Posted on March 6th, 2012 by Darien Graham-Smith

Windows 8: what benefits for business?

Microsoft COO Kevin Turner opened this year’s CeBIT expo in Hannover with a hotly anticipated keynote address. Expectations were high, as Microsoft’s press office had trailed the presentation as “a demonstration of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, focusing on features that benefit business” – a crucial aspect of the new operating system that so far has received little attention.

A touch too much?

In the event, the actual demonstration was given by senior director Erwin Visser (pictured above). Visser was welcomed on to the stage with applause; but it quickly became apparent that he was there to provide only a general overview of Windows 8, much like that given by Steven Sinofsky at the unveiling of the Consumer Preview last week. The phrase “touch-first” cropped up several times: this is nothing new, but the repeated emphasis is a worrying sign for anyone who relies on mouse-driven applications and regular desktop or laptop hardware.

The phrase “touch-first” cropped up several times: this is nothing new, but the repeated emphasis is a worrying sign

Indeed, it was conspicuous that when Visser did offer an example of how Windows 8’s new interface could increase productivity, he dodged traditional working models altogether. “Imagine I’m a sales person,” he began, “and I spend most of my time using my tablet as a mobile device…” Granted, such people do exist, but the scenario hardly represents “business” in the general sense.

Windows To Go

The most business-relevant section of the presentation was a demonstration of Windows To Go. This feature, which enables Windows 8 to run directly from a removable USB device, could be genuinely useful for mobile or hotdesking teams. Visser demonstrated a secure Windows 8 system – password encrypted with BitLocker – booting in under 20 seconds from a USB flash drive.

It was also shown that the disk could be disconnected for up to 60 seconds without causing the system to crash. “If you don’t put it back,” explained Visser “the system will shut down, leaving no footprint on this device.” This is all good stuff – but it was already shown off at the Build conference last September. The repetition here merely seemed to underline how little Microsoft really has to say on the subject of Windows 8 for business.

Visser then handed back to Kevin Turner (above left), who concluded triumphantly that “Windows 8 is unlike anything we’ve ever done before. The unified experience has never existed before.” We’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions about those claims.

What Windows 8 really means for business

Windows 8 won’t be a disaster for business. All the sophistications to which IT managers have become accustomed – Active Directory, group policies and so forth – will still be there, at least on x86. (As Jon Honeyball recently noted, ARM tablets and laptops, should such things come to pass, won’t support the full range of manageability features.) As Erwin Visser assured delegates unequivocally, “Windows 8 will fit right in with your Windows 7 infrastructure, side by side.”

The question is what the new OS brings that’s new or better than what we already have. This was the question we were led to expect would be answered today. The half-heartedness of the answer suggests that, ominously for Windows 8, Microsoft doesn’t have an enterprise-friendly ace up its sleeve.

Tags: CeBIT, Microsoft, Windows 8

Posted in: Windows 8

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17 Responses to “ Windows 8: what benefits for business? ”

Malcolm McCaffery Says:
March 6th, 2012 at 12:02 pm
It’s funny MS is so bad at communicating the business benefits of Windows 8. Because there are many; all the press/talk about metro & touch had sideswiped the many less cool but more practical features for business.
Miles Davis Says:
March 6th, 2012 at 12:34 pm
Malcom McCaffery,

Which are????

(That wasn’t meant to come out that sarcastically )
WP7 Says:
March 6th, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Miles, here are a few -

1. Windows-to-Go, which has already been explained.

2. Storage space pools – this is a really neat way for adding any storage devices you want, any type, any speed, and Win 8 can see all these as a single storage space, so you don’t have to worry about drive letters etc.

3. Mobile device security – this was touched upon in the demo.

4. Seemless data sync between devices – basically this is the integrated cloud storage and syncing. Businesses could make very efficient use of this, especially for workers who operate between offices or from home.

5. Ideal for new upcoming hybrid devices like the Lenovo Yoga. These new devices blur the line between tablets and laptops, because they are both! Win 8 fits perfectly with such devices.
eke Says:
March 6th, 2012 at 1:38 pm
@WP7

Storage spaces is for the new server edition of which there are many excellent features. This topic is focused on the new client OS, not server OS.
WP7 Says:
March 6th, 2012 at 2:00 pm
@eke

I was under the impression that Win 8 client also had this capability. I guess not, or perhaps it will have in the final version.
WP7 Says:
March 6th, 2012 at 2:44 pm
I just checked on my Win 8 client, and Storage Spaces are indeed present!!! Therefore I stand by my list of 5 items posted above.

