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From Start to stop: a glimpse of how real people will use Windows 8

In what may become the first of a long-running series, Lockergnome's Chris Pirillo unleashes his father on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Confusion follows
China internet cafe
An internet cafe in China. It's place like this which will be the real test of Windows 8.

You've heard about the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, and you've read the early reviews which say, for example, that while it's great on a touchscreen (such as a tablet), it's jarring on the desktop.

But those all came from people who were techies. They're not really representative of the broad user base out there – the hundreds of millions of people who use Windows every day, and have become familiar with concepts such as the Recycle Bin and Start menu ever since Microsoft made them iconic with Windows 95, which was the rock star version of Windows (launched, lest we forget, with the Rolling Stones' classic Start Me Up to help people tie the idea together.)

Just as a reminder, here's that Start Me Up advert from 1995 (or watch it on YouTube:

The original 1995 Windows 95 "Start" advert

(Thinks: what a great ad. Works just as well now.)

And now here's Chris Pirillo's father trying Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Pirillo essentially leaves him to his own devices (literally) and challenges him to find his way around. (There's also an IM stream in the background of people who are watching what's going on. You can also watch it on YouTube.)

Chris Pirillo's father tries to navigate Windows 8

One hopes that they're watching this in Redmond, and are making suitable adjustments.

There's more over at the Fixing Windows 8 blog (motto: "Touchscreen + Windows 8: Great! Keyboard/mouse + Windows 8: Hate!").

(Updated to add links for mobile viewers.)

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