Terrible,but as I said we all have different tastes ,as long as you are happy that's what counts.
Looks like a screen shot from a mobile phone.
Windows 8 is....
- Thread starter humbug
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Looks like a screen shot from a mobile phone.
Microsoft are always working on the next 'thing' whether than be OS or application. They have 2-3 year release cycles so there's no doubt they're working on it. It doesn't mean the OS has failed - like when Windows 7 came out they immediately went to work on 8.
I don't like Windows 8 - I think the start menu is ugly and designed around touch. Making it Windows 8 - Touch edition would make sense. I'm still not convinced about the tiles and gearing everything for touch - it's great if you have a tablet / surface / etc. but for mouse it's not as nice. Still Windows 8.1 is a massive improvement to the point whereby I can probably ignore the tiles and use it. It's such a shame that sometimes they think they know the customer better than the customer knows themselves. Windows has to be in a state whereby old users and new can pick it up straight away rather than have to search to shutdown / logoff for example. As I said 8.1 is a step in the right direction.
M.
I don't like Windows 8 - I think the start menu is ugly and designed around touch. Making it Windows 8 - Touch edition would make sense. I'm still not convinced about the tiles and gearing everything for touch - it's great if you have a tablet / surface / etc. but for mouse it's not as nice. Still Windows 8.1 is a massive improvement to the point whereby I can probably ignore the tiles and use it. It's such a shame that sometimes they think they know the customer better than the customer knows themselves. Windows has to be in a state whereby old users and new can pick it up straight away rather than have to search to shutdown / logoff for example. As I said 8.1 is a step in the right direction.
M.
Ot in the way you think.
Of course theres another one around the corner.
Likely to be 8.2 in a years time, and then windows9 year after. But it wont be like w7 it'll be like windows 8.
And this is an issue?
Doesn't win7 icons look like ios? Static lines of icons, with a quick launch bar at the bottom.
Whats so bad about icons that give live info? Especially now in 8.1 you can have small icons which are almost identical to win7 icons.
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Man of Honour
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Nope. Chances are the next Windows will be a move forwards using the Start Screen idea rather than bringing back the old Start Menu.
Glaucus - Numbered for ease of replying said:
1. For some yes, obviously.
2. In some ways I guess...maybe? Not as linear as the Start Screen though, even the improved 8.1 one with the smaller icon sizes.
3. Nothing. The old gadgets were a step in the same direction and although they proved unsuccessful from the security point of view, they were live tiles, that didn't need the whole screen, but then for some that doesn't seem to be a problem.
The Win 7 Start Menu is faster, cleaner, easier all access.
The Metro UI, Tiles... call it what the have now with its Tiled page groupings and Sub Menus is clumsy, ugly and agonising to use if you do more than brows Facebook and the news.
Its a touch screen tablet OS, complete with swipe in menus, useless applications that it insist on dragging you back into that horrid interface to use those useless pre installed apps every time you click on something, it took me hours to set it up so that it would 'begrudgingly' use the apps I had installed for the job.
It is ported over to Desktop, i'm still trying to workout how to stop it using the Metro UI app instead of Thunderbird every time i click on an internet link....
IMO they did this to try and get their Desktop users used to their Tablet interface thinking it would help sales, a colossal miscalculation, a lot people using a Keyboard and mouse cannot get on with it, their experience of it is a slow agonising headache, i hate it, as do many, and they take their experience of it with them when looking at those Windows tablets.
The Metro UI, Tiles... call it what the have now with its Tiled page groupings and Sub Menus is clumsy, ugly and agonising to use if you do more than brows Facebook and the news.
Its a touch screen tablet OS, complete with swipe in menus, useless applications that it insist on dragging you back into that horrid interface to use those useless pre installed apps every time you click on something, it took me hours to set it up so that it would 'begrudgingly' use the apps I had installed for the job.
It is ported over to Desktop, i'm still trying to workout how to stop it using the Metro UI app instead of Thunderbird every time i click on an internet link....
