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If You’ve Ever Been Baffled By a Microsoft System, This Video of a 3-Year-Old Cruising Through It Will Infuriate You

Oct. 22, 2012 11:51am Liz Klimas

As Microsoft is launching Windows 8 this week, it is being said already that the new operating system “baffles consumers.” But even as some who have downloaded the early preview are experiencing problems, a YouTube video allegedly shows a 3-year-old moving through the system smoothly.

3 Year Old Demonstrates Ease of Use of Windows 8 While Others Complain of New Operating System Launching This Week

Although some using the preview of Windows 8 were left scratching their heads, this 3-year-old showed that the new operating system might be easier to use than some have complained about. (Image: YouTube screenshot)

The Associated Press reported Tony Roos, an American missionary in Paris, installed a free preview version of Windows 8 on his aging laptop to see if Microsoft’s new operating system would make the PC faster and more responsive. Ross said it didn’t, and that the new software required him to relearn how to use Windows as well.

“It was very difficult to get used to,” he said. “I have an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, and they never got used to it. They were like, `We’re just going to use Mom’s computer.’”

“I am very worried that Microsoft may be about to shoot itself in the foot spectacularly,” said. Michael Mace, the CEO of Silicon Valley software startup Cera Technology and a former Apple employee. Mace claims that Windows 8 is so different and many users could will feel lost.

With these types of sentiments coming out before the official Oct. 26 release of the new OS, Adam Desrosiers posted a video of his 3-year-old son using the system. On his YouTube channel, he writes:

I read these tech pundits and journalists discussing how hard it’s gonna be for the general public to learn the new UI of Windows 8. Nonsense. This video (sorry for the poor video quality – I have no proper video equipment whatsoever) is my response to such pessimism.

For the record, I do whatever I can to keep my boy *off* the computer. We watch some sesame st videos at night and play a game or two during the day. And over the past month that we’ve had Windows 8 on this computer this is how well he uses it. I could easily teach him some of the even more in depth operations of the system if I didn’t think it more important that he interact with the real world.

The long and short of it is: If my 3 years old son can learn Windows 8 through very moderate usage, anybody with half a brain can do so too.

Watch the clip:

Because the boy’s hand is not actually seen in the video, some have accused Desrosiers of faking it. He responded on YouTube saying that none of the video was fake and that had he anticipated the number of views — more than 99,000 since uploading it Friday — that the video would get, he would have showed him moving the mouse.

“Maybe my followup video will show his awesome mouse skills along with how he plays a crappy game of fruit ninja on the wacom tablet,” Desrosiers said.

Here’s a New York Times video (via Business Insider) showing five people “getting to know Windows 8″ and having a harder time with it:

The Associated Press reported Microsoft’s chief financial officer Peter Klein saying wasn’t very concerned about user confusion with Windows 8. When Microsoft introduces new features, people eventually realize that “those innovations have delivered way more value, way more productivity and way better usability,” he said.

Fujitsu announced one ARROWS tablet PC and 20 FMV Windows 8 PCs as well as their “My Cloud” network services last week. (Photo: TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)

Sheldon Skaggs, a Web developer in Charlotte, N.C., who thought he was going to hate Windows 8, told the Associated Press that although it was a “bit of a learning curve” after playing around with the system, “you get used to it, surprisingly.”

Instead of the familiar Start menu and icons, Windows 8 displays applications as a colorful array of tiles, which can feature updated information from the applications. For instance, the “Photos” tile shows an image from the user’s collection, and the “People” tile shows images from the user’s social-media contacts.

The tiles are big and easy to hit with a finger – convenient for a touch screen. Applications fill the whole screen by default – convenient for a tablet screen, which is usually smaller than a PC’s. The little buttons that surround Windows 7 applications, for functions like controlling the speaker volume, are hidden, giving a clean, uncluttered view. When you need those little buttons, you can bring them out, but users have to figure out on their own how to do it.

Watch Microsoft’s preview of Window’s 8:

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(H/T: Gizmodo)

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Comments (51)

marcus_arealius
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 3:07pm
Just remember the one single HELL microsoft cursed the planet with for decades – 640K.
For that, they should wither and die to suffer in software HELL forever and beyond.

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- db321
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 8:09pm
  I would like to thank that little boy for showing us Windows 8 and also for paying for America’s National Debt.
  
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- muffythetuffy
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 10:34pm
  RISING RACISM TO SELL SOFTWARE
  
  Why a black boy? Are they saying if a little black boy can do it you should be able to do it?
  
  It use to be sex, now everything is racist.
  
  Report this comment
- ObamaForward_OverTheCliff
  Posted on October 23, 2012 at 5:05am
  If You’ve Ever Been Baffled By a Microsoft System — If my 3 years old son can learn Windows 8 through very moderate usage, anybody with half a brain can do so too.”
  
