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Windows 8: Worth the Upgrade? [Journal of Property Management](Journal of Property Management Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) I've had a chance to play with the pre-release and official copies of Windows 8, and while I appreciate the amount of work it must have taken to engineer this newest version of Windows, I do not intend to upgrade any of my machines. Where to Start Ideally, an updated operating system interface should enhance what you already know. After years of training users to go to the "start menu" to find our programs, Windows 8 has eliminated it. Fear not- there is a $4.99 app for that, which reminds me of the less-efficient Microsoft Office Ribbon that ate our menus (but fortunately not the shortcut keys). Power, Power user You may have seen my office setup before and know that not only do I run more than two apps, I run more than four computers spread across nine monitors- something that Windows 7 made a joy and Windows 8 makes unnecessarily difficult. Getting Work Done Most of my work involves reading, processing, analyzing or incorporating clients' or third-party generated documents into new documents. I often run Adobe Acrobat (clients' documents) side by side with Excel, Word, Publisher, Outlook (for scheduling), Internet Explorer, Evernote and many other programs. I often have half a dozen apps running at the same time while I do research, crunch numbers and write content. In order to get Windows 8 to function efficiently, it requires me to select "Desktop mode," which is a couple of clicks or swipes to locate. Essentially, Microsoft has just added another layer between me and my work in order to reach the function I need. Added Confusion Without a doubt, Window 8 will be much more confusing for new computer users especially since the Windows 8 Phone is a different operating system than Windows 8 RT, which runs on the recently released and uber-cool Microsoft Surface- neither of which runs legacy applications like Windows 8 Pro. As a side note, Microsoft Surface will run Windows 8 Pro sometime in 2013. This added confusion, however, reminds me of the six different versions of Windows Vista that Microsoft released and the public's inability to tell them apart. Hands off! After spending a lifetime of telling my kids not to touch the monitors or big screen TVs, now Windows 8 encourages this. Not only do I not want to take my hands off my desk to touch, I don't really want to look at finger prints or smudges all day long. I have a touch-screen, all-inone computer that runs Windows 8, but its monitor looks like it was attacked by a finger-painting kindergartener! Bloal The Windows 8 devices are starting to ship with less hard drive space. So, a 64 gig to 128 gig drive is common. Since 23 years of business data and paperless office takes up almost 100 gigs, that doesn't leave enough space to work. In fact, the Windows 8 operating system takes up twice as much space as Windows 7. Bottom line is: Windows 8 is not worth the upgrade. By Todd Qarke, CCIM TODD CLARKE, CCIM, OECLARK@ NMAPARTMENT. COM) IS CEO OF NM APARTMENT ADVISORS IN ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (c) 2013 Institute of Real Estate Management |