Dear readers: How would you change or improve Windows 8?

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Dear readers: How would you change or improve Windows 8?[/h] Summary: Criticize or evangelize: some love it but many hate it: Windows 8. Dear readers, what changes would you make before you are swayed into buying Microsoft's latest offering?

By Zack Whittaker for Between the Lines
August 23, 2012 -- 12:28 GMT (05:28 PDT)


Windows 8 has been called many things: a "design disaster," an "unmitigated disaster," and even been likened to Vista, which is perhaps a little harsh. That said, it has also dubbed a "fresh start" for Microsoft.

The code is final, the hardware and computer makers have the finalized software, and ordinary users and enterprise customers will receive the updated Microsoft operating system later this year in October.


Yet many customers are wary over purchasing licenses or upgrading to Windows 8 in fear that the new interface is too confusing. That's the crux of the matter: people like to know where things are and on the most part do not like radical change.


In one real-life, hands-on demonstration of the barriers faced by ordinary users, Chris Pirillo sat his father down at a fresh install of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (which has since been released to manufacturing albeit with a pretty weak 'tutorial') and left him to his own devices. It's painful to watch, but it rounds-up exactly how many feel about the design of the new operating system.

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[lehnerus2000]

There are tutorials from various sources - F1 key (desktop) and others.

MS Help files have been getting progressively worse as time goes by.
IMO, the XP era ones were the best.

In W7 (on the rare occasions that I try it) the majority of the results have nothing to do with what I typed in.

IMO, that's why there are so many sites like VistaForums, SevenForums, EightForums, etc..

 

[Coke Robot]

I'd like it to have a bit more detailed but simple guide through on how to use Windows 8 after OOBE or even a tile on the Start Screen of an app, titled, Let's Start. Huh, I may become an app developer....

For example, the current guide shows you how to pull up the Charms bar, great, but what else? I can only go to the top right corner? What about other corners, what's behind those corners? Or how to close an app. I was expecting Microsoft to have a better tutorial. Heck, I learned how to use their Touch Mouse better than what I would had gathered from that screen!

 

[mdmd]

I have looked at the help screens and they seem fairly useful.
Windows is so easy to use, some of this stuff requires no thought.
They can never replace a 900 page Microsoft PRESS Administrators Book or Windows 8 for Dummies.
OMG! I am not going to start being critical of the help files now!
In all previous versions that I can remember, MS had a welcome tutorial that ran automatically.
You needed to disable it to get rid of it.
That's one of the first things I always got rid of first.

 

[Colonel Travis]

A lot of Metro haters (me included) would agree. That's the point - the problem with 8 isn't tablets.

Well in a sense it is. W8 offers a Tablet PC type touchscreen gui as a desktop OS which will simply baffle any novice user as well as trip the advanced while the advanced will put more effort in to find out where things are.

That's what I'm saying.

Tablets - fine for 8
Desktop - what the hell is this crap?

That tutorial review is funny. I would disagree somewhat with one thing ZW wrote in the original link you posted: "That's the crux of the matter: people like to know where things are and on the most part do not like radical change."

Start button, for example. My beef is not just that it's gone. It could have been replaced with something else that wasn't Metro, and I could have said that the replacement works much better. But with 8, what the Start button was replaced with is what bothers me. A lot of 8 lovers, despite being told over and over and over, simply don't understand this.

The cell phone was a radical change from a land line phone in your house.
The smart phone was a radical change from the common cell phone.
The iPad was a radical change from, say, laptops.
The jet engine was a radical change from a prop plane.
A prop plane was a radical change from cars.
A car was a radical change from a horse.

On and on. If the change serves a practical purpose, I'm all for it, and it is a fact that most people are the same way - even the ones who are perceived to be nothing but stubborn mules. Otherwise the entire human race would have never left the stone age. It should be just as obvious 8 isn't getting the same warm welcome 7 had at this comparable point. That's not the same as saying 8 will be a bust. A lot of people like 8. But even a bunch of 8 users are using it only after they bypass the Metro stuff. Over in 7 Forums, you can read a lot of super expert computer people who don't want anything to do with 8, or only if Metro is dumped so they can work with the rest of the OS. They are anything but change haters and it's yet another example of how this anti-change argument isn't well thought out.

