I just don't get Windows 8?

[DT2]

I have just had to flatten and rebuild our 1st Windows 8 HP Probook with Win 7 as the clubs CMS system (Hosted by Sapient) doesnt support it. For some reason they only support Windows 7 with Chrome which is crazy as it looks to be built on Sharepoint!

 

Anyway after a week of struggling our press guy said get rid of it... its a crock!

 

Rebuilt with Win7 and he's happy again

 

Its definately Marmite, I will persevere a while longer on my desktop but patience is wearing thin. Im sure it will be great on Surface Pro and for that reason alone Im going to ride it out a bit longer but for the time being Im sticking to Win7 on the rest of our desktops.

 

I dont think I'd have the patience for it on a desktop, it's just not nice to use with a mouse. On my tablet however it's great (can't believe I just said that about something MS, flog me now :shame: ). It is so much easier to use on a tablet than W7. The metro interface is ok, I know where everything is, it's just easy. I wouldn't however, even consider using this on my desktop(s) or in a business environment. It's a tab OS plain and simple.

 

DT

Edited December 5, 2012 by DT2

[OverWorked]

I've just upgraded my administrative machine to Win8 this morning. So far:-

 

I'd like to add that the new Server Manager is *fantastic*. Much better than previous. Server 2008 R2 and earlier need to have Windows Management Framework 3.0 installed.

 

Annoyingly though:-

 

Hyper-V Manager is incompatible with earlier Hyper-V 2008. There's no workaround, except to manage Hyper-V from Server 2008 R2, or upgrade Hyper-V to 2012.

[mthomas08]

I love it until i cant find something!

 

+1 here.

 

Looked at the bosses new sony laptop - very nice and with Windows 8 I can see what its about but the laptop didnt have touch screen. I straight away plugged in a normal mouse because I hate the touchpads.

 

I got no problem with it, I can see me sticking it on a PC at some point and seeing what I can do with it on domain.

[FragglePete]

I've given up on it too; I installed it on my main PC at home and I had revolt in the household - both my daughter and my wife insisted I removed it and put Windows 7 back up. I too started to get more and more frustrated with it.

 

And, don't get me started with Office 2013 - installed that and setup Outlook 2013 connecting to my wife's e-mail server using IMAP - the default settings proceeded to delete all her e-mails over a certain age along with not bothering with sent items. As a result, she's lost nearly two years worth of business related e-mails and I'm really in the dog house at the moment!!!

 

Microsoft have really made me rethink about my career in IT.

 

Pete

[maestromasada]

I had to google how to shut it down!

 

This is another Windows ME fiasco

[SYNACK]

I'm doing a "Vista" and not even going to bother looking at it and will wait for the next one.

 

Speaking of Windows 8, isn't that TV advert annoying? Apple got a cutesy catchy upbeat song - Handstands - for their advert. Windows have used awful annoying music and very odd video:

 

Windows 8: Lenka - Everything At Once (TV Spot) | Microsoft - YouTube

 

Comparatively I can't stand the pretentious Apple ads, have you seen the new iPhone one where they attempt to say it breaks the laws of physics. It is tantamount to the company itself saying that all of its clients are too stupid to know any better.

[dhicks]

Is anyone a convert yet?

 

I'm mildly tempted - I'm one of the (very) small percentage of the people in the world who bothered buying a touch-screen all-in-one Windows 7 home PC, so an OS designed for a touch interface might be quite nice. I don't actually use the touch interface capabilities of Windows 7, ever, and don't seem to miss them, so I'm vaugly wondering if it's worth the bother. Then again, I see I can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro from Windows 7 Home, so I can make my machine part of my Windows Server 2003 domain. I'm a bit worried whether my keyboard is going to work with Windows 8, though - I have a 1980s vintage IBM Model M keyboard with no Windows key.

