Windows 8 thread

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by jammies

Not my decision and I have enough things to worry about that *are* in my control; generally I am working on the servers and the network and not touching client machines. And we aren't upgrading so much as letting attrition take out XP machines which are being replaced with Win8 machines.

Shot in the dark here, you're doing IT for a relatively small shop, less than 250 seats?

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Kavy

Good news - Boot to desktop option coming with Windows 8.1




http://blog.gsmarena.com/boot-to-des...h-windows-8-1/

So they removed the need to hit the big "Desktop" tile when you log in.

Fantastic, that should save people a good 1-3 seconds every time they log in...

[Kavvy]

Originally Posted by Rathji

So they removed the need to hit the big "Desktop" tile when you log in.

Fantastic, that should save people a good 1-3 seconds every time they log in...

Good, I take those 1-3 seconds.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Rathji

So they removed the need to hit the big "Desktop" tile when you log in.

Fantastic, that should save the rest of us from having to hear the incessant whining about it...

Fixed.

[Brannigans Law]

i think a lot of my personal beefs with win 8 would be resolved if i could opt out of the constant attempts to go fullscreen for any task

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Fixed.

Unless I misunderstood, they didn't remove the Start menu, they just removed it popping up on first log in.

Which means nothing about the functionality of the new start menu is really any different.

[Bobblehead]

Yeah, I hate the new UI as well.

It is probably the greatest OS under the covers, but wrestling with the UI simply frustrated me when I knew exactly how to do everything under the previous way.

So yeah, I used one of the many free hacks to make it work like Windows 7. I understand why MS wants to try and get as standard an interface as possible going forward. It makes sense for them and it makes sense for developers. But it annoyed me enough that I won't upgrade my other systems to Win8 until I really need to, and traditionally I have been an early adopter of Windows OSes.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

i think a lot of my personal beefs with win 8 would be resolved if i could opt out of the constant attempts to go fullscreen for any task

What tasks, on the desktop, attempt to go fullscreen?

[TorqueDog]

^Default photo app, default PDF reader, as far as I remember.

Originally Posted by Rathji

Unless I misunderstood, they didn't remove the Start menu, they just removed it popping up on first log in.

Which means nothing about the functionality of the new start menu is really any different.

I've heard plenty of people who made that their primary beef about it.

[Rathji]

Add the default music and video players to that list.

edit: Also, the Windows Store

[Brannigans Law]

I wouldn't even mind the new start menu as much HBW if I wasn't being forced to go fullscreen with a lot of the apps. I don't want to fight with the OS to do what I want it to do. The whole point of a good OS is to have a smart and receptive UI that bends to the whim of the user, not vice versa. At least imo.

[Rathji]

You can change your default app for opening those files types, or get Modern Mix.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

^Default photo app, default PDF reader, as far as I remember. I've heard plenty of people who made that their primary beef about it.

Ahh, I forgot about the default Apps. I changed them long time ago. OK, I can see those as a valid complaint.

[TorqueDog]

Except that - up until Windows 8 - you never even got a default PDF reader. Default photo/music/video apps, however, I'll agree with. Though you can tell Windows to open your media with Windows Media Player or Windows Photo Viewer easy enough.

[chemgear]

There is quite a bit of discussion about the 100 million licence number, but it sounds like the "licences" certainly haven't fully translated to actual PC installations/sales. Anyhow:

http://business.financialpost.com/20..._lsa=c4f4-9cfe

In reality, Windows 8 received a lukewarm reception for touch-screen devices, and was vilified as a PC operating system. Microsoft devotees were furious to have lost things such as that most simple of features, the “start” bar.

Unsurprisingly, sales were slow. The company sold 100 million licences in the six months since launch, on a par with the previous version of Windows but a far cry from the hopes for what Microsoft believed was a groundbreaking upgrade.

Then, last week, one of its second-tier executives admitted it was changing “key aspects” of how the software would be used. “The learning curve is definitely real,” said Tami Reller, head of marketing and finance for the Windows business. “We’ve considered a lot of different scenarios to help traditional PC users move forward.” Microsoft has tried to downplay this change of tack, but the industry sees it as a huge admission of defeat.

“They haven’t come out and said ’mea culpa’ but this is as close as it comes,” said Kim Caughey Forrest, an analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group, and a former software engineer.

[TorqueDog]

It's one of those scenarios where you just can't win anyway.

Scenario A: Everyone whines about the stuff you changed. You tell them to get used to it. Everyone gives you grief about not listening to customers.

Scenario B: Everyone whines about the stuff you changed. You listen to consumers and implement changes. Industry paints it as an admission of failure.


I think a ton of this could have been avoided by making the new interface a bit easier to figure out, or adapt to whether you were using a touch-enabled device or a regular PC. For mouse users, there's no indication that any of the corners are the screen are 'hot-corners' unless you find them out by accident or you were the one who set the PC up and got to watch the little "Here's how to use Windows" demo whenever a new user logs in.

[Rathji]

I don't see how your second point is relevant.

The industry has pretty much already painted it as a failure, so without changes you will be stuck without the sales that are needed. Unless the corporate ego is larger than your need to sell product, you should always be willing to fit your product to what the market demands.

I totally agree with the corners, by far the worst part of it for the average user.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Add the default music and video players to that list.

edit: Also, the Windows Store

There are just so many ways to accidentally get into a screen you don't want to be in that there is no obvious way to get out of it, or really even a hint of how to get out. I constantly get calls like this from my girlfriend. She never seemed to have much trouble getting around in Windows 7.

It would be one thing if once you figured things out and got used to it, there was some payoff in ease of use or functionality, but there's not. It seems to be a constant battle of figuring out how to get out of one screen or another.

[TorqueDog]

I still think my biggest complaint personally is the fact that you have two separate 'Control Panels' - one for the Start screen, one for everything BUT the Start screen.

Originally Posted by Rathji

I don't see how your second point is relevant.

The industry has pretty much already painted it as a failure, so without changes you will be stuck without the sales that are needed. Unless the corporate ego is larger than your need to sell product, you should always be willing to fit your product to what the market demands.

I totally agree with the corners, by far the worst part of it for the average user.

My point is that, in the PR arena, it's still somehow seen as a negative - an 'admission of failure' - to cave to customer feedback. There's no way to win, they just have to make the changes and get it over with.

What's interesting to me is that the product still works just fine, it doesn't have any crippling inadequacies that make it unfit to run a PC. It's fast, efficient, and reliable. This isn't "Vista 2.0", though it appears it will become that once the Windows Blue update (which will be seen as the "Windows 7" to Windows 8's "Vista") is released.

[Rathji]

That's true, they clearly can't undo what is perceived to be a failure.

That kind of comes with the territory of taking the risk of putting something out and having it not be well received.