More than half of Windows 8 users just treat it like Win 7

Haven't been able to find any good news. At least this is funny :

Put bluntly, it would be fair to say that most desktop PC users never use Microsoft's vaunted new UI at all – or they only do so when they absolutely have to.

..they avoid the Start Screen like a leper wearing a loud shirt

Read more at:

More than half of Windows 8 users just treat it like Windows 7 ? The Register

 

[Kari]

I admit I exaggerated, with purpose. My point is that he told that Start Screen, a feature easily disabled and never again seen, is for him a reason to go back to 7.

 

[SIW2]

I don't really know what he thinks. I wouldn't presume to try and guess.

Does it matter? People can like or dislike whatever - up to them . It doesn't upset me either way.

 

[Kari]

Siw, just to make this clear: I did not try and guess. I simply commented something he stated really clearly:

That is the very reason I joined Eight Forums to make my laptop usable and to see if Metro could be removed form the system as I considered it a full screen AD from M$ alas it looks to be impossible. I will upgrade to Windows 7 if Window 8.1 is any thing close to what I am hearing just a little eye candy.

 

[pparks1]

Siw, just to make this clear: I did not try and guess. I simply commented something he stated really clearly:

That is the very reason I joined Eight Forums to make my laptop usable and to see if Metro could be removed form the system as I considered it a full screen AD from M$ alas it looks to be impossible. I will upgrade to Windows 7 if Window 8.1 is any thing close to what I am hearing just a little eye candy.

Kari, I completely agree with you on this. If you have a box with 8 and you have a valid license for 8, I cannot see the sense in buying a copy of Windows 7 and going back to 7. My 8 really looks like 7. Although I do miss some of the aero stuff, it's close enough with boot to desktop, no start screen and all default apps switched to non Metro apps.

My wife has a new touchscreen laptop with Windows 8 and we have Start8 installed on there as well. She rarely ever touches the screen and doesn't use any of the new UI apps either. She's never once said she wants 8 off there or to go back to 7 or Vista. She did however question whether she really had to use the tile start screen though.

 

[Coke Robot]

Siw, just to make this clear: I did not try and guess. I simply commented something he stated really clearly:

That is the very reason I joined Eight Forums to make my laptop usable and to see if Metro could be removed form the system as I considered it a full screen AD from M$ alas it looks to be impossible. I will upgrade to Windows 7 if Window 8.1 is any thing close to what I am hearing just a little eye candy.

Kari, I completely agree with you on this. If you have a box with 8 and you have a valid license for 8, I cannot see the sense in buying a copy of Windows 7 and going back to 7. My 8 really looks like 7. Although I do miss some of the aero stuff, it's close enough with boot to desktop, no start screen and all default apps switched to non Metro apps.

My wife has a new touchscreen laptop with Windows 8 and we have Start8 installed on there as well. She rarely ever touches the screen and doesn't use any of the new UI apps either. She's never once said she wants 8 off there or to go back to 7 or Vista. She did however question whether she really had to use the tile start screen though.

What was the whole point of buying a touchscreen laptop then?

 

[Coke Robot]

THERE WAS NO "CHOICE" TAKEN OUT OF WINDOWS 8. That is perception, not reality. The REALITY is is that there is a functioning UI there that is better than or equal to the one before it.

Well, in all previous versions of Windows you had the new choice and the old classic choice. In this version you won't have that choice. So, I would argue a choice was removed. As to whether or not you feel it's better than the one before it, that is up for you to decide. I find the new start screen and the new apps an absolute horror. Don't use them at all. They are terrible as far as I am concerned.

It was called Windows Classic.

Windows Classic theme, as in Windows 2000 era UI design.

Windows Classic isn't present in Windows 8 as that isn't a UI design remotely used anymore.

 

[Coke Robot]

So...

I still haven't really gotten a good answer from certain persons (OP) why want Windows 8 then if it's so terrible and restrictive of "choice?"

 

[Ray8]

I have two touch screen devices, neither were purchased because of the touch screen, but because I wanted a Windows device in the form-factor that each provided. That may well be why some choose a laptop that has a touch screen as an ancillary feature. I'll bet those laptops also have a touch pad or button to control the cursor.