IMO they did this to try and get their Desktop users used to their Tablet interface thinking it would help sales, a colossal miscalculation, a lot people using a Keyboard and mouse cannot get on with it, their experience of it is a slow agonising headache, i hate it, as do many, and they take their experience of it with them when looking at those Windows tablets.
i'm not the biggest fan of windows 8 but complaining about modern UI apps is just so pointless. it take seconds to uninstall the lot. you right click them all at once and hit un-install. job done.
using 8.1 you can boot to desktop and disable the swipe thingies (right click taskbar>properties>navigation).
i will admit the all apps screen is a cluster**** and it's much harder to easily find what you're looking for. obviously you can pin your favourite apps and use text search when you know exactly what you want but when trying to find something you don't know the exact name of, it is a royal PITA.
using 8.1 you can boot to desktop and disable the swipe thingies (right click taskbar>properties>navigation).
i will admit the all apps screen is a cluster**** and it's much harder to easily find what you're looking for. obviously you can pin your favourite apps and use text search when you know exactly what you want but when trying to find something you don't know the exact name of, it is a royal PITA.
It's none of those things, you're simply unused to it and don't know your way around it.
When/if you learn to use it properly Windows 8 is a lot quicker to navigate around.
The biggest issue here is that MS didn't really show people properly how to use the interface.
Now I'm not saying you should like the way it looks, but it's certainly not clumsy and agonising to use.
As with most people, I expect the issue you have is the big change.
It's not a touchscreen tablet OS. It's Windows with an extended interface. I also think you're exaggerating quite a bit, what drags you back in to the modern UI when you click on stuff?
It's not ported over to the desktop. It's a desktop OS, with an extended interface no "porting" happens at all.
As above, I also think you're exaggerating here, does it really open the Modern UI when you click a link on the internet?
I expect it doesn't and maybe it happens occasionally, but if you're not exaggerating and it IS doing that, then that's not intended behavior and you've done something to make it do that.
They did this to unify their tablet and desktop experiences. The tablets also have access to the classic desktop UI too, if you wish to use it.
Not at all. Too many people are so absorbed in "oh my god, change, it's WRONG because it's different" that they aren't allowing themselves to adapt to the change, their attitude is complicate in their difficulties in actually using the operating system.
Outside of the start menu, the differences visually between Windows 7 and 8 are quite minor anyway.
With 8.1, the only thing they did that was in anyway a retraction was to add the start button back, because some people really struggled with the concept of hot corners.
I'm indifferent to it, I could use it as it was in 8.0, and I can use it as it is in 8.1.
Trouble is, if you're going to do that you may as well just stick with Windows 7.
Hence the dilemma I face. Unless I buy a touchscreen monitor there is just no clear compelling reason. Sure, there are small improvements here and there but if you're just going to strip Metro etc. out then there's little point.
Improved dual screen support and boot times are enough to have me change tbh. I use it exactly how I used Win 7, except they only things works slightly better.
How do I upgrade to 8.1 though?
Soldato
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Is that with 8.1 booting straight to desktop and the Start Menu 8 utililty from Iobit? If not, how've you done that?
I have a plasma screen running on a W8 PC at work and I hate having to turn it on each morning, log in, select the desktop and load up the PowerPoint file to display. I'd love to be able to turn it on (either remotely or set it to turn on at 8am), to log itself in to the desktop and open the file for me.
Upgraded my laptop last night. You have to go to the Store and update there. If you don't see an Update section, you apparently have some Windows Updates to install before you can upgrade W8 to W8.1.
I prefer the start menu in Windows 8, but even without it I still prefer Windows 8 as an OS.
It has much better multi-monitor support than Windows 7, to the point where I don't need to use any additional software to have the functionality I require across my 3 monitors, independent taskbars on each monitor, the start screen being available for each monitor.
The ribbon interface for folders, making changing folder settings much quicker, the additional entries in "computer" (desktop, documents, downloads, music, pictures, and videos).
