Most of the Windows 8 adopters chose the desktop because it's more familiar.
In addition to reporting that Microsoft sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in a month, Tami Reller, Microsoft's chief marketing officer and chief financial officer for Windows Division, said that 85-percent of the new Windows 8 users chose to use the familiar desktop on the first day rather than depend on the Modern UI overlay. But she also added that most of these users have discovered the advantages of using the new interface over the course of three weeks.
According to Computerworld, her statistics derive through remote telemetry. Microsoft has reportedly logged over 1.5 billion impressions of Windows 8 customers deploying the new Start screen. She said that not only has it become home base for most users, but they're personalizing it, adding an average of 19 additional tiles to the set that already comes installed on the new UI system.
"When people experience Windows 8, they do find it is easy to get started and fun to learn," she said on Tuesday at the Credit Suisse Annual Technology Conference, in Scottsdale, Arizona. "We know from the data we're getting in that customers do indeed get the product."
Other statistics include the use of Charms, as 90-percent of the Windows 8 customers use these two or three times a session to find, search, explore and share. The number of Windows Store apps has also reportedly doubled since the platform launched in October, and several of those apps have even been downloaded more than a million times. She said 25-percent of the new Windows 8 users have actually added 30 new live tiles.
Reller also cautioned skeptics that Windows 8 can't be compared to Windows 7 in regards to the adoption rate. She said the older OS wasn't addressing a major change in the underlying hardware platform – meaning Windows 7 didn't have to deal with the tablet form factor. Thus Windows 8 is taking on a bigger role by embracing not only the typical x86-based platform, but the touchy tablet form factor as well.
"This has been the biggest project since Windows 95," she said.
And they found it if they were in the Desktop. And when they clicked it, it took them to the new UI Start Menu.
Even the tile layout won't act right. The way it organizes automatically is annoying. The first few tile are always 2 wide, at 9 instead of going to a 3X3 mode, it goes to a 2X4 +1 to the right mode. Adding a 10th makes it 2X4 +2 to the right on the first line, when I'd rather have it go to the second line. It's rather stupid.
Overall, I like the Win 8 interface, but there are still some problems with it. I'd put it on par with Win 7 for stability, usability, and performance, but Win 8 has better security. So, I'll stick with Win 8 for my main machine and my laptop. My HTPC is still Win 7 because it's easier with a touchpad. Win 8 with a touchpad and no touchscreen is terrible.
For the average user who uses their PC for checking emails and updating their facebook page its fine even without touch.
Get over it. Every website you go to 'phones home' (your ISP tracks you at the very least) and every OS has done the same for years.
I don't about you guys but this just really creeps me out.
Those who stop using their brain and just let their arm move and click like it used to do to reach the start button before the upgrade will find out that they do in fact reach the start screen with this very same movement (only if you use a mouse, not a touchscreen). In fact, Windows hasn't changed that much once you understand that It's barely a Windows 7 with a start screen instead of the start button. The other changes are the cherry on the cake (task manager, file copy,...) and if (like me), you don't like the "modern" full screen apps so much, you just don't use them until they are improved.
"When people experience Windows 8, they do find it is easy to get started and fun to learn," along with a nice wave of the hand lol like the jedi
or "We know from the data we're getting in that customers do indeed get the product." or that one
Seriously it would look like one of them bathroom floors with the tiny old school tiles ^.^
Resulting in me slowing to a crawl because I would spend more time lookin for $hit than working....
“Windows 7 didn't have to deal with the tablet form factor” This is pretty funny considering how many touch features were baked into that OS. Features that have now mysteriously been removed from this new one. Also, this is selective memory. Microsoft has been developing for tablets for about a decade. They just had the totally wrong approach until now.