Do you agree the Windows 8.1 Start Button is a Joke?

[Wenda]

Alright, Mystere...

Against my better judgement, I've decided to sacrifice (waste?) a quarter of my monthly allowance to give this a try.

Downloading now, and taking an image of my W8 setup.

I'll get back to you... but I will be marking harshly.


Wenda.

LOL, Wenda! You're downloading this because you want the 8.1 Preview ISO in your collection of 1MIL+1 OSs aren't you?

Not meaning to be critical, but you know darn well by now what the changes are.

At least you'll experience it first hand.

OK, busted. Well, partially. And yes, I did get the ISO...

I'm on it now, just finished installing for the second time. It didn't like my USB3 drivers and went into an unrecoverable reboot loop the first time..

It's a clean, standalone setup, not in a VM, I figured if I was going to do this, it may as well be done properly. I haven't had a chance to look around much yet, but have managed to get rid of Skydrive and that net-search, which is good. Drivers for both GFX cards installed no problem as did the chipset drivers.

Something which will no doubt shock you all, is that I'm going to give it a go without installing a 3rd-party start menu. I have, however, enabled the Quick-Launch toolbar.

Anyway, I'm off to install the rest of the hardware drivers, and have a look around.

Oh, I can't seem to turn system restore on. Any ideas?


Wenda.

 

[mick823]

The first thing that bothered me when installing the W8.1 preview from the ISO is that you either give them your e-mail address or you can't finish the installation. With W8 you could skip this step and use a local account. The start button they give you adds no value. What is the difference whether you click on a start button that takes you to the modern desktop or you drag your mouse into the lower left corner and click to get to the same place? I installed W8.1 on a spare HD and fooled around with for an hour or so. The smaller tiles are a nice feature but other than that it doesn't do a thing for people that want the traditional desktop.

 

[CalBear]

You're making assumptions, and jumping to conclusions. I am as well, but your assumptions are illogical. Like assuming metro will only ever be one screen. This is a work in progress, it will eventually have all the same functionality as Win32.

So if it will have all the same functionality as Win32, multi-screen, multi-windows, mouse, keyboard, etc., why are we playing around with screens and apps that are in no way as capable as the "eventual" "modern" Windows? Why not just add "apps capability" to the desktop, perhaps with a nice window with tiles for your favorite apps?

If you could put the Start Screen and All Apps screen in a Modern Mix window the future would be Now

 

[davegx]

If you still have issues with Windows 8(.1)'s Start screen, then I guess you can suck it up or Windows 8 just isnt for you. Use your third party add on, stay with Windows 7 or stop whining. There is nothing wrong with the Start screen and we dont need a pop up menu. Sometimes you have to accept the change or forgo it.

 

[KarterJK]

It adds exactly 2 features. There is a button to click on instead of just going to the corner and clicking on the small tile that appears. Right-click adds exactly one feature, an easy way to shutdown/reboot.

It does not provide the nice compact well organized Start Menu of Windows 7 and previous versions of Windows. Fortunately Classic Shell and others still provide full featured start buttons/menus.

Yes.....a very cruel joke

 

[Wenda]

If you still have issues with Windows 8(.1)'s Start screen, then I guess you can suck it up or Windows 8 just isnt for you. Use your third party add on, stay with Windows 7 or stop whining. There is nothing wrong with the Start screen and we dont need a pop up menu. Sometimes you have to accept the change or forgo it.

Or work around it to your satisfaction.

FYI, I am NOT using a start menu ATM. And I've been using 8 since beta day one. So I doubt it's 'not for me'.

Don't be so patronising.


Wenda.

 

[CalBear]

If you still have issues with Windows 8(.1)'s Start screen, then I guess you can suck it up or Windows 8 just isnt for you. Use your third party add on, stay with Windows 7 or stop whining. There is nothing wrong with the Start screen and we dont need a pop up menu. Sometimes you have to accept the change or forgo it.

Windows 8 and 8.1 are great particularly with a few tweaks like Classic Shell and ModernMix . I have quite a few utilities I almost never use. The Start Screen and "Metro" Apps fall into that same category. As long as Windows continues to support proper productivity programs like Office, Dreamweaver, Autocad, CorelDraw, Visual Studio, etc, there is nothing to "suck up" or "forgo".

