Windows 8 in day to day use

[whs]

I have made it a habit now to work with 8 about half of the time. I installed most of my programs that I usually use and there was only one program that refused to operate as expected.

What impresses me is the stability of the system. Despite some rare unexplainable little glitches, this system does everything smoothly. This is really amazing for an Alpha test version. Since I was an operating system developer myself for over 35 years, I can really appreciate the quality that the Redmond boys delivered. They are far better than we were in my days.

Nevertheless I think the UI is somewhat "bulky" on the PC. You have to click on more things than one would expect to do simple things and certain functions are hidden so badly that they are difficult or impossible to find. This is not a critizism of the Metro UI in general, but an observation as to its applicability on a PC.

I generally I like to discover new things and a new system does not frighten me. But in the current state, I would probably not use 8 on a PC - the operational characteristics of 7 are a lot more elegant on a PC. For a Tablet though, I think 8 will easily be favored by people used to Windows.

 

[Colonel Travis]

Agree. Installed 8 on my laptop, which I don't use as rigorously as my desktop with 7. Excluding Metro, I like the little improvements. Also, USB transfers are noticeably faster for me on 8 than with 7. Has anyone else experienced this?

A major league headache for me was clearing the Metro field from all the garbageware it came loaded with, then loading my own programs and then going back to the Metro field and seeing it plastered with little boxes - Local Security, Performance Monitor, ODBC Sources, Services, Print Manager, Help, on and on. All this junk that used to be packed in folders in the Start menu that I could trash in two seconds is now strewn all over the screen. And unlike the Start menu, I can't get rid of it all at once. I have to click one box at a time. It's like weeding your garden and then 10 minutes later all the weeds are back. I've said this before - MS has the right concept here but Metro is making my daily use an absolute chore. I know you can turn it off and I haven't done that yet, but then what's the point of going to 8?

 

[whs]

Agree. Installed 8 on my laptop, which I don't use as rigorously as my desktop with 7. Excluding Metro, I like the little improvements. Also, USB transfers are noticeably faster for me on 8 than with 7. Has anyone else experienced this?

A major league headache for me was clearing the Metro field from all the garbageware it came loaded with, then loading my own programs and then going back to the Metro field and seeing it plastered with little boxes - Local Security, Performance Monitor, ODBC Sources, Services, Print Manager, Help, on and on. All this junk that used to be packed in folders in the Start menu that I could trash in two seconds is now strewn all over the screen. And unlike the Start menu, I can't get rid of it all at once. I have to click one box at a time. It's like weeding your garden and then 10 minutes later all the weeds are back. I've said this before - MS has the right concept here but Metro is making my daily use an absolute chore. I know you can turn it off and I haven't done that yet, but then what's the point of going to 8?

You are certainly right on this one. I took this statement from another post you made

you get a box for all sorts of things you installed - not just the program itself, but the uninstall exe, the setup wizard box, program support, etc.

I think they make a tile from every .exe they find in the Program Files. And with e.g. the "uninstall" ones I really wonder what it does for you. I used one uninstall tile for a test. The uninstall was instant. I doubt they could have found all the registry entries and files in that short a time and eliminated them. I think we better continue to use Revo or similar programs if we do not want to end up with a mess on the system.

 

[LOVE8]

I am definitely getting faster USB transfers and I am now using 8 as my main OS on a laptop, and I see no problem with the mouse usage.

 

[Windows 8]

On a touchscreen laptop, its amazing. The system is very stable on my laptop, and all my Win7 drivers installed without any issues (other than having to set compatibility mode due to the installers detecting NT 6.2, and not 6.1, etc)

 

[GatoSoft]

I've installed Windows 8 on my old Acer Aspire 4520. It runs even smoothly than Windows 7 and, again, I notice the USB transfers being faster too. However, in the exact moment that Windows starts I automatically get into the "desktop" option. I can't get used to Metro UI at all. But that's maybe because it's in an Alpha stage. Don't get me wrong, I like it, but it need to be MUCH more polished than it's right now.
So, I click the "desktop" tile in order to start using classic desktop that works great and the problems gets me once again when I want to start a program since I don't have "Start" menu, forcing me to use the "Search" tool, clicking on "Apps" and typing the name of the application I need to use. Very annoying when you're using only a mouse/touchpad.
As an option, I found on Internet a way to modify a key in Windows' registry that replaces the new "Start" system with the old "Start" menu and the Metro UI with the classic desktop, but sadly it also kills other new features that I like a lot, like the "ribbon" toolbars in Explorer, the new and awesome task manager and other little things that made my life easy.

