Its heart is in the right place, but it's also clunky and awkward. ![]() ![]() In our original review of the Alpha hardware, we said if its custom UI : "The Alpha interface is clearly first-generation stuff. While the "big picture mode" version of Steam, designed for use on television screens from 10 feet away, worked well, the Alpha UI was a different matter. The original Alpha UI, which is about to be replaced. Both the Alpha UI and Steam were set up to be controlled with a Microsoft Xbox 360 game controller, without requiring a keyboard or mouse. The Alpha UI, as it was originally called, let you change some settings, connect to networks and displays, or exit to the Windows 8 desktop, but its primary purpose was to funnel gamers to the built-in Steam software, which is an online game store and library created by game publisher Valve. Packing gaming components into a small square box for around $500 in the US, the Alienware Alpha hardware originally shipped with a custom software layer on top of Windows 8, allowing gamers to boot it up and launch right into a menu for playing games. The console-like desktop is ditching its Alpha UI user interface for a new version, called HiveMind, which adds extra multimedia functionality and many more customization options. Dell is hitting reset on the software bundled with its Alienware Alpha gaming desktop.
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