  Of course, many can’t count up to 8 windows. For example, Obama looses track at the 5th window and must start over. That’s why he’s uses a Blackberry … no windows to keep track of.)
  
  Report this comment
- deano24
  Posted on October 24, 2012 at 12:02am
  Lol.
  
  Report this comment
Mr.Fitnah
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 2:56pm
I dont have to upgrade to this do I?

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Pontiac
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 2:27pm
This isn’t an operating system, it’s a kids toy… Windows 2000 was the only OS that had a decent GUI out of the box. Now it’s smorgasbord of eyecandy for people with the mental capacity of a 3 year old.

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- NA1NSXR
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 6:30pm
  What are you talking about Windows 2000 was pretty much just Win95 GUI over NT.
  
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- steelpanther
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 6:39pm
  It’s Microsoft’s approach of making one OS for everything, they want to shove this onto phones to. It makes business sense in making one product and selling it in a variety of markets, but this is going to bomb. People don’t want “Apps” on a desktop, they want programs and they don’t want to have to relearn everything ever few years.
  
  Considering all in all, won’t be upgrading if this is the direction, already got a bunch of software I can no longer use to the force to 64 bit OS’s that no one is making programs for, all still 32 bit. If I wanted a phone OS, I’d buy a smart phone, but I got a very old flip phone, and am quite happy with it.This might be a blessing to those Unix/Linux distros that operate similar to windows.
  
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- Pontiac
  Posted on October 23, 2012 at 10:53pm
  NA1NSXR
  ~LAST Windows OS to have a decent GUI~
  Went downhill from there.
  
  Report this comment
wheelz0505
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 2:19pm
What a sweet, bright, beautiful child!!

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LakeHartwellSailor
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:37pm
I am shocked!!!! This guy MUST be a republican because he says that if his 3 year old son can use Win8 on a moderate level, any one with half a brain can use it. He is saying his son only has half a brain!!!! We all know that Republicans HATE children.

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ronin_6
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:30pm
You mean there is another windows version other than windows 98?
Wow what an amazing world we live in.

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mefree
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:30pm
Annoying things;
#1 – Metro is not multi-monitor. Since I don’t live in Metro but the desktop this isn’t really an issue, it’s just annoying and something stupid they should have thought of. I have 3 monitors and I would like to use Metro apps across multiple monitors.
#2 – Scrolling on the Start screen. Like touch I should be able to just click anywhere in the ‘white space’ and drag the screen back and forth rather than having to click the stupid little scroll bar at the bottom. That said, you won’t really ever be ‘scrolling’ through the start screen on a desktop until you are wanting to look at the pretty tiles shifting, etc.

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mefree
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:29pm
I am really disappointed in the commenters here. I expected more from Blaze readers. WHY would you listen to anti-capitalist BS from the media (which has been VERY anti-MS for a decade or 2 now) when you haven’t even TOUCHED IT YET. I’ve been running Windows 8 for well over a year through many different releases and I absolutely love Windows 8, especially on my slate. On my desktop it’s a slight improvement over 7, not huge, but it is a slight improvement. Here is some ACTUAL INFORMATION rather than BS;

If you have a touch device (such as a slate) it is by FAR the best mobility OS there is, period. I have a Samsung Series 7 slate that is far more powerful than any laptop I’ve ever owned and it’s roughly the same size as an iPad but with a larger screen. It is the only thing I travel with now and I travel a lot.

That said, if you are a desktop user there is a learning curve. Once you learn 3 things though it will be easy to use. First, you won’t live in Metro very much. You’ll hit the start key, start typing the name of the app you want and then hit enter to launch it. It’s actual far faster than the start menu ever was, but you just have to think about it differently. Just know that the ‘corners’ of the screen are ‘hot.’ In other words, just move your mouse cursor to the sides/corners of the screen and see what cool things you can do. That’s pretty much it. I will post the 2 annoying things about Windows 8 that hopefully they will fix.

Rest in next

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- steelpanther
  Posted on October 23, 2012 at 10:52am
  You don’t have to be Anti-capitalist to be against Microsoft. Microsoft’s business practices are very dirty and are moving them in the direction of being a monopoly on many types of software among other things. I generally like the Windows OS’s as they are fairly intuitive.
  
  I don’t want a touch device, I won’t want fingerprints all over my monitor not to mention I don’t want to reach that far every time I need to do something. And I won’t want to have to learn work arounds because I understand or want to understand a phone OS.
  
  Report this comment
woodyee
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:16pm
I’m still running Windows XP, because it hasn’t failed me. Is that wrong?

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- ijava44
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:19pm
  I’m no windows fan but this kid is great. It cracks me up just listening to him while he is using windows 8. microsoft needs to hire him for a commercial.
  
