Windows 8′s bigger, broader problem - San Jose Mercury News

In my regular Tech Files column today, I reviewed Windows 8, focusing almost exclusively on its new interface.

In my column, I explain some of the particular reasons why, as a user of a traditional PC,  I “hate” the interface, which was formerly called “Metro.” But there’s a broader reason that I don’t discuss in the column for disliking the new interface: Metro in Windows 8 is ignorant of its context and unsympathetic to the needs or desires of its users.

Let me explain. Microsoft originally developed Metro to work with full-screen touchscreen devices, specifically smartphones. As such, it was designed to be touched, swiped and pinched with fingers directly on a screen. As a touch-centric interface, it has a lot of potential for use on tablet computers that might compete with Apple’s iPad.

But most traditional PCs today are not touch-screen devices. Instead, we still navigate them with keyboards and mice. And even with those relatively few computers that do have touchscreens, the touchscreen is a secondary interface for most users; the primary way users interact with such computers is with keyboards and touchpads.

We already have an interface that was designed to be used with keyboards and pointing devices: the good, old reliable desktop that has been at the heart of Windows for the last 30 years.

Yes, Windows 8 (but not Windows RT) has a desktop interface. But it’s not the primary one. At boot up, everyone has to go to the Metro start page. If users want to see all their applications, they have to go back to the Metro start page. Instead of a start button, you get an icon that takes you back to the Metro start page. And Metro is clearly where Microsoft wants all users to live in the future.

Unfortunately for PC users, Microsoft didn’t design Windows 8 to recognize the context in which it is being used. It would be great if users saw Metro when they used a true touch-first device, like a tablet. It would also be great if traditional PC users only saw the desktop interface.

It would also be great if Windows 8 recognized devices that could switch between those two modes and would switch its interface accordingly.  So, if you have your hybrid PC set up like a laptop, you get Windows desktop. If you fold back or detach the screen so the device is acting more like a tablet, you see Metro.

But that’s not how Windows 8 works. Instead, it shoves Metro at you regardless of whether Metro is appropriate for the device you are using or how you are using it.

Worse, Windows 8 completely ignores users’ preferences. Many current PC users would likely prefer to just work in desktop mode and ignore Metro completely. All their existing applications are desktop applications, and traditional productivity applications are much more suited to a desktop environment.

But Microsoft won’t allow it. There’s no way for the average user running the stock version of Windows 8 to turn off Metro. In fact, the company has reportedly gone so far as to try to thwart efforts to hack Windows 8 so that it will go straight to the desktop interface. Not that people have stopped trying.

So from my perspective, that’s the bigger, broader problem with Metro: Windows 8 ignores what device you are running it on and doesn’t care how you prefer to interact with it. With Windows 8, you’ve got to take Metro, even if it isn’t where you want to go or the best way to get where you’re going.