This will be Microsofts biggest ever flop, far bigger than Vista.

[lehnerus2000]

Yes and No

It may all still be there but 9 times out out of 10 you have be a clairvoyant to find it in the first place, like just typing ' Network' in the start screen for example. I'm an experienced Windows user, I've been using Windows since Windows 95 and this OS is like wading through treacle to find out simple things, where they are and how they work. I've never known anything like it.

It took ages to find "System Information".

I ended up creating a txt file and changing the extension to "nfo".
Then while "System Information" was complaining about the file, I opened the "Task Manager" and checked which processes were running.
It turns out it is called "msinfo32.exe".

The Metro screen search returned no results, until I typed in "msinfo32".

For your average Windows user and not so experienced user this OS is going to be a nightmare to work out how to use on a desktop computer.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with this bit though.

People who know nothing about Windows, won't be inconvenienced by Metro.
It will probably be easier for Help Desk people, as they can say "type this ...".

Intermediate and Expert users, will have the most problems.
They know where to find tools in XP, Vista and W7, but it's a nightmare to get to them in W8.

For example:

• Two separate "Control Panels".
• The never-ending swapping to the Metro screen, to search for things.
• Opening the "Task Manager" every time you want to kill an app.

I always set my "Taskbar" to single row and small icons.
If I was forced to use this OS, I'd have to set a triple height "Taskbar" and pin every program to it, so that I could avoid going back to that Metro screen.

Your average user is loving all dumbed down stuff. And it feels intuitive for them...

It's probably because they are used to "flailing around wildly".

You do realise that you can easily unpin those Metro apps that none cares about?

Each one individually, one at a time.
That's far easier than just deleting a folder.

 

[valtonray]

Just a tip that I haven't noticed getting much attention. if you want a particular program to launch from the start menu just begin typing out it's name. This of course is much faster than scrolling through a long list of programs in previous versions, or tiles in 8.

 

[chev65]

If Microsoft see's enough of these complaints they will have to listen.

It wouldn't be too difficult to set up a classic PC mode which would retain the old style start menu. The Metro UI needs to have an optional button as well because it's really more of an I-pad or touch screen for a phone interface. Some of those Apps are pretty cool actually.

If you think about it Msoft really had no other option but to create the Metro interface in order to compete with the other touch screen Op systems. They just need the option for a classic start screen and have an optional Metro UI. If they don't then third party software will be reaping the rewards.

I'm not so sure I like having to sign in with my windows live account every time I start up so they should make that optional as well.

Once your at the desk top navigating between Metro/Apps is much faster using the Windows key, Windows key + Q or Windows key + C.

There simply needs to be options for all these controls rather than forcing everyone to do it the new "slower" way. That would appease the masses yet still retain the option for a fully functional touch screen Op system.

 

[1foxracing]

Does the Eamil have to be working to log in?

How do I get back into my system?

Tully

I had the same problem when first signing in, the solution was to use my "Windows Live" password. I think I'm adjusting well to the new Metro style. I do wish for a "shutdown" tile myself though.

 

[Jav]

Each one individually, one at a time.
That's far easier than just deleting a folder.

Just a tip, if you didn't notice:
You can right click several tiles (icons) and click clear only once to mass delete.
Still slower than deleting folder, but at least faster than deleting each one individually

I'm not so sure I like having to sign in with my windows live account every time I start up so they should make that optional as well.

It is optional. There is an option to create a local account

 

[HPDeskjet]

Being able to group different apps and programmes under one tile/ folder would have been nice. Then again, if MS had gone down that road they would've been accused of copying iOS. This is also one of the main gripes I and many others have with Windows Phone Mango [I have an HTC Radar Windows Phone]. It's all scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll on Mango sometimes before you get to the app you want. On an iPhone or Android that's not always the case because you can group various apps in one folder in a logical manner. Less scrolling around.

That said, Windows 8 CP seems a lot more stable than the release candidate versions of Windows 7. It hasn't yet crashed on me or served up a BSOD. I also have working drivers for all of my hardware and all of the programmes I use in Windows 7 work just as well in 8. Even my Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Extreme Audio card works fine, having its drivers automatically downloaded and installed on first start-up of Windows 8 CP. Just put the old Start button back on the desktop screen taskbar and that'll fix most of my annoyance with the CP release of Windows 8. If I want to go back in to the Metro start screen to open an app I then have the option of doing it, scrolling for miles and miles included. Taking the Start button away completely will not help Windows 8's chances of being a success in the real world, few companies will bother with it. Completely removing the Start button from the desktop screen taskbar is going to be a humongous blunder.

I refuse to write Windows 8 off completely though as this is the Consumer Preview. I'm sure that others here will discover lots of tips and easy ways of doing things. I only hope that they share them all here. I also take it for granted that MS will be taking a lot of comments here, and elswhere, very seriously indeed. Windows Phone hasn't taken off and if Windows 8 fails they're going to be in big trouble as a company. They can't rely on Office being sold to large corporations to bring in the money any more. That's all that MS will be left with if this fails like Windows Phone seems to be doing. How much market share does Windows Phone have? Hardly any, and what it has managed is way below expectation.

