Windows 8 thread

[Brannigans Law]

all these updates are nothing more than service pack items, and shelling out 100+ dollars for them is absolutely bananas for any home user and the vast, vast consumer public. Sales have spoken, the critics have spoken. Enjoy your fancy new task manager and start menu on your 2nd monitor. I'll keep my money thanks. You can keep showering me with insults about ignorant I seem to be about how amazing these new features are and that I don't want to learn about them until the cows come how but that wont change a thing. Windows 8 is an abject failure.

[Inglewood Jack]

Looks like Team W8 is taking a beating here, so I'll add myself to its tiny army. Just like everyone else, I found the metro default thing very jarring for a couple of hours. But after reading and memorizing some keyboard/mouse shortcuts, I'm now using it at least as efficiently as I did W7, without any 3rd party add on.

I think your learning curve will vary greatly depending on how you used the start button before. I typed in the search box for everything...apps, files, settings, whatever. That's just as easy in W8 so I'm happy there. I also committed to the MS cloud a year ago and having email, contacts, skydrive, etc. just all there for me from the beginning makes so much sense.

But I can see how if you do things differently, you're not gonna like it as much. You can say you hate it, but don't blanket speak for all users in declaring it a failure.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

all these updates are nothing more than service pack items, and shelling out 100+ dollars for them is absolutely bananas for any home user and the vast, vast consumer public. Sales have spoken, the critics have spoken. Enjoy your fancy new task manager and start menu on your 2nd monitor. I'll keep my money thanks. You can keep showering me with insults about ignorant I seem to be about how amazing these new features are and that I don't want to learn about them until the cows come how but that wont change a thing. Windows 8 is an abject failure.

It's not an insult, it's true.

ig·no·rant
/ˈignərənt/

Adjective

1. Lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated.
2. Lacking knowledge, information, or awareness about something in particular: "ignorant of astronomy".

You fit #2 perfectly. You are lacking knowledge, information, and awareness about a particular subject. On the subject of Windows 8 and operating systems in general, you are ignorant and seemingly proud of it, especially when you continue to insist that these are 'service pack items'. If you disagree, please tell us when a service pack last made such significant changes to an operating system at its very core.

[Brannigans Law]

Wow your really gonna hitch that wagon of yours to my hyper v comment hey?

[woob]

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

But really 8 is a bigger flop than Vista

Thanks for this statement. It informs me that I don't need to pay attention to any further posts from you. Appreciated.

[Brannigans Law]

Originally Posted by woob

Thanks for this statement. It informs me that I don't need to pay attention to any further posts from you. Appreciated.

Vista at this point had a higher market share than windows 8. Flop.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Ashartus

I've started using it a bit, in most cases I don't see much difference. I wasn't thrilled to discover that it no longer includes a free DVD driver and that I'd have to pay for an add-on to watch DVDs on my computer though.

just download VLC Media Player. it will play any video format including DVD and BluRay discs. and it's free

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

Wow your really gonna hitch that wagon of yours to my hyper v comment hey?

Nah..the fact that you conflate antivirus with kernel level security features like ASLR and UEFI code signing was enough to do you in in my eyes. Integrated antivirus/antimalware is the very least of the improvements on the security front. Not sure why that wouldn't be important to users in your demographic, but plenty of other users do find value in that.

[FanIn80]

I've switched both my desktop and my laptop to Win8. I have an app I use that brings back the start menu, but other than that, I'm extremely pleased with the new OS.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

Wow your really gonna hitch that wagon of yours to my hyper v comment hey?

If you think that's the only part of your posts that demonstrates how clueless you are on the subject...

[woob]

What I'd like to know is what do you do about the Windows Store in a corp environment? Anyone given any thought to this yet?

