In 2012, Microsoft was making preparations for what was going to be one of its biggest product launches. After a productive year, they were ready to release a product that would be so flexible, it would expand to platforms outside of the PC industry. While it would understandably be outside of Microsoft’s comfort zone, such bold decisions had proven to be successful in the past. Windows 8 launched in October of 2012, introducing a new user interface that removed the Start Menu. Something that had never been seen before. Although planned to be the most intuitive version of Windows yet, Windows 8 was met with a lot of criticism. Overwhelmingly met with bad reviews and angry end-users. But does Windows 8 deserve the criticism it received?
It isn’t a matter of public opinion whether Windows 8 failed. It is much worse. According to numbers, Windows Vista had significantly better adoption numbers compared to Windows 8. Despite having the advantage of being released during the holiday season. Columnist John C. Dvorak of MarketWatch described Windows 8 as an “unmitigated disaster that could decidedly hurt the company and its future.” With several more versions of Windows succeeding, it is almost as if Windows 8 has become a product Microsoft does not want the public to remember. Support for the OS ended much earlier compared to other versions of Windows. It is almost as if Windows 8 never happened. But could Windows 8 be a victim of its time, much like Vista? What’s particularly interesting about the failure of Windows 8 is that it oddly reflects the factors of Windows Vista. These include the design changes that Microsoft implemented, the popularity of Windows 7, objectives in the wrong industries and demographics, forced emphasis on apps, and simple negative publicity. There is much to delve into with Windows 8. However, I will not cover the entire timeline of Windows 8’s development. Rather I will write an article about the eventual success of Windows 8.1 and Windows 8’s development.
Windows 8 & the Tablet Industry.
Renovating Windows at the time was not a smart decision. Microsoft failed to design Windows 8 favorably. Because Microsoft did not know whether or not their decisions were in their favor. However, this opinion fails to take into account the technology of the time. In 2012, the direction traditional computers were taking was uncertain. There was not a set path for the future. While computers were going to become more popular, nobody was sure what exactly would happen. The tablet industry at the time was starting to accelerate. While tablets have been around for some time, the release of the iPad two years prior had undergone a complete transformation. All tablets now had the objective of becoming like the iPad from then on. This would be a continuous and rapidly growing market. Additionally, there was also speculation that tablets would make the computer as we knew it, obsolete. The tablet would become the new computer. While everyone was in on it, Microsoft wasn’t. While Microsoft did have an advantage over the traditional PC market, that was all it had. With this new growing industry, they were falling behind. Their current market would then be competitively threatened. It seems that the only option Microsoft had was to make their most popular product more inclusive of these other platforms. As a result, compromises had to be made. Windows would then be transformed into a tablet-friendly Operating System. Even if it is at the expense of their already well-known structure. Which is what happened with Windows 8. Not only was this an upgrade to Windows, but it would also be bundled with Windows Phone and the new Surface RT. While this was done to showcase the versatility of Windows, it would be considered by Microsoft as the “right choice.”
Windows 8 & Multitasking.
As you would expect, a touchscreen OS on non-touchscreen-based computers requires different setups and fulfills different needs. For example, renaming a file in the File Explorer and viewing the properties of a file may be challenging. As opposed to using your keyboard and mouse. Given that your objective is to appeal to tablets, your Operating System must be simple and less cluttered. This led to the most controversial and hated decision of removing the Start Menu. Those anticipating a more updated version of the Windows experience had the desire for everything to be the same. This would be more or less a better version of Windows 7. Instead, users got something very foreign. Not only was the lack of familiarity a problem, but the interface was confusing to many, and its objective seemed counterproductive. Windows 8 does have a traditional desktop, which some consider an improvement to Windows 7. However, navigating to the desktop was tedious. Those who used their desktops had to repeatedly navigate to the new Start Menu. Which made multitasking difficult. This was something that Windows had been praised for mastering approximately 20 years prior. While third-party workarounds were available, it would be extra work. Many everyday end-users were not aware of these alternatives. People did not like Windows 8 because it was confusing when it shouldn’t have been.
The Success of Windows 7.
The disadvantage of Windows 8 being an unnecessarily complicated Operating System coincided with the strong success of Microsoft’s predecessor, Windows 7. While Windows 7 was in essence just a cleaner more stable version of Windows Vista, which had already been out for some time. As I’ve mentioned in a previous article, Windows Vista did not do great. The visuals however were excellent. By 2009, people were familiar with its UI setup. Smaller features such as the search bar in the Start Menu made it easier to locate files compared to Windows 2000 and XP. The problem with Vista was its capability. When Windows 7 fixed these problems, people anticipated a similar revision. Windows 7 had all these factors and its favor contributed to its success. People, including myself, love Windows 7. It was exactly what a Windows upgrade should be, an improvement on the setup Microsoft seemingly perfected with Windows 95. When people saw advertisements for an almost unrecognizable Operating System, there was no reason to upgrade. It did not seem like an improvement. Rather it was a step backward. Additionally, there’s no need to fix Windows 7. By 2012, the majority of people were already accustomed to the Operating System, and subsequently, most people felt this way. This is also reflected in Windows 8’s sales long-term. History seemingly does repeat.
Windows 8’s Target Audience.
