Windows 8

Justice4243 · 2013-02-24 19:09:45

A place for people to talk about their Windows 8 experiences.

OK, mostly a place for me to talk about the various changes and probably speak of the operating system in a general positive manner while Central Avenue insists it is created by the devil.

Some basics, built with touch screens in mind. No doubt about it. The regular desktop is there, and will quickly turn into the standard way of using the computer if that's what you want, however.

You can now download either standard programs, or "Apps". Programs work the same, apps take up the entire screen when running, definitely more for tablets or ultrabooks.

Your account is going to be tied to a Microsoft e-mail account (Hotmail in my case). This is convenient if you already have one. Also means you can contact Microsoft if you've somehow forgotten your password to get into your computer...in case of amnesia attacks I guess.

Something interesting I noticed, setting something as the desktop on one computer seems to change it on ALL computers linked to the account. I'm sure there's a way to change that and I'm not sure if this is a plus, negative, or merely something different, but their you go.

Hexartes · 2013-02-24 19:16:29

AND ET FEEL LIEK I EM JUHST TOO CLOSE TO LUHVE YOU WAHMP WAHMP WAHMP WAHMP WAHMP WAHMP WAHMP WAHMP WAHMP

Hexartes · 2013-02-24 19:16:46

is just about all i know about windows 8

Imipolex G · 2013-02-24 19:17:46

All I know is that where I work we constantly get people calling asking if we still sell any computers with Windows 7 on 'em. (the answer is no)

Justice4243 · 2013-02-24 19:22:14

So, what I'm guess will be advice mos mostly for CA.

Apps seem to open up and just sort of stay running. I don't know if something kills them after they have't been used for a while, but I've found it useful to swipe at the right of the screen to get my app search function, search up task manager, and pin it to the desktop bar.

The mode with few details makes a quick and convenient task killer that is likewise, easy to turn off.

RocketRunner · 2013-02-24 20:05:22

^^^That's IE9, but close enough.

Justice4243 · 2013-02-24 21:51:26

Was that from the browser you loved to hate thing?

Justice4243 · 2013-02-24 21:53:43

Speaking of Internet Explorer, Microsoft FINALLY put a spell checker on 10.

It actually might replace Chrome.

Though. they function so incredibly similar there's not much of a difference...

Actually, I bet IE is still a bit smarter what to do with program files.

Princess Alice · 2013-02-24 22:30:19

Justice42 said:
Some basics, built with touch screens in mind. No doubt about it. The regular desktop is there, and will quickly turn into the standard way of using the computer if that's what you want, however.

See, this is my entire problem with it, though. An operating system used primarily on laptop/desktop computers shouldn't be built around a UI optimized for touch screens unless the device in question actually has a touchscreen.

I mean, if I was actually running this stuff on a touchscreen, it would probably work really well, but...why not have a separate "Windows 8 Touch Edition" or some such for people with touch screens, and have a coherent mouse-driven GUI for the rest of us?

lee4hmz · 2013-02-24 23:04:48

Yeah, that was the biggest complaint my Mom had about W8CP when she had it on the laptop. She was actually pleased to know I was putting Vista back on it when the HDD died.

Viani · 2013-02-24 23:06:57

What's Windows 8

Obā-san · 2013-02-24 23:08:01

it's the version of windows after windows 7

Imipolex G · 2013-02-24 23:08:10

The Vriska version

Justice4243 · 2013-02-24 23:26:22

This computer has a touch screen.

I think I'll have to use my stylus more. This thing was filthy after a days worth of use.

Also, never clean your touchscreen while the computer is on, it flips the fuck out.

Princess Alice · 2013-02-25 08:17:55

I don't currently have access to a suitable device, but when I get the chance I would like to try Windows 8 on a touchscreen. I get the impression it's actually a well-designed touch UI--those big boxes on the Start screen, for instance, look like they'd be a lot easier to select than the small icons on an Android device.

I don't even object to adding a touch-optimized UI to Windows. What I object to is the particular implementation of it. Microsoft enhanced the experience for the small portion of Windows PCs with touch capability, which is good, but unfortunately in doing so they've (perhaps inadvertently) made it more cumbersome for the vast majority of PCs, which don't have those capabilities. Big targets for your fingers don't help if you're using a mouse, y'know?

90% of my complaints with 8 would be resolved if (a) they'd included an option to the effect of "I don't have a touchscreen, so show me the Desktop by default when I log in", and (b) they'd kept the old Start menu as an option so people without touchscreens didn't have to use the full-screen Start screen to launch things.

Obā-san · 2013-02-25 11:59:04

later today i will CHART A COURSE IN THE WORLD OF WINDOWS 8

whooooo

Justice4243 · 2013-02-25 17:04:53

90% of my complaints with 8 would be resolved if (a) they'd included an option to the effect of "I don't have a touchscreen, so show me the Desktop by default when I log in", and (b) they'd kept the old Start menu as an option so people without touchscreens didn't have to use the full-screen Start screen to launch things.

I'm pretty much at this point, too and I HAVE a touchscreen.

