Windows 8.1 - Love it or loathe it?

debitcardmayhem

Hah anyone tried Ubuntu and the "Unity" fiasco ....Its a case of if it's not what you want why change what you are happy with....Work with the new, embrace , kick it a few times , take a deep breath and buy an iThingie, when the battery is dead buy a new iThingie and if your needs change buy a Rasperry/Blackberry they are soft fruits , apples are not , and Microsoft was run by nuts ergo don't complain about your bad choices of kit, research test and stick with what you love...stop looking for sympathy here I have W8.1 W7 Vista oh and Fedora 20 + 19 and an iThingie, but best of all I have a(n) HTC One.
Windows 8 works , our old BMW works, my wife goes out to work, as I said why complain about a change you could have avoided with a bit of research...
It's lovely in the South of France today, but the wine is getting out of hand since some of my programs will still not work under Fedora

mart44

8.1 is a good OS. It runs my programs without a hitch. I prefer to use the Start Screen and 'All Apps' screen for starting programs but one slight niggle is that 'non App' programs close down to the Desktop. I'd prefer they closed down to the Start Screen but there seems no way of getting them to do that.

I_have_spoken

8.1 Update 1 is fine, but you really do need to be on Update 1 to get the best support for mouse/keyboard and booting into the Desktop environment.

Update 2 this August won't change the user interface a great deal

Windows 9/Threshold expected in spring 2015 will likely return to a desktop UI more like Windows 7 for peeps running old-skool PCs. Folks with tablets/phones will get the Modern UI and likely Cortana for spoken commands

danthemoneysavingman

I think it's great. 8.1 can easily be set to boot straight to desktop, and configure pressing the windows button to bring up the programs list too. hence barely different. if interested I can google how you do this, but then you can google it yourself ;-) about 3 clicks for each.
I think the haters are kicking up a fus because they don't like change (maybe). Accept that it's a bit different but it does a good job imo, more than happy with it. That said, there was nothing wrong with W7 but vendors seem to need to put out a new OS every year (or 2), who knows why. everyone was happy with XP for 10 years weren't they? but it is leaps and bounds better than that.
anyway, enough from me

dealer_wins

W8 8.1 etc is an appalling piece of syhte!! I hate my W8 laptop with all my heart, how I havnt thrown it out the window by now is a miracle, I have come close many times!!

I have NOTHING good to say about it, even with classic shell.

boliston

W8.1 is ok as long as you select "go to desktop instead of start" - that way you can use it without using the "modern interface" at all. I sometimes get those annoying "charms" pop up at the bottom right - there should be an option to totally disable the "charms"!

RumRat

dealer_wins wrote: »

W8 8.1 etc is an appalling piece of syhte!! I hate my W8 laptop with all my heart, how I havnt thrown it out the window by now is a miracle, I have come close many times!!

I have NOTHING good to say about it, even with classic shell.

It's a shame that you can't use it. Maybe it would be best if you did throw it out the window, it may lower your Blood pressure.
You may have been better off asking for help to operate W8/8.1 correctly and maybe begin to get some use out of it.

Jivesinger

Spirit wrote: »

Example problems - no top RH X to close anything

That should appear when you install the Update from April.

Jivesinger

RumRat wrote: »

Well, firstly, the problem is yours not Windows 8.1. Because you don't understand it and have difficulty in finding your way around, doesn't make it bad.

I do quite like Windows 8 (and have also played with 8.1), but I'd suggest that if a user is having difficulty in finding their way around, it is a bad feature of the OS.

Windows 8 was pretty bad in terms of online help for instance, and certainly in explaining the new interface. Many people know that F1 has been a standard keyboard shortcut for online Help for years, but try that in a full-screen Windows 8 app and it does nothing.

Microsoft could have made it much easier for people to transition.

PasturesNew

I'm using Windows XP .... and will need to buy a new PC soon .... and really don't want either 7 or 8. Bring back XP!!