Windows 8....urgh

[Quackers]

Had they kept the Start Menu/Desktop as default, made metro an option or default on a tablet edition and not washed out all colour and life i would be thinking about deploying Windows 8 soon, because everything else about Windows 8 is good, i have always liked the ribbon in Office so bringing it to explorer i like, its quicker, direct access is much easier in it.

 

But i should not have to take anti sickness tablets everytime i use it from the flicking between metro and where i want to be desktop, and i should not have to buy endless paracitmol from the headaches of this rubbish GUI. I managed to flick to Mac OS no problem and i enjoy it, so its not because its different, its because it is actually trash and badly designed.

Edited December 12, 2012 by Quackers

[ZeroHour]

@Arcolite I have a 920 as well, in red ooooh

[CHR1S]

Lived with W8 for a few weeks now -

 

Metro is pointless....

The lack of a start button really frustrates me and the hover, click, scroll, click just elongates the process.

I do like the ability to have a thumbnail of something running in the corner of the desktop (In my case Remote Desktop) and the simple way you change between them.

The ribbon interface, while it works in office, just complicates simple tasks in explorer.

[Arcolite]

@Arcolite I have a 920 as well, in red ooooh

 

Ooooooh! I went for a white one

It's lovely!!

[HMCTech]

Hoorah for the 920 club! Mine is White/Stormtrooper too

[VeryPC_Tom_M]

I'm waiting to look at the Samsung Ativ S (S3 with Windows Phone 8 on!), or wait for more release on the additional handset which HTC is working on..

 

[Patiently waiting for Windows Phone 7.8 in the meantime]

[Jamo]

Had they kept the Start Menu/Desktop as default, made metro an option or default on a tablet edition and not washed out all colour and life i would be thinking about deploying Windows 8 soon, because everything else about Windows 8 is good, i have always liked the ribbon in Office so bringing it to explorer i like, its quicker, direct access is much easier in it.

 

But i should not have to take anti sickness tablets everytime i use it from the flicking between metro and where i want to be desktop, and i should not have to buy endless paracitmol from the headaches of this rubbish GUI. I managed to flick to Mac OS no problem and i enjoy it, so its not because its different, its because it is actually trash and badly designed.

 

I agree with this post, had they kept the Windows 7 start menu and given Metro as an alternative shell (think KDE/Gnome/Unity) then it would be SO much better. It feels like a reverse of Windows Mobile 6 and before where they tried to bring a desktop to a mobile device, this time its a mobile device to a desktop!

[LeMarchand]

Lived with W8 for a few weeks now -

 

Metro is pointless....

The lack of a start button really frustrates me and the hover, click, scroll, click just elongates the process.

 

I can't understand this argument. Metro is the Start Menu; it's just laid out differently and accessed slightly differently. Mouse and click (or, presumably, finger and press - not tried it on a touchscreen) down to where the Start Button was or press the Windows Key, start typing and then click or press enter, which is the same process I've used since Vista.

 

I find the fact that I need a 3rd party application to standardize the style of the Metro buttons for older programs far more annoying.

 

But i should not have to take anti sickness tablets everytime i use it from the flicking between metro and where i want to be desktop

 

I can sort of see this argument - though I guess it depends on how many programs you regularly use. I have the few I use daily pinned to the desktop taskbar, but I guess some may have too many to do that with.

[ZeroHour]

A group for those of you with Windows Phones ( Windows Phone Owners Club - EduGeek.net )

[CHR1S]

I can't understand this argument. Metro is the Start Menu; it's just laid out differently and accessed slightly differently. Mouse and click (or, presumably, finger and press - not tried it on a touchscreen) down to where the Start Button was or press the Windows Key, start typing and then click or press enter, which is the same process I've used since Vista.

 

Well, that's the issue, its a full screen, over complex, under developed, moving checker board! Than in most circumstances requires much more time/effort/brain power to do simple things than a traditional start menu ever did.

[CyberNerd]

A group for those of you with Windows Phones ( Windows Phone Owners Club - EduGeek.net )

 

yay - you can discuss both of the apps in the store.

[ZeroHour]

yay - you can discuss both of the apps in the store.

 

...

[TForsdyke-SHS]

I have installed the "enterprise evaluation" version, and think this will be a total disaster if deployed in its current form,

 

I can find no way to be no way to go to desktop by default

 

on the start screen you cannot grab and drag to move along, to navigate the start screen you can: move the mouse to the edge of the screen. use the mouse wheel to go left or right or use the scroll bar at the bottom

 

logging on with one of our test staff accounts the applications cover 10 screens, and sometimes it will not let me get to desktop.

 

when you log off or start the PC it brings up a "Lock screen" then when released it gives you too options log-on to the previous account or to another account, consequently it requires 2 clicks of the mouse before you can even start to enter your password, this is unchanged after joining the domain

 

most of the functions I use daily ("my computer", "command prompt" notepad, paint, remote desktop, shutdown, restart) have been hidden, and the only way to find them is to start typing, I can live with this but the average student or teacher (some of whom do not understand that a PC only works after it is turned on at the wall) will be unable to adjust.

