The Untold Story: Windows 8 - Lessons Learned from a Bold Transformation

What Went So Wrong?

In the year 2012, Windows 7 emerged victorious, redeeming Microsoft after the failure of Windows Vista. The majority of users genuinely enjoyed Windows 7, which brought positive results for Microsoft. However, the company faced the challenge of surpassing their own success with an even better successor. Regrettably, history had shown that every time Microsoft released an exceptional operating system, it was followed by a disastrous release. Windows 98 was succeeded by Windows ME, Windows XP was followed by Windows Vista, and unfortunately, Windows 8, as the successor to Windows 7, was destined to experience the same unfortunate fate.

In a surprising turn of events, the technical issues this time were not the cause. Instead, the problems stemmed mainly from changes that did not resonate well with Windows users. Microsoft firmly believed that touch screens were the future. Whether it was tablets, hybrid laptops, or any other form of computing, the company's vision for that release cycle revolved around using our fingers on the screens.

To give credit where it's due, Microsoft was not wrong about the longevity of the tablet market. Tablets continue to thrive. However, in their quest to make Windows more compatible with touch devices, the company lost sight of the needs of its core user base: regular PC users. For millions of individuals working in offices or using their computers at home in the traditional manner, Windows 8 proved to be an extremely difficult departure from what they were accustomed to.

Windows 8 infamously removed the classic Start Menu and instead introduced a full-screen, widget-filled interface. While this was suitable for touch-screen devices, it did not cater well to PCs that utilized keyboards, mice, and had ingrained user expectations for interacting with Windows.

The overall user experience, referred to as "Metro" by Microsoft, was primarily designed for touch-screen devices. This included the settings menu and the selection of apps available for download from the Microsoft Store. The app store, resembling a smartphone-like experience, stands as one of the few notable remnants from the chaotic implementation of Windows 8.

Windows 8 felt somewhat uncomfortable to navigate, despite featuring a "desktop mode" that provided a familiar experience with standard programs. The absence of a start button on the taskbar meant that pressing the Windows key would bring up the new touch-first interface, making it difficult to avoid. The combination of the dual interface and the lackluster appeal of the main user interface made Windows 8 a memorable release, though not for positive reasons.

What About Windows 8.1?

In response to the valid criticisms, Microsoft did make an effort to rectify some of the issues with Windows 8.1. However, it is unfortunate that the majority of these shortcomings were not adequately addressed or even addressed at all.

Starting with Windows 8.1, the Start button made a comeback on the taskbar in desktop mode. However, clicking it still brought up the redesigned start menu, showcasing Microsoft's commitment to the new Metro design. Despite some improvements in terms of multitasking and seamlessness, Windows 8.1 was ultimately a rushed attempt to fix the flaws of its predecessor.

It wasn't until the launch of Windows 10 that Microsoft struck a balance between the modern design and the more desktop-friendly approach. Gradually, Metro was phased out with subsequent updates, and by the time Windows 11 arrived, it had disappeared altogether.

How Well Does Windows 8 Work?

To know exactly how well Windows 8 works, I fired up a VM and checked it out myself. And what I found was, well, a bit jarring.

Before writing this article, I had limited experience with Windows 8.1 instead of the original release of Windows 8. To my surprise, it turned out to be worse than I had anticipated, even though my expectations were already quite low.

In desktop mode, there is no start menu, which significantly complicates the navigation experience. However, apart from that aspect, it closely resembles Windows 7, albeit a slightly more refined version.

Whenever you encounter the new modern design, issues arise. In the beginning, navigating through it proved to be difficult. You have the option to choose apps from the pinned Metro tiles, download apps from the Microsoft Store, or access a complete list of apps by right-clicking and selecting the "All apps" option.

This aspect, in particular, made the navigation quite frustrating since the majority of the modern tiles are also modern-style Windows apps. If you had to return to an older menu for any reason, you had to bring up the "All apps" panel.

The modern settings menu was cleverly concealed, but thankfully I could eventually locate the Control Panel and other traditional Windows menus in desktop mode.

However, this situation was far from perfect. In all fairness to Microsoft, although it did not backpedal on this design, it did address many of these grievances in Windows 8.1. Despite this, the arrival of Windows 10 was a welcome change for many and I now comprehend why. You truly cannot grasp the level of simplicity and user-friendliness of Windows 10 until you have endured the hardships of Windows 8.

Windows 8 Was Not Good

While Windows Vista was widely criticized as one of the most infamous Windows releases, I personally defended it as a "misunderstood" release. However, when it comes to Windows 8, I cannot make the same argument. Although it brought about numerous changes, Microsoft eventually decided to revert most of them.

Furthermore, the aforementioned changes have had minimal impact on the current version of Windows. Additionally, unless it was utilized on a tablet or a 2-in-1 PC, which it was specifically designed for, the user experience was notably unpleasant. Taking all of this into consideration, it is irrefutable that Windows 10 was a significant improvement, and Microsoft effectively learned from their mistakes in the Windows 8 and Metro UI experiment.