I don't understand Windows 8

jayme1

• Isn't this what the classic desktop layout is for, you know, click/tap an icon and you are there without typing anything. I guarantee that clicking/tapping on a word icon is much quicker than your method. Of course you can organise the desktop into separate folders and increase the number of clicks/taps required to two for rarely used programs.

no a tap of the windows key and typing is much faster by an order of magnitude than digging through the 'All Programs' folder, and literally having every single program pinned to your desktop is ugly not to mention for programs you never use you will have a hard time finding them, you may as well just be digging for them in the 'All programs' folder.

if I said open the Sound recorder you would have to literally spend time looking for it, I just hit the win key, type 'soun' and hit enter, if I said open regedit, or Device Manager, well, good luck with that.
this win key and type has been the superior way to use a windows computer since vista anything else is just slow and clunky.

OGR

Who are we to question the inner workings of Microsoft?

To be honest with you I think M$ have lost their way a bit since Balmer took over, he doesn't seem to have the sense of Gates.

If the rumoured prices of Surface are to be believed at $599 (£385) for the ARM model and $999 (£642) for the x86 model, its crazy money and IMO is going to fail. The ARM version needs to be £160 -£200 to make it relevant and the x86 £400-£500 to compete with the iPad. The fact that so many £400+ Android tablets failed must show M$ that people are only seemingly willing to pay that sort of money for an iPad. The ARM version is going to rely heavily on proprietary apps like the iPad and like Android so who the hell is going to pay that sort of money for it? Google have introduced the Galaxy Nexus 7 at £159 and the Kindle Fire is only $199 (US only), people don't want to pay silly money for tablets and lots of manufacturers have already lost a lot of money working that out!

I love the idea of an x86 tablet that is fully compatible with legacy software and has working USB ports etc but I ain't paying those sorts of prices. When I first saw surface I thought it was a step in the right direction but again M$ go and screw something up which in this case is the price.

Surface could fail because of its price, Windows 8 could fail because people hate the move away from a 100% desktop OS, WP8 could fail (no one is buying WP7.5 as it is) and Server 12 could fail because of forced Metro UI. M$ could end up in a really bad place in 1-2 years time if this all goes belly up.

/rant

Richie-from-the-Boro

In #8 I was not clear enough, I meant as yet one more a~n~other try at getting into a new marketplace that's rapidly becoming mature with no Microsoft presence to speak of. I see Win8 as a lazy mans way to foist a heavyweight working O/S into a lightweight mobile market without any new thinking whatsoever. Instead of a new or even cut down version of an O/S they ruin a good gallon sized product and try to ram it into a pint sized pot with a marketing budget rather than an R&D budget.

- so .. .. not desktop ~v~ other hardware type
- but Microsoft O/S ~v~ others such as linux/apple/android etc
- Microsoft has a great big round world wide total of only 0.61% of the market

WelshSun

Everyone is aware that Metro will be optional on a desktop?
On Windows 8, there is an updated version of the desktop on Windows 7 available. Though there has been some criticism on how it and Metro work with each other. (http://www.pcworld.com/article/251282/windows_8s_metro_ui_7_things_you_may_just_hate.html)
On Metro I think PC World Magazine has it right. Its 'as annoying as it is innovative'.

OGR wrote: »

If the rumoured prices of Surface are to be believed at $599 (£385) for the ARM model and $999 (£642) for the x86 model, its crazy money and IMO is going to fail. The ARM version needs to be £160 -£200 to make it relevant and the x86 £400-£500 to compete with the iPad.

What are you talking about??

The ARM powered Surface will compete with the iPad. (You are aware the iPad is ARM powered (The A5 is an ARM chip))
The X86 (Intel and AMD) powered Surface will compete with Ultrabooks and Apples Macbook Air. As well as the current crappy Windows Tablets.

The UK prices will of course be more expensive than the US dollar price being exchanged in a travel agent. Don't forget that the UK price includes our 20% VAT, while the US prices are BEFORE tax. If for example you live in Chicago the sales tax rate would be 13%- lower than the UK, but still quite a whack on top on the $ price.
I would expect and think:
The ARM model should cost from £399, to compete with the iPad (Its better than an iPad, and at the same price)
The X86 model should be priced at around £699 and up. This is far cheaper than Ultrabooks or the Macbook Air, and would be very competitive.



Also what alternative is there to the iPad currently?
Certainly not some of the crappy Android tablets on sale.

vyle

prowla wrote: »

and I just don't get the dumbed down start screen and can't figure out what I'm supposed to press or where I'm supposed to click (and with which button),

I know this isn't much help, but am I the only person who finds it amusing that it's described as "dumbed down" but also seems too complicated?

