I've been trying to use Windows 8 for some time now. At one point, I got all excited and thought that it would be possible to ditch my Android phone, iPad and Windows laptop and replace all of them with a single Windows 8 tablet PC. What went wrong and what's been fixed?

My early criticisms are perhaps a touch harsh as they were based upon early code and not the finished release. Nonetheless, my initial problem of having core programs, which I need to use for work, not being compatible with Windows 8 still exists. Another problem was that the useful apps I was planning to use - e.g. note-taking apps which I would usually use the iPad for - weren't available in the nascent Windows App store.

A more-major gripe was the onscreen keyboard on the tablet PC which kept covering up text boxes or appearing and vanishing at the wrong times. Compared with the iPad (and Android tablets) it seemed almost-impractically too large and implemented badly. So my forced two week trial ended in frustration after a couple of days.

What really did it for me, however, was not being able to find things or be able to easily switch between programs. The OS worked well when it was only a tablet (except for the keyboard) but switching between programs that were touch-oriented (and launched from the new Start screen) and those based upon traditional-desktop usage (especially with keyboard and mouse) was a massive pain. I'd had it explained to me what long and short swiping did on different parts of the screen, but I'd forgotten most of it and all too-often ended up cycling through the wrong apps. I'll deal more with the intuitive nature of the OS below. I suspect my problems were worse than most because I am a massive multitasker who switches between a variety of programs and apps as a matter of course. I'm sure I'll get used to things, but the process for switching isn't as simple or straightforward as it used to be and that has proved incredibly annoying and frustrating - two enemies of productivity. Ultimately, however, I found that Windows 8 could be good as a desktop Operating System or good as a tablet Operating System but the bit where they met in the middle could be calamitous.

Another compatibility issue reared its head during the upgrade: I'd backed up my PC with Acronis True Image - no problem there. However, on a PC that is packed full of programs, the only one that needed to be uninstalled before the upgrade could occur was Acronis. That's not cool for such fundamental application, especially as I'd had to download a sizeable program update right before I used it. Windows 8 has been available for developers for a long time now.

Speed

Early reports are that Windows 8 has made computers faster in general - which it should have thanks to all kinds of unnecessary background processes being culled in a bid to make the touch-friendly menu system totally responsive and lag free. I think it's fair to say that's been a success. I'd tell you exactly how much faster my main PC is (Core i7 processor, Intel Sold State Hard disk, big graphics card) but unfortunately, PCMark is one of those programs which doesn't work with Windows 8 yet.

Can't buy Windows

Another issue is the fact that the Full Retail version of Windows 8 is not available to buy in Australia (kind of ish - more on this here). This may be a strategy designed to get people buying a full new PC/laptop/tablet (with touch screen) instead of building their own. That's fair enough in a market where PC and laptop sales are declining in favour of tablets, but losing this chunk of the enthusiast/early adopter market - or at least not working with them - means that some of the most influential consumer customers that Microsoft has (whether it's on web forums, social media or generally acting as family and friends' tech support) have been left out in the cold somewhat .

Only time will tell whether the upgraded version will be stable and fast. For all previous versions of Windows, it's been generally acknowledged that it's always worth doing a "clean install" of a new OS (where possible) in order to cut down on conflicting old files and the "bloat" that comes from them. I was concerned by this as my main drive is a 250GB SSD (232GB usable) and keeping free space on it is a challenge. As such, the 180GB of data that that was in use is now up to 217GB. However, there is a 34GB folder called Windows.old in the root directory which appears to be easily moveable. That's an impressive upgrade - the bloat is all in one easily-located place and removing it means the overall size of the data on disk is pretty-much exactly the same size as it was before the upgrade.

It should also be noted that the ugrade process was noticeably simpler than any previous version of the Windows. Even a novice should understand it.

Business

But the real problem I forsee with Windows 8 is for business. Initially, it was hoped that Windows 8 was fundamentally Windows 7 with a nice, tile-based, touch-friendly layer on top that could be switched to easily. However, it isn't. Enough has changed under the bonnet to mean that not all programs will work correctly on Windows 8. Also, that drivers (the software programs which tell the Operating System how to use all of the components and chips on the actual computer hardware) work differently too.

Immediately this means that no large company can substitute their Windows 7 roll out for Windows 8 without massive testing - the sort that takes months-to-years. People who don't work in corporates are often surprised to hear that the likes of CommBank (the cutting edge tech bank) and the ABC still have Standard Operating Environments (that's the official term) which are based upon Windows XP. When I say based upon, that's because XP will have been tweaked extensively to essentially become a proprietary OS which bears little resemblance to a bog-standard XP installation. The reason for this is because the standard updates and patches that Microsoft releases can easily break or conflict with the software that a company has itself installed. As such big corporates don't release updates too often - they usually do so in large lump once everything has been extensively tested. The same goes for security updates.

