Aussie Windows 8 education aims to help those lost with new Windows

If there’s one thing you can be critical of Microsoft for, it’s that the decision to change Windows 7’s desktop-centric interface to the touch-friendly one in Windows 8 hasn’t exactly resulted in a lot of education from the maker of Windows. An Australian developer might have found a way to cut through the mess, though, with an online program.

We checked this at the end of last year when it was still in development, and now that Windows 8 is coming up to one year since it was released – and more people are beginning to invest in the new OS – we figured it was time to look at it again.

Released online and available from any web-connected computer – tablets included – the program costs $45 for a two year subscription, offering animated demonstrations to take you through the fun that is learning how to use the new version of Windows.

Comprising of 48 lessons and including looks at the difference between touch screens and a mouse, creating passwords from pictures, pinning friends to the Windows start screen, web browsing, and using gestures to close apps and run them side by side, the “Learning Windows 8” course provided by Dynamic Learning aims to help you accomplish just what the title says.

Learn how to create picture passwords with the program.

Taking it for a spin, you find the lessons load up in a new Window and guide you through these functions, many of which might seem logical, but have changed under the recent operating system.

We like that Dynamic Learning chose to ignore Flash for this and work with something that seems to have no problem running on both tablets and computers, touch or mouse enabled, which means that it will even run on your Windows 8 PC that you’re struggling to understand.

In fact, as long as you know how to press that Internet Explorer button inside Windows 8, you’ll be able to take the course.

Once you’re in, though, you’ll find that gestures are explained through animation, terms are looked at, and you can see in the statistics how long you’ve spent learning the operating system through the program.

Don't quite understand the gestures of Windows 8? This program features animations, text boxes, and interactive elements to help you through.

We’re not sure how long you’ll need to spend with the educational program, though, and don’t believe Windows 8 is as confrontational as some believe.

While GadgetGuy is comprised of seasoned technology journalists and reviewers, even the ones that aren’t totally familiar with the complexities of the operating system can find they start to get the hang of it after spending around an hour with it.

As such, we won’t say that the Windows 8 training on offer here is the be all and end all of learning the operating system, though, and will suggest that the first step should be giving it a go yourself.

If an hour with Windows doesn’t begin to sink in, then it might be worth trying this program, as it can run within the browser and help you with a variety of Windows 8 functionality, until you’re ready to go.

A demo is available with several sample lessons to try, but the full subscription is available now for $45.