Thirteen years ago this week, on October 26, 2012, Microsoft released Windows 8. Let’s just say Windows 8 was not their finest moment. It was their most significant UI redesign since Windows 95, and it flopped. Oddly, two of the most beloved Windows versions ever, Windows 7 and Windows XP, were also released in the same week, several years apart.
The most significant Windows change since Windows 95
Windows 95 had borrowed elements from pretty much every other graphical user interface in existence, and Microsoft put their own spin on the overall user experience. Microsoft iterated on it over the next 15 years, adding functionality as new computers became powerful enough to support them, and someone who had grown up using Windows 95 could use Windows 7 without feeling lost. But Windows 7 was more comfortable to use.
The Windows 8 UI was a complete change from that, replacing nearly all of the user elements with tablet-like elements copied from Apple iOS and Android. I called it a desperation move at the time. Microsoft Fanboys defended it, but virtually everyone else hated it. It wasn’t any easier to use. If anything, it was more difficult to use because elements had moved around after being in essentially the same place for 17 years.
And the tiles were so much bigger than traditional icons that it wasted a lot of screen real estate. The icons are bigger on a tablet because you don’t use a mouse. Some Windows 8 computers came with touch screens, but not all of them, and if you installed it on your existing computer, you probably didn’t have a touch screen. With a mouse, it was just big and clumsy, and setting up things that used to be straightforward became difficult. Printers come to mind as the element that became the most unnecessarily difficult.
It’s like Microsoft was jealous of the iPad’s success and copied it, without considering the reasons behind its design decisions.
The other problem with Windows 8
Arguably, Windows 8 was just fine on tablets. Well, except that Microsoft priced it too high. But Windows’ appeal is the existence of thousands, if not millions, of existing applications. And there was only so much Microsoft could do to adapt those existing apps to the Metro interface. So the overall effect could be jarring, going from a tablet-like interface to running an app from the 90s intended for a mouse. It felt like the Wizard of Oz but without the novelty.
I got dragged for saying I wouldn’t be buying it right away. But it turned out I was right.
Moving on from Windows 8
Microsoft quickly replaced it with Windows 8.1, which dialed back some of the changes to make it a bit more mouse friendly again. But it wasn’t really until Windows 10 that Microsoft came up with a usable compromise.
Windows 8’s most enduring accomplishment was solidifying Windows 7 as one of the most popular Windows versions of all time. Very few people upgraded to Windows 8 after the initial early adopter phase, and businesses generally avoided it. The only significant adoption came from pre-built PCS that were preloaded with it.
Windows 10 took the Metro interface and dialed it back to something something much more usable with a traditional keyboard and mouse. If you used Windows 7 for a decade, Windows 10 may still feel a bit awkward, but at least it’s usable.
One of the most avoided Windows versions of all time
Microsoft has been running an on and off and on again streak with its operating systems since Windows ME. Windows 98SE and 2000 had been good. Windows ME was bad. Windows XP was good. Windows 7 was the rebound from Windows Vista, and Windows 8 was so bad, I actually ran Vista over Windows 8 for a while when I was short on licenses, and I wasn’t the only one. I’m not sure anyone likes Windows 10 as much as they liked Windows 7 necessarily. I recommended waiting to upgrade from 7 to 10 and I don’t think anyone argued with me. But Windows 10 is much more popular than Windows 11. As far as some people are concerned, Windows 7 was the last great version of Windows. Windows 8 solidified that.
I’m not sure very many people will wonder in the future why people avoided Windows 8 the way they avoided DOS 4.0. From a stability and compatibility standpoint, there was nothing really wrong with Windows 8. It almost all came down to usability issues. You could load an alternative shell like Open Shell on it to make it behave a lot more like Windows 7. But in my experience, more people just switched back to Windows 7 until it went end of life and they had to switch to Windows 10.
What is it about October?
For whatever reason, Microsoft releases a lot of new operating system versions in October. Two of its best, including Windows 7 and Windows XP, were in October. But two of its worst, DOS 4 and Windows 8, were also in October.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.
other than the Windows 8 UI were there any under the cover upgrade over 7
classic shells replacing the 8 UI
It’s an even more optimized Windows 7, but with a disastrous interface that tries to be something it couldn’t be.
Ignoring the Metro and the lack of a Start Menu, it was a great and stable system, almost like W7 SP2. I remember that at the beginning of W10, the performance difference between it and W8 was quite considerable. On 2/2 processors from the last decade, W8 didn’t feel any weight compared to its successor.
It’s a shame that M$ ruined the system by trying to be an Android.