 

[Wenda]

OK.

It's on. It runs. It's 4AM.

I'm going to bed.


Wenda.

 

[andyparks]

How do I upgrade to windows 8.1 can any body tell me how and I don't want to use a stupid iso

 

[HippsieGypsie]

OK.

It's on. It runs. It's 4AM.

I'm going to bed.


Wenda.

Wow! That's dedication to see things through! :thumbup:

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
What I would like is for the start button to be able to say launch one of my Custom toolbars e.g Programs. I'm sure the start button will have SOME functionality at some point in the future --currently it just seems a bit pointless.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[HippsieGypsie]

How do I upgrade to windows 8.1 can any body tell me how and I don't want to use a stupid iso

I tried updating via the store twice to no avail. I resigned to the ISO. I noticed Hapochi And others were successful, though.

www.eightforums.com/showthread.php?t=27188

Good luck.

 

[caperjack]

How do I upgrade to windows 8.1 can any body tell me how and I don't want to use a stupid iso

iso's are not stupid ,and win8.1 is only a preview,and if you have to ask how to install it maybe it best you not ! ,it can cause many problems to you system ,i suggest you not install it on you main computer

 

[Philgo]

I like it, I used Classic Shell with 8, now I'm going to get used to the way it is.

 

[Mystere]

Against my better judgement, I've decided to sacrifice (waste?) a quarter of my monthly allowance to give this a try.

I'll get back to you... but I will be marking harshly.

Lol, I didn't say you should use 8.1 if you don't want to. In fact, given it's preview status, i'd say you shouldn't if you are that skeptical... So don't blame me if you have problems.

My point was about the future. You seem convinced that Windows is moving to a single screen tablet only universe, and I am quite confident that that is not the case. The situation we have now is because Windows 8.x is a transitional OS, where they are rolling out functionality in yearly upgrades. Don't assume that the way things are now will always be the case, although some things certainly will not go back to the way they were (Ie, they will never return to the old Start Menu because they had very solid, real reasons to ditch it.. they might come up with something else that is different from the current start menu, but MS will never return to the old way).

Metro still has a ways to go before it's at feature parity of Win32.

What I'm saying is that it was available as a local only calendar App in windows 8 but not in 8.1, so eventually I will be forced to log in to Microsoft account to use my PC, I don't like being dragged in to something I don't want to do.

Does it? I've never used the Calendar app in Windows 8, so I just tried it now and it automatically used my Mail account and did not give me the choice to not use a web account.

So if it will have all the same functionality as Win32, multi-screen, multi-windows, mouse, keyboard, etc., why are we playing around with screens and apps that are in no way as capable as the "eventual" "modern" Windows? Why not just add "apps capability" to the desktop, perhaps with a nice window with tiles for your favorite apps?

If you could put the Start Screen and All Apps screen in a Modern Mix window the future would be Now

Because Metro is a new OS, and it cannot run on the same "screen" as Win32 apps. MS could put the entire Metro screen in a window, but that's just like a remote desktop, and that would probably be very confusing to a lot of people.

Further, the first version of Metro only allowed 3 "sizes" of apps, because the API was not yet mature.. 8.1 expands that to allow adjustable sizes...

The real point however, is that MS actually treats the legacy desktop as an "app" in metro, not the other way around.

 

[Wenda]

WARNING: Long Post.

Well, I'm playing with it (8.1, you dirty buggers) now, as a fresh install, not an upgrade (you can't do an upgrade install anyway, with the ISO).

I am not using any 3rd-party start menus, but I have enabled the old Quick-Launch toolbar in case I do need it. And I did... see point #1 below.

And, so far, I only have a few problems/issues...

1/ The Pin To Start function doesn't always work. The main Start Screen is quite buggy.

2/ The absolute mess they've made of File Manager/Explorer. I'll hack/work around that one.

3/ The removal of the ability to take system images natively. No biggie as I have the full retail of EaseUS ToDo 5.8

4/ Stuck in an MS account. I tried to create another, but it wouldn't let me create an Admin account. I always operate in Admin mode, so I stayed in the MS account. UAC is set to the second 'step', as always.

