Windows 8 six months in: Thoughts from a power(less) user

Crave's Eric Mack has felt at home in Windows for decades. Now that his home has a fresh coat of paint, he's still not sure if it's an improvement.

Since then I've been courted by other colonial powers, but I was conditioned at a young age to the ways of Windows and -- no matter how it came to be this way -- it still feels like home. Now my home has just received a fresh coat of paint. And even if the painters did a shoddy job and painted over all the switches and outlets and left a mess on the hardwood floor, I'm willing to wait for them to come clean things up and get my home looking better than ever.

Windows 8 six months in: Thoughts from a power(less) user | Crave - CNET

 

[XweAponX]

Hi Guys,
Let me tell you about my nearly unbelievable first 3 weeks after buying my HP Windows 8 64 bit computer. I got used to or found my way around most of the things that new users complain about fairly quickly. I was personalizing and loading in my files and music and generally trying to make this PC as much like my old XP as possible. I noticed that every time I took a bathroom break and came back it had gone to the lock screen and I had to log in again. Each time this happened I went through all the settings I could find that could possibly be causing this. Each time I thought I had solved the problem. And each time it happened again. Now I will tell you I always disable the screensaver (by setting it to none) very early in the process of setting up any PC. I learned very early on that screensavers can play havoc with defrags and the like. Well anyway, After about 3 weeks of trying over and over to solve this problem I was about to try fixing it with a hammer. But I managed to restrain myself and started going through the settings for the millionth or so time when I noticed that Microsoft in their infinite wisdom had set the screensaver to come on after 2 minutes and to require a password upon resume. Could it be? Even with the screensaver set to "none"? I tried setting the wait time to 9999 and unchecked the password on resume option. Guess what? It worked! Problem solved! Are you kidding me? This had been happening with the screensaver set to "none"? Come on Microsoft!!! Give a guy a break. Must have been one of those "Internal Jokes" that they build in so they can get a good laugh at idiots like me pulling their hair out and going utterly insane trying to fix a simple (to them) problem. Like I said earlier. It was / is almost unbelievable.

That is totally unbelievable! I understand though. Windows 8 screensaver options are almost identical to Windows 7, and there are three levels of settings:




The first you choose your screensaver and the TIME it will start showing

The next leve are the "Power Settings" - which override the settings on the initial Screen Saver area. So if your screen saver is set to start after 30 minutes, it will never start ever if you have your Power Plan Setings set to turn off the Monitor after 15 minutes.

Consequently, THESE settings are overridden in the "Advanced Power Settings" area - And you see that here is where you can choose or not choose to have security on wakeup.

And deep down further in the advanced panel, are sleep options which override the 1st two layers of settings - And the proper setting for those is to use the word "Never" rather than the number 0.

I use the Ribbon screensaver all the time, it is the best one I think, and the closest one to the one MacOS screensaver I like so it matches my Mac when they are both on. But the other reason I use is, is that it does not have graphics to squish through the GPU, it is just random colours. Some of the other screensavers, like ones that show your kids photos, have to use some graphics power.

But the reason why in Windows 8 you can use all screensavers without worry to it affecting processes like "Defrag" is because Defrag no longer works the same way it did in Windows 7, now it operates more like Raxxo Perfect Dick, which optimises the drive rather than moving stuff around. This is due to the superfluity of SSD hard drives and hybrid drives put into systems these days.

 

[MisterMike]

Thanks Guys,
I just kind of freaked out on the fact that Microsoft had (in my opinion of course) such a short default wait time for the screensaver and that they had it set by default to require a password on resume even when you would choose "none" for your screensaver! I came to 8 from XP and have had very little dealings with 7 at all so this was very alien to me. It was just one of those things that when you finally figure it out you can not imagine how it took as long as it did. Thanks to all for the replies.

 

[XweAponX]

Yah, cos it was going into "Sleep" mode after that 2 minutes time period. But sometimes Sleep mode does not engage correctly, so your computer re-wakes, and it wakes up to the damnable LOCK screen. I use Stardock Start8 to disable the lock screen.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Perhaps I should have mentioned that it should be on an empty desktop, for Alt/F4 continues to close apps/programs. Therefore, one should save files and close programs before doing so.

Grrrrr..........

I second the motion... Grrrrr.... (I was working on a 3D model).....

Hey Hippsie Gypsy,
Great tip about ALT + F4 !!!!!! Why does Microsoft keep such things so secret?

It's no secret, it has always been there. I used it since Win 95

Even power users miss certain features that have been there forever. For example, if you press control key and roll the scrolling wheel on your mouse, the webpage will zoom in or out. I always thought this was obvious. I know this one guy that prides himself in being a techie. He's a developer by trade. And he claims to know everything there is to know about windows. Anyway, when I showed him this last year, he was amazed. Before that, he had no idea you could zoom in and out the webpage by doing that.