 

the only solution I have been able to come up with to allow staff and students to find programs without starting typing would be to have folders on the desktop to categorize programs, making them possible to find.

 

the Windows operating system was named for the feature of being able to have applications open in "windows", which you could re-size and arrange how you wanted, this has remained in the "desktop" but gone from he new style applications(I understand we are not allowed to call them metro anymore), therefore Windows 8's new experience means it is technically no longer a "windows" operating system

 

this seems more like a devolution back to early Windows infrastructures were you had to keep entering and exiting Windows, I think it should be named for its experience on desktops, which is more like windows 3.x/DOS, I therefore I propose it be renamed Windows 7.1/MSIOS (MicroSoft Internet Opperating System, unfortunately IOS is taken).

 

I always have frequently worked in command line so while disorientating, I would be able to live with this OS for home use, I just think is is unsuitable for the school environment without a lot of refinement

[CyberNerd]

 

 

this seems more like a devolution back to early Windows infrastructures were you had to keep entering and exiting Windows, I think it should be named for its experience on desktops, which is more like windows 3.x/DOS, I therefore I propose it be renamed Windows 7.1/MSIOS (MicroSoft Internet Opperating System, unfortunately IOS is taken).

 

I reckon it should be called "MS Window" as opening two "windows" is such a chore now.

Edited December 12, 2012 by CyberNerd

[sted]

I have installed the "enterprise evaluation" version, and think this will be a total disaster if deployed in its current form,

 

I can find no way to be no way to go to desktop by default

 

Thats a design decision no you cant

 

logging on with one of our test staff accounts the applications cover 10 screens, and sometimes it will not let me get to desktop.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16326[/ATTACH]

 

Thats why you pin common items (either via a script or set up policies so they can pin stuff thelselves)as most of those 10 screens will be stuff they dont need want

 

when you log off or start the PC it brings up a "Lock screen" then when released it gives you too options log-on to the previous account or to another account, consequently it requires 2 clicks of the mouse before you can even start to enter your password, this is unchanged after joining the domain

 

iirc just set it via gp to not remember last username and i THINK if you set it to dot require ctrl alt del that hides the click screen

 

most of the functions I use daily ("my computer", "command prompt" notepad, paint, remote desktop, shutdown, restart) have been hidden, and the only way to find them is to start typing, I can live with this but the average student or teacher (some of whom do not understand that a PC only works after it is turned on at the wall) will be unable to adjust.

 

Thats down to how ms thinks people use pcs most people DONT use cmd prompt and we all know people load docs from word then wonder why excel files are missing

 

I always have frequently worked in command line so while disorientating, I would be able to live with this OS for home use, I just think is is unsuitable for the school environment without a lot of refinement

 

thats the point it is a home os designed to take on apple at the ypad game and by forcing it on home users they get a consistent experience and as long as they avoid rt all their stuff from the ark will have a decent chance of running

[CAM]

I've been using Windows 8 for about a week now and I launch only one app from the Start screen simple because EA made Battlefield 3 launch through a browser instead of a proper application. Between Taskbar pinning, WinKey+R and my Steam library, I never realised how little I used the Start menu so I very rarely venture into Start land.

 

But there is one severe conflict I have encountered with my usual day-to-day usage. When I want to jump to the desktop from a fullscreen application to answer an IM, I will use the Start key. This brings up the new screen but then I have to click Desktop and get dumped back into the full screen application. I have to train myself to Alt+Tab instead.

 

Otherwise the new Start screen rarely has any effect on how I use Windows and sits in the background lonely and forgotten about.

[zag]

I have simply ignored Windows 8 and will give windows 9 a try when it comes out.

 

Bored of talking about how bad it is to be honest. Even Vista was better than this.

[tmcd35]

I have simply ignored Windows 8 and will give windows 9 a try when it comes out.

 

I love how we are a nation of optimists. This thread is full of us all saying "I'll skip it and wait for v9". I've said the same thing. As if we expecting MS to do a big u-turn on Metro between now and then. Alas, they didn't return to Windows 3.1 Program Manager for Windows 98...

[TForsdyke-SHS]

are you saying all the android phones in circulation were first activated within the last 250 days? that is what the numbers add up to, and suggests that android phones are extremely unreliable

[TForsdyke-SHS]

Thats why you pin common items (either via a script or set up policies so they can pin stuff themselves)as most of those 10 screens will be stuff they dont need want

 

while most of what you said was helpful and/or reverent, in the school we have a large number of applications installed which are used by the subject areas, so at current we have the start menu setup with a hierarchical "subjects" tree, people go to the subjects group, then from there chose the relevant subject, so the 7 programs Maths use are in a separate group from the 4 programs Biology uses, which are separate from the 9 programs Food uses and so on. as I mentioned finding these by the Start screen would be hard (understatement) unless we can educate people to use the keyboard to search (and I foresee educating some of the teachers to do that proving problematic)

[gshaw]

One thing with the Metro tiles is that they're incredibly irritating to line up and re-arrange. MS seem to have a set layout where tiles want to go and they often take a life of their own when moving around. The fact pinning is still reliant on community-space script bodges rather than being a standard GPO option on the (supposedly) Enterprise versions is poor form imo.

