My initial thoughts:

It’s different. There is a button called ‘desktop, but it isn’t a Windows desktop. It is a screen view called desktop.

Some of the ‘apps’ are interesting. I actually like the look of them.:

The weather app opens up full screen and gives lots of information. That’s the good part. The weather app opens up full screen and gives lots of information but you can’t see anything else. No links, no taskbar, just wall to wall weather.

The maps ‘app’ opens up full screen and gives lots of information. That’s the good part. The maps ‘app’ opens up full screen and gives lots of information but you can’t see anything else. No links, no taskbar, just wall to wall map.

The calendar ‘app’ opens up full screen and gives lots of information. That’s the good part. The calendar ‘app’ opens up full screen and gives lots of information but you can’t see anything else. No links, no taskbar, just wall to wall map.

All of the ‘apps’ work in the same way as the above. Great for a thumb operated small handheld screen maybe, but totally useless for a desktop user and a complete waste of a large desktop monitor. I tried in vain to get more than one ‘app’ on the screen but could find no way.

There is a facility to call up ALL ‘apps’. Fortunately, I only had Windows 8 and its default stuff installed or I would have been scrolling through ALL ‘apps’ for a good 20 minutes. As it was, I found WordPad easily. Double click on WordPad and where does it take you? WordPad in a faux Windows desktop! Aha, so that is why there is still a part called ‘desktop.

So, to get close to how works on a real desktop, I have to look for everything I want to run that is NOT a Metro app, ensure that everything appears in the ‘faux desktop’ taskbar and hope that I don’t have to revisit the Metro desktop any time soon. Presently, I have quick access to everything I need to do or see over the course of a few hours. Way to go Windows 7.

Did I forget to tell you that I had rebooted to a usable desktop OS? How careless of me..

I want my 2 hours back, please.. the 2 hours I spent messing with an OS which will NEVER be a desktop OS unless some major back-tracking is done. I read somewhere that the Enterprise version was going to have the facility of a proper desktop. If I ever find out that what I read is true, the drives in this computer could well be turned over to a format that Windows does NOT recognise. 

I am not asking for the XP desktop, or even the Vista or Windows 7 desktop, but please give me a desktop which is usable and commensurate with the way I and millions of other desktop computer users work..

Windows 8 so far? a FAIL..