chrome integration. The software is thought to utilize Chrome OS functions with Android 5.0 and Chrome OS without needing to reboot the device.

Companies will be able to decide if they want to use just Android 5.0 or have a dual-boot system that can use both Android and Chrome OS. It has to be remembered this is just a rumor currently and Google good just be working on the software and a second quarter release date may be a bit early. The latest OS hasn’t been around for that long, and a number of devices are launching running Android Gingerbread.

But it has to be said Google does normally release a new version of Android on average about every five months as you can see from the table below.

• Android 1.5 to Android 1.6 – 5 months
• Android 1.6 to Android 2.0 – 1 month
• Android 2.0 to Android 2.2 – 7 months
• Android 2.2 to Android 2.3 – 7 months
• Android 2.3 to Android 3.0 – 2 months
• Android 3.0 to Android 4.0 – 8 months

If true this news will be frustrating for many users of the Android platform who may have no exact date their quite new smartphone will be updated to Android ICS, let alone Jelly Bean. Which version of Android are you currently using?

More About: Android Jelly Bean, Windows 8

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Over in the UK sales of PCs have slipped by twenty percent during the last quarter of 2011, and according to Techworld only Apple managed to increase sales. For the whole of 2011 sales in the country fell by 15.9 percent, which accounts for two million units. Consumers seemed to favor smartphones and tablets that are also often cheaper to buy.

The drop in sales accounts for both business and consumer users alike and Apple now sells almost one in ten of all PCs. Brands such as Acer lost 46 percent compared to the previous year, while HP lost almost 16 percent, and Dell losing 9 percent. The drop in sales is also being put down to the recession with public sector business seeing a big drop.

Netbook sales are in freefall after losing 50 percent during the last quarter of 2011, which previously held unit sales up ever since 2009. The decline has come as companies cut development and move away from the sector.

But with Intel’s Ultrabook soon to arrive and Windows 8 on the horizon things could well improve over the next year. It has to be noted that PC sales have seen plenty of ups and downs in the past, which have been driven by new technology and the release of new versions of Windows.

There will be many consumers who want to purchase a new laptop or PC but are holding fire until the release of Windows 8. PC sales are falling across Europe and can easily be put down to the tough economic climate that many people are experiencing at the moment.

Have you put off buying a new PC until Windows 8 is released?

More About: Acer, HP, microsoft, Windows 8

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According to ZDNet Microsoft will hold an event at Mobile World Congress 2012 on February 29 to launch the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, therefore we expect download links to go live shortly after. For those of you who are unaware a consumer preview is a beta release which is made available to the public, currently the latest Windows 8 build available is a developer preview which isn’t regarded as ready for the public.

We find it quite strange to see Microsoft launch the Consumer Preview at MWC 2012 as this exhibition is usually targeted towards the mobile industry, obviously Windows 8 will run on tablets as well as desktop computers and laptops, perhaps this decision has been made as Microsoft plan to unveil an early build of Windows Phone 8 at the same time – we can hope!

2011 was a great year for Windows Phone 7, especially with Nokia’s decision to adopt WP7 instead of Symbian, but it has now been two year’s since Microsoft officially unveiled Windows Phone 7 for the first time (funnily enough this occurred at MWC 2010) and we think it’s about time that Microsoft revealed Windows Phone 8, don’t you?

It would be great for Microsoft to eventually roll out Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 at the similar times and it would make sense, perhaps the two operating systems will seamlessly integrate between eachother and we’ll get to see examples of this during Microsoft’s Windows 8 reveal.

So what do you expect to see from Microsoft at MWC 2012? Do you think Windows Phone 8 will show up as well as Windows 8? What integration between the two operating systems would you like to see? Let us know your thoughts below.

More About: microsoft, Windows 8

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The start button has evolved massively with each Windows release for over 16 years, however screenshots of a consumer preview of Windows 8 recently showed up on PCBeta.com and clearly show that there’s a Superbar, but no start button. The operating system build shown in these screens (build 8220) is said to be near final, therefore unless the start button has disappeared due to a software bug it looks like Windows 8 won’t feature a start button when used in desktop mode.

One thing we’re not too sure of is whether there being no start button on show means there will be no start menu, will you be able to press the ‘Start’ button on your keyboard to call up the start? We don’t know at present, can you access the start menu via your touchscreen display or mouse? Will keyboards start appearing with no start button? We will have to wait and see.

With no start button the Superbar seems to be slowly becoming more and more like Apple’s dock for for OS X, having had some hands-on experience with Windows 8 we do still have some concerns as to whether it’s a brave or stupid decision to drop such a prominent feature. Microsoft is trying to merge a tablet OS with a desktop OS, but is this really possible? Could Microsoft end up making Windows 8 too tablet-friendly and in-turn have an adverse effect on productivity in regards to desktop usage? We think that there’s a fine line between minimalism and usability, Microsoft’s developers need to find the perfect balance.

