Windows 8 is a Joke!
- Thread starter jeffa123
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Yes I do know there is a Desktop inside Windows 8, but once you go to it there is nothing there unless you put it there. You have to search for all the Control panel items you would normally get in both Windows XP or Vista, on Windows 7 you can at least access them from the Menu.
You have to create a Shutdown Button on your Desktop and you also don't get back any of the Windows 7 basics in Windows 8.1.
When it comes to Media is another talking point. I haven't seen a Plus pack since Windows 98. Now they want you to purchase the basics of what windows used to offer as standard. Obviously they thought about it in terms of financial gain when they did the release. And in the beginning they offered the Media pack free to select users. This is obviously a ploy to release Apps by other publishers to provide the service such as DVD playback etc.
I hope they learn from this experience, obviously some have already learned and reverted to Windows 7. The problem isn't the integration but the disintegration of windows. A lot of people may like a clean desktop, or even the Metro design but to me it just looks noisey and looks so much like media centre has over its many incarnations.
I don't know what they are expecting from users of Windows 7 to expect or even those whom will be made to feel obsolete in a year's time.
Don't need the media pack. VLC does all you're asking for.
Classic shell does the rest of what you're looking for.
Each is a 2 mins install and then another 30 sec of config and you're done.
Pretty basic stuff.
You only feel obsolete if you are hooked on consumerism. Sounds like you've a major fear of change for some reason.
Windows 8 will fail not simply because of the GUI, which you can change. But because its too expensive, that upgrade price is barmy even if there are other options to buy it from. (I only got it because it was cheap). But mainly because there's no killer features in it to make it desirable for the majority of people.
As an IT person I like because its new and shiney, its faster, its installer much easier and with a wider range of up to date drivers than earlier windows. Metro does nothing better, and nothing I need, so I simply avoid using it.
At work, we have XP and Windows 7 machines. Some Windows 8 machines we are having to facilitate because contractors or third party we work with, have started appearing with it. We've had no big issue'es with it there either.
Classic shell does the rest of what you're looking for.
Each is a 2 mins install and then another 30 sec of config and you're done.
Pretty basic stuff.
You only feel obsolete if you are hooked on consumerism. Sounds like you've a major fear of change for some reason.
Windows 8 will fail not simply because of the GUI, which you can change. But because its too expensive, that upgrade price is barmy even if there are other options to buy it from. (I only got it because it was cheap). But mainly because there's no killer features in it to make it desirable for the majority of people.
As an IT person I like because its new and shiney, its faster, its installer much easier and with a wider range of up to date drivers than earlier windows. Metro does nothing better, and nothing I need, so I simply avoid using it.
At work, we have XP and Windows 7 machines. Some Windows 8 machines we are having to facilitate because contractors or third party we work with, have started appearing with it. We've had no big issue'es with it there either.
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Start8 gives you all the functions you need. Boots straight to desktop too.
Heres what my start menu looks like using start8
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
I'm using a Windows Classic menu with my Windows 8. Have everything I had in older versions, and a few features that they dropped in Vista, 7 and 8 but were in XP. I used to use Classic Shell and VLC in Vista and Windows 7 aswell. To get back XP features they dropped.
Soldato
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I don't have anything particular against W8 - I use it everyday albeit with Start8 installed and I avoid Metro like the plague simply because it's an utterly idiotic UI that introduces a massive break to workflow when using it.
If I use W8 like I used W7 then I have no real complaints other than it every now and then opening annoying things like the metro image viewer that doesn't contextually open so you can use the arrow keys to select the next image.
Personally I think that MS cocked up big time with making such an alienating UI and then refusing to re-introduce familiarity. If you have any exposure to an enterprise environment then you'd know that there is nothing worse than attempting to get an executive PA to completely alter their workflow - annoyed PA = annoyed Exec = instruction to IT Director "we'll skip this 'upgrade'" and I'd have to agree - there is nothing of note gained from Windows 8 and nothing that I miss when I go back to a Windows 7 machine.
If I use W8 like I used W7 then I have no real complaints other than it every now and then opening annoying things like the metro image viewer that doesn't contextually open so you can use the arrow keys to select the next image.
Personally I think that MS cocked up big time with making such an alienating UI and then refusing to re-introduce familiarity. If you have any exposure to an enterprise environment then you'd know that there is nothing worse than attempting to get an executive PA to completely alter their workflow - annoyed PA = annoyed Exec = instruction to IT Director "we'll skip this 'upgrade'" and I'd have to agree - there is nothing of note gained from Windows 8 and nothing that I miss when I go back to a Windows 7 machine.
Soldato
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Which I have done, but a general Luddite user wouldn't have the foggiest what was going. Why replace a really good serviceable viewer with one that has entirely lost it's intuitive nature? Again - it was foolish to alienate their enterprise user base. My old company (around about 10,000 bums on seats) lapped up Windows 7 to the point where staff were asking to be upgraded to it!
The only thing missing from the Windows 8 desktop is the start menu. Other than that, it's almost identical to Windows 7. If you really can't cope with the Modern UI for launching your programs, you can always use a replacment start menu as others have mentioned. Personally, I see no need for one.