  Report this comment
- Squ33
  Posted on October 23, 2012 at 6:31am
  I’m still using WinXP. As a rule of thumb, if it isn’t broke don’t fix it. That being said, I only use Windows 7 because it came with a recent tablet purchase.
  
  Report this comment
- Melika
  Posted on October 23, 2012 at 8:32am
  Hell no! XP was the best, most stable OS they produced.
  
  Report this comment
Southerner01
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:16pm
Looks like an X box.

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- mefree
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:46pm
  Southerner01, you are correct, it does look like Xbox. This is all the ‘metro’ design interface. Just for everyone I’ll give a brief history of ‘metro’ and where it came from.
  
  Metro believe it or not, came from the Zune. (I can already hear all the ‘no wonder it will fail, it came from the failure called the Zune. The Zune was actually a superior product but Microsoft SUCKS REALLY BAD at marketing.) So, the Zune team decided they wanted to create a completely new type of interface that was clean, intuitive and modern. They got the idea for ‘Metro’ from the NYC subway/transportation signage. Someone on the team realized that at just a glance you would know where to go, and thus Metro was born. Even though the Zune failed, the ‘metro’ concept became Windows Phone 7. If you’ve ever used a Windows Phone (I mean ACTUALLY USED it) then you’ll realize how superior it is to Android (an open source clone of iOS) and iOS.
  
  Thus ‘Metro’ became the new design element for EVERYTHING Microsoft. They decided to unify ALL products on the same design model. This includes the Xbox, Windows Phone, Windows, and even Office, etc. So, while this transition might seem ‘painful’ it means you will be able to use ANY Microsoft product with 0 learning curve going forward, rather than learning multiple different interfaces as before. A uniform design model for ALL MS products going forward is a VERY smart move.
  
  Note – MS has dropped using the term ‘metro’ due to co
  
  Report this comment
- woodyee
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:58pm
  MeFree –
  
  Love your post – very informative and historical. Thank you, and keep up the good work!
  
  Report this comment
- mefree
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 2:13pm
  Thanks Woodyee. I really don’t like it when people are fooled by biased media. For the most part people here on the Blaze have figured that out when it comes to political news but the same is VERY true for the ‘tech’ news as well. Microsoft was the ‘evil capitalist’ poster child that the media decried in the 90′s and they’ve never let go of that. It’s ‘cool’ to bag on Microsoft but ‘Apple’ is awesome even though Apple in the tech world is the most ‘fascist’ in their tactics. Apple’s best product BY FAR is their marketing department. They only won their lawsuit against Samsung because the jury is sooo tainted by Apple’s amazing marketing. Everyone thinks Apple and the iPhone was the first in everything. Does Apple has some patent infringement issues? Absolutely, but they shouldn’t have been suing Samsung, they should have been suing Google as it’s Android that is the real violator, but suing Google isn’t politically expedient, and so they sue Samsung.
  
  Report this comment
Shasta
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:07pm
Heaven help me should I ever have to use that awful OS. I would rather have Vista again.

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- mefree
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:48pm
  And you base this on actual use of the product??? Ooohhh wait, it’s because you believe the anti-capitalist media. Wow, gonna vote Obama too because they say he’s better and Romney sucks? Don’t be a sheep.
  
  Report this comment
- DeeCee
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 2:48pm
  In anticipation of the launch later this week, I installed the preview version of Windows 8 on my laptop over the weekend and am using it now. at first I was a bit lost, but after just a few minutes of playing around, it all became 2nd nature with just a few exceptions. Being an old-time Linux fan, along with some Mac experience, I never thought I would say this, but I like it a lot!
  
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- mefree
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 3:58pm
  Thank you Deecee for thinking for yourself. Seriously, I REALLY thought people on the Blaze would be smarter than this, yet everyone seems to be falling for the same media BS that they use with Obama. Hey people, THINK before you make an ignorant comment like ‘this thing sucks, I’ll never use it’ otherwise you are proving that you are still just a sheep like everyone else you mock on here.
  
  Report this comment
- steelpanther
  Posted on October 23, 2012 at 3:17pm
  So if you look at how the OS works and decide you never want to use it your just an anti-capitalist shill. But if you look at it and like it your thinking for your self? Dude, you sound like Obama.
  
  Get over yourself man, whining about people that don’t agree with you as not being able to think for themselves is just…. Get over, so what if people don’t want an OS that’s targeted for them, what if they don’t want a tablet or phone OS and actually want a desktop OS on their computer? As a software consumer I’m sick and tired of learning how to use something just so it’s changed in two years for the sake of changing it. And I certainly don’t want a product that doesn’t have me in mind.
  
  I want programs, not apps, I don’t want to depend on the internet to do programs my gaming machine can do with out even taking up a percent of it’s CPU usage. I’m already sick of the amount of programs that demand internet access, and I”m sure many members of the military agree.
  
