Microsoft's Window into the future

Microsoft was making tablet computers long before Apple unveiled its iPad. But the paving-slab sized machines were so howlingly terrible that Microsoft rarely mentions its youthful dabbling in the world of touchscreens.

Even the computing giant’s most avid fans are a touch nervous about the fact that the new Windows 8, due next month, is built for iPad-style touch computing.

There has been tutting. ‘The icons are too big! There’s no Start button!’ The new operating system is meant to work on both tablets and PCs, and is built for both touch control and mice, with two views, one traditional, one built of big coloured slates that look like a Fisher Price version of iPad.

On a proper, old-style PC set-up, with a mouse, it’s a bit puzzling – like normal Windows, just a bit more complicated. But the stars of Windows 8 could be the forthcoming hybrid machines, such as the Dell XPS Duo 12 (right), which converts from laptop to tablet and back again – a bit like an iPad for grown-ups. Sony, HP, Lenovo and others all have their own versions that click, snap, slide and pop from one form to another – with some quick-change merchants able to transform in less than three seconds.

It’s difficult to say whether these things are hilariously awful or brilliant (the manufacturers are being very coy about price) – but having had a go, the combination of typing and prodding and swiping on screen is far more precise than either iPad (for typing) or those awful little thumb-pads you get on most laptops.

Can Microsoft really do ‘fun’ though? With big, bright-coloured buttons that look like table settings, the new ‘Modern’ interface is pretty amiable and it’s certainly fast. But it’ll live or die by the strength of its new app store (which will be overseen by Microsoft so it isn’t full of viruses and barely translated Korean games, like Android’s).

Either way, the world isn’t going to end. Windows 8 works. It’s fast. It’s reliable. It’s just boring enough to remind you that, yes, this is made by Microsoft – but has enough ‘fun’ built in that you’re going to see some very odd machines in PC retailers this winter...