Storage spaces will be a big deal for business or home users running multiple drives.
Stephen Woolhead Says:
March 6th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
Storage Spaces is alive and well in the client OS, I’m using it right now.
Dick Memory Says:
March 6th, 2012 at 2:50 pm
Having had a quick go with the “Consumer Preview” I can be 100% confident that the only reason we would use this in our business is for external salespeople on the road. Running on a desktop it’s ugly, clunky and just wrong.
David Says:
March 6th, 2012 at 3:39 pm
I’ve been playing with both the client and server versions, and reading up in the various white papers. The server version does look to have a number of worthwhile new features – particularly around virtualisation – but I can see none at all in the client version. Why would I want to use this over Windows 7, and why would the users who I support? I can’t yet see any real improvements over Windows 7, and the Metro interface is clunky and disjoined on a desktop computer.
WP7 Says:
March 6th, 2012 at 3:41 pm
@Dick Memory

You need more than a quick go. I agree that much more work needs to be done by Microsoft to get this new UI working well with the desktop, but it is a preview afterall.

However, it’s very simple to configure this so that it all works great on a desktop with a mouse. I know, because I have done so myself and I’m a developer. It’s even possible to boot to straight to desktop. But a quick go is not enough, because in order to make the most of the preview you need to spend a few days learning the details. Only then does it start to show it’s true potential. And I deliberately use the word “potenatial”, since this is just a consumer preview.
AndrewB Says:
March 7th, 2012 at 9:20 am
I keep hearing people say that you can ‘boot to desktop’. So, do I need to create a 2nd set of shortcuts to all my apps? I installed Office 2010 (I need Outlook), no shortcuts, none of the jazzy W7 jumplists. To launch Outlook I need to go to Metro, then launching outlook sends me back to desktop – so disjointed.
Even worse – after installing Office, I have a load of never used shortcuts in metro.
I’d like to be able to turn off metro for a desktop PC – it just doesn’t work well.
Seems a shame, as there are so many great things about W8, but metro is for touch, not PC. It’s no point saying you can have 2 monitors, one with metro – I have 2 monitors as I need 2 to work on! What next – 3 monitors?
David Wright Says:
March 7th, 2012 at 10:13 am
AFAIK, you can still pin them on the taskbar. Right clicking on my German version certainly gave that impression.

I agree, that Metro apps don’t work well on the desktop, but I do like the Metro Start Screen.
John Myatt Says:
March 8th, 2012 at 7:56 am
This is first and foremost an iPad like OS. For those using a pad, this will be the OS (at least from MS), for desk top users (business or Home) then the Metro is deadful. As has been mentioned all the parts (not just the main interface) appear on the Metro, so Acronis
True Image place several items, not installed Office, but that will place at least every component onto the Metro. Add a few more of the programs I will need and the Metro will become so cluttered I will never find anything.

To make this usuable for a “desktop” as against a pad, it needs to default to the normal interface on a full desktop machine.

I have not got round to in depth and multi HDD, to test the features which would be an advantage, mentioned earlier (and yes I can see how these would be advantageous) but it needs to be ussuable for those who need more than Internet and Mail to be worthwhile. The difficulties with the Metro interface on the desktop will (in many cases) out weigh those from the Storage pool. The USB Windows to go has one flaw, if you put down your laptop, size increases the chance of finding it, a USB stick, well I would not want it out of a secure environment due to the ease of loss. It may be encryped and only worth a USB memory stick to the finder, but will Microsoft pick up the new OS required without charge/indefinitely? Yes I memory stick is easier to replace than a laptop, but then this does not reduce the chance of laptop loss.

On use with a pad, I do not see iPad users transfering, those with an andriod pad will negate their guarantee/support, so I see the pad market as being for OEM’s only and in truth much of the rest will also be OEM (ARM will be the same as Pads).

To summarise, I see this as mainly a Pad and OEM OS, with little for up graders, unless Microsoft allow an easy desktop default back to a standard graphic interface.
Lunatic Fringe Says:
March 8th, 2012 at 10:17 am
This should be simple but clearly not for an over-payed microsoft team member.

1. Metro is a function it should be simple to turn it on or off.

2. The start menu, so loudly touted in Windows 7 as having been highly researched and optimsed, is not dead, it IS needed and should be available as a function, with an on and off setting.

3. Failure to accept the above is letting Microsoft entirely miss the opportunity to create a blended set off controls and options which allow for definition of touch-screen-areas on screens by the user, with our own chosen functionality activated within these areas.

4. Combined storage space options on a business client computer…hardly. That’s the last thing an IT department want a user tinkering around with.

They are missing creative opportunity simply by letting the idiot at the top tell them to major on touch interactivity.

