Pros And Cons Of Microsoft's Windows 8 Operating System

Microsoft launched Windows 8 on October 26, 2012.
According to Microsoft, Windows 8 is a completely redesigned operating system developed from the ground up with touchscreen use in mind as well as near-instant-on capabilities that enable a Windows 8 PC to load and start up in a matter of seconds rather than in minutes.

Windows 8 replaces the more traditional Microsoft Windows OS look and feel with a new design system interface codenamed "Metro" that first debuted in the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system. The Metro user interface primarily consists of a "Start screen" made up of "Live Tiles," which are links to applications and features that are dynamic and update in real time.  Users will also be able to switch between apps in Metro by simply swiping across the screen.
Windows 8 also features the latest Internet Explorer Web browser, Internet Explorer 10, as well as integrated cloud-based online services like Microsoft’s app store and Office 365.  The new operating system will also likely add built-in support for newer technologies like USB 3.0 and Bluetooth 3.0.
Look at the Start Screen of Windows 8 :

Minimum System Requirements for Windows 8

If you want to run Windows 8.1 on your PC, here's what it takes:

• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with support for PAE, NX, and SSE2
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
• Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver

Advantages of Windows 8

1. Installation time of Windows 8 takes only 10 minutes.
2. Windows 8 is much faster to boot, shutdown, resume from hibernate and navigate.
3. The new User Interface 'Metro' will help merge the tablet and PC.
4. Metro theme and layout is unique with a whole lot of cool new features. It allows multitasking and shares the screen with two apps at the same time.
5. Microsoft's Smart Glass technology
6. Microsoft Security Essentials integrated with Windows 8.
7. Faster boot
8. More Secure
9. More diagnostics tools and repair solutions.
10. Pretty much the same speed using 8 as 7.

Disadvantages of Windows 8

1. The most important issue is Privacy. If the users are not alert during installing Windows 8, they might end up granting location access to many of the Windows 8 apps. (To change this - Go to Change PC Settings and from there, move the slider to Turn OFF location access completely).
2. New layout may be a bit difficult for some user to get used to.
3. Some programs, games and applications are not yet compatible with Windows 8.
4. Most of the applications, which were designed to work with Windows 7, are not working in Windows 8.
5. System tray is gone and determining where programs have gone when minimized is difficult.
6. Drivers are not as mature, so in many cases you need to use drivers written for Windows 7. This is fine in some cases and not in others.
7. Start screen
8. Lack of start menu
9. Can't use F8 key to get into Safe mode, but its possible to enable that.
10. Lots of random problems pop up, mostly related to the start screen.