Not sure to apologize or not, but sorry if you two lost any work. When closing a program where work/files are not saved it'll ask to save before closing. That's the norm anyway.When shutting down, to be sure, I just got done testing in Win 8. I had a few test programs open without saving, the OS began shutdown, and then asked to cancel because of unsaved work/files. Pressed cancel and all is well. This is the same as past OSs. If that's not what happened to you two, then I would think something's wrong.

As sajara mentioned, Alt/F4 along with a lot of combos have been there since Win 95 to close programs and power menu when on blank desktop. I never used power menu for I would use WinKey (which is actually Start Orb) to open Start Menu > Arrow right = Shutdown. Other options I would arrow once over then up.

I new that about zoom, but thanks for mentioning that. Great combo.

I know to each there own, but the mouse to me is a necessary evil. It's slow. A waste of motion reaching for it and using. Anything I can do to keep my hands on the keyboard via WinKey or key combos to navigate, command, and to place something in a mode I think is much faster. e.g. Ctrl/B = bold (before typing) > Ctrl/B = unbold/normal font (after typing what one wants bolded). Why would I want to take my hand off the keyboard, reach for the mouse, grab it, point to the B in the text editor, start typing, then reverse the process when I want normal font again?

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2355-windows-8-keyboard-shortcut-keys-list.html

That concludes today's lesson on kbScs (Keyboard Shortcuts). With that, I'll post this with Alt/S.

 

[XweAponX]

Hippsie-Gypsie: Ya know one this that is bugging me with Windows 8 Tiles, is that there is absolutely NO Multitasking for them, leaving them open basically shuts them down. This was something dealt with early on with iOS, a cYdia Jailbreak App was made for early iOS called "Backgrounder" which allowed apps to keep running. Apple incorporated this around iOS 4, maybe before, so that changing from one app to another did not close the app and then you had a Taskswitcher from which to access all running apps.

Right now, I see Windows 8 as being the equivalent to the original iOS. NO backgrounding, Very simplistic design and function. In all of the important ways, Windows 8's Metro is in fact equivalent to that original iOS.

This was not a good decision from where to enter the Tablet arena, as the other Device based OS's had already developed these improvements. It just gives serious device users all the mroe reason to totally avoid Windows 8 based devices.

I don't know, maybe Windows 8 RT has a better task manager for tiles.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

I know nothing of IOS. Android though.

Not sure what you mean by Windows 8 tiles. Do you mean open apps? To me they seem to sleep in the background when not in use.

For now there's dual snapping. 1/3-2/3. Blue shows signs of four apps snap. I think paning would be the solution for windowing.

I think live tiles are an ingenious idea. A combination of icon and gadget. It's all about information these days.

 

[XweAponX]

Yah I mean Apps, which I refer to as Apps or Tiles, I refer to regular programs as Programs or applications.

I'm trying to populate my external Drive using the WD Tile, and it sleeps when in the background which is equivalent to doing absolutely nothing.

With iOS, you switch to another app and the app you set to do some work is still working and is done by the time you get back to it.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

I see what you mean by applications, programs, and "apps". They should be called MS Store apps. I dual boot and do my business in 7. I have to upgrade my office 2000. I might go subscription since I'm retiring soon. Not sure.

Not quite sure what you mean yet. When I'm in 8 and let's say I have the Store Mail app open with an unfinished email then I go elsewhere temporarily, then return, the email's there for me to finish.

Are you speaking of a program that takes time to calculate things? Those sleep?

 

[HippsieGypsie]

@ fourthofjuly and other engineers, designers, architects, and enthusiasts.

Did you happen to see Bing's pic of the day? Here in the U.S. anyway. Bing

It's the first time I've seen these beauts. I bet perhaps Dubai, Sydney, and others are jealous of this project.

Can you imagine how much data is in that CAD's (or whatever program's) database? How much time it took to design and engineer? I couldn't imagine how many man hours it took to estimate to bid it, let alone build it.

 

[caperjack]

@ fourthofjuly and other engineers, designers, architects, and enthusiasts.

Did you happen to see Bing's pic of the day? Here in the U.S. anyway. Bing

It's the first time I've seen these beauts. I bet perhaps Dubai, Sydney, and others are jealous of this project.

Can you imagine how much data is in that CAD's (or whatever program's) database? How much time it took to design and engineer? I couldn't imagine how many man hours it took to estimate to bid it, let alone build it.

seen it and thought it was in Dubai it was so big

 

[XweAponX]

I see what you mean by applications, programs, and "apps". They should be called MS Store apps. I dual boot and do my business in 7. I have to upgrade my office 2000. I might go subscription since I'm retiring soon. Not sure.

Not quite sure what you mean yet. When I'm in 8 and let's say I have the Store Mail app open with an unfinished email then I go elsewhere temporarily, then return, the email's there for me to finish.

