Windows 8 is just around the corner, and I have been using it for a few weeks. Most people look at it and don’t to try the new interface; but after using it for a while, I find that I am faster, and that my computer is faster on it. The Task Manager is much better for those who want to use it, you can get all data at a glance, and drill down to what apps are using which resources. I was told that if you have a screen under about 1300×700 then you can’t do the split screen action that larger machines can. Office 2013 preview is out, it allows users to install office over the internet in about 20 minutes, but it is usable in about 2. This is useful when setting up a new computer.

I was forced to reinstall my laptop, Toshiba Portege Z835-P330, the settings that the built in metro apps had automatically came back. Going back to the Windows Store and telling it to reinstall all the apps I had earlier in Metro was seamless. All the apps that were install in the desktop, including chrome, which bleeds over to metro, has to be reinstalled manually. The year is 2012, and by using Dropbox/Google Drive and logging into chrome reinstalling was painless.

The last note I want to make is that I ran into a weird Toshiba software bug, my laptop has an Eco program that tells the user how much power the laptop is using to the watt. I tried to install it and got “Unsupported Bios”; you have to first install “The Toshiba Value Pack”, then that puts core Toshiba files in and all of a sudden the eco tool will work.