Windows 8 The Verdicts ?

Posted in another thread but I'll put it in here as well:-

OK here is my 10 pence worth:-

Certainly feels snappy but I still can't say I'm in love with Metro (or whatever we're supposed to call it now). Hovering the mouse in the corners can sometimes be frustrating, I certainly now feel more abstracted from the OS than I did before, or have done in years.

The Win + X key is pretty powerful but I now need to be seem to be using the keyboard more than I did before in Win7. Also it just looks ugly, like something that has been thought of at the last minute to get around the gaping need that the missing "START" button has introduced. The lack of transparencies while giving a crisp feel does make Win8 feel a bit clinical, it's functional rather than pretty. I mean does this look like something from an OS is 2012:-

winx.jpg


more like something from the 1990s!! I now have to press Win X for something I could just get from the Start/Taskbar under Win7. Feels to me we're in a halfway house, they weren't brave enough to do away with the Desktop completely, we have a new "Metro" frontend but we still need the functionality provided by the Desktop.

The Metro interface really needs you to have touchscreen, using the keyboard or mouse to navigate it just now feels a bit alien, I can't quite get my head around why I'd want to use that interface with a keyboard and mouse.

I'm sure there are bags of improvements under the hood but most of those are lost in me right now, I feel more awkward around Windows than I have for years. Once I'm on the desktop I just feel lost, constantly thinking that wouldn't it just be easier to have the "START" button.

I'm currently resisting the urge to install as "START" button and trying to get used to the new interface, gotta say though it's tough! Can't help feel that METRO is just a bolt-on front end that is more suited to a "touch" device than a desktop PC.

Also it doesn't look finished to me:-

win81.jpg


why isn't there little red Xs in the top right hand corner of each of these, just an ugly "Close/Snap Left/Snap Right" dialogue, ugly!
 
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theheyes said:
You might be right but remember that build was really for tablet computers. Strange oversight nonetheless but people were citing it as an example of how bad the UI was on the finshed product.
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it's easier to quote other incorrect forum posts / old blogs than is it to go find out yourself, i suppose. 'Quite a few people on these forums are guilty of that lol

HEADRAT said:
I'm sure there are bags of improvements under the hood but most of those are lost in me right now, I feel more awkward around Windows than I have for years. Once I'm on the desktop I just feel lost, constantly thinking that wouldn't it just be easier to have the "START" button.
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what in particular did the old start menu provide that you are now missing? tbh the most annoying thing for me is the lack of a my computer link on a fresh install. File explorer is pinned to the taskbar but the jump list just has the various documents folders (not even pinned, though) and a recently used list...that's fine for casual users which i guess is the reason for it but for anybody who likes to navigate the file system it's a bit annoying. Adding my computer to the file explorer jump list is the first thing I've done on every install lol
 
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james.miller said:
it's easier to quote other incorrect forum posts / old blogs than is it to go find out yourself, i suppose. 'Quite a few people on these forums are guilty of that lol
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Oh yeah definitely. And human psychology compounds the fact - if you've heard something before you're more likely to believe it is true, regardless of whether it is or not.

This is why FUD is so infectious.
 
james.miller said:
what in particular did the old start menu provide that you are now missing
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Probably familiarity, at the moment I find myself constantly having to flip in/out of Metro or pressing WinX just to find things that I could find in an instant before.

Before I could just use my mouse to get what I wanted, now I have to use the mouse and keyboard all the time.

HEADRAT
 
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learn the application names if you can, windows key + app name is the fastest way to launch an app other than pinning it to the task bar, imo. You dont even need to type the full name, ie; windows key + 'calc'
 
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HEADRAT said:
Probably familiarity, at the moment I find myself constantly having to flip in/out of Metro or pressing WinX just to find things that I could find in an instant before.

HEADRAT
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Or just right click where start menu use to be.

Metro is far more powerful than the old start menu. I bet you didn't think I'm having to flip in and out of the start menu, even though its pretty much identical, metro is just fall screen, far more powerful search, live tiles for glancing at info and uses your screen real easte far better than a list menu from the 90s
 
HEADRAT said:
How is that an improvement though!
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you could do exactly the same in windows 7. The point is, its faster and it means you dont have to search through a list of apps or a screen of tiles. Rather useful, try it ;) I didnt use the start menu for much in windows anyway, and for the same reason i dont use the win8 start screen all that much either unless i am fooling around with metro apps - i either pin it to the taskbar or type it.
 
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THinking about how i use windows 7, i will admit i use the full depth of the start menu VERY rarely, usually only to find the calculator, or open a rarely used program like Visio.

Usually programs open becuase i have clicked on a file which uses it.

However, there are a couple of programs i have pinned to my taskbar which invariably frustrate me at least once or twice a week. The best example is Photoshop, which is pinned next to Chrome. THe number of times i have accidentally clicked on Photoshop, and have to sit there for a few minutes which the computer chugs away openning it! ( i know i can change this, but... y'know) :D

I dont think i would like to have all my frequently used applications pinned to my taskbar, having them pinned to the top of the start menu works a lot better for me. (i REALLY dont like having lots of icons on the desktop).

So i can understand the removal of the Start Menu, but i would have liked it if they teamed this up with either:

Ability to pin icons to anywhere on the taskbar, IE, allow me to pin Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator, to the centre of the taskbar away from other icons.

Moving mouse upto the top of the screen makes a menu appear (like the one that appears if you move the mouse to the right) that you can customise and add you own icons to.
 
POB said:
Snap, but I got a little further, started using it then windows update added something and I rebooted and now I can't get back in, just the new BSOD screen.

That will teach me to do an upgrade.

Now trying to find a working boot method to recover my back from my server.
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Unfortunately, I tried then installing Windows 8 from scratch (full install) and ran into the same problem.

My laptop is back to Windows 7 again for now, until I can find a fix. Fortunately due to Clonezilla, all I had to do was reimage the old files back and it's as it was again.
 
Im slowly getting used to W8 but I dont like how you have to move the cursor into the corners to bring side menus up.

Also closing and opening of windows is confusing me , such as the picture a few posts up how do programs end up in the side bar like that?
 
What's the official way of making the address bar appear in IE? I have to press back, is that the only way?

Also, does the tile shortcut to IE not share the same settings/cookies as IE when you open it from the win7 style desktop?

I think I would like it if it was more win7 style with the old start menu, but I do like the new win8 tweaks, just not the tiles, which would be better suited on a tablet OS.
 
loltim said:
What's the official way of making the address bar appear in IE? I have to press back, is that the only way?

Also, does the tile shortcut to IE not share the same settings/cookies as IE when you open it from the win7 style desktop?

I think I would like it if it was more win7 style with the old start menu, but I do like the new win8 tweaks, just not the tiles, which would be better suited on a tablet OS.
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Open IE from the desktop, not metro, then you will get the normal one.
 
Hmm interesting, possible very simple game changer for me:

Last night i shut down my PC from the desktop. This morning it has booted straight back to the Desktop, no sight of the Metro Start screen at all. Is this normal?

If so, i'm a lot happier :D
 
Has anyone noticed that the search function in metro only searches metro stuff, if you want to search say specific files like .bin files, then you need to go into desktop then open a window and search from the top right corner, total mess for me, the search in Win 7 was the best I've used, now for me it's broken :(
 
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