That's how old I am, Vista or 7 I was ok with (just) but this 8 thing has got me 'mad as hell'.

Why wasn't I told you needed to do a course to adapt to this 'me too' system.

I might be old but now I'm grumpy as well.

Been told Win8 was designed for touch screen (tablets).

So er good luck with finding the START button!

PS: I have defected to the MAC rather than upgrade to Win8 :-)

Windows 8 is easy. Infact I think I like it better than Windows 7.

 

Master the start menu feature and you will like it alot more.

 

I'm personally happy with Windows 7, but I have a virtual machine at work with Windows 8. I found a program that added a start menu on like WIndows 7, and I was happy enough with it.

Windows 8 is easy. Infact I think I like it better than Windows 7.

 

Master the start menu feature and you will like it alot more.

Guess that shows your age too :-)

It's terrible!

If you are struggling, just download the 8.1 update from the store and you'll get your start button back and an improved start screen. Oh and you can right click in the bottom left to shut down.

It really is very good though, you just need someone who knows their way round to spend ten minutes showing you a few bits.

If you are struggling, just download the 8.1 update from the store and you'll get your start button back and an improved start screen. Oh and you can right click in the bottom left to shut down.

It really is very good though, you just need someone who knows their way round to spend ten minutes showing you a few bits.

 

Yea windows 8.1 does help out a lot, Plus there is a lot of crap you can delete if you look around..

It's great on my Surface Pro.

Not as great on my 4 year old work laptop, especially as they won't let me update to 8.1 yet.

When working I find myself on the desktop 95% of the time anyway.

The thing that hacks me off off is that very little is compatible, even in comparability mode. Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 and 3 freeze, Sims 2 and 3 run ok one day and not the next..I had trouble with my old Dreamweaver software and office too so removed them. Hassle lol!!

I work in IT, 

 

I hated windows 8 to start off with, it was unfamiliar and strange (I use windows, osx and Linux regularly) because it was so different i struggled to adapt. 

 

then after forcing my self to use it for a few weeks..... now i actually quite like it. Still though Microsoft messed up... 

 

these days people want computers to be more simple and easier to use, why they would completely change the way an operating system works over night is just mental! 

 

either way, most people are going to be forced into 8, unless you are daring and take the Linux challenge (or spend a load on a mac). 

 

If your not gaming though Linux is great! 

 

Cheers

Daz

My bug is using the mouse pad and suddenly something pops up or it swaps windows.

Yet try to do it on purpose I can't. Haven't done 8.1 yet.

I think Windows 8 amd 8.1 are "Pre-production" software and that Windows 9, which is due for release next year, will consolidate the transition to tablet and be the real deal.  This is just Microsoft going through their usual development cycle - one good operating system, followed 3 years later by a **** (Partially developed) OS, followed 3 years later by a good OS. For some reason they seem to take twice as long as other developers to get it right and therefore need to extra funding "Mid-term" to sustain the organisation.

 

 

I bought 8.1 (64 bit) on an OEM licence (Much cheapness), which is probably the least painful way to do it, for me. I don't need to have the 32 bit version (You get this as standard in the Retail package and therefore pay extra), as I intend to recycle the laptop into a 64 bit device.

 

I installed my W8 over the top of an existing W7 Ultimate 64 installation and although it finally worked out, I had a hell of a job trying to get the installation to work and when it did, I found that the main reason for doing an over-the-top installation i.e. carrying forward my personal data from W7, hadn't worked properly. The  instructions tell you, when doing an installation,  to boot from the W8 disk and proceed with the installation from there. My system wouldn't do it this way. It got about half way through the W8 installation and it stalled, repeatedly and consistently (Driver or conflict problem ?)  The only way I got W8 to install over W7 was to run it from within W7 - it seemed to utilise virtual mode during this process. But I was left with some oddities - a double presence of Skydrive/Onedrive on my local disk ?????

 

Reference the capabilities of W8, I'd say that the speed of underlying processes has increased greatly, presumably because they used far more 64 bit code and that the touch screen implementation can be quite convenient once you configured it to your needs. In the absence of a touch sensitive screen, I've used a keyboard with a built-in touch pad for use with one of my desktops and I find that works much better than a key board/mouse and avoids the necessity of wiping the screen down once a week.