I don't want just to say what I don't like about this new OS, even more with the fact that it's in Alpha stage. Also, for the simple fact that it's in Alpha stage, it get an 10 out of 10 from me since it sports a very nice stability right now and I hope that Microsoft's guys don't mess with it during the "polishing" process. :3

 

[whs]

As an option, I found on Internet a way to modify a key in Windows' registry that replaces the new "Start" system with the old "Start" menu and the Metro UI with the classic desktop, but sadly it also kills other new features that I like a lot, like the "ribbon" toolbars in Explorer, the new and awesome task manager and other little things that made my life easy.

If you set the key value to "2" in lieu of "0", you keep the other good stuff.

 

[GatoSoft]

REALLY??
I'm not with my notebook right now and I'm at work, but I'll try it as soon as I get home. :3
Thank you! ^_^

 

[Bill2]

As an option, I found on Internet a way to modify a key in Windows' registry that replaces the new "Start" system with the old "Start" menu and the Metro UI with the classic desktop, but sadly it also kills other new features that I like a lot, like the "ribbon" toolbars in Explorer, the new and awesome task manager and other little things that made my life easy.

If you set the key value to "2" in lieu of "0", you keep the other good stuff.

2 will remove the explorer ribbon.

 

[GatoSoft]

OMG... are you sure? I want it so badly... T__T

 

[whs]

As an option, I found on Internet a way to modify a key in Windows' registry that replaces the new "Start" system with the old "Start" menu and the Metro UI with the classic desktop, but sadly it also kills other new features that I like a lot, like the "ribbon" toolbars in Explorer, the new and awesome task manager and other little things that made my life easy.

If you set the key value to "2" in lieu of "0", you keep the other good stuff.

2 will remove the explorer ribbon.

The instructions said it would not. But maybe you are right. Have to try it myself.

 

[Bill2]

Simplest way of keeping the goodies without the ugly metro tiles is to rename shsxs.dll at logoff and rename it back to shsxs.dll at logon (with a delay). I've made a couple of small batch files, I've added one as a logoff script, another as a logon script. No problemo.

 

[whs]

Bill was right. You loose the ribbon with "2" - I just tried it. Sorry if I have mislead you - was mislead myself.

 

[CPJames]

@WHS - Apologies if I was the one misleading you. I read on another forum that 2 disabled metro but everything else stayed. I tried it and it didn't work for me but thought it was my laptop not working right.

@Bill2 - I have found renaming shsxs.dll crashes Explorer.exe at startup.

 

[Bill2]

@WHS - Apologies if I was the one misleading you. I read on another forum that 2 disabled metro but everything else stayed. I tried it and it didn't work for me but thought it was my laptop not working right.

@Bill2 - I have found renaming shsxs.dll crashes Explorer.exe at startup.

Depends how you do it. I have the scheme in place that I mentioned in my earlier post, works perfectly.

 

[GatoSoft]

Bill was right. You loose the ribbon with "2" - I just tried it. Sorry if I have mislead you - was mislead myself.

Don't worry, man. Thank you anyway for trying to help me out. ^_^

Thanks to everyone for the added information on this issue. ^_^

 

[CPJames]

Are you going to share those batch files Bill2?

 

[Bill2]

Are you going to share those batch files Bill2?

Oh, they're too simple. Ok, if you want you can try and see if this works for you.

1) Open notepad and type

ren c:\windows\system32\shsxs.dll shsxs.dll.old

save this as shutdown.bat.

Add this bat as a logoff script in gpedit (user config-windows settings-scripts (logon/logoff)-logoff).

2) Make another batch with the command

ren c:\windows\system32\shsxs.dll.old shsxs.dll

name it startup.cmd.

OK, now open task scheduler and create a basic task with the following characteristics:

Give it any name, set it to run with highest privileges.

Set trigger to logon with a delay of 1 minute.

set Action to start startup.cmd

if this is a notebook, uncheck power options.

save.

3) There can be variations- the batch file can be made more sophisticated, the timing can be changed etc. but this is the bare minimum.

 

[whs]

@WHS - Apologies if I was the one misleading you. I read on another forum that 2 disabled metro but everything else stayed. I tried it and it didn't work for me but thought it was my laptop not working right.

@Bill2 - I have found renaming shsxs.dll crashes Explorer.exe at startup.

No problem at all. For the time being most of us are still "mislead" - until we get the hang of it.

 

[CPJames]

@Bill2 - Thank you for the instructions. I done as you said, the scripts run but I have no ribbon UI.

Update

I have now changed RPEnabled back to 1. I notice on every login now Explorer.exe restarts -I wonder why.