We essentially wanted to have the big tablet experience and see if the single-tasking, touch-screen interface was effective on a desktop PC. We picked these two systems because they had TV tuners, discrete graphics, Blu-ray drive (on the HP 620 3D), active shutter 3D glasses (TouchSmart again), and both are media-oriented. To that end, we picked two systems: the HP TouchSmart 620 3D and the Lenovo Ideacentre B320. For the touch-screen preview, we wanted to use a system with preloaded apps, Windows 7 Home Premium, and as many toys as we could try out. Previous hands-on accounts, such as Brian Westover's look at running Windows 8 on a MacBook Air, were 'clean' installs to a blank partition on the hard drive/SSD. Setup and Problems We hoped that setting up Windows 8 on a touch-screen PC would be simple, but it turned out to be anything but.

Needless to say, we recommend that you wait for a few more revisions before replacing Windows 7 on your primary touch-screen PC. It 'worked,' but only with a clean install, rather than upgrading from Windows 7. As stated before, Windows 8's Metro UI is optimized for a touch interface, similar to the UI built into Windows Phone 7. Windows 8 Consumer Preview is the popular download of the month, and we decided to try out its vaunted touch interface.

Windows 8 touch screen desktops