Windows 8 is not expected to ship until sometime in 2012, but we managed to briefly try out the Developer Preview version of the software at Microsoft's Build conference.

The platform is quite clearly a major change over what has gone before, and people familiar with the Windows desktop could be forgiven for feeling somewhat lost at first, as the Metro interface works in a totally different way.

However, we think consumers will find a lot to like in Windows 8, particularly the way it provides easy access to data, and makes it simple to perform tasks such as updating social meda sites.

Metro obviously has a lot in common with Windows Phone 7, Microsoft's smartphone platform, the main Start screen consisting of tiles to represent applications, rather than the start menu of Windows 7 and earlier.

As with Windows Phone, the tiles are typically 'active', showing if you have new messages or emails, for example. Also like Windows Phone 7, touching the tile launches the application, and the tiles can be rearranged as desired and even bunched together into named groups.

The Metro-style apps are also a big change over the way Windows applications look now. Typically, these fill the screen and lack any of the borders and controls we are used to seeing, in a deliberate attempt to emphasise the content of the application.

As a result, apps tend to look very spartan, and the use of bold colour lends a kindergarten feel to the whole experience.

User interaction is also different, and designed to accommodate touch input, stylus control and keyboard and mouse input. Controls and other tools are typically found by swiping an edge of the screen.

A swipe to the right brings up what Microsoft calls 'charms' - common functions such as search and share, devices and settings - while a swipe to the left flicks through open Windows in the same way as alt+tab on Windows 7.

In fact, if you have a keyboard, using alt+tab performs exactly the same function, showing how Microsoft has blended existing Windows functionality with the new-style user interface.

However, the old Windows desktop has not entirely gone away. The Desktop app tile on the Start screen brings up a desktop very similar to that of Windows 7, and it is here that existing Windows applications run.

Switching between the two interfaces can be a jarring experience, though, especially on a tablet where the standard Windows controls are just too small to reliably hit using a touch screen, showing that the mouse is not redundant just yet.

The browser in this release of Windows 8 is a preview version of IE10. In Metro mode, this uses the whole screen to display a web page, and touching the top or bottom of the screen provides access to the back button or address bar. It is also available in the Desktop app, where it behaves more like IE9 on Windows 7.

One major feature of Windows 8 is the integration with cloud services, particularly Windows Live SkyDrive, which is used to synchronise data across multiple devices so that all contacts, photos, emails and other information is available on whatever unit the user happens to have with them.

The new-style apps in Windows 8 can also share data much more easily than in current versions of Windows, allowing you to email a picture to a friend directly from a Flickr or Facebook application with a single gesture, for example.

Overall, we felt that the Windows 8 Developer Preview provides a much better experience on tablets than existing versions of Windows, although getting used to the new interface could prove a steep learning curve for some.

Finally, this new platform seems heavily consumer-focused, to the extent that business users may be reluctant to adopt it, at least for the foreseeable future.

14 Sep 2011