Windows 8 and Boot Camp

ByMike Moffit

I recently had the opportunity to install Windows 8 on my iMac, and while I have never been a fan of the Windows operating system, I had heard some good things about Windows 8, so I decided to give it a try.

I wanted to install via Boot Camp, as I do not own any virtual machine software, and personally don’t see a reason that I need it. I have no issues restarting my computer in order to switch operating systems.

Upon opening up Boot Camp Assistant, I remembered that Windows 8 is not officially supported by it yet, and questioned my ability to install it. After some digging around on the web, I found out that it will install just fine, regardless of what Boot Camp Assistant says. I followed through with the install, just like any other Boot Camp setup. I downloaded the Windows software support to an available thumb drive.

The install went very smoothly, and actually didn’t seem to take as long as past versions of Windows. After it finished, I installed the support software, and was good to go. I didn’t really have anything specific I needed to do in Windows, I simply wanted to try it out. Under general use, I didn’t encounter any major issues, considering it’s not even officially supported by Apple/Boot Camp.

The issues I encountered were fairly minor. When adjusting the volume from an Apple keyboard, Windows responds correctly, but there is no volume level indicator overlay like you would normally see. This is also the case when adjusting the brightness from the keyboard. In my research, I did notice that some users needed to download certain drivers from the hardware manufacturer’s website and install manually, but this was not the case for me. All drivers were installed and working correctly.

Like I said, I’ve never been much of a Windows user, I simply had the opportunity to install and try out Windows 8. I think Microsoft is headed in the right direction with their GUI, but they still have a ways to go.

To me, Windows 8 is reminiscent of the last time I used Windows, which was XP on my family’s computer, but with some randomly added features and frills (that don’t seem to have been implemented very well). As an example, it took me about five minutes to figure out how to find the shut down menu…Hint: It’s under “Settings.” (Editor’s Note: Guess that’s better than being under “Start.” -KH)

Have you tried Windows 8 yet? What are your thoughts? Email me!

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