I did the unthinkable... I installed Windows 8...

[Mystic]

One of the IT guys who recently retired talked to me about Windows 8. At first, a while back, he wanted nothing to do with it. He said Windows 8 had problems. But now he has installed it on one of his own computers and he really likes it. I guess it just takes a little getting used to.

He also likes Microsoft Office 2013.

 

[stephen9666]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
Originally Posted By: stephen9666

The issue I've had a couple times is with the Reader app or photo viewer app. It opens, for some reason, then every few minutes I'll do something that causes the screen to go to the Reader app and I can't seem to close it using the method you outlined. I have to force the Reader program to close using the task manager, or it will just keep redirecting me to it every minute or so for some reason.

I'll give it some time until I figure everything out on it.


Go to PC settings - General - App Switching and turn Off "When I swipe in from the left edge..."
This should get rid of your sudden app switching.


Thanks, I'll give that a try.

 

[KrisZ]

After playing with Windows 8 for few days here are my thoughts.
As hard as I tried to stay within the confines of Metro, I could not get away from the desktop, either by choice or by the system.
People that mentioned the constant switching between these two interfaces were absolutely right, it gets tiresome. I think that the metro interface is not as useful, maybe for now, as I thought for every day stuff, however it is great for metro apps. Things like email notifications, news, weather and other apps made for metro are very well done and look stunning. I only switch to Metro whenever I wish to use these applications.
The main interface is the desktop. One thing I should point out is a little program called Pokki Start button that to me combines the best of what Windows 8 has to offer (quick and efficient operating system) with the familiarity of Windows 7.

I tried several free start button programs out there and this is by far the best I tried. It looks and behaves slightly different than your normal windows button, but that's where it shines as it takes advantage of windows 8 functionality.
The best feature is the search function. Unlike the search function in Vista and Win 7 that only searched programs installed, Pokki search behaves like Windows 8 search. Type in "Sound" and you will be given sound card settings, system settings and anything else related to sound. Just like Windows 8 search, it will search programs, settings and web for results.
Another thing that stands out is a separate button for Metro. This basically makes Metro a secondary interface that can be easily accessed to take advantage of those great metro programs, but stay within desktop as a default choice.

So my suggestion so far is to get Pokki Start button, or any other similar program of choice. This way the desktop interface will not be mixed with Metro interface all the time and the user has full control to switch between them whenever he/she chooses to do so.

 

[Mystic]

Without a doubt Microsoft could have done a better job with Windows 8 and I think they are trying to move away form the traditional desktop too fast. Not everybody walks down the street with a tablet computer and there are still millions of desktop computers.

There is some software available that can make Windows 8 a little more useable. Otherwise a person could just keep running Windows 7. If Windows 8 is a complete flop Microsoft will be forced to reconsider their concepts. In the end the people at some big corporation don't decide everything-the consumer decides. If a corporation does not meet the needs of the consumer, the consumer walks and buys something else. But there is an endless supply of know-it-alls who cannot understand all of that and have to learn the hard way.

 

[rjundi]

What I don't understand from M$ is why they forced a user into a new mode. They did not leave a classic or business mode so a corporation can have employees perform their daily work without a retrain.

It costs lots of money in retraining and lost productivity to move to such a drastic change in interface. Will the new interface make people more productive, time will tell.

M$ failed. I don't see how this will attract a home user away from a tablet at all. Nor I see the business case for it, yet.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Only one person failed, he's no longer at Microsoft, Steven Sinofsky. He was a complete *** about forcing the Start Orb off of Explorer.

However, with Windows Blue (Win8 SP1), looks like it's making a comeback. And rightfully so.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2034727/windows-blue-may-bring-back-boot-to-desktop-start-button.html

Good riddance Mr Sinofsky, we will not miss you.

 

[antiqueshell]

Originally Posted By: ToyotaNSaturn
Only one person failed, he's no longer at Microsoft, Steven Sinofsky. He was a complete *** about forcing the Start Orb off of Explorer.

