Windows 8.1 - Love it or loathe it?

Doshwaster

On a laptop, Windows 8.1 booting directing into Classic Shell is fine and has quite a few improvements over Windows 7. I never use it in Metro/Modern mode.

Esqui

Doshwaster wrote: »

On a laptop, Windows 8.1 booting directing into Classic Shell is fine and has quite a few improvements over Windows 7. I never use it in Metro/Modern mode.

I'm the opposite, almost everything I use is a Windows store app. It's much less cluttered, and I can snap two apps, so that as well as the browser, I can have Twitter or email at the side, and I don't have to go back and forth between browser tabs or windows on the desktop.


The only desktop things I use are the Sonos controller and Office.

RumRat

The whole thing makes even more sense if you have A Windows 8.1 PC, Tablet and Phone. Everything is just there when and how you want it. The whole point of having the Modern UI and Apps was to make this crossover between devices seamless.
I do understand a lot of the business users complaints, but, for home users it works very well.

esuhl

Gloomendoom wrote: »

In my opinion, XP is dreadful

Gasp! :eek: Sacrilege!

XP was great -- intuitive to use with stable performance, yet easy to hack around with. The only downside is that it that (like all Windows OSes), it was based around single-user systems, with multi-user security bolted on afterwards.

How come you don't like XP?

esuhl

RumRat wrote: »

That just reinforces the fact that people were not prepared to learn what the differences were. Personally, the transition took about 3 days. I used a third party start button in the beginning, but soon found that it wasn't being used as much as the Modern UI start menu. Now it no longer loads.
Sometimes people need protecting from themselves. There are so many 'How To' articles and videos about, not to mention MS own instructional pages and forums like this one, that it's ludicrous not to be able to navigate through the basics.

In my view, a good user interface conforms to users' expectations (of what's "logical" or "familiar"). Users really shouldn't be forced to spend time learning how to use their computer. For most people, a PC is just a tool to get things done. And the OS should just let them get on with it, not confuse them!

Has anyone seen the UI in Office 2013? I thought the ribbon-design of 2007 was bad, but the 2013 UI is just horrible. MS Office used to be "must have" software for its compatibility and ubiquitousness, but if I ever retire Office 2003, I think I'll switch to LibreOffice...

KxMx

Windows 8 is quite similar to XP, all you need to do is spend the majority of your time in desktop mode, pin or shortcut everything you want there and you're well away.

Gloomendoom

esuhl wrote: »

Gasp! :eek: Sacrilege!

XP was great -- intuitive to use with stable performance, yet easy to hack around with. The only downside is that it that (like all Windows OSes), it was based around single-user systems, with multi-user security bolted on afterwards.

How come you don't like XP?

Because it's like flared trousers... groovy man, but the world has moved on.

nickj_2

i installed a start button more or less as soon as i got my new laptop, i;ve had it for quite a while now and tbh i very rarely use the tiles(if that is what they are called) when it loads it goes straight to the desktop , where as stated before , you can do just about everything you need to from there
it is a touch screen , and i very rarely use that function either

kwikbreaks

That's the same as I did. I used ClassicShell and it worked OK so I looked no further. I did play with ModernMix but in the end decided it was easier to avoid using apps altogether. Classicshell continued to work with 8.1 and I continued to use it so can't comment on what the start button/menu/whatever is like with 8.1. I virtually never see the standard win 8 start screen as mine boots into desktop and pretty much stays there.

Yorkie1

I've just been provided with a MS Surface tablet to use for a course and Windows 8.1 is a bit of a shock (as is using over 5 GB of my 10GB monthly allowance for updates!!) after Vista.

Anyway, I see some of you mentioning it opening to Desktop instead of the start screen by default. I haven't found out how to do that yet - is it straightforward?