The full-screen nature of the app interface is kind of silly on a High-DEF PC. Tons of wasted space for the most part.

My manager has a Windows 8 work ultrabook, also without touchscreen, and he basically has spent the last few weeks figuring out how to work around the big screen real-estate hogging nature of Windows 8.

I have a touchscreen, but I'm STILL mostly figuring out ways I can avoid apps. I simply don't use my PC in that manner.

Now, if I can a much smaller screen to work with, it'd be a boon. But it's pretty much a pain on both the machines I run it on.

Obā-san · 2013-02-25 17:29:14

windows 8 seems kinda scatterbrained, but for me that's a good thing

my biggest complaint is that i am not that big on some of the built in apps

Obā-san · 2013-02-26 11:46:00

http://www.pokki.com/windows-8-start-menu

this works very well

Justice4243 · 2013-02-26 11:50:34

Looks handy.

I found out the multiple Windows 8 machines on the same account will share themes. :3

glennmagusharvey · 2013-02-26 12:38:51

> "I don't have a touchscreen, so show me the Desktop by default when I log in"

wait, this isn't an option? You have to see the touchscreen-optimized boxes when logging in?

Obā-san · 2013-02-26 12:55:46

yep

though that thing i just posted fixes that

Obā-san · 2013-02-26 12:56:11

really pokki + windows 8 > windows 7

glennmagusharvey · 2013-02-26 13:23:03

That will be hard to convince me of.

Obā-san · 2013-02-26 13:24:07

well i like it more, both in terms of aesthetics and functionality

glennmagusharvey · 2013-02-26 13:24:42

How so? (specifics please)

Fossilmaiden · 2013-02-26 13:25:26

So, which weight class is Windows 8 in? Windows Me or Windows Vista?

Obā-san · 2013-02-26 13:37:23

well, the pokki start menu seems a step up from the windows 7 start menu, and you can tinker with it to your liking. Also it allows you to boot right to the desktop and disable all the annoying windows 8 features that you don't like, even allowing you to ignore the start page entirely if you so chose. I decided to use the start page though, setting up a few live tiles with some news feeds, a to-do list, Skype and a few other odds and ends and set it up so i can toggle back and forth between that and the desktop by pressing the windows key.

so basically with a minimal amount of tinkering it works in almost exactly the same manner as windows 7, but with some nifty bonus features and an aesthetic upgrade.

Obā-san · 2013-02-26 13:48:04

sorry for poor wording, i'm half-asleep >_>

glennmagusharvey · 2013-02-26 18:51:40

Oh, so basically Windows 8 plus all the options that should have been there in the first place.

Can you make it look like Windows classic?

...and speaking of windows classic, anyone know how to make Windows 7 work so that right-clicking a taskbar tab doesn't open the "[program name], pin to taskbar, close" menu, but instead opens the Restore/Move/Size/Minimize/Maximize/Close menu?

Section42L · 2013-02-26 19:19:57

You might be interested in this project, GMH.

glennmagusharvey · 2013-02-26 19:26:46

Oh, I already use that. On Win7. Dunno anything about Win8 because I haven't used it yet.

Princess Alice · 2013-02-26 20:08:03

@GMH: The Windows Classic theme was removed in 8.

It's disappointing, but I suppose I can't blame them, considering it was introduced all the way back in Windows 95--cutting it out probably saved the developers a lot of time and effort, since they didn't have to try and make sure changes they made to anything else didn't break their ancient code.

glennmagusharvey · 2013-02-26 20:51:11

How customizable is Windows 7 Basic scheme then, in Win8?

Lavaz · 2013-03-12 03:57:08

Excuse me for bumping an old thread, but I just wanted to toss in my two cents about Windows 8.

It's terribly difficult to develop for. The new UI imposes a weird set of constraints. The simple things to program on other systems are hard, but the hard things are simple. The addition of a way to make HTML/JS apps was a really cool thing, but the addition of a global wrapper that replaces all of JS's native functionality makes it tedious and requires learning an entirely new syntax almost.

I think it's this environment that makes it unfriendly to consumers as well. The Metro UI is just a thin shell over the older OS and just serves as a hurdle for developers both old and new. Developers won't produces apps for it and the users suffer.

Princess Alice · 2013-03-12 04:15:03

I'd never really thought about it from a developer's perspective before, but I can see why tacking the Metro stuff on top of the existing system would be a pain. Thanks for pointing that out.

(Also, a thread from less than a month ago isn't really considered "old" around here, so no worries.)

Lavaz · 2013-03-12 05:28:28

Oh, also a minor thing about Windows 8 though more specifically the Surface. The lack of awesome clicking as featured in the commercial is a significant letdown.

Princess Alice · 2013-06-15 14:57:58

You know that little menu full of useful stuff that comes up if you mouse to the bottom left corner and right-click?

I get the feeling it's sort of a subtle concession on the developers' part to the fact that many people will want a way to do common tasks without pulling up the Start screen every time. It smacks of "afterthought", you know?

Either that, or it's something they added during development so they could have a "backup" way of doing things while the Metro interface was still buggy and unstable. The Windows team has been known to do such things before.

Windows 8

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