Don't forget that Windows 7 is an excellent and stable operating system. It will be very difficult for Microsoft to convince people to buy Windows 8, especially if it's deemed too user unfriendly, or complicated, to use on current desktop PC's or laptops. Not everyone will be rushing out to buy a new tablet that runs Window 8, especially considering the current economic climate. If the end user experience on their current hardware [PC or laptop] is not a good one people will be furious with MS. If Windows 8 starts to get a bad name for itself its had it and will become Vista II. That though depends a lot on how the media react to it. We all know how the media killed Vista through negative reporting.

 

[Ketsuban]

Being able to group different apps and programmes under one tile/ folder would have been nice.

Click the semantic-zoom icon in the lower right, then drag your "apps and programmes" to a new group and rightclick it to give it a name.

 

[HPDeskjet]

Being able to group different apps and programmes under one tile/ folder would have been nice.

Click the semantic-zoom icon in the lower right, then drag your "apps and programmes" to a new group and rightclick it to give it a name.

Thanks for that, but it's not exactly what I'm after. I've already grouped them and named them. Being able to file several apps under one single tile is what I would prefer, just as it's possible to do on an iPhone, iPad or Android device. Saves space.

 

[castpack]

I disagree with you in almost everything you say. If you want all the option you have in the control panel of windows 7 all you have to do is click on the top lefthand corner, go to settings, and change the "show administrative tools" from no to yes. All the things you complain about can be found that way and even a monkey could realize that. The power button is poorly placed but it is only a matter of clicking on the settings option that appears when you click the top left corner and there you will find the power option.

Most of the comments in this thread are, in my opinion, written by people who didn't even give windows 8 a chance. all the bugs you complain about are aeasy to sort and in my opinion improvements from the last windows. All you have to do is give it a chance and explore the OS.

 

[Teerex]

I do think that when I don't like this they should be very worried. Hell, I even liked Vista (especially when I upgraded from 1 to 2GB RAM ). I'm writing this from Windows 7. There's no 'new stuff pull' guys; too many yikes!

 

[imacken]

• Opening the "Task Manager" every time you want to kill an app.

Why do I keep reading this when it has been posted several times about the various (simple) ways of closing apps. The easiest is to right-click in the left hand list and click on close!

 

[RalphG]

If your just an average user (like me) this is just a very frustrating experience.
If this is what the final product is going to be, I will not recommend it or buy it

 

[brummyfan]

Quote from lehnerus2000
" It took ages to find "System Information".

I ended up creating a txt file and changing the extension to "nfo".
Then while "System Information" was complaining about the file, I opened the "Task Manager" and checked which processes were running.
It turns out it is called "msinfo32.exe".

The Metro screen search returned no results, until I typed in "msinfo32". "

I tried in Search typing System and could find System Information immediately, I understand it takes time to get used to the new OS but believe me, it's a nice OS shame about the fish.

 

[chev65]

System information = Windows button + Q 4th row second one down, right under System Configuration. Hit Windows button twice to get back to desktop. Didn't seem very hard for me just different than it use to be.

 

[WindowsStar]

Let’s look at this from a corporate view.

I install Windows 8 CP on fast desktop machine in the lab (No install issues all hardware found). After installing it with a completely open mind I checked it out. The tech in me wanted this to be super fun and since most IT people love puzzles I would not be unhappy with finding all the new ways to do what you do in windows. Mind you I have been part of Eight Forums for a while; I have access to Windows 8 RC so I have already done other testing so I already knew a bit about Windows 8 CP. After about an hour I did become frustrated with many of the complains in this thread. For the life of me I could not remember or re-figure out how to end an application without using the task manager. Somehow I remembered that dragging it to the bottom of the screen exits the software (Humm, law suit isn’t that Mac like, dragging to the trash). All said and done I do not like the Metro IU. Why?

1 Doesn’t Metro UI do just what MS wanted to get rid of? In XP they want everyone to stop using icons on the desktop and even reminded you of unused icons every 60 days. Metro UI is just a desktop full of icons so now we can use them???
2 Poor looking icons, poor colors, and ugly fish screen, just not appealing in any way. (I agree with the analogy of 2bit graphics in comments above)
3 no first logon help, Windows XP gave you the help bubbles, while I don’t like these normally I do think this would be a great help for Metro UI, for experienced (as Windows 8 becomes used more) users you should be able to very easily dismiss the help bubbles forever.
4 MS hiding more and more of the underlying OS does bother me, but that is me.
5 Making an email logon as the default way to log on, what are you Google now? Google forces you to have a gmail account for everything now-a-days. I see Microsoft heading this way. The part that worries me is what if you don’t have an internet connection for an extend period of time, did MS think of that?

Ok that is my short list but that is me I am an IT guy. What about other IT people. I then moved the machine to a common area and asked many other IT people to check it out and let me know by the end of the day what they thought. I also found some other staff in the surrounding buildings I wanted a good cross sample of people so I found, accountants, record keepers, archive staff, engineering staff, maintenance staff (landscape and cleaning crew), etc. FYI the cleaning crews do not use computers. How do I know this, they don’t have corporate accounts I checked and I talk to them daily many are my friends and I have found that they do not have computers at home.