Some things I do like...

1/ The new All Apps screen. THIS is what the SS should have been all along. But wasn't, cos you couldn't go straight to it, or config it. It still scrolls across about nine screens (@1920x1080 yet), but I do have a lot of stuff installed. Creative Suite CS2 and Photo-Shop CS5 sprayed tiles everywhere, but I expected that.

2/ The added functionality to the 'guts menu'. This is the one part of 8/8.1 that I really miss when using my Vista/W7 setups, as I use it so much. Now for the ability to easily add to it...

3/ Internet Explorer 11. Desktop version is great, but the Metro version is actually worth using this time, unlike the W8 incarnation. Neither the Google Toolbar or the Bing Bar will work on the desktop version unless Enhanced Compatibility is turned off.

4/ Not surprisingly, I love the fact that none of the functions that were moved to Metro appear to have been lost to us 'fogies' on the desktop.

5/ And, of course, yes, by dint of much early-hours faffing about last night, I managed to almost totally isolate the thing from the internet without the 'nod' from moi first! YES!! This was my major fear with W8.1

Some comments: While I could have gotten it from the Store, and been (apparently) able to do an upgrade install, I'm glad I chose the ISO. The first install went for a Burton when 8.1 took a dislike to my m/board's USB3 drivers. Having the ISO meant I avoided a second download (on 15GB/month!!?). The generic graphic drivers for both my chipsets (Intel 3000HD, and GeForce GT555M) were rubbish, but the latest W8 drivers from Intel & Nvidia fixed that.

I haven't tested many of the 35+ games in my W8 setup, but the two I did test were both 'oldies', as I figured most of the later stuff shouldn't be too much of a problem. The original Call of Duty runs like a dream, and Halo: Combat Evolved likewise, but 8'1 automatically(??) sets Compatibility Mode for it. Hmm... I'd rather do the comp.testing manually, but that's just me.

All my graphics programs (Photo-Shop, GIMP, Inkscape etc) work just fine, although I did upgrade from Paint-Shop Pro 8 to PSP 9. PSP 8 isn't happy on 8.1, PSP 9 didn't like W7 or W8, but for some reason loves 8.1... go figure. Office 2010 installed and activated without drama, as did PowerDVD 10 and K-Lite.



I spent around fourteen hours on this OS yesterday, including d/l time for the ISO and imaging the Win 8 setup... I ended up falling asleep at the keyboard at 4am this morning. And I've put another 8 into it today. I now have an Os that I wouldn't say is better or worse than Win 8, but is certainly much more refined.

At this stage, yes. I can live with it. But it does have flaws, and things I dislike. I said I was going to mark harshly, Mystere, and believe me, I have.

I give it 7½ out of 10. (W8 got a 7, as did Vista. W7 got a 9).

Off to play around some more....



Wenda.

 

[davehc]

To the thread title.
It is my belief, that, in the Microsoft programming section, and, in particular, in the portion dedicated to Windows 8.1/feedback, there lurks a malicious programmer with, either, a sense of humour or, unable to comprehend simple requests.

If you look through the astronomical number of complaints, regarding the menu, 70% refer to the "Start button". I have even remarked on this several time in earlier posts.
What users really wanted was a return to the old menu style. This evil gnome has given back what they asked for - the start button.

 

[iriki]

Having installed Windows 8.1 yesterday at work, and looking at the start button, today while back to the interwebz I went to google I typed back "windows 8.1 joke"

Fortunately this thread was already created, so I specifically registerd an account in this site so we all can (once again) mock Micro$oft for their stupid design choices.

 

[caperjack]

The first install went for a Burton when 8.1 took a dislike to my m/board's USB3 drivers..

.

just have to ask the origin of went for a Burton.
just because that's my last name ,thanks,and nice to see you are enjoying 8.1 a bit,i have installed it but iam away for the weekend and using my old Dell laptop with winxp

 

[Wenda]

World War Two British Army slang term for one of their mates who's been killed.

Appropriate, because that's what my USB3 drivers did.to my W8.1 install.


Wenda.