[SYNACK]

@dhicks, the keyboard will work fine but the lack of a Windows key will hurt the usability as a desktop device. You may be able to use a key remapper to make an extra ctrl key into a Windows key though. Remapping Keys and Buttons

[Zourous]

In my mind I've renamed it Windows Hate for the same reasons as most. I am amazed that MS make such big mistakes. When I saw Vista for the first time and the UAC it took me a nanosecond to decide that it was a terrible feature. Yes they improved it by reducing the alerts but how the hell does this stuff go unnoticed or unchallenged before it gets out? They couldn't even be bothered to put a windows logo on start-up for Vista, it's just shabby. In Windows 7 they didn't get much wrong if anything, and now onto 8 and they get rid of the start menu. Let me think for a nanosecond, not a good idea. At the very least give me a choice.

[Earthling]

I took one look at the Beta and realised it wasn't meant for desktops. The only people who are going to buy it on a desktop are private customers buying from wherever they buy from. We 'corporate/education' customers had XP downgrade licenses right through Vista and well into 7. I've no doubt we'll be able to get 7 downgrade licenses too, if we continue to buy desktops. When we buy tablets, if they're not Android or iOS, they'll be Windows 8.

 

Or 9.

 

Or 10

 

Whichever one they get right.

[Earthling]

Comparatively I can't stand the pretentious Apple ads, have you seen the new iPhone one where they attempt to say it breaks the laws of physics. It is tantamount to the company itself saying that all of its clients are too stupid to know any better.

 

I'm never influenced by adverts, I don't have any money, but I have to admit, some ads are cool. Some are way better than the rubbish we get on TV.

 

You're gonna hate me for this, but the one that's really pressed my button lately is the iPad Mini one, don't know if you get it over there, with an iPad and a Mini side-by-side, both displaying a piano keyboard, with some fingers playing a duet on both screens. No voiceover, nothing. just the duet. Slick, slick, so slick advertising.

 

On a sadder note, I also find myself enjoying the BT Infinity three-students-in-a-flat series of ads. You almost definitely DON'T get those.

 

You can probably Youtube them, if you must.

 

But don't blame me if you do.

[speckytecky]

Me as well. Plus I also had to Google how to change the product key to activate the cursed thing:

 

Change Windows Product Key After Install

 

I had to google how to shut it down!

 

This is another Windows ME fiasco

[IanT]

had it on main desktop at home for a few days.....................................hated it!

[SYNACK]

Me as well. Plus I also had to Google how to change the product key to activate the cursed thing:

 

Change Windows Product Key After Install

 

It's just the same as Vista and 7 were, not too out there.

[tech_guy]

I just stuck Windows 8 on a grumpy colleague's laptop - revenge OS!

[OverWorked]

Me as well. Plus I also had to Google how to change the product key to activate the cursed thing:

 

Change Windows Product Key After Install

 

This might be a feature of the volume license media.

 

A really annoying bug is the way the picture viewer splits all my landscape pictures in half and shows the left hand side twice. Strange. I've googled, but can't find anyone else this is happening to. It briefly shows the picture correctly before replacing it with 2 left sides. The original pictures aren't getting changed - it's just the way it shows them. Any ideas, anyone?

 

I like the way the search charm thing can search anything - once you understand how to use it. I think I'm beginning to understand it.

 

I now have Windows 8 on my private laptop and my administrative desktop. It's slowly growing on me as I begin to understand it. Compare this with my Android phone which I loved from the moment I saw it in the shop. There was very little "learning" to be done with Android.

 

Remember how much oprobrium XP got in 2002? Techs (me included) really didn't like it. Eventually we all came to love it. There were 2 XPs though: pre SP2 which was very malware prone, had no firewall, and optional (and kludgy) Windows Update. SP2 fixed all this all this. Hopefully there'll be a Win8 SP which will tweak things in the right direction.

 

I think the thing I'm least kean on is the flat GUI. But this isn't just MS - it's a trend that started in the industry about 2 years ago. Everyone's getting rid of the shiny, 3D rendered icons that make an OS pleasing to look at. We're going retro with icons that look like hi-res versions of Windows 3.1 and a 256 colour pallette. It's hard on the eyes. I don't see any need for this on a proper-sized monitor.

Edited December 6, 2012 by OverWorked