 

[SIW2]

The fear of change thing win8 lovers keep trotting out is complete bull.

 

[Kernel]

The fear of change thing win8 lovers keep trotting out is complete bull.

Yes, of course correct.

I would love to be challenged by an interface and system that baffled me continuously, but actually was well thought out and designed by brilliance.

I'd sit at my pc for hours or days on end until I learned it and be thankful.

I'm not thankful for 8.

 

[Mustang]

@ Colonel Travis, SIW2 & Kernel last 3 posts:

Are we the last voice of reason, or the "Last Post"? In the tradition of the Star Spangled Banner:

"And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night, that our flag, (legacy start menu & GUI), was still there!"

In the face of adversity and empty clamor, reason and common sense will ultimately prevail.

 

[pparks1]

Oh yeah, I forgot...

It really needs a utility so that you can change the start screen picture to something that you actually like and want to use rather than that crap that they provided out of the box.

 

[Night Hawk]

I have looked at the help screens and they seem fairly useful.
Windows is so easy to use, some of this stuff requires no thought.
They can never replace a 900 page Microsoft PRESS Administrators Book or Windows 8 for Dummies.
OMG! I am not going to start being critical of the help files now!
In all previous versions that I can remember, MS had a welcome tutorial that ran automatically.
You needed to disable it to get rid of it.
That's one of the first things I always got rid of first.

View attachment 8118

You always see a Getting Started screen of a different type since the Legacy days you simply uncheck to prevent from starting up with Windows for the basic intros. With any retail purchase a book or booklet is included in the retail package. Help file are most for quick reference and not intended as tutorials.

 

[mdmd]

Yeah, but the video dude was flummoxed. Not knowing about F1 or winkey = not good. There will always be severe opponents to metro 8UI. The intensity and hard core rigid disdain of Microsoft's new product is obvious.

To improve 8 is a monumental topic that could take years of discussion. No metro, a start button, more game support, better app features, less installation woes, etc... the list is endless...

Who labeled this as a tutorial?
The author of the article is a feverish critic of 8.
The article "Windows 8 Tutorial is a joke"

 

[pparks1]

Yeah, but the video dude was flummoxed. Not knowing about F1 or winkey = not good.

But it's not unheard of either. When I have demonstrated Windows 8 at work, to quite a number of people, many were confused once they got to the desktop or into a metro app on how to get back to the Start Screen. I found hardly anybody used the Windows key at work....but all were heading to the corner to click on where the Start button wasn't.

 

[mdmd]

The Personal Computer is marvel of complexity and utility. It is not a home appliance - yet. Anyone placed in front of such a device should be encouraged to make effective use of it. If 8 is too complex or confusing, then some assistance may be required. Why should MS dumb down the entire project to the lowest common denominator if that bloats the code base and slows performance?

 

[pparks1]

Why should MS dumb down the entire project to the lowest common denominator if that bloats the code base and slows performance?

I didn't say they should, but I'm not convinced that Metro or the lack of a start button or the current changes really improves it's performance.

Time will tell how people like it. It doesn't matter one iota if I care for it or not.

 

[Night Hawk]

Practicality and Accessibility are too common denominators! That's why! When Vista brought in the Aero MS made a smart move by still seeing the Classic view option to be the 'go between" element that sadly lacks with 8!

By the time 7 was out the Aero was the accepted option in Windows. With 8 however you suddenly find a totally different OS leaving most confused at first sight without any basics to cover the changes made! How do you recommend some contorted OS to a novice user who is just now deciding to move up out of XP or Vista and may not have had a chance to run 7 into a "Mystery OS"?

Right there you are confronted by the MS hindsight when they decided to change the OS platform's user interface without any bridges to cross over to. The video accurately sums up the confusion most will be in and was quite accurately illustrated by the author as to how most will react.

