Solved Is anyone on here happy with windows 8?

[poppa bear]

What is it?

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It certainly ain't Superman! Maybe it's an iPhone or Tablet? Whatever you call it, aside from names that would cause me to be banned from this forum, M$ have lost their marbles!

With only the basic security programs loaded, the "Tablet" Start Menu already fills three windows of my 23inch wide screen monitor, with separate icons for each sub-menu item. Even reducing the size of the icons is only temporary, and needs to be redone each time on boot up.

And no direct boot into desktop or start menu in bottom task bar! Forget the work arounds! You've gotta be kiddng, right! Obviously M$ marketting have forgotten their first loyalty and function to serve dedicated working PC users, and have knee jerk reacted to the invasion of iPhones by targetting the younger age group with their "heads in clouds" philosophy!

I have been Windows oriented since Win98 through to Win7, notwithstanding the many glithces in Microsoft thinking. But this is too much! Unless there are radical changes to this exploratory probe by Microsoft, I will reluctantly switch over to Apple Mac. Enough is enough already!

 

[SIW2]

It is not really about the UI per se - though many seem to think it is.

It is about exhorting people to go online to the MS clouds.

They want you up there.

Once you are there you are unlikely to defect.

That is what it is all about.

 

[GMan]

Yeah SIW2, you and I have been the more vocal about this. It is very apparent though: "To get the best features, you should sign in with your MS account." - or similar - I've seen that a few times in the kiddie screen.

 

[Ex_Brit]

It most certainly is about the UI, sorry to disagree.

 

[GMan]

I'm just a little p.o.ed that in order to play Solitaire, I need to show my birth certificate and provide a blood sample for dna analysis a.k.a. have UAC enabled. lol that's just wrong.

 

[Ex_Brit]

LOL.

 

[SIW2]

Perhaps that wasn't clear - per se means as such.

Many are talking about whether the ui is more pleasant/worse/whatever from a user perspective.

That is not the purpose of it.

The reason it has been constructed this way is to keep showing you the metro apps , start screen ,not so subtle hints to sign up , etc - that is what it is about.

Apple have shown the way and MS is trying to get a piece of the action.

They are hoping the public won't catch on.

I expect they are right about that.

 

[Ex_Brit]

I can cope with the Apps (having made them all smaller so I don't have to keep scrolling sideways and got rid of half of them and added the ones I want) and the general UI although I think it's an insult to intelligence to take away the Desktop Start Orb/Menu but I do object strongly to being treated like an idiot by Microsoft and losing the ability to control manually how my Bluetooth keyboard gets paired/connected (see earlier post) because of their infernal and totally deficient Device Center Beta and not be given a direct link to report bugs. (Even without the Device Center Beta the process is hijacked by the infernal Metro interface).
You post on their forums and may or may not get a response and even then it's always a 'put up or shut up' type of response, never a 'thank you for your suggestions, we'll consider them'.
Unfortunately that has always been the way Microsoft works.

I hope they're reading this, however I doubt they read anything.

No wonder I'm an ex-Microsoft MVP (2009 - Computer Security).



.

 

[tcman50]

Living in a cardboard box under the freeway > Windows 8

 

[GMan]

Living in a cardboard box under the freeway > Windows 8

Maybe you want to rethink that though heh, lol?

[video=youtube;BoNTniZtIWI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoNTniZtIWI[/video]

 

[Ex_Brit]

Are you insinuating that Windows 8 is a pimped operating system...? ;-)

 

[Boris]

Perhaps that wasn't clear - per se means as such.

Many are talking about whether the ui is more pleasant/worse/whatever from a user perspective.

That is not the purpose of it.

The reason it has been constructed this way is to keep showing you the metro apps , start screen ,not so subtle hints to sign up , etc - that is what it is about.

Apple have shown the way and MS is trying to get a piece of the action.

They are hoping the public won't catch on.

I expect they are right about that.

I think you are spot on, though I think its as much about the windows store.

 

[poppa bear]

I think it's much simpler than all of that. They're trying to create a single platform which can be used for Desktop, Laptop, Tablet, Notebook and MS iPhone. And that is a nightmare. The only winners are Microsoft and the consumer suffers.

 

[GMan]

Another thought about this is that developers are going to sell their created apps in Store. Now of course, Microsoft is going to get a chunk of that too from being the host/salesman role.

Making money with your apps

Also noted near the bottom: "Advertising
Apps can also show ads to your customers. You can show ads from apps that also sell in-app purchases and from apps that have a trial period."


bleh meh

Advertisers don't already have enough ways that we already need to block?