As mentioned, Windows 8 focused on the wrong industry. If tablets did end up taking over, like a lot of people thought they would at the time, Windows 8’s approach could have possibly worked. But that did not happen. Microsoft made this arrogant assumption that everybody was going to use tablets. While Windows 8 was better optimized for tablets, this would be at the expense of being more exclusionary to traditional PC users. Should Microsoft have focused on satisfying the tablet audience, there would have been fewer problems. However, everyone was considered the target audience. Which is either often a high-risk or high-reward approach. As a result, Windows 8 was forcing people to use a tablet when many people didn’t want to. Microsoft failed to realize that the traditional keyboard and mouse were becoming antiquated. The majority of people were fine with and preferred the old-fashioned. As a result, a touchscreen-orientated OS on a non-touchscreen computer does not resolve anything. While Windows 8 might have done better if tablets were to take over, there are still problems. Multitasking was confusing regardless of the platform. While it may be less confusing on a tablet, it is still excessive. Navigation was difficult. It wouldn’t be until Windows 10 that Microsoft would create an OS that worked for both tablets and traditional PCs. Windows 8 was making an effort to move people to a new environment that they didn’t want. Not only did this apply to tablets, it also applied to apps.
Windows 8 & Apps.
As the mobile market continued to grow, so did its programs. Traditional PCs were making an effort to become more compatible with mobile devices, and implementing apps contributed. Apps however on a PC or laptop seemed unusual. People using traditional PCs were already used to downloading a .exe file to their computer and doing the traditional method of installing programs. While you could still do that, tasks such as opening the “Microsoft Store” and showing the app version of what you wanted to install, feel intrusive. An example of this can be the program Skype, which was now an app built into Windows 8.1. Rather than downloading the .exe from their website, and having a shortcut on your desktop, you now had a version that takes up the entire window and has a new confusing interface. Having a setup that needed your undivided attention did not make sense as a replacement for having a window set on your desktop. This is just one of many apps that were obnoxiously similar and it made people start to not like apps in general. Additionally, the Microsoft Store gave companies an excuse to charge people for once-free programs. Similar to Windows 11’s setup, it also often required people to create a Microsoft account just to download a program. What might have appeared more convenient, ended up being more complicated than what it had replaced. Windows 8’s failure was also due to its reputation and mob mentality. Like Windows Vista, a lot of people who could upgrade chose not to because they had seen the bad reviews. Microsoft would try to resolve this by adding a Start button in 8.1. While Windows 8.1 was a success within its merit, it was not successful in repairing the already tarnished Windows 8 name, as seen in the Mojave experiment Microsoft conducted, people were close-minded to the idea of having any association with Windows 8. No matter how much better it got, people who had already downgraded back to Windows 7 or any other previous version had no reason to upgrade to Windows 8 after their terrible experience with it. The damage was already done.
The Advantages & Disadvantages of Windows 8.
While Windows 8 could be considered a failure, many decent things happened as well. Windows 8 can be regarded as an Operating System that sacrificed itself so future versions of Windows could improve upon its features without facing as much backlash. An example of this can be Windows Defender. While it had existed in previous versions, Windows 8 was the first OS to have the program built in as System Software. As people commonly had to find the right antivirus software for their computer before Windows 8, this would save them time. People no longer had to worry about which antivirus software was most trustworthy. Windows Defender and a few freeware programs did just enough. If you’re at least browsing safely. Windows 8 also introduced File History, a backup system similar to Time Machine on macOS X. A program that was introduced not too long before the release of Windows 7. Such an innovative feature seen with their competition would motivate Microsoft to include something similar on Windows 8. Despite being subject to such strong criticism, apps would make a positive difference. Apps on Windows would get better as time passed, and people would get accustomed to them. Similar to how Apple removed the headphone jack eight years ago. While it was a culture shock for many, people don’t care as much as they used to. After time passed, companies in the tech industry would make the same decision. Because they accurately saw the direction technology was taking. Apple faced a similar backlash with the first iMac in 1998 when they decided to remove the Floppy Drive. Three years later, virtually nobody used Floppy Disks anymore. It would be a forgotten problem. People might not have liked apps at the time, but we have now come to a point where regular executables and apps would coexist. It was a challenge. What is also remarkable is that Windows 8 was able to accomplish these tasks while keeping system requirements almost the same as Windows 7’s. In terms of hardware, upgrading would not be an issue. Windows 8 had bugs, but not nearly as much as Windows Vista or ME. That was not the problem. Although this further demonstrates that the failure of Windows 8 is tied to aesthetics rather than technology, it also showed significant improvements from Microsoft. They were learning from the problems seen in Windows Vista and making sure to avoid them. Similar to Windows Vista, Windows 8 provided a path for success for future releases.
“Was Windows 8 THAT Bad?”
Yes, it arguably was. Its weakness was its overconfidence. It boldly stepped into a direction traditional PCs did not take. Unlike with previous versions of Windows, it wasn’t necessarily that everyday users did not have access to the resources required to run Windows 8, it’s the fact that the OS itself was poorly executed. Its hardware requirements were not intensive at the time. The main issue was not that it wasn’t too slow or that it didn’t support enough hardware, people simply just didn’t like the Operating System itself. Rather than regarding the OS as a disaster for Microsoft, Windows 8 should be given credit where credit is due. It paved the path for Windows 10’s success, as it would learn from the mistakes Windows 8 made and make sure to circumvent them. Windows 10 was able to do what Windows 8 wanted to do. It became an Operating System that could be used on both tablets and traditional PCs without having to take away Windows’ ease of use. Regardless of your opinion on Windows 10, it was much more successful in terms of sales and upgradability compared to Windows 8. As of last year, there are over 1.3 billion computers that run Windows 10. A lot of the features we take for granted now were introduced in Windows 8. While it may not have been a milestone for Microsoft, Windows 8 now serves as a lesson that will only improve future versions of Windows.