It most certainly is not an expensive non starter, unless you're foolish enough to buy direct from the Microsoft store, in which case, more fool you. As has been mentioned many times, it's available significantly cheaper at most IT retailers.
The £24.99 was a Microsoft offer that lasted until the end of January this year for anyone wanting to upgrade. If you didn't take advantage of it then, sucks to be you.
The £15 version was the manufacturer promotion for new machines.
What Microsoft are directly charging for it from their store is mostly irrelevant. People with more money than sense are the only people that are likely to use that route.
Microsoft are always working on the next version of Windows, there's nothing new there. As already mentioned, the desktop has not gone away in Windows 8 by any stretch. There's just an additional interface for phone and tablet users (that doesn't interfere with the desktop if you don't want it to). Please see the numerous replies in the various Windows 8 threads.
You do realise that when you open a document/video/whatever for the first time (or if you've added a new application), Windows opens a pop out menu telling you there are choices for what you want to open it with? Anyone with a modicum of intelligence should be able to work it out.
Soldato
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Thanks captain obvious - you've managed to miss the point. It's not that you aren't given an option, it's that the obvious option - i.e. the new one, is pants. And I also suspect that you don't have much enterprise exposure - you've made a bunch of assumptions based on your knowledge and experience with the Windows OS and Microsofts development history - all those assumptions make no acknowledgement that the average PC user couldn't give a damn about either of those things and just want their new PC to work. To be able to intuitively figure their way through it based on their own limited previous OS use and not have to fudge their way through random pop ups and half assed applications.
Thanks for playing.
You're right that I don't have much enterprise exposure to Windows 8 as I'm yet to see it being used in an enterprise environment. That doesn't surprise me though.
I would imagine the average home user is generally quite capable of working out how to set a default program in Windows 8 as the pop out is extremely obvious.
Whether you feel an application is half arsed (ps it's only half assed if you've had to dumb it down for people who think reality TV is great -and Americans) or not isn't particularly relevant. The modern UI applications serve a purpose on tablets, phones and HTPCs, and as Windows 8 was designed for both desktops and handheld devices, the user is given the choice.
I would agree that an option during install would be nice to choose between full desktop setup or handheld, but other than that I still fail to see how it's any worse than any of its predecessors that have random applications taking over control of the file extension if the user didn't do a custom install and actually know what they were doing.
This is why it's slightly embarrassing that people are coming in here whining Windows 8 is a joke, they're basically whining they have no IT skills and lack google-fu
MW
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A general Luddite user won't know what they are missing in apps. Any that do, aren't an average user and will be able to change the association.
I assume any enterprise user doesn't get an OS out of the box. They get the corporate image set up for them.
I don't really understand your comments, its like you've not got a lot of experience of these things, or perhaps, not given it enough time. Theres problems with Windows 8, but most of them are simple to bypass/config by anyone but the technophobic.
This is why it's slightly embarrassing that people are coming in here whining Windows 8 is a joke, they're basically whining they have no IT skills and lack google-fu
MW
This is the biggest problem i encounter, monkey see monkey do, monkey thinks they are an expert, then someone makes some changes to the tools, monkey cry, tools are rubbish!, actually monkey didnt really know what they were doing but cant admit it, and get on with adapting or learning how to change things, instead take to forum to declare windows as rubbish!, put that effort into learning and adapting and they would probably be fine.
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If you have just joined the conversation i would mind where you direct your remarks. If you are saying I started this thread out of lack of knowledge then I would rant on about nothing.
I merely started this thread to point out that price that Microsoft is currently asking for the UPGRADE is £189.99........ The reference being its an expensive joke played on us the users and would be users. If I wanted it on my PC I could have it on there in seconds, the only thing is would it give me more productivity than the Operating systems I already have?
I can obviously criticise it because I have examined it and tested it and didn't like it. Many other users are saying the same. Are they all wrong or is it just you that is right. You can quote me all you like and break down every single phrase I intone but you don't like the fact that I am telling the truth and giving my opinion. I have told the truth and that is that, if you wish to bend the truth like this is a court house let us just look at what I started the thread with, and what I have stuck with throughout. The price given by Microsoft for an Upgrade and not anyone else. I don't care if you can buy it off Joe Bloggs at a Car Boot sale for 2p. The Retail price given by Microsoft for the Upgrade is £189.99. So if I was to buy it today the price from Microsoft is that not £25 not anything else. We are talking about money not the Operating system itself.
If someone asked you opinion on a piece of Hardware like a Hard Disk and if it was a fair value in price. What would you say? All Hardware is software driven and requires a software environment for it to work in.
To get a 3TB Hd would be fine and you could Partition it as Data on 32 bit and 64 bit Vista and XP but you would require Windows 7 and supporting Bios to boot an O/S from it. etc etc. There are always different ways of looking at things but it depends what you want the item for.
I don't care what anyone says it works out the same anyway you look at it. You have got to see the value in what you are purchasing. Obviously you believe you have value for your money, but then again you may have got it at the cheaper price, so it represented value for £25 or £49.95 you paid last year for it. I don't value it that way. I look at what more it can offer me over what I have now and I come up with a big fat Zero. So If I see it as of no benefit to me even if I were to buy it, even at a cheap price I am going to need a lot more offered than a few bells and whistles.
