Windows 8 Consumer Preview

So this morning I downloaded and installed the new windows 8 consumer preview. It has been an interesting ride so far.  I had windows 7 previously installed.  Here are my thoughts so far on windows 8.  Please keep in mind this is still in beta so I am sure they are going to be making fixes as they go along.

Metro
The first screen you see is the metro style screen.  Essentially what this is, is a replacement for the start menu you had in previous versions of windows.  You can really feel and see that Microsoft was going for a tablet feel with this interface.  I think it is going to be the same interface they are going to use for windows 8 tablets.  I have read a lot of reviews on the internet where people do not like it.  It is different and most of the time people don't like things that change.  It does the same thing as the start menu but it uses tiles.  In my opinion it looks like most people's desktops with their 50 or so icons all over the screen.  This is nice and clean.  I can see my parents liking this.  The one thing I figured out so far is that it relies heavily on search.  All you do to search is start typing what you are looking for.  The first thing I was looking for was the control panel.  It look me a few minutes to figure this out.  You just type in control panel and it shows up.  You can then pin it to your start page if you want.   You can customize all the tiles you want in metro.  I think I am going to like it but it is going to take me awhile to get used to it.  The most important thing for me is that it just has to work! 

Metro Layout

Searching for control panel