  Report this comment
ACTIONNOTTALK
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:02pm
In the 1990′s, I sat my 3 year old daughter down in front of the computer and showed her how to use the mouse and scribble in a paint program. She picked it right up. Then I realzed in a moment of brutal clarity that I was condemned to using an OS targeted at the three year old mind. Windowing OS’s are huge productivity killers.

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- lornaduwn
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 2:09pm
  Same thing here. I could hardly see the top of my son’s head over the back of the chair as he “painted”. Big mistake!!!! He’s 21 now and I can’t get him off of that darn computer!!!!!
  
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Pat Alexander
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:01pm
The vast majority of computers still are conventional keyboard & mouse. This OS was designed primarily as a touch screen OS, with the K/M interface as an afterthought. The thought being – everything will be touch screen eventually.

People use the touchscreen by necessity on phones and small tablets. Most folks are not anxious to sit & stare into a fingerprint covered monitor for any amount of time.

Past experience tells me things that are designed to do everything, seldom do anything well. This along with the incompatibly of so many existing programs & device drivers will limit it to a very low percentage of the market.

Already there is lots of talk about offering a Windows 7 “downgrade” on new units. I think I may have seen this before.

My prediction: This will make the Vista debacle look like a speed bump…

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stephenb0
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 12:56pm
Apple sucks!!

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DirtMonkey
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 12:38pm
I think many people would be more accepting of Windows 8 if Microsoft had allowed the option for users to switch from a touch screen interface to a regular desktop interface. Microsoft has virtually removed all abilities to change the interface. They have decreed that this is the new look and you will like it. I think I’ll stick with Win7 and see if Windows 9 is any better. :p

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voting-for-romney
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 12:28pm
Let me guess, the New York Times business editor was staring at the Windows Key, and wondering what on Earth that could possibly do?

New York Times, that explains everything?

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OniKaze
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 12:24pm
It is FOLLY to assume people HAVE “Half a Brain”…..

I mean, people not only voted for Obama once, rumor is, some will vote for him AGAIN… Which PROVES that many people don’t HAVE any brain… Let alone Half of one…

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voting-for-romney
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 12:21pm
What is so hard about hitting the “windows key” and seeing all your most used applications appear? Right click the bottom task bar, they all appear? If you want to, you can send an application shortcut to the desktop, just like good old windows 3.1, windows 98, windows ME, windows Vista, and Windows 7?

They’ve actually made this easier for new users, and took nothing away from old users?

Way to go!

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rafa2design
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 12:19pm
Windows 8 looks really innovative and fun. I’ve been thinking about ditching the Mac OS, which to me has become cluttered over the years. Will have to check this out.

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beekeeper
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 12:14pm
I tried the new OS in a new system build, and I hated it, but my frustration was based on my problems trying to do things I am used to doing on Win7 systems at work. (IT for K-12 school district). I was not interested in investing several hours to get up to speed, so I ‘downgraded’ my system to Win7 and there’s no looking back.

BTW, comparisons to Vista aren’t fair IMHO – Vista made hardware run slower and constantly got between the user and what they wanted to do (The UAC pop-ups)…

I never left the Metro interface – had I changed the interface to ‘normal’ desktop it might have been less frustrating.

I can see it being VERY NICE on a tablet.

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huey6367
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 12:06pm
This is a three year old. Anyone with kids knows a three year old’s mind is a sponge and absorbs everything it is introduced to – both good and bad. That is why the kid can fly through the thing. adults use the knowledge they have.

It’s true.

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SIXFRIGATES
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 12:05pm
“He responded on YouTube saying that none of the video was fake…”

And Hillary Clinton had no intention on running for president in 2008 and every person in prison is innocent… Shut up. You Establish the kid at the PC then you turn the camera away. It’s Magic 101. This guy’s lying troll.

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chips1
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 12:04pm
Oh!!! Crap!!! My 8-track broke again!!!

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Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 12:00pm
The new OS appears to be having as many problems as Vista and others did.

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Apple Bite
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 11:56am
I don’t care if they get an embryo to use it like Bill Gates, I will not buy that OS.

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- DirtMonkey
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 12:46pm
  You’re not the only one. I have no intention to ever buy the new Fisher-Price operating system. People who buy the brand name computers (Dell, HP, Acer, Compaq, Gateway, etc) will be stuck with Windows 8 unless they have a Windows 7 disk. ;)
  Microsoft has declared that this is the new look and you will like it. Um, no thanks, a touch screen interface in an office environment is not what one could call productive…besides, wouldn’t a person’s arms get tired from reaching across their desk to use a touch screen monitor or how about the people who love to eat cheetos while gaming (or other things), just imagine all that orange dust all over the screen. lol.
  
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