Touch first = “Cant see the pixel for the pinky!”
Rob Says:
March 8th, 2012 at 11:48 am
What is wrong with XP or even W7. The world understands XP and latterly W7 so why change. MS attempting to make more money out of the rest of the world as usual.
Paul C Says:
March 8th, 2012 at 7:36 pm
Some of the previous postings seem to be by people who have not tried Windows 8 Consumer Preview or have not played with it much.

The All Apps screen (accessible by right-click from the Start screen) lists ALL installed app (equivalent to the multiple Apps screens on an Android device).

The Start screen is more like the Home screen on an Android device, showing only the apps that the user wants to see. Those not of interest can be eliminated easily via one of the right-click commands.

Unlike Android there is also the Desktop. Right-click on an app on the Start screen or the All Apps screen, and you can pin it to the desktop or unpin it.

Most people, me included, rate one of the advantages of Windows 7 over XP as the much better taskbar to which apps can be pinned so that accesses to the old Start menu are in practice few.

I have found that it is actually easier to find an app by flipping from Desktop to Start screen (where the mouse wheel works wonders scrolling the tiles laterally) than to fiddle around going through all the folders and sub-folders in the Start menu.

I am sold on the Start screen, despite having hated it in Windows 8 Developer Preview. I think it is a winner. However the same sort of thing is now on Xboxes and feedback from my sons and their friends is that this change has ruined the Xbox interface given that it does not support either touch or a mouse. They think it is a conspiracy to sell Kinect.

I consider the Start screen and the Metro apps as separate issues. The Start screen, I can happily live with. The Metro apps I have seen so far are useless to me.

For every Metro app that has a corresponding Desktop app (eg the Mail, Calendar and People apps, which correspond to Windows Live Mail), the Desktop apps win hands down.

This is because the Desktop apps are far better featured, they support drag-and-drop, windows can be resized and placed side by side, and so on. The Metro Mail app by comparison is miserable, with a fixed layout rather than columns whose widths can be changed, and ridiculous waste of space by oversized everything (so that stubby fingers can drive it).

However, on a tablet, people’s sights are lowered, or they have different aims. To see any capable app on a tablet is considered a miracle. The same app on a Desktop would be seen as unacceptably mediocre.

Suffice it to say that, as a laptop user, I have no use for the Metro apps I have seen so far, they are all trumped overwhelmingly by Desktop apps, and I think there are structural reasons why that will not change. But the Start screen is fine.

As for WOA (Windows on Arm), as far as I am concerned, it is hardly Windows at all. This leads me to the conclusion that the ‘integration’ of the desktop and the tablet is really not working, but we are sort of led to believe it is by all the hype and by the quirky attempt to integrate them in Windows 8.

But we know deep down that we don’t really believe it because something about it just does not ring true. Perhaps this will all be resolved by Windows 9.

Meanwhile the lack of substantive integration (eg bookmarks are not even shared between Desktop IE 10 and Metro IE 10) does not matter in terms of tablet sales.

What will matter there is the development of the Metro apps market. If it grows, the tablets will sell, and I expect the tablets and phones will provide pull-through for each other.

Is Windows 8 an improvement on Windows 7? On the whole, I don’t think it is a step backwards, once you get used to the changes. And if devices come to market that combine the capabilities of tablets and laptops, perhaps people will be more accepting of the ‘integration’.

Microsoft said they expect all devices will have touch screens in the future. I have at times tried to select things on my laptop screen by tapping, forgetting that it is not a tablet. But we will have to see how the market develops, and the issue of arm strain from reaching up to tap a laptop screen will not go away.

I pity ARM and its associates, because they are not going to benefit in the way they thought they might. I wonder how many people will want a WOA tablet with no desktop mode (apart from the built-in Office apps and Explorer). If the price difference is bearable, I can imagine most people opting for X86 every time, to get the real desktop.
That Guy Says:
March 22nd, 2012 at 3:40 pm
Windows 7 was great although most of the best features were never marketed — just fluff was; I hope the same goes for Windows 8.

The metro interface is great for tablets, but horrid and clunky for laptops and desktops.

To cap it off there are almost no features that are new to windows 8 that are worthwhile. Desktop Virtualization, BitLocker, Smartscreen ARS, UEFI BIOS, VPro etc. is all built into window 7 so this is not new to windows 8.

Cloud storage and integrating social networking type stuff is stupid fluff that honestly only teenagers want and grow out of — this is definitely not worth money to upgrade.

I would rather use ubuntu linux including getting all new apps to do my work etc. than use windows 8 and I bought many copies of windows 7.. Microsoft you failed.

Sad when you think about it.. there are so many ways they could have improved the os and didn’t. For a bit of fun watch the video on my dad using windows 8.