 

However, Microsoft have left the vestiges of the  old Windows 7/Vista/Xp desktop in place, supposedly to ease migration of users from the earlier OSs. As far as I'm concerned, it has the opposite effect, it just creates confusion. Like a phone I want to be able to go from the large desktop icons straight into an app, with one swipe/click, avoiding the tedious menu hierarchy of W7, Vista, XP. The default desktop setting doesn't allow you to do that for all apps and you have to modify the display to suit - after you've done that its fine.

 

Where I'm having problems is with the Internet interface. There seems to be a facility on there, where once you access a web site and then leave it by closing the window, a representation of the open page is still left in the system as a reduced size icon. This icon is added to a visible horizontal stack/roll of previously visited sites and it doesn't clear itself from session to session and so, its constantly growing. If you're so minded you have to go in and manually delete each "Open" icon but this is a real PITA if you've not done it in a couple of days. My concern is that these "Open" icons may be well consuming internet bandwith while they are open and therefore killing your internet/system performance and usuage - same old computer industry, same old tricks ? Who knows ?

 

Also I've noticed that W8 seems to have a problem printing from Adode acrobat (PDF) files. It takes forever for the print window to come-up and process your print instructions.

 

 

Nick

Edited 3 March, 201412 yr by Clunkclick

Best thing I found was Classic shell - transforms Win 8 & 8.1 in to something resembling Win 7 while still retaining the good bits "under the hood".

 

Absolutely detest the tile start screen so I just bypass straight to the desktop now with the above. Can count the number of times I have been on the "Start screen" on one hand

Been playing with it for a few days now on a tablet.

 

I quite like it.

 

Having had a windows phone 8 for a few weeks now I think a lot of the shock factor was gone.

I can understand how it could be a PITA without a touchscreen. 8.1 give you back the Start button, kindof.

I can see why it would be good with a touchscreen, but why on earth do they put it on machines without one?

 

Bought a laptop with windows 8.

After two weeks of messing about I've just gone back to the old laptop.

 

Need to get a copy of windows 7 to put on the new one.

Whats difficult about it, go to desktop, no need to use the metro ui. Even then you can just treat Metro as a giant start menu. 8.1 even boots straight to desktop and has a start menu.

I can see why it would be good with a touchscreen, but why on earth do they put it on machines without one?

 

Bought a laptop with windows 8.

After two weeks of messing about I've just gone back to the old laptop.

 

Need to get a copy of windows 7 to put on the new one.

Download Classic shell or one of the other similar apps to bypass the start screen. If you lose the start screen , Win 8 is actually pretty good

Download Classic shell or one of the other similar apps to bypass the start screen. If you lose the start screen , Win 8 is actually pretty good

 

Cheers.

I see Windows releases as the opposite of Star Trek films. Star Trek films with an even numer are good, Windows releases with an even number are crap.

Its not crap though, has lots of under the hood improvements, quicker for gaming, works great(ignoring metro on non touch devices), its just people being rubbish.    

Its not crap though, has lots of under the hood improvements, quicker for gaming, works great(ignoring metro on non touch devices), its just people being rubbish.    

This is the important bit imho- getting rid of the metro UI on non touch devices

Its not crap though, has lots of under the hood improvements, quicker for gaming, works great(ignoring metro on non touch devices), its just people being rubbish.    

I'll still stick with 7 and have a look at 9

Using a keyboard with a touch pad is much more ergonomic on the tile interface than touch screen, when the screen is upright ! Different kettle of fish if the touch screen is horizontal, embdedded in a desk or table.

 

And I'd say, that when you are seated touchpad is more ergonomic than gesture control.

 

Using touch screen, with the screen in the usual laptop position (i.e. about 45 degrees) you have to raise your arm and touch the screen = expenditure of a lot of energy, chance of repetitive strain injury and the need to keep on cleaning the screen !

 

Nick

Edited 3 March, 201412 yr by Clunkclick

This is the important bit imho- getting rid of the metro UI on non touch devices

 

 

No need to get rid of it. Just don't use it.