If your response to the news that you can now run Windows 7 on your iPad is something other than “why?” you’ll be happy to here that there’s an app that can do just that. And it does it quite well. Even better, the basic, introductory version that includes 2GB of online storage is free. Keep in mind, however, that the app and related service is only about a week old as we write this, so there are still a few rough spots and quite a few limitations. On the other hand, the company has been making its mark as a leader in online gaming since 2009 and several veteran Silicon Valley pioneers are at its helm.
Rather than trying to cram an iOS-version of Windows 7 and Office 2010 on your iPad, OnLive Desktop uses what’s known as virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) technology. The app simply connects you to a huge server up in the cloud that loads your own personal Windows virtual machine, which includes a copy of Office 2010 and a handful of popular accessories. You can save up to 2 GB of files on OnLive’s servers and access your storage space from anywhere via the Web. VDI is a bit like Apple’s Screen Sharing, but the “virtual” screen only appears on your iPad. Combine that with OnLive’s beefy servers and the iPad’s snappy graphics rendering and you’ll find the interface to be extremely responsive.
Getting Started When you install the app you’ll need to set up a free OnLive Desktop account. When you log in, your iPad screen will transform into a full Windows 7 desktop with shortcuts to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, sample files and an introductory tutorial in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. There’s also a folder that contains some selections from Microsoft’s Touch Pack, a handful of programs it uses to show off its multi-touch interface. (iOS fans will be amused but not necessarily impressed.)
Running Windows by touch takes a bit of getting used to. Taps, double-taps and dragging operate like their mouse-based equivalents. Right clicking, an essential operation in Windows, is performed by either a tap-and-hold (the contextual menu will appear after a brief delay) or the faster but more cumbersome act of holding one finger on an object and quickly tapping with a second.
What You Get (and what you don’t) As mentioned earlier, OnLive Desktop includes the full versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2010. They’re every bit as responsive as if they were running on a robust Windows desktop or laptop. Even dragging windows around the screen is surprisingly smooth and fluid, something you don’t always experience in a VDI environment. Creating complex Office documents on an iPad may be a bit much, but unlike the currently available iOS Office-emulators, there are no restrictions on what you can do with editing and formatting. Excel has its full formula library, charting and database tools. PowerPoint will support all your glitzy animations and transitions. Complex multi-column, graphics-rich Word documents will stay intact. This is Office 2010 in all its ribbon-laden, menu-less glory.
Working in Windows 7 itself at this point is a little like working in a shop where the IT department keeps its users on a very short leash. You don’t have access to the Control Panel at all and even the Task Manager is disabled. There’s no Windows Explorer and you only have access to your Documents library and its subfolders, which are stored online. It appears that the OnLive app caches files temporarily on your iPad and then syncs them in the background. Saving and opening reasonably sized files feels like you are working on a local hard drive.
Without access to the Task Manager, there’s no way (at this time) to kill a hung application. This only happened once during our testing when we were trying out one of the touch-based games. The only way to clear the problem was to log off for 30 minutes (this was confirmed by their tech support people). Should your network connection be interrupted while you’re working, you probably won’t loose any data but reconnecting can take awhile.
At this point, OnLive Desktop does not include a web browser, but blog posts on the company’s web site hint that this feature will be coming. We’re looking forward to seeing if Java and Flash will be available. Options for more storage (for a fee) and substantial enterprise support are definitely on the way.
Keyboard and No Mouse When you’re working with the OnLive Desktop, you no longer have access to the iOS keyboard. What you get instead is the smaller and significantly klutzier Windows onscreen keyboard, the same used on other Windows handheld devices. The small keycaps and excessively large tab, caps lock and shift keys will limit most of us to two-finger typing.
The good news is that the app will recognize any Bluetooth keyboard that’s paired with your iPad. Working with Apple’s iPad-size wireless keyboard was far easier. Windows recognized the cursor and Alt keys and the iPad responded to the dedicated function keys (brightness, volume, etc.). The one surprising exception was that the Windows environment doesn’t recognize the Control key. Some research online led us to the discovery that this was a fairly common problem with tablet-based Windows and wireless keyboards. As you would imagine, the lack of keyboard shortcuts for things like copying, pasting and saving is fairly painful.
Fortunately, a few tricks from the days of Windows 3.2 and DOS still work. Holding down the Alt/Option key, and the first letter of the name of the tab (“H” for Home, “F” for file, etc.) will open that tab in the ribbon and display hints for the next letter you need to type. It’s a bit clumsy, but Alt-F-S will save a file and Alt-H-C will copy what you have selected. You, of course, can also poke the appropriate tabs and ribbon items on your screen.
The Pen is Mighty Handwriting recognition is the Microsoft interface’s strongest suit. You can write longhand or, with greater accuracy, letter-by-letter. It’s constantly monitoring its dictionary as you write and does a surprisingly good job of correcting input it doesn’t immediately recognize, and transforming it into (mostly) the intended word. You can do your own correcting in the multi-line input panel and then hit the Insert button to place the text in your document. It’s quite elegant and compares favorably to the many iOS apps with handwriting recognition we’ve tried to date. Having a good stylus is helpful but our fat fingertip worked surprisingly well.
Bottom Line OnLive Desktop is somewhat incomplete but clearly more than a beta. It’s of unquestionable value for the casual user who needs access to Windows and Office. We wouldn’t depend on it quite yet for a make-or-break business deal. This is mostly due to the inability to kill a task or force a reboot and, like any VDI, it depends on a reliable network connection, which may not always be the case with a wireless device.
That said and with an eye to the future, OnLive Desktop is a groundbreaker of an app, especially for those of us who need to live part of our lives in a Windows world. It promises to be a great leap for the iPad in the enterprise. And for the Apple faithful and PC-fearful, if you need to run Windows, it’s far better to do it on somebody else’s computer.
Real Windows 7 OS and Office 2010 Fast and responsive Handles all Office features and formatting Effective handwriting recognition Works with Bluetooth keyboards (mostly)
Cons:
Poor recovery from application hangs, network problems No web browser or access Does not recognize Control key on external keyboard
Great review!