 

[CalBear]

I think it's much simpler than all of that. They're trying to create a single platform which can be used for Desktop, Laptop, Tablet, Notebook and MS iPhone. And that is a nightmare. The only winners are Microsoft and the consumer suffers.

I have no idea if Windows 8 works well for tablets and phones. I hope it does for those who use those devices and for Microsoft's continued success.

However, for desktops and laptops (large and small) Windows 8 is a fine operating system. I'm a moderate power user developing and maintaining websites as well as quite a few projects requiring medium sized excel spreadsheets and newsletters using Word and Publisher. Windows 8 is easily configured to do all the tasks I've been doing over the years with XP and Win 7 with pretty much the same user interface. For now I have no use for any metro apps but if I do in the future they will be there if I want them.

 

[jimbo45]

I think it's much simpler than all of that. They're trying to create a single platform which can be used for Desktop, Laptop, Tablet, Notebook and MS iPhone. And that is a nightmare. The only winners are Microsoft and the consumer suffers.

I have no idea if Windows 8 works well for tablets and phones. I hope it does for those who use those devices and for Microsoft's continued success.

However, for desktops and laptops (large and small) Windows 8 is a fine operating system. I'm a moderate power user developing and maintaining websites as well as quite a few projects requiring medium sized excel spreadsheets and newsletters using Word and Publisher. Windows 8 is easily configured to do all the tasks I've been doing over the years with XP and Win 7 with pretty much the same user interface. For now I have no use for any metro apps but if I do in the future they will be there if I want them.

Hi there
Again I say the real problem with W8 for most business / or even casual office users is that real metro has currently a FATAL flaw in that it goes always into FULL SCREEN MODE when running a GENUINE metro app.

Business users often need to compare documents side by side and / or have several web sites open on a single screen at the same time.

Of course this can be done via the desktop -- but in designing a new OS which emphasises metro -- it should be possible to run metro apps in Windowed mode on a desktop -- a 60 inch plasma TV or even a 17 inch laptop IS NOT A TABLET OR MOBILE PHONE.

We shouldn't need EXTRA steps to start using stuff we use every day on our current computers.

I'm sure this will be fixed -- if not then the OS is doomed to fail.

Getting to the desktop via an extra step AFTER booting is not acceptable to power users either -- Ms will have to sort this out to prevent W8 just being just an interesting toy.

cheers
jimbo

 

[CalBear]

I don't understand the concern about metro. Just ignore it. All your business applications have been operating on the desktop so keep it that way. So you have to tap the windows key once when you boot, not a big deal. Who knows, maybe there will be a useful metro app some day. Having said that, I don't see any significant reason for a business upgrading from Windows 7 to 8. However, if you buy some new computers with Windows 8 installed they can easily be configured to be as friendly as Windows 7.

 

[poppa bear]

Well said Jimbo45. Couldn't agree more.

• To be forced to use icons for a start menu instead of an alphabetically listed cascading menu is cumbersome and ludicrous ... a backward step. I've got 7 full windows of icons already! One program, Studio Manager has 49 sub-menu icons!
• And I can't right click an icon in the start menu and send to desktop as a shortcut.
• Nor can I easily log off/on from the start orb to clear deleted cookies when running a program like CleanUp. I have to go back to metro to log off. And to log back on, lift the picture covering my user name, then back to metro, and finally desktop. That's three clicks the old way, versus six clicks the new way ... and that's progress! Hah!
• Then there are the power off, sleep, hibernate options in the start orb. And the list goes on!

To say something is not that inconvenient when it is an extra step or two that wasn't there before in earlier versions, is like saying backward steps and more inconvenience is OK. Get real! Is this a real user or a politician trying to sell us a line!

The thing is, why are Microsoft forcing us to go through metro? Keep it by all means, but put in an option to by-pass it and boot straight to desktop; and also put in a start menu and orb. How hard is that? Then everyone's happy.

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

I think it's much simpler than all of that. They're trying to create a single platform which can be used for Desktop, Laptop, Tablet, Notebook and MS iPhone. And that is a nightmare. The only winners are Microsoft and the consumer suffers.

I think your spot on poppa bear.

 

[poppa bear]

Are you insinuating that Windows 8 is a pimped operating system...? ;-)

Hi Ex_Brit, good to hear you again. Glad someone's keeping them honest. Loved the "pimped OS" ... Triple lol!

Cheers PB