Six Reasons the Windows “Frankensystem” Will Fail

• Internet Explorer Version 10 is, in the immortal words of President Harry Truman, “Bovine Excrement.” It’s hard to tell how many windows are open, because there is no easy way to close a window when you are done with it. No easy way to access settings on the fly. No Favorites. No way to shrink the screen to less than full size, and with many of the pre-configured web pages, no way to get out of them except to exit to the Start Screen and open a whole new browser window. Switching between windows on the fly might work…or then again, might not. So chatting with tech support while trying what they recommend in a different screen…is not possible. Sigh!

• The learning curve is steep. Not steep as in climbing the Washington Monument, with its 897 stairs. More like steep as in climbing the Himalayas. Business are going to balk at the sheer amount of time and money they will have to waste in trying to get people to use an operating system that was obviously built to attract kids in Middle School. Of course, you can always press the “Desktop” square on the Start Page that takes you back to…a Windows 7 screen. But then, why would you spend the money to upgrade? That is, perhaps, one of the reasons why this new and wonderful operating system costs as little as $15 for an upgrade.

• It doesn’t multi-task well. This is the real killer in the whole deal. Windows built its reputation on (usually) easy multi-tasking. Shift from one program to another, cut and paste, bounce from browser to Word to another browser window. But all that is gone. Well, not really gone, because you will find after weeks and weeks of working with the system that it does most of what Windows 7 used to do, you just can’t find it very easily. And that is problematic because the PC – unlike the cell phone or tablet – has to multi-task simply and easily. If it does not, productivity suffers and the system becomes ever-so-much less useful.

Here’s the sad truth about the Windows Frankensystem: Microsoft has spent the last two years sitting on the sidelines as Apple and Google raked in big bucks from selling crippled, useless apps through their “Stores.” Now Microsoft is jumping in with its own version, and apps that are every bit as crippled and useless. It’s about the money.

To put it simply, you can play “Angry Birds,” but you can’t easily switch from the desktop to the browser. Did I mention the control panel no longer exists? Um, sort of. Good luck finding it.

It’s also about the data. Microsoft has watched as Apple, Google and Facebook have raped consumers for their personal data and sold that data to their advertisers. Now Microsoft is looking to cash in by forcing consumers to give up their personal data and register for a “Microsoft account” to use many of the features of their new Windows 8. Personal data that is the new currency of the information age. Data that is worth its weight in gold.

Windows 8 leaves me speechless. It is the very worst operating system that the titan in Redmond has ever produced, and a shameful reminder of the great company Microsoft used to be.