Will you miss the start button / start menu?

More About: microsoft, windows, Windows 8

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An insider at Microsoft has revealed that Windows 8 will feature an application similar to the one that is found now on the current Windows Phone platform. This allows users to search for games, TV shows, music, apps, and movies for their Xbox 360. Now according to a report on Examiner a new cloud type service will allow users to share content such as movies and music across the next Xbox, Windows Phone 8, and Windows 8.

Xbox Live games will be available across all three platforms but currently it is not known how much integration and compatibility is planned. Information such as data usage and missed calls will be shared via a synched PC. For now it is not known if the same type of information will find its way to the next Xbox as well.

The current Xbox has the same Metro interface as Windows 7.5 Mango and Windows 8 after the dashboard was updated back in December. The company is obviously looking to integrate its three top products together, which is something Apple has successfully managed to achieve.

Meanwhile a report over at ThisisXbox is saying that while many reports have suggested the next console from Microsoft will be known as the Xbox 720, there is a chance that the company is thinking of calling it the Xbox 8. A source is claiming that many developers have already received developer units of hardware but in an alpha non-console form.

Before the next Xbox has been labeled with the Infinity and Loop codenames, but are believed to be for online services of the actual console. Infinity is supposedly an improved version of Xbox Live, and will be used for digital downloads for all three platforms. Infinity could also eventually find its way into future HDTVs.

Meanwhile Xbox Loop is the codename for a service that will bring digital content from the current gen into the next gen. Do you think Microsoft will call the next gen console the Xbox 8?

More About: microsoft, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Xbox 720

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Windows 8 will allow you to control many aspects of Internet bandwidth and connectivity options, for example if you are in range of a wireless network which you have connected to before the device will automatically recognize this and use it instead of mobile broadband – this will help ensure that people do not inadvertently incur overage charges from mobile data carriers.

Below we will show you two screenshots which show you just how seriously Microsoft takes bandwidth in Windows 8, the screenshot on the right shows you how the OS calculates estimated usage for you without having to install specific connection managers (we saw this in our last Windows 8 post), whilst on the right you can see the new task manager keeps track of data usage for individual applications.

According to TomsHardware we can configure a wide-range of bandwidth specific settings in Windows 8 and developers will be able to utilize APIs to build similar functionality into applications, simple examples of things consumers can modify include only allowing non-critical updates to download via certain connection types. App developers will be able to configure apps to run differently depending on the connection type, for example if you are connected to home broadband apps will offer high-definition video streams and full synchronization, however whilst connected to mobile data you could force low-definition video stream and part-syncs of data.

Apparently all Metro style apps in the Windows Store must utilze these APIs if they connect to the Internet, this suggest that Microsoft will be taking data usage very seriously this time around – it will be very interesting to see the intuitive ways in which developers utilize these APIs.

As long as mobile data plans stay relevant all of these Windows 8 features will be greatly welcomed by consumers, as and when we hear more exciting news about Windows 8 we will keep you posted – What else would you like to see built into Windows 8?

More About: microsoft, windows, Windows 8

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Firstly we will talk about support for mobile broadband. Microsoft claim that Windows 8 will offer native support for mobile broadband and offer the kind of integration which we see in today’s smartphones, Windows Update will keep drivers used for mobile broadband up-to-date, whilst the Windows Store will automatically download the correct mobile operator’s app. Prior to this Windows 7 and older Microsoft operating systems required manual installation of connection managers.

Below we have embedded two images, on the left you can see Windows 8 connected to Vodafone UK mobile broadband, as you can see it also keeps track of your mobile data usage which will be a great way of ensuring you don’t go over your monthly allowance. On the right you can see that you can turn mobile broadband on and off much like you can on a smartphone.

Something else which Windows 8 will offer is instant-on wireless connections, when you bring a Windows 7 (or prior) operating system out of standby it often takes a while to reconnect to a wireless network, however things will be much faster when using Windows 8. The image below clearly shows that reconnecting to a wireless network on Windows 8 should take roughly 1 second, which is far faster than a Windows 7 computer which takes roughly 12 seconds. Microsoft claim that once your display has come out of standby you will already be connected to a wirelesss network, how cool is that?

Obviously these features won’t be important enough to determine the success of Windows 8, but its small things like this which come together with other improvements to make the platform a hit. If you head over to PCPro.co.uk you can find out more about the WiFi and mobile broadband features, what else would you like Windows 8 to offer native support for?

More About: microsoft, windows, Windows 8

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