Good luck to you and enjoy your purchase but don't criticise me for just not seeing things your way. I didn't want a long discussion over the do's and don'ts of Windows 8 there are plenty more threads about that. What I have done is raised a valid point about price, not about the O/S. I have already voiced my personal opinion on that but if you are going get personal on any points I raise it best not discussed. Please rationalise what I have said and please see the reason I raised the point.
I merely started this thread to point out that price that Microsoft is currently asking for the UPGRADE is £189.99........ The reference being its an expensive joke played on us the users and would be users. If I wanted it on my PC I could have it on there in seconds, the only thing is would it give me more productivity than the Operating systems I already have?
I can obviously criticise it because I have examined it and tested it and didn't like it. Many other users are saying the same. Are they all wrong or is it just you that is right. You can quote me all you like and break down every single phrase I intone but you don't like the fact that I am telling the truth and giving my opinion. I have told the truth and that is that, if you wish to bend the truth like this is a court house let us just look at what I started the thread with, and what I have stuck with throughout. The price given by Microsoft for an Upgrade and not anyone else. I don't care if you can buy it off Joe Bloggs at a Car Boot sale for 2p. The Retail price given by Microsoft for the Upgrade is £189.99. So if I was to buy it today the price from Microsoft is that not £25 not anything else. We are talking about money not the Operating system itself.
If someone asked you opinion on a piece of Hardware like a Hard Disk and if it was a fair value in price. What would you say? All Hardware is software driven and requires a software environment for it to work in.
To get a 3TB Hd would be fine and you could Partition it as Data on 32 bit and 64 bit Vista and XP but you would require Windows 7 and supporting Bios to boot an O/S from it. etc etc. There are always different ways of looking at things but it depends what you want the item for.
I don't care what anyone says it works out the same anyway you look at it. You have got to see the value in what you are purchasing. Obviously you believe you have value for your money, but then again you may have got it at the cheaper price, so it represented value for £25 or £49.95 you paid last year for it. I don't value it that way. I look at what more it can offer me over what I have now and I come up with a big fat Zero. So If I see it as of no benefit to me even if I were to buy it, even at a cheap price I am going to need a lot more offered than a few bells and whistles.
Good luck to you and enjoy your purchase but don't criticise me for just not seeing things your way. I didn't want a long discussion over the do's and don'ts of Windows 8 there are plenty more threads about that. What I have done is raised a valid point about price, not about the O/S. I have already voiced my personal opinion on that but if you are going get personal on any points I raise it best not discussed. Please rationalise what I have said and please see the reason I raised the point.
That looks exactly like a rant.
You're talking about enterprise a minute a go. That pricing is nothing to do with enterprise. Indeed the vast majority of people will get W8 with a new computer. They won't buy it. The vast majority who will upgrade will not pay that 189 price. They'll find ways to get it cheaper.
Also you said it was substandard, when its almost the same as Windows 7 underneath. That just doesn't make any logical sense. Unless you didn't know that. That you favour Vista over Windows 7 doesn't make sense either, since Windows 7 is just a much better version of Vista. Its Vista Fixed.
The only point you have made that I'd agree with is no one will pay 189 for it. Just like MS have to backtrack on Windows RT they'll do the same with Windows 8/8.1. They just don't won't admit it yet.
You're talking about enterprise a minute a go. That pricing is nothing to do with enterprise. Indeed the vast majority of people will get W8 with a new computer. They won't buy it. The vast majority who will upgrade will not pay that 189 price. They'll find ways to get it cheaper.
Also you said it was substandard, when its almost the same as Windows 7 underneath. That just doesn't make any logical sense. Unless you didn't know that. That you favour Vista over Windows 7 doesn't make sense either, since Windows 7 is just a much better version of Vista. Its Vista Fixed.
The only point you have made that I'd agree with is no one will pay 189 for it. Just like MS have to backtrack on Windows RT they'll do the same with Windows 8/8.1. They just don't won't admit it yet.
jeffa123
Just because Microsoft are offering the upgrade at the silly price they are, doesn't mean you, I, or anyone else is going to pay that much.
It's not a joke on users, because they will buy it elsewhere. You seem to be fixated on MS as if they're the only place you can actually buy a copy of Windows 8. If that were the case, then I'd agree with you that the price was excessive, but it isn't the case, and the cost elsewhere is quite reasonable.
PS If you don't want people jumping on your threads then maybe you should consider the thread title a bit more before posting. 'Windows 8 is a joke' was just asking for people to bite.
Just because Microsoft are offering the upgrade at the silly price they are, doesn't mean you, I, or anyone else is going to pay that much.
It's not a joke on users, because they will buy it elsewhere. You seem to be fixated on MS as if they're the only place you can actually buy a copy of Windows 8. If that were the case, then I'd agree with you that the price was excessive, but it isn't the case, and the cost elsewhere is quite reasonable.
PS If you don't want people jumping on your threads then maybe you should consider the thread title a bit more before posting. 'Windows 8 is a joke' was just asking for people to bite.