The Perfect Win 8/WP8 Test Case.....

This is going to be very interesting... and will probably end up being more of a blog than a topic. But here goes...

WARNING: Some may find this a bit long, but I'll try to keep it short.
(EDIT: I failed... )

Yesterday, a friend decided to upgrade both his computer and his phone. He's been computing since the mid-nineties, but isn't very skilled on the PC (his computing activities are mainly work-related, and don't involve a PC), and I've always been his 'go-to-gal' when he has problems.

His current machine (a desktop, which I built for him) is a Pentuim 4/2.4Ghz with 1G RAM and two 40GB EIDE hard drives. It (just) runs Windows 7, and it's easy for him to get out of his depth. He's OK on Win XP though. His phone is a (then high-end) 5+ year-old Nokia feature-phone.

Soooooo......

He's bought an HP Pavilion 2000-2D23TU Laptop (A$700 at Hardly Normal, for you other Aussies here, see pic below) and a Nokia Lumia smart-phone.

BOTH WITH WINDOWS 8!! Which he's seen, on my machine, but has never used.

Now, finally, the relevance to this forum...

Tomorrow, I've agreed to go to his place and help him set them up, get his internet going, install all his programs (he doesn't 'do' apps) and transfer all his files from the old desktop machine onto his new lappy. I've explained the differences between 7 and 8, and have offered to set it up in 'Ditch Metro Mode' if he wishes. I think he wants to try it out 'out-of-the-box' first, so I'll be on-hand to steer him through it if he has problems.

Which he will, I know. He's not a fool by any means, and has owned and run businesses, but to him a computer is just a tool to do a job. He's not a geek, or a hobbyist/enthusiast. His needs are not great, he emails/Skypes (well, not Skype, but that Google clone) to friends in the US (hi, Dave from Madisonville, KY, if you're reading this ) ) does a bit of basic photo editing with PaintShop Pro, some PowerPoint/Word stuff and email/browsing, and has a small(ish) video and music collection which he uses his PC to play.

In other words, your typical, average, man-in-the-street computer user.

You know, the ones who are supposedly dislocating limbs in their haste to dump the 'dying' PC and embrace tablets/hybrids?

He's actually the perfect victi.... ooopsies, I meant candidate, for a Surface RT or Pro. He's used his boss' iPad and my 7" Android ICS a few times, so he does know his way around a tablet. I did suggest a tablet like the Surface Pro or one of the better Android tabs, but he rejected the idea out-of-hand. (There's one in the eye for Coke Robot!!).

So, boys and girls, one way or the other, tomorrow is going to be a very interesting day indeed for me.

I'll be updating this thread from time to time detailing his experiences as a relative 'noob' coming to terms with Windows 8, and doing it 'cold'.

We'll see how it goes, John may even consider making it a 'sticky' further down the track, if enough interest is shown. But I do think it will make a great case-study.

Oh, and I'll be encouraging him to become a member, or at least I'm going to put our tut page into his 'Favorites' folder for him.


Wenda.



EDIT: I can hear you asking yourselves, 'What's in it for Wenda?'. Well, he's a very good cook, so I'll get a nice home-cooked meal, and I'll also get the old desktop machine. I'll refurbish it, install Win XP (it has a legal XP product key), and either sell it cheaply to someone who can't afford a new machine, or donate it to a charity I volunteer for. It's old, but it's far from 'stuffed', so why not?

He wins, I win, and a 'battler' somewhere wins.


Stay tuned for more tomorrow evening, my time.


Wenda.

Wenda said:

Tomorrow, I've agreed to go to his place and help him set them up, get his internet going, install all his programs (he doesn't 'do' apps)

Click to expand...

Wenda said:

He's actually the perfect victi.... ooopsies, I meant candidate, for a Surface RT or Pro.

Click to expand...

Well, if he doesn't "do" apps.....then I fail to see how he would be suited whatsoever for a Surface RT.