So let the testing begin.

IT staff everyone was very disappointed and did not like Windows 8 CP. The complains are what many are complaining about in this thread. The programmers seemed to be the most vocal about it complaining about everything stating that if we move to Windows 8 they will ban together and go straight to the VP to keep Windows 7 asking for someone to be held accountable for making their job a million times harder. (UGH!) Ok, Ok, I did not see it as that bad, wow eye opener.

Non-IT staff most were confused could not navigate and bombarded anyone and everyone with thousands of questions on how to do the basic stuff. My take on this is that if we were to adopt Windows 8 (when released) we would have a training nightmare on our hands.

Maintenance people (non computers users or owners), many found it ok, but could not do anything with it or much with it. They just gave up after 5 minutes and walked away. They could not figure out how any of it worked, they could not even get to the internet and look things up even though they had at least one time used a web browser for something in the past. Even the maintenance staff that have Android phones and love the internet on them but could not get the internet to work in Windows 8 CP. After talking with them most had no option, really didn’t care, or said it just was not for them. Several said if they were going to get a computer they would just get a Windows 7 machine because at least that seemed easier after watching their kids on computers at school.

What does all this mean, well for us it is just a test but the IT Department will not jump right to Windows 8 we will have to test and test, plus I think we hope that MS will review lots of feedback and re-think some things. I think the ability to use Metro UI or the standard Windows 7 interface is a must. Making the local account the standard way of using the system and email optional is also the better way to go. With those 2 things I think that Windows 8 has a chance in the corporate world. I say this with a huge but, we are still deploying Windows 7 and moving from Windows XP. We probably have 2 more years to get the entire inventory of computer converted to Windows XP. Windows 8 will most likely be a skipped OS because of cost to upgrade and the huge expense to deploy. Just my two cents! -WS

 

[mart4494]

I have to agree with WindowsStar on this. I can pin all my regular programs to the taskbar or start menu. One or two clicks and the program fires up. If I want to leave it running then I simply minimise it. Good point about the email login and that will be one of the killers. I hope MS sort this out as if they don't and get poor media publicity as was mentioned elsewhere by a poster then their market reputation will really take a dive and they can do without another Vista. Sure they can try and force it via the OEM's but it won't take long before the buyers start screaming

 

[Kynix]

Keep in mind, that Metro user interface geek is on it's baby steps, there will be bugs... bad bugs... but keep in mind, this thing has potential and lots of it.

Also, it can't be vista II why? Vista was perferct! the only thing wast that people still were tunning on 2Ghz dual core cpu's and 1-3gb ram that made it so bad, but after so much cleaning the vista's interface is fixed, it's actually more better in windows 8 than in seven, because microsoft has tweaked it during windows 8 developing.

Only reason why people hate vista is because everyone agrees, it's easy. I can say that apple is overpriced c*ap, and everyone agrees, but still they have i Pods phones and tabs...

 

[mart4494]

Keep in mind, that Metro user interface geek is on it's baby steps, there will be bugs... bad bugs... but keep in mind, this thing has potential and lots of it.

Also, it can't be vista II why? Vista was perferct! the only thing wast that people still were tunning on 2Ghz dual core cpu's and 1-3gb ram that made it so bad, but after so much cleaning the vista's interface is fixed, it's actually more better in windows 8 than in seven, because microsoft has tweaked it during windows 8 developing.

Only reason why people hate vista is because everyone agrees, it's easy. I can say that apple is overpriced c*ap, and everyone agrees, but still they have i Pods phones and tabs...

Vista got hammered by the press as MS understated the hardware horsepower required for it to run acceptably. Okay, once you slimmed the program down as many did then it was okay. But in the meantime mud (or something else) sticks. I personally don't think Apple stuff is c**p or even overpriced. If it works for you then fine, it's your money. What I object to is that Apple appear to be control freaks. Irrespective as to whether you like the Metro UI or not, MS seem determined to push everyone towards cloud computing as that's where the future profits are.

 

[SIW2]

LOL.

It is aimed at the average user with average needs.

There is more than that - but because they have skewed the interface to the average user - it is a pain to use for everyone else.

Start Screen.Why do I now have to scroll sideways for about 3 miles in order to find the programme or app I don't happen to have pinned to my desktop? That is fine for a tablet or mobile but nonsensical for a desktop. WHERE IS THE START BUTTON on the desktop? Oh yes, someone at MS thought it would a great step forward to remove it. Cretins.

 

[Frank]

It's purely ugly, and archaic, seems that MS wants to abandone its good will that it made with WIN7.

I have used vista for well over 4 years and havent had a problem, tried win7 and found its vista without balls, but still user friendly and not a nightmare, would say to anyone yes use win7,, but this has me feeling ill from the get go, and by no meens makes me want to say yes use this nightmare.

It looks to me that this is for a mobile user, and thats all, it wont make Vista/Win7 obsolete.
My first thoughts were,,OMG what have they done, stupid stupid stupid, was the only other thoughts that I had.

Ugly, turned my computer into a vomit box, I'm scrubbing my computer with hospital grade disinfection asap.