Windows 8 Arrives
Friday, October 26, 2012 at 17:14 Today marks general availability for Microsoft's Windows 8 and also their Surface tablet running Windows RT. I've been using Windows 8 for some time and I do like it, but there is a learning curve and it does take a bit of getting used to. I just wanted to post a couple of links to help people get up to speed as quickly as possible...
Firstly, for the absolute beginner, we have Joanna Stern's 8 Things You Need to Know About Using Windows 8 on ABC News. Joanna does a good job of going throught the most important things you need to get started in a video that runs under 4 minutes.
One additional tip from me - to make the Start screen really pop by bringing those tiles to life, you're going to have to launch some of the apps first. Jump into Weather, News and Sport, then back to the Start screen and see the difference.
The Microsoft Windows site has some How-To guides to particular features on it's Get to know Windows page and if you find yourself stuck, you can get help from the Support page.
IT Pros, you can get a bit more in-depth info from the Windows 8 Jump Start on TechNet.
Not enough info? Got an insatiable desire for Windows 8 knowledge? O'Reilly have a couple of free webcasts coming up:
8+ Features You Will Love to Use in Windows 8 on the 31st October
Getting Started with Windows 8 on the 1st November
Incidentally, Microsoft added something like a thousand new apps to the Windows Store in the last 24 hours. Skype is now there, as is Lync. In addidion to those, I recommend you add OneNote to your Windows 8 or RT machine - it's my favourite Office app and you're getting it here for free with SkyDrive synching. If you want something to really show off how good apps can look on Windows 8/RT, then you should get the beautiful Cocktail Flow app.
UPDATE: Thanks to Peter Kriegel for posting in the comments regarding a free ebook from MS Press - Introducing Windows 8: An Overview for IT Professionals.
Reader Comments (2)
Free E-Book from Microsoft about Windows 8 for IT-Pro
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2012/10/23/free-ebook-introducing-windows-8-an-overview-for-it-professionals.aspx
http://www.admin-source.de
Thanks for that, Peter. I must have missed that one, although I did see a German version, ironically. :-)