Perhaps "poorly designed," is a better choice than dumbed down, because it implies you're not smart enough to understand something that's been made easy for dummies :-\

prowla

vyle wrote: »

I know this isn't much help, but am I the only person who finds it amusing that it's described as "dumbed down" but also seems too complicated?

Perhaps "poorly designed," is a better choice than dumbed down, because it implies you're not smart enough to understand something that's been made easy for dummies :-\

Yup - it's ironic, isn't it?

It's dumbed down because it is presented as if Microsoft have decided that here's a slab of a dozen or so things you can do, but apparently they decided that I wouldn't be needing to shut down my computer.

I can definitely see that it is orientated towards tablets, but I'm not using a tablet (and if I was it would probably be running a different OS anyway). I did manage to get to a desktop at one point, but that didn't seem to have a shutdown. I then tried Ctrl-Alt-Del, and it got me there.

So it seems to have a curious mix of simplistic dumbed down stuff, plus clicks, plus the Windows key, plus legacy control key combinations. Presumably on a tablet it also has gestures, pinch/stretch and so-on.

To me it has the feel of a trying things out lash-up (which would be acceptable), rather than a genuine pre-release candidate. The UI certainly isn't a coherent and intuitive development for the future.

Microsoft have previously had a much more intuitive front-end in media Center, which seemed to offer appropriate features for its role, but this one seems a bit disjointed really.

prowla

Well, I've got the release now running an a VM.

I've found that moving the mouse to a corner of the screen brings up a menu of sorts (that you may be able to read depending upon what's in the background - it doesn't display well superimposed on the start screen).

The shutdown option is off the settings option in the pull-out menu thingy.

The flat pastel coloured lozenges on the start screen are dreadfully uninspriring, and I think I would be spending time getting them to look something beyond a kindegarten sketch. Items that have an action associated update in a sort of slideshow fashion, but those that aren't just sit there as a reminder that you are missing out on the experience of having them (eg. the "Store"). There's a finance rectangle right in the middle of the start screen, and it keeps updating with the same photo of Docklands, there's a news one that just has one-liner headlines from the Sun and the Daily Mail.

When you go to the desktop, the windows seem to be flat grey bordered; my Windows 7 VMs do the Aero translucent things, but the Windows 8 ones are just plain ugly.

Maybe it grows on you and maybe there are some features underneath that make it worthwhile, but right now it looks like Microsoft are hugely over-paying their software designers, who in return spent it all on parties and then turned up on the day before the deadline and cobbled something together as best they could.

(Actually, I think I've been a bit charitable in the above - it's worse than that!)

GunJack

Let's face it, to translate Windows 8 into one word....... b0ll0cks

Mr_Toad

OGR wrote: »

I think Metro is going to be here to stay and people are going to have to get used to it or move to a different OS.

M$ see this as the next step, you can tell because it is already part of WM 7.5, Win 8 and they even make you use it with Server 12 unless you install in core mode! To push such a big update into the server world is a big gamble unless you think it is here to stay. Then you have Surface which is designed almost completely around Metro.

Saying that I can kind of understand where they are coming from. They probably see the future as being one where everything has a touch screen, even your desktop and laptop PC's, as Bill Bailey put it we will all evolve one long finger. From that point of view it makes sense, I don't know how many of you have tried to use touch screens with Windows NT through 7 but the small icons and start menu make it a pretty infuriating experience and the big simple buttons of Metro will really help out.

At first I hated the fact that they took away my start menu but then I realised I NEVER use it and haven't done since XP. In 7 I pin everything I use regularly to my task bar which is no different to having a big button in Metro for it and anything I don't have I hit the start key and type its name and press return. For example 'Windows Key, Word, Return', it takes seconds and is probably quicker than hitting start, all programs, Microsoft office, Microsoft office word.

I think it has more to do with the way MS see the future and I think that future has a lot less PCs in it.

Many of my friends went from desktop PCs to laptops. Then some went the tablet route but the majority no longer use their PCs at all.

There are a few like me who use a PC for certain things but the rest now only use their smart phone, either Android or iPhone.

As well as calls and texts they can get their email, access twitter and Facebook and browse the web. For many of them that's all they need and they no longer need a PC or laptop to do it.

We all know people like this, the ones who buy an expensive state of the art laptop and we think "why on earth did you buy that? All you do is surf, use Facebook and send the occasional email."

smudger1946

I'm new to win 8,
the functionality seems to require a Microsoft email account I don't have or want can I turn it off?
smudger