Are you speaking of a program that takes time to calculate things? Those sleep?

No, apps that are doing things, updating, converting, even playing a video. Or, apps that I'm using to create content.

I can go to a different app and then go back and pick up from where I left off.

I have several apps like this in my Windows 8, they are supposed to populate a folder or a drive, they simply stop when you switch, and go back to step 1 when you come back and they have to repopulate all over again.

Actually I don't know if this is Windows 8 Programming, or programming for the Apps I am using. But every Tile I use, even facebook and twitter tiles, they go back to the login screen, they never go back to what I was doing.

 

[XweAponX]

@ fourthofjuly and other engineers, designers, architects, and enthusiasts.

Did you happen to see Bing's pic of the day? Here in the U.S. anyway. Bing

It's the first time I've seen these beauts. I bet perhaps Dubai, Sydney, and others are jealous of this project.

Can you imagine how much data is in that CAD's (or whatever program's) database? How much time it took to design and engineer? I couldn't imagine how many man hours it took to estimate to bid it, let alone build it.

That's MAGNIFICENT.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

@ fourthofjuly and other engineers, designers, architects, and enthusiasts.

Did you happen to see Bing's pic of the day? Here in the U.S. anyway. Bing

It's the first time I've seen these beauts. I bet perhaps Dubai, Sydney, and others are jealous of this project.

Can you imagine how much data is in that CAD's (or whatever program's) database? How much time it took to design and engineer? I couldn't imagine how many man hours it took to estimate to bid it, let alone build it.

seen it and thought it was in Dubai it was so big

LOL! That was my first thought. That's a lot of dough sitting there!

 

[Kari]

I have several apps like this in my Windows 8, they are supposed to populate a folder or a drive, they simply stop when you switch, and go back to step 1 when you come back and they have to repopulate all over again.

I must be misunderstanding something here.

As long as I do not close a Windows App (all my Windows 8 rigs), it's just suspended when I switch to another app. If I start a game of Solitaire or Mahjong then switch to a news app opening an article, when I return to Solitaire the game is exactly where I left it and continues from there. And again, switching back to news app, the article I was reading is there.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

I see what you mean by applications, programs, and "apps". They should be called MS Store apps. I dual boot and do my business in 7. I have to upgrade my office 2000. I might go subscription since I'm retiring soon. Not sure.

Not quite sure what you mean yet. When I'm in 8 and let's say I have the Store Mail app open with an unfinished email then I go elsewhere temporarily, then return, the email's there for me to finish.

Are you speaking of a program that takes time to calculate things? Those sleep?

No, apps that are doing things, updating, converting, even playing a video. Or, apps that I'm using to create content.

I can go to a different app and then go back and pick up from where I left off.

I have several apps like this in my Windows 8, they are supposed to populate a folder or a drive, they simply stop when you switch, and go back to step 1 when you come back and they have to repopulate all over again.

Actually I don't know if this is Windows 8 Programming, or programming for the Apps I am using. But every Tile I use, even facebook and twitter tiles, they go back to the login screen, they never go back to what I was doing.

Hmm. Interesting. I never noticed that. Thanks for the info. :thumb:

 

[Ray8]

If it was so easy why didn't the "old girl" figure it out?

Have you ever thought that perhaps MS might have made it a little more difficult for the commoner to get at system settings so they don't screw the system up? One gets three months support with 8. How much do you think MS or any business spends on that department? Is it evil that a business attempts to keep this at a minimal as much as possible? Besides, when all else fails, READ the help files. They've been around a long time.

Lol! There's a thread here recently on the Snippet tool. A few of us (including me) were trying to figure out the problem, when lo and behold someone posted that it was in the help file. Go figure.

The 'old girl' finds the tablet easy to use, but at 80+, configuring things is a little harder, or removing stuff her daughter added.

But I was talking at how easy it was for someone with a bit of computer knowledge to access the controls that allows you to fully configure the tablet. Windows has all of these as well, but they are hidden. So for a tablet or phone, why shouldn't Windows RT/Windows Phone be just as simple, both are effectively based on apps?

Even in Windows 8, why do so many controls have to be hidden? I understood that Windows 8 was more for power users. The only way to make things easier is to invoke GodMode.

 

[XweAponX]

I FOUND A METRO APP I LIKE! Haha!

"angry birds space"

It's good, it's real good. But it was made by a real app developer, not in a living room. They got the gravity to simulate very well.

 

[mdmd]

This probably means nothing :shock:

 

[mdmd]

The only way to make things easier is to invoke GodMode.

Who needs godmode? 8 pro has all the mmc snapins available.

 

[mdmd]

Even in Windows 8, why do so many controls have to be hidden? I understood that Windows 8 was more for power users.

You mean why are there no controls on the start screen? They are in all apps > 1 click

There are no controls on the Windows 7 desktop (all are hidden in the start menu)