Anyhow, many large companies will be in a phase of transferring from Windows XP to Windows 7 right now - not least because Microsoft has told everyone that they really are going to stop supporting XP for good soon. They've done this before, but the entrenched corporate base (a core Microsoft market) unilaterally rebelled because of what was deemed an unnecessary, expensive and tremendously-complicated process. So going on history and experience, corporates are unlikely to move from Windows 7 until years down the line - perhaps even when Windows 9 comes out. In this regard, could Windows 9 be what people are going to wait for? Will it be like waiting for Windows 7 to fix all of the problems that the heinous Windows Vista brought with it?

The cost of teaching

But I think the biggest challenge to corporates (and to Microsoft) is teaching new users how to use the new OS. If it was just like Windows 7 in desktop mode then this wouldn't be an issue. But because there is no Start Button, it's massive. I asked Microsoft about this challenge at the launch and got a rambling non-answer which revolved around the word, "intuitive." I couldn't disagree more.

I finally installed Windows 8 Pro on my main PC at the weekend. I had been very wary of installing a non-finished product after being horribly burned by Vista which never ever worked properly. Nonetheless most things went well.

Yet there I was wanting to launch a program that normally resided in a Start menu and I couldn't work out how to find it. This was normally a three click process and required minimal movement of the mouse: you'd go Start Button > Programs > Desired Program. With Windows 8 it's move the mouse to the corner, wait for the new Start menu button to appear, launch the new tile-based Start screen, drag/scroll all the way to the right to find all of the programs and then click on the desired one. On what planet is that better? Or intuitive? If you didn't know they were there in the first place, you wouldn't find them unless by accident.

This sort of thing has been a bug bear for a while with Microsoft. In Office 2007, to start a new document, I used to have to click on the Office Start Button, then New Document. With Office 2010 and 2013 I need to click on File > scroll down to "New" > Scroll back up to select what type of New Document I wanted to make and then click on it.

It's difficult to convey how annoying it can be to have to spend a full second(!) or five doing something that used to be a reflexive action to anyone who doesn't already know about such things. Suffice to say that adding any annoying new elements to the process, for no obvious benefit, can disrupt a train of thought and introduce annoyance (even in performing a menial task) where there was none before.

I shouldn't grumble so much in those regards as at least the commands were generally in the same place, intuitive to use and generally easy to find. And that brings me on to the missing Start Button.

How is it intuitive if it's invisible?

If you wanted to click on My Computer, it was in the old Start Menu which appeared above the Button which isn't there now. Now you have to move the mouse all over the place just to access one of the most basic screens on the PC. Similar can be said for accessing the Control Panel. But the one that really got me annoyed was simply trying to turn the computer off. I simply couldn't find the link. It used to be Start > Shutdown. Now it's wave your mouse around at the bottom right of the screen until the Charms menu appears. Then click on the Settings button. Then click on the Power button and there you go. It's great once you know it's there but if you don't...

One of my traditional functions with computers has been to explain to people, who don't know very much about them, how to use them. If they have little computer knowledge then getting them to confidently click on something that is self-explanatory and right in front of them is still a challenge. I'd say that this is normal for the majority of people who are not confident with computers. Therefore, the notion that finding ultra-basic PC functions (that we've been used to for almost 20 years) which are hidden under an unrelated setting in an invisible menu, might somehow be intuitive is nothing short of ridiculous.

As such any business that wants to roll out Windows 8 needs to factor in retraining its entire staff and providing extended support for some considerable time afterwards. The cost of that is enormous, both in terms of raw outlay and having employees taking time away their usual tasks in order to learn.

For my part, I actually got grumpy with Windows and point blank refused to Google "how to shut Windows 8 down." I gave myself a time limit to find the button before going all Basil Fawlty. But I couldn't do it and instead installed the hack that fixes Windows 8 and makes it usable - a free, 8MB download called Classic Shell which gives Windows 8 the Start Button that it should always have had.

It will be interesting to see how many people agree with me on this. If Windows 8 take up is large then Microsoft can rightly point to me and say I'm a Moaning Minnie. If there's a backlash or take-up is slow perhaps we'll see it introduced in Service Pack 1 (a common starting point for many new Operating System aficionados) or possibly even Windows 9.

Overall, my hope had been that I (and everyone else) could do what I'd seen the Microsoft demonstrators do months before the launch; that is using a tablet as their main PC by putting it in a dock (connected to a monitor, keyboard, mouse and wired network connection) and being able to pick it up and slip it in a bag to go out of the office. How good would that be?

Unfortunately, we're not quite there yet. Hopefully, as new and amazing devices appear, whether they be new phones, tablets or touch-screen desktops, demand will grow and IT departments will see the benefits of users carrying their main PC wherever they go along with being able to use them for the new, productivity-enhancing, touch-oriented, multiple work and communication benefits that they are optimized to provide.