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by woob

What I'd like to know is what do you do about the Windows Store in a corp environment? Anyone given any thought to this yet?

you can't use the Windows Store without a Microsoft account. you can join a Microsoft account do a domain account, but i believe you can turn this off via group policy. and i'm sure there are ways of restricting store access beyond that if you don't want to disable the roaming account stuff

[Brannigans Law]

So I did some reading about thge security improvements and some back end things that Windows 8 has that 7 doesn't and I can admit when I'm wrong and that 8 certainly offers a lot that 7 doesn't have. So I apologize to torque and hope that we can keep our debate civil, you certainly brought up valid points.

I will stand by however that an important part of an OS is the user interface and the modern UI is very bad, and prevelant in the system. Charms bars and other nonsense still exists even with start menu re-added and I think for home pc users it's just terrible. Hopefully Windows 9 will carry the improvements under the hood of 8 and get rid of the extra modern UI all together.

[Inglewood Jack]

well if you don't like it the good news is MS is going to the annual or even faster refresh cycle that Apple and Google are on...no more big giant launch every 4 or 5 years. Win Blue this summer might solve the issues you've got right now. I think that'll lessen the shock factor that comes with each major release...but at the same time it might cut down their chances to truly innovate. like what are the chances they do a total revamp on old ass iOS in one of their semi-monthly patches?

[Brannigans Law]

From what I've read isn't Windows Blue an totally seperate entity? Windows 9 and so 10 and so on will still be developed?

[Inglewood Jack]

the way they talk about how Blue will improve this and that over W8, and is available to existing W8 customers by end of summer makes it sound like it's the successor to me. Maybe they'll still do numbers in future releases because that's easier than thinking of a catchy nickname each time (or maybe they'll do an alphabetical thing like Android and the next release after will be named Windows Cobalt).

either way, it sounds like Windows going forward is one giant blob for all, with the exception of course being RT, and I don't know if they really know what they wanna do there.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

So I did some reading about thge security improvements and some back end things that Windows 8 has that 7 doesn't and I can admit when I'm wrong and that 8 certainly offers a lot that 7 doesn't have. So I apologize to torque and hope that we can keep our debate civil, you certainly brought up valid points.

That's fair and I accept your apology and we can keep the debate civil. I only decide to start being an antagonistic prick when the discussion is determined to be a lost cause.

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

I will stand by however that an important part of an OS is the user interface and the modern UI is very bad, and prevelant in the system. Charms bars and other nonsense still exists even with start menu re-added and I think for home pc users it's just terrible. Hopefully Windows 9 will carry the improvements under the hood of 8 and get rid of the extra modern UI all together.

That's a valid POV, though I personally am not of the same opinion. I do wish they had made a greater effort to keep things consistent throughout the OS (like how you can only change Metro settings in the Metro Control Panel and Desktop settings in the Desktop Control Panel).

What is interesting is that Windows 9/Blue is rumoured to be a free upgrade for Windows 8 users, as Inglewood Jack mentioned.

[Kavvy]

Everything is still speculation, however, the general understanding is Windows Blue will be a free “update” for Windows 8 users.

[nfotiu]

Helping my girlfriend with her new Windows 8 laptop was my first experience with this.

First off, the power down/reboot sequence is the most ridiculous, non-intuitive method for shutting down I've seen on any operating system ever. In fact that whole dragging your cursor to the bottom corners is not intuitive or natural feeling at all.

The metro UI is completely useless, I don't see what benefit it can possibly provide.

I do like how it handles wireless printers though, that is the one area that just works.

Overall, I guess it wasn't as bad of an experience as I thought it would be. I was able to figure out how to do what I needed in 10-15 minutes. My non-technical girlfriend is able to do what she needs to do but still can't reboot it without calling me!

Windows 8 has been great marketing for ChromeOS though!

[psicodude]

They purposely hid the shutdown/reboot button because the need to perform them just isn't really there anymore. The public has been complaining for years about how long it takes to boot your computer, so Microsoft designed an OS that takes advantage of the power saving features built into every computer for the last 10 years. Waking up from a sleep state takes a couple of seconds, not 30 seconds like a full boot from cold.

That said, however, I still shut my computer down every night. Creature of habit I suppose.