My Experience With Windows 8

LucianH

Noticed this quote from the Windows 8 for people who hate the Metro UI thread:

chunter wrote: »

Spent most of the day laughing and screaming in equal measure.

I couldn't agree more - although I've been playing with it on a laptop for about a week and rather than laughing and screaming it's been more a case of sighing and cursing.

It may be suited to tablets but why force this "style over substance" interface on keyboard and mouse users. The full screen mode of the metro screens totally baffles me in that it's moved away from the Windows concept and there is the lack of right click context menus from what I can determine.

And the lack of the start button when in desktop mode pulling up a simple menu is crazy. But, it appears that, according to MS, nobody really used the Start Button!:

The research Microsoft cited was surprising, to put it mildly; the company said that few people actually used the Start menu.

For those that did, if they're anything like me, then MS have totally alienated them.

Luckily, I kept my old Windows and dual booted W8. This means that when I want to do some productive work I stick with my old OS. I will keep dipping into W8 to see if I can get used to it but nothing yet has convinced me it's worth persevering with in it's native form.

JulyKnot

Has anyone tried printing a pdf document in windows 8?

Reader does not seem to have print facility and right clicking in explorer doesn't give a print option for me.

JulyKnot

For anyone else who also didn't think this was obvious.

From within the reader app, point mouse to right and click on devices, the printer should be listed there.

LucianH

JulyKnot wrote: »

For anyone else who also didn't think this was obvious.

Sums it up

Jivesinger

Blimey I just looked and it really isn't obvious, is it?

I quite like the rest of Windows 8, but Reader and the other similar Metro apps don't impress me much.

Incidentally I just tried Ctrl-P which works as well, but how would I know that if I didn't know it's a keyboard shortcut in many other apps?

JulyKnot

Yes, I've never been one for keyboard shortcuts but I've bookmarked a page and need to learn them I think.

-MRS_T-

Lum wrote: »

Here's how I shut down or restart Windows 8:




Yay for StartIsBack

Hi Lum please please tell me how you get windows 8 to look like this as this is the format I am used to and like and I use the start button all the time. I cant find a bl**dy thing at the moment lol

LucianH

-MRS_T- wrote: »

Hi Lum please please tell me how you get windows 8 to look like this as this is the format I am used to and like and I use the start button all the time. I cant find a bl**dy thing at the moment lol

Looks like you get it from here:

http://www.startisback.com/

Mayby Lum can let us know what the difference is between the TryIt version and the BuyIt version.

Here's an article on other apps that provide the Start Menu:

http://www.infoworld.com/d/microsoft-windows/9-windows-start-menus-windows-8-208963?page=0,0

prowla

It is ridiculous that you have to buy a piece of shareware to put back a key feature of the OS.

Lum

LucianH wrote: »

Looks like you get it from here:

http://www.startisback.com/

Mayby Lum can let us know what the difference is between the TryIt version and the BuyIt version.

That's the one yes.

The trial version lasts for 30 days. The paid version lasts forever.

As you rightly point out, there are other replacement start menu apps, some of which you don't have to pay for. The reason I recommend StartIsBack isn't because I work for them or anything, but because unlike the others, that one works by finding the original Windows7 Start Menu code that Microsoft didn't properly remove. All the others re-create the start menu from scratch with varying degrees of success.

If you don't want to pay the £2. Classic Shell appears to be the best free start menu replacement.