However, with Windows Blue (Win8 SP1), looks like it's making a comeback. And rightfully so.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2034727/windows-blue-may-bring-back-boot-to-desktop-start-button.html

Good riddance Mr Sinofsky, we will not miss you.


Excellent post.

The tragic thing is that Microsoft alienated most of their users by forcing the Metro [censored] on them when all they had to do was offer this boot to desktop default from the beginning.

Steve Ballmer failed as well because he should have seen Windows 8 for the looming disaster that it was, there were scores of users griping about the forcing of Metro on users.

If Microsoft does offer the boot to desktop default option on Windows 8 SP1. I'll certainly buy it because the OS itself is excellent and improved on very good W7.

 

[Mystic]

Windows 8 definitely has some good points. There is improved security. And it boots up very fast and has other good points. But with so many desktop computers why not make it easy to go to the traditional desktop? Why the huge need to eliminate the start button?

There always has to be room for common sense.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Originally Posted By: Mystic

There always has to be room for common sense.


Not with Steven Sinofsky. All head-strong and stiff-necked, no common sense. I'm glad he's gone from MS more than I can say.

 

[antiqueshell]

Originally Posted By: ToyotaNSaturn
Originally Posted By: Mystic

There always has to be room for common sense.


Not with Steven Sinofsky. All head-strong and stiff-necked, no common sense. I'm glad he's gone from MS more than I can say.



He could very well be the death of Microsoft as we know it. I bet the clown sauntered off into the sunset with a huge golden parachute as well.


I'm also puzzled as to why Bill Gates or Paul Allen didn't step in and question this decision. I know they were oddly silent on the direction of Windows 8. It was very hard to find comments from either.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Originally Posted By: antiqueshell


He could very well be the death of Microsoft as we know it.


Sad, but true. Letting a guy that high up run his own silo like a king is the entirely wrong thing to do.

Originally Posted By: antiqueshell


I'm also puzzled as to why Bill Gates or Paul Allen didn't step in and question this decision. I know they were oddly silent on the direction of Windows 8. It was very hard to find comments from either.


Excellent question. At the board meetings, only three people hold trump cards on Sinofsky, Gates, Allen, Ballmer. None of them played it. To the detriment of their own user base. 1+ Billion people.

Putting the Start Button back is a smart way of bridging the old with the new without forcing people to only use new.

 

[Win]

Good grief.

There's a desktop tile. How hard is it to click on it?

What a bunch of whining about nothing.

 

[antiqueshell]

Originally Posted By: Win
Good grief.

There's a desktop tile. How hard is it to click on it?

What a bunch of whining about nothing.


Why should I or anyone else need to add MORE steps to arrive at the desktop?

 

[Mystic]

I think Windows 8 could have been done a little bit better. There seems to be this concept that the desktop computer is dead and everybody is walking around with a tablet PC. There are still many millions of desktop PCs in industry, the business world, in graphics design, in homes, and throughout the entire world. That will not change overnight. And it might be difficult during elaborate computer graphics while walking down the street carrying a tablet PC.

I guess it was Steve Jobs who started this concept of the mobile computer lifestyle. Some people do have that lifestyle. Other people do computer graphics using desktop computers. Or use the company desktop computer at work. The company might not be willing to toss all of its hundreds of PCs and issue everybody a tablet PC.

Trying to move too fast or too slow can get a company in trouble. There are actually many different ways people can use computers, so maybe different computers are needed for different people. And maybe different operating systems have their own strong points and weak points. One OS may be more suitable for a tablet PC than another OS.

But some big shot somewhere should not be dictating to everybody how they should use their computers and how they should live their lives. That usually is a course for trouble-the know it all from on high telling everybody what to do. The customer really decides on what they want. The customer has to be considered.