The new task manager is a massive improvement over the previous version, it looks a lot nicer and contains more information. The lock screen is also a big improvement, and 8.1 goes one step further with that too. Windows 8.0 and 7 used to ignore additional monitors with regards to the lock screen, 8.1 doesn't, and can display a slideshow of pictures across your monitors.
That's not even getting in to the performance increases.
True Tute, whats the point in adding the "windows 7 shell" really ? best to just have windows 7 instead.
@ spoffle, I am not scared of change at all, far from it, but that was a radical change, they could have at least had an option built in to switch to windows 7 appearance like some of the previous op systems have included, but they haven't which is a letdown, saying that though, windows 7 don't have an option to look like windows vista or xp, lol, too me its all too much for what they call "the average everyday user" to instantly be able to get their head around, I can get my head round it but to me its still a nightmare, the wife uses it on the laptop and she finds it total murder to get used to compared to windows 7.
@ spoffle, I am not scared of change at all, far from it, but that was a radical change, they could have at least had an option built in to switch to windows 7 appearance like some of the previous op systems have included, but they haven't which is a letdown, saying that though, windows 7 don't have an option to look like windows vista or xp, lol, too me its all too much for what they call "the average everyday user" to instantly be able to get their head around, I can get my head round it but to me its still a nightmare, the wife uses it on the laptop and she finds it total murder to get used to compared to windows 7.
@ desires, it should come up as a free add on option in the windows store thingy if you have genuine copy, on the little lappy I have windows 8 was pre-installed and then the other day It came up and offered me the free update, took forever plus I had to get the latest drivers for 8.1 too for a couple of things to work too, apart from that its basically same as windows 8 apart from having a start button you need to remember to right click rather than left click, LOL (garbage, my opinion).
That's fair enough Spoffle, but none of those things really jump out and grab me and make me want to put Windows 8 on and bother to get used to it or bother installing third party software for a Start Menu that I already get after a Windows 7 installation.
I used to hate Windows 8, but upon reflection that's far too harsh as on a phone or tablet, it's great to use (but I feel the desktop is a bit crap on a tablet). I just... don't really love it either.
I used to hate Windows 8, but upon reflection that's far too harsh as on a phone or tablet, it's great to use (but I feel the desktop is a bit crap on a tablet). I just... don't really love it either.
People will always have opinions on operating systems ,end of the day Win8 is Win8 ie nothing more or nothing less so you know what you are getting UI wise,we all have choices on OS,let me turn this around and say what about all the users like me fed up with same boring UI from Win95 to Win7?...Win8 is a least something different and change was long overdue.
I can't wait to see Win9 with all the changes and probably those same users moaning etc...
I have my popcorn and front seat booked already for them
.lol Elevon, in that case I will have my beers and popcorn front seats booked too, but for watching all the complaints and laughing at that and people still wanting back to windows 7, hehehehehehe
lol, that wasn't very clear what I meant, what I meant was, people like change yes, but they like a nice easy change for very easy use etc, not mammoth changes that they need to take weeks or months to get used to depending on their level of skills etc, I think billy gates team should work on just making the things look similar but nicer, and much faster performance, just a step at a time, that's what I think most average users would be happy with.
lol, that wasn't very clear what I meant, what I meant was, people like change yes, but they like a nice easy change for very easy use etc, not mammoth changes that they need to take weeks or months to get used to depending on their level of skills etc, I think billy gates team should work on just making the things look similar but nicer, and much faster performance, just a step at a time, that's what I think most average users would be happy with.
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lol Elevon, in that case I will have my beers and popcorn front seats booked too, but for watching all the complaints and laughing at that and people still wanting back to windows 7, hehehehehehe
You got me thinking down memory lane to good old DOS days ,damn youngsters nowadays have it way too easy with operating systems but they are never happy
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tbh even if MS had changed the UI in 8.1 back to the old UI or added a option, people would still find something else to complain/moan about it.
has I keep saying no company can make every customer happy. there will always some people that will find something els to complain/moan about.
has I keep saying no company can make every customer happy. there will always some people that will find something els to complain/moan about.
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