For the advanced user the changes are awkward to say the least while they will automatically explore and familiarize themselves with the changes made with any new version regardless. The average home user who reads the mail and watches YouTube they will be lost at first sight. That's the harsh reality check being thrust onto the consumer market.

 

[mdmd]

All this talk of Aero, I never noticed it. I just see square windows with data inside.
This 8, it won't be around for long. They probably have divisions within the company that will be contracted for support. And another "future projects" design engineers group already writing concepts of 9.

You know, I would hazard a guess that MS is not really thinking about backrubs for anyone if confused. They kinda sorta seem to have a monopoly on general purpose operating systems.
Didn't someone at MS make 62 billion dollars last year?
Any feature that they can remove, that does not need to be supported, will save them millions of dollars. They expect 3rd party and APP developers to "get their cut" and support what "they" sell.

 

[Night Hawk]

ViStart's Start8 is a good example of "Start menu for sale"! 3rd party vendors will always want a piece of the pie with any new version regardless. Codec for sale from 3rd party sources are common for W.Media Player and likely why MS decided to yank the Media Center and dvd playback support from WMP to begin with.

The setback comes to those who simply don't buy into every 3rd party option but have been using what has already been included in Windows. Here I've often had CyberLink's PowerDVD on at times while still seeing WMP as the default audio and video playback option since it supports video capture playback as well as audio all in one program. Fortunately the capture card has it's own playback for different file types while 8 simply won't be on the list of upgrades as far as the main OS.

 

[BFG]

One thing that keeps me going back to my windows 7 installation is the lack of easy access to recent apps and documents. I'm so used to downloading a file and then opening the start menu and going to the recent items menu to open the file.

 

[Night Hawk]

Well the basics are this new approach by MS instead of simplying things makes life harder for most! You have to go through a good deal of otherwise unnecessary steps to get anything done!

The addons like Classic Shell can make 8 bearable while the facts are not so pleasant for the usual tasks you have been accustomed to. Even when originally going from 3.1 and dos to 95 I never ran into a time when I found it was a more involved task just to get something done. The blog writers point back to those two when comparing the new 88 gui compared to XP, Vista, or 7.

Win 95 simplified things by seeing Windows auto load for the first time rather then typing "win" at the dos prompt. You now had desktop shortcuts readily made for you by program installers rather then manually creating them for the exe files.

Now compare that to going through this to get to that and then existing and going back to the desktop to do this and then bringing the Start screen back up again over and over without any 3rd party help? You're going to get tired of the constant back and forth and back and forth and either opt for addons or dump 8 entirely!

For the 8 lovers they will look at the thrills of a new gui as well as new version while not be looking at what others see! Despite the core improvements all those get overshadowed with the frustrations many will have trying to learn how to run this one.

Let's say that the "Bridge over Troubled Waters" simply hasn't been provided by MS when deciding to make this amount of vast changes to their main OS!

 

[DooRules]

Even Samsung has introduced their own start menu for their own W8 pc's. I guess they know better tham MS what consumers want, lol.

Samsung's S Launcher feels like an old friend in Windows 8, brings back the Start Menu :: TweakTown USA Edition

 

[FSeal]

The Personal Computer is marvel of complexity and utility. It is not a home appliance - yet. Anyone placed in front of such a device should be encouraged to make effective use of it. If 8 is too complex or confusing, then some assistance may be required. Why should MS dumb down the entire project to the lowest common denominator if that bloats the code base and slows performance?

Wait... Are you actually saying that Metro is NOT Windows dumbed down to the lowest common denominator and bloating the code?!?!? Because it very very much IS doing both of those.

Metro is Windows dumbed down for chimps plain and simple. Simple knuckle punching of large icons to launch single full screen similarly spare (in design and functionality) apps so as to not confuse people or animals of little computer experience. Koko the Gorilla could use Windows 8, that's how dumbed down it is...

And if Metro were optionally completely left off of Windows 8 Professional, the codebase would be /considerably/ smaller!