Wenda said:

He's used his boss' iPad and my 7" Android ICS a few times, so he does know his way around a tablet. I did suggest a tablet like the Surface Pro or one of the better Android tabs, but he rejected the idea out-of-hand. (There's one in the eye for Coke Robot!!).

Click to expand...

Personally having a Surface Pro, even with the Type Cover, is a complementary device used while on the go, but cannot really replace a desktop/laptop with a real keyboard/mouse with a bigger screen. We had 1 person at my office who was going to try to switch from a Dell XPS 14" to the Surface Pro as an everyday machine with a secondary monitor, but after a little playing she decided it wouldn't work for day to day use. But she bought a surface pro anyway for taking back and forth from school and home and she's happy with it for that.

Wenda said:

So, boys and girls, one way or the other, tomorrow is going to be a very interesting day indeed for me.

Click to expand...

I've given a few people a start menu app and boot to desktop functionality. After giving them about 30 minutes of handholding instruction, they have been fine. I've really not noticed any of them really using much Metro or app stuff. So, they find it very similar.



I also had a friend on facebook contact me for help moving some files from their old computer to their new computer. She said that she was thinking of taking back the new computer because it had Windows 8 and she was finding it hard. She wanted to know if I thought it would be wise to return it and try to find something with 7. I suggested instead that she keep 8 and just get classic shell installed on it. She says she did it and things have been much better and she will be sticking with 8.

Well, sorry for the delay in updating this story, but I've been AFK a fair bit, plus my connection is slowed.

Anyway, the setup went extremely well, no hitches apart from getting his internet going. His modem connected to his old PC with a USB cable (?). It worked fine, but the Win 8 machine didn't want to know. It could see the modem, but would not connect. So I tossed the USB cable, and replaced it with an ethernet cable, and off it went without a problem.

That could be something to bear in mind if having connection issues using a USB cable between modem & machine.

The machine as supplied was quite impressive. There was very little bloatware at all, most of the bundled programs were actually useful to him, so we left them (Power-DVD etc). It did have the ever-present trial versions of Office and NAV, we removed these, and installed his copy of Office 2007. I set Windows Defender as his AV, and installed MalwareBytes trial version.

There was even a Start Menu provided, and it didn't seem too bad to use and configure. HP have done a good job out-of-the-box with this machine. It doesn't have a touch-screen, and he's not used to the lappy's touch-pad, so he's running it quite happily with a mouse, it doesn't bother him at all. One thing I didn't like was the 500GB hard-drive with only one data partition. I shrank it, and added another partition so he can keep his OS and data separate. He doesn't do a lot of hard-disk housekeeping, so it might save him a few lost files....

I installed the free version of EaseUS Backup Manager and took an image once we'd completed setting-up. HP did include a backup manager, but it isn't one I'm familiar with so decided to stick with something I know for the moment. He doesn't take or restore images, I do it for him.

He doesn't miss the eye-candy they removed in W8 because his old machine (originally XP but now running Win 7 32-bit) doesn't have the graphics grunt to run Aero properly (a GeForce 4/64mb), so he never had it to begin with. He 'only' has basic W8, but isn't bothered. He never used Media Center, so doesn't miss that either. Media Player not playing DVDs isn't an issue, he doesn't usually play them on his PC, and Power-DVD is there if he does.

Probably due to his having played around with his new Lumia W8 phone, he didn't have a problem with the tiles concept, but I did re-organise his start-screen to make it easier for him, and showed him how to move/shrink the tiles.

So, all-in-all, he's very happy, and is getting around W8 quite easily. The expected phone-calls asking for help have not eventuated. I did get one call, he needs a hand to transfer his emails etc across to the new Outlook, but that's it. I'll be doing that this evening, so will update again later.

Looks like there's at least one satisfied Windows 8 user out there.


Wenda.

There was even a Start Menu provided,

Click to expand...

Perhaps that helps a lot.