Windows 8 was more than just a new way about thinking about the desktop interface for Microsoft, it was a major bet that touch was the future of computers. A bet that it could flesh out its meager Windows App Store. A bet that people would come around to Metro's dramatic changes and not run screaming in the different direction. It seems that Microsoft may have underestimated the intensity of some of that running and screaming though, particularly in regard to the shortage of a start button, and the shortage of the option to boot right to desktop. The moaning had been load enough, it seems that Microsoft had seen fit to acquiesce just a little bit and just there.
When you first boot up the Windows 8, you are not going to notice many differences slapping you across the face, the user interface is pretty much exactly the same. Metro is still your colorful little landing page by default and the traditional desktop still lives behind it. You have still got your charms off to the right, your app drawer hiding away at the bottom. Live tiles can be smaller now, little one by one squares that remind you of Windows Phone but the other that that things look pretty much the same. At a glance, anyway.
Search has been elevated from a keyboard centric way to select one of your applications to a place where you can interface with a firehose of internet. Instead of simply searching your computer, it now includes web search results as well, via Bing, naturally. The results is that the Metro desktop now doubles as your search engine and a nice one at that.
A small change that makes all the difference in the world is the ability to make your Metro background match with your desktop wallpaper. The effect is that Metro feels like it is popping up in front of your desktop, not replacing it. That does a lot to anchor you to a sense of place.
It is easier to tweak your Metro Screen now. Where changing that location and sizing the of tiles in Windows 8 could be a little non indicative, 8.0 pushes you into a more traditional and mobile OS feeling, 'movin stuff around' mode, and once you have activated it by holding down a tile, you can drag them all around the screen and resize them through the option bar at the bottom. But most importantly you can not actually engage any applications from here, so no worries of accidentally lunching into Stocks while you are just trying to remove it.
Xbox Music has a brand new look, the framework behi be pretty much identical to the original application, but the interface is much prettier this time around. Also, when you pull off a Bing omnisearch for a musician, the link it pops up will open and play in the Xbox Music, if you click them.
