CRM 2011 and Windows 8

So Windows 8 showed up on the Action Pack downloads last week so I thought I would give it a spin.  I had not looked at any of the earlier betas or release candidates so I went in fresh.  I am familiar with the (don't call it metro) interface since I have been using a Windows phone for about a year now.

For Dynamics CRM, here were the things to look out for:

First off, the CRM of Outlook client could no longer connect.  We currently have our CRM hosted on www.ITUtility.net , our Canadian based cloud provider.  Normally I would login using my email address when setting up the Outlook connector, but after some digging around I discovered that I could only connect using my actual ITUtility "domain\username" format to login.  The Windows Identity foundation 3.5 needed to be installed as well.

Once I got beyond that, the process would eventually fail when configuring the client.  After installing the client CRM Rollup 10, the situation was resolved.

Running CRM 2011 in IE 10 also posed some issues, there was lots of "there was an error in CRM...." I found a Microsoft KB article that indicated you should run IE in compatibility mode.  This for the most part solved these issues.   One issue that did not go away was the ability to drag and drop a field in form customizations, not entirely sure it was a Windows 8/IE 10 issue but once I logged onto a Windows 7 machine I was able to make the changes I needed.

Windows 8 Summary

Before upgrading I took a good backup image of my laptop and went ahead with an in-place upgrade. Everything went fairly well. I was not too keen having to associate my Windows Live ID to the login, but it is what it is.

My laptop is not touch screen, so I think I am missing out in some of the experience.   Using Windows 8 is an odd mix of the new (don't call it Metro) interface and the "traditional" windows interface.  It reminded me of using Windows 95 with DOS programs.  Using the two interfaces becomes a bit cumbersome.  The other thing was the absence of the "Start" button.  I was able to find a freeware app that put it back, there seems to be a lot of debate online about it, I think Microsoft is trying to push folks to the new interface, but if that were the case, then the entire old desktop should have been flushed, not taking key pieces away one bit at a time.  Some of the new Windows 8 style apps were cool, like remote desktop and OneNote, however it takes some time to get used to the new way to adjust settings, minimize and switch applications, all the while will still using the old way for the "traditional" apps.

Suffice to say I ran Windows 7 recovery and restored the backup image, so I am now back to the comfortable Windows 7 interface.

Overall, Windows 8 is not as horrible like Vista, but I think Microsoft tried unsuccessfully to bridge the old and new, and like mint and chocolate, both good seperately, disgusting when mixed together.

When the majority of the apps that I use (Office, CRM) have moved over to this interface and I won't ever need to use the old desktop, is when I will upgrade permanently.  Until then, I think I will be sticking Windows 7, after all, it *was* my idea.