Windows 8 has not provided anything useful by way of touch for me. I don't use the apps, as they offer nothing to me and prefer a full desktop, especially with my tablet. Touch is simply not the be all and end all of features in a tablet, laptop or whatever, for everyone. I also find touch to be pretty clunky and unwieldy in most cases, especially in the desktop. And the finger prints alone are enough for me not to use touch, except in very rare circumstances.

 

[Coke Robot]

I have two touch screen devices, neither were purchased because of the touch screen, but because I wanted a Windows device in the form-factor that each provided. That may well be why some choose a laptop that has a touch screen as an ancillary feature. I'll bet those laptops also have a touch pad or button to control the cursor.

Windows 8 has not provided anything useful by way of touch for me. I don't use the apps, as they offer nothing to me and prefer a full desktop, especially with my tablet. Touch is simply not the be all and end all of features in a tablet, laptop or whatever, for everyone. I also find touch to be pretty clunky and unwieldy in most cases, especially in the desktop. And the finger prints alone are enough for me not to use touch, except in very rare circumstances.

So basically just to use the tablets as netbooks minus a connected keyboard?

 

[lehnerus2000]

W2K8

Windows Classic isn't present in Windows 8 as that isn't a UI design remotely used anymore.

W2K8 R2 uses that GUI by default.

 

[Ray8]

So basically just to use the tablets as netbooks minus a connected keyboard?

One is a notebook, as I've posted before, with a keyboard and a swivel screen that folds over the keyboard. The other is a pure tablet, with a keyboard cover and wireless mouse. Both work infinitely better with a keyboard and mouse, than with touch. I simply don't understand the fascination with touch on a device used as a PC.

 

[Rickkins]

Windows Classic theme, as in Windows 2000 era UI design.

Windows Classic isn't present in Windows 8 as that isn't a UI design remotely used anymore.

You mean other than the billion or so users currently using it at this very moment, right...??

 

[turbofish]

Billion or so users?

 

[Kari]

Billion or so users?

Was wondering the same...

 

[boohbah]

Do not exaggerate, do not "invent" quotes and sources

 

[Ray8]

I thought that there were around 1.2 billion or so Windows users in the world. If Microsoft claims to have sold 100 million Windows 8 licences (which is smoke and mirrors), then there would be 1.1 billion Windows 7 and earlier users with the classic start menu, which is what I think Rickkins meant. As this diagram demonstrates (which indicates just under one billion Windows XP, Vista and 7 users):



Update: Based on 1.4 billion Windows users, that means there are more than 1.2 billion Windows XP, Vista and 7 users in the world.

 

[SIW2]

I believe Miss Julie agreed to 1.4bn recently, and that is how net applications and statcounter figures translate to 60m win8 installations.

 

[Coke Robot]

Windows Classic isn't present in Windows 8 as that isn't a UI design remotely used anymore.

W2K8 R2 uses that GUI by default.

Windows Server 2008 is an operating system for the server platform. The UI does not need posh shiny adornments, roundedness, or transparent effects. It's called prioritizing system resources, not prioritizing the user being distracted by less than 10 percent of the while UI being transparent and shiny and gradient.

But in Windows 8 and even Server 2012, there are more colorizing options and personalizing options available. There is a better focus on what is a correct Windows UI design (if Aero design in Windows should had rebranded Windows as Chrome since that is obviously the main point with the design theme) meaning, there is less focus on the what surrounds the contents of the window.

 

[Coke Robot]

So basically just to use the tablets as netbooks minus a connected keyboard?

One is a notebook, as I've posted before, with a keyboard and a swivel screen that folds over the keyboard. The other is a pure tablet, with a keyboard cover and wireless mouse. Both work infinitely better with a keyboard and mouse, than with touch. I simply don't understand the fascination with touch on a device used as a PC.

That sounds more tedious to use and doesn't strike me as any more portable/convenient than a laptop.

I don't get it, why do you have that tablet with touch if you don't even really use touch?

And again I will say, it's called a stylus.

 

[Coke Robot]

Windows Classic theme, as in Windows 2000 era UI design.

Windows Classic isn't present in Windows 8 as that isn't a UI design remotely used anymore.

You mean other than the billion or so users currently using it at this very moment, right...??

Did not realize Windows 2000 is being used by a billion or so people....