 

The excuse of "yeah but the user can customise it themselves" is rather lame, I'd imagine many businesses don't want 500+ different combinations on their managed desktops and would prefer to have some degree of control over it (otherwise you might as well use Macs )

 

Whether the UI is bad or not isn't the only issue with Windows 8, it's the lack of care and attention to detail around management and deployment where a lot of the criticism seems to be coming from. MS make a lot of money from this market and it's not going to disappear overnight so neglecting it seems somewhat silly?

[sted]

while most of what you said was helpful and/or reverent, in the school we have a large number of applications installed which are used by the subject areas, so at current we have the start menu setup with a hierarchical "subjects" tree, people go to the subjects group, then from there chose the relevant subject, so the 7 programs Maths use are in a separate group from the 4 programs Biology uses, which are separate from the 9 programs Food uses and so on. as I mentioned finding these by the Start screen would be hard (understatement) unless we can educate people to use the keyboard to search (and I foresee educating some of the teachers to do that proving problematic)

 

granted you cant pin everything but you can pin the most used stuff and pin others as required. i also assume if you can pin by script you can unpin. Im having the same issues best solution i can come up with is either food tech folder on desktop or possibly pinned to metro. you could probably also pin by pc so say food tech pcs got their stuff pinned on their pcs again my start menu is similar and will have to adapt

 

my opinion is this signals ms focusing on byod so all admins to is provide vdi/rdp access etc

Edited December 12, 2012 by sted

[rich_tech]

I have had a nightmare the last couple of days trying to get this to install on my home machine, to the point where it has put me off this OS completely, I may reconsider when SP1 lands for it, but until then it can swivel.

 

I had an irritating installation issue, because I dared to use the 64bit pro install, where it hated my graphics card (a pretty non-descript nvidia GTS 450) and completely garbled the graphics to the point I thought my gpu had broken, managed to find a workaround the next day and got it installed, after a very long winded process involving re-enabling and using the "onboard" graphics from the motherboard initially, then me downloading the proper drivers, it went over to the other graphics card after downloading them without any issues, or so I thought,

 

I then started having random freezing of the OS when doing simple things like file copies off my portable hard disk drive back to my machine, no warning, just the HDD light downing tools and the screen freezing up, I then proceeded to download as many updates as it would throw at the machine when I rebooted it up, but still randomly it would freeze up, sometimes in metro, sometimes in desktop, I persevered and double checked all things like driver compatability ensuring the drivers were correct and taking my time not to do anything much at once, but the freezing still happened randomly, usually when it was dualling in Metro and the desktop (I run 2 monitors)

 

After about 5 hours last night of straight use after getting home, I just decided to bin it off and stick 7 back on there as it was still randomly freezing up, requiring resetting each time which was driving me mad, thanks to Skydrive with my docs and photos, there isnt a massive issue these days with me nuking a PC and getting it all back over thankfully, just copying my WoW/Diablo3 and Steam dirs back onto a unit.

 

I didn't know what to make of it from my first decent bash at using it and I still don't now, in all honesty my first impression was that I didnt like metro or the change to the desktop, some changes though I do love, like integration for ISO files, thats long overdue, server side, I love the improved hyper-v stuff, but to me it definitely hasnt improved the user experience from my point of view and usage of it the changes to the interaction, the tiles aren't bad and don't detract from it, though I did find that it took a bit of tweaking and de-crapifying initially, visually its impressive, looks sharper and cleaner on my monitors than 7 Pro, but I just couldnt get used to the "will they wont they" hovering over the start area for the menu to appear, that is a very frustrating change going from a permanent button to a hover button for me on a normal desktop PC for little actual effect over how we used a PC.

 

I also completely dislike the fact that so many simple things are now hidden under so many extra layers when it comes to using the computer, I could never ever see this working in the school environment we have because its just too different from the simple way of doing things now and to me it seems to be overly complicated in use to previous, when you do like for like things like editing files and browsing directories.

 

I think its a fail so far from M$ personally on this one, its another millenium edition/vista to me, some nice features, but too awful an experience change, long live windows 9 !

[Arthur]

therefore Windows 8's new experience means it is technically no longer a "windows" operating system

Each Metro app has its own window. There's more than one Metro app. The plural of window is windows! Therefore Windows is still Windows!

Edited December 12, 2012 by Arthur

[Gatt]

I've been using it on my home pc and laptop for a while and have had mixed experiences on both

both seem to periodically have boot issues (15 mins of a black screen between boot logo and Welcome Screen.

Laptop runs "hot" constantly and regularly locks up.

 

The only time the Start Screen was actually close to beneficial was when I briefly installed it on my Media PC, though had to remove it due to compatibility issues.

 

Windows 8 really is aimed at the tablet market, but I feel it has come way too late to dent Apple or Android.

 

Reading a story on El Reg where they are saying Win8 is likely to go the same as Vista due to the lack of sales and general disatisfaction with the new Metro/Modern UI experience..

 

I may be tempted to ditch Win8 and return to Win7 and/or Linux....