 

[Mykl]

Originally Posted By: ToyotaNSaturn
Putting the Start Button back is a smart way of bridging the old with the new without forcing people to only use new.


The Start menu is still there, except now it's better because it's not wasting screen space. If you're using a mouse all you have to do is move it to the upper right corner of the screen and you'll get your menus.

It's massively improved. Now you don't have to click through a bunch of annoying sub directories to get straight to your applications, and the search functionality makes the old system feel archaic.

If you install Windows 8 as an upgrade it tells you all of this right off the bat. I'm going to guess that it also tells you this the first time you boot a new PC that has Windows 8 loaded.

If you're just test driving the operating system at a store I can see why you don't realize this, because I felt the same way until I gave it a shot on my own system. After using it for a few montsh I'm not looking back. I can't wait for the Windows marketplace to mature as more independent application develoeprs migrate.

 

[Mystic]

According to what I have heard in Windows 8 Service Pack 1 the start button will be returned to the traditional desktop. So I think that is a move in the correct direction. Windows 8 Service Pack 1 will apparently come out sometime in late June of this year.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Clarification to the Windows 8.1 (codename 'blue') Start Button returning...


It's the Windows 8 Start Button, not the Start Menu. It will function like the current Win8 Start Button.

So, it's back to using Classic Start Menu, available at www.ninite.com for free.

 

[antiqueshell]

At this point no one can be 100% sure what M$ will do, however the outcry has been so loud, and the sales of Win 8 have been so slow that I wouldn't doubt it if they do bring back the traditional start menu and button, not to mention the option for the user to choose between a default of boot to desktop or to metro.

I think M$ is not giving this information up now because if they did it would slow sales of 8 even more until the Windows SP1 shows up late this summer. Can't say I blame them as it seems folks really hate this forced use of metro on traditional desktops and laptops.

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: Mykl
The Start menu is still there, except now it's better because it's not wasting screen space. If you're using a mouse all you have to do is move it to the upper right corner of the screen and you'll get your menus.

It's massively improved. Now you don't have to click through a bunch of annoying sub directories to get straight to your applications, and the search functionality makes the old system feel archaic.


I agree, the search function is great and is finally in line with OS X.

The start menu is pretty good, but few customization options would be great. For example, an option to have all program view as a default setting, where now you have to click on "View All Apps". Yes, you lose the tiles, something that apparently MS is against, but you would gain a nice overview of all apps that are grouped by categories instead of being just plastered all over Metro interface, as the programs are being installed. You can manually move everything around, but it looks pretty bad with non metro apps being just plain icons.

Another option would be to name the screens. You could have a screen with nice looking Metro apps, and then you could have a screen named Settings, Games, Programs, Work, etc. That at least could give the user a logical place to organize things in. Now you simply have a bunch of screens.
Yet another option would be the ability to create folders within Metro instead of screens. One could easily create folders for logical groups mentioned above that would not break the Metro look or feel with ugly looking icons.

Another thing that I think is the biggest complaint of all and why people want the start button back is the fact that a lot of things still need to be done in desktop. As of right now I would say that about 90%-95% of things have to be done on desktop, unless all you do is surf the web and social media sites. So even if you choose to use metro exclusively, you will still be thrown back to the desktop whether you want it or not. On the other hand you can comfortably stay within desktop for 100% of tasks and never, ever see Metro. This is a huge gap on Microsoft’s part. It seems like two committees were working on the project, one that wanted the new look and another that wanted the old look for continuity’s sake.

The final product feels and really is a compromise and a bad one at that. It's an attemt to have something totally new, but keeping the old without the consideration how the two interact with each other.
I believe if there was an option to stay 100% within one interface or the other, Windows 8 would be a hit.

 

[badtlc]

I tried Win8 on my machines. It lasted 1 hour. The UI was just terrible. I don't see how they are marketing this towards anything other than Phones and tablets. If you don't have a touchscreen, it just slows you down.