Windows 8 flops

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#800617 16-Apr-2013 23:47

Windows 8.1 (Blue) will include a 'boot to desktop' mode. This should make some happy who wish to get straight to your files and browser.

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GBristow

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#800629 17-Apr-2013 03:12

macuser: Windows 8.1 (Blue) will include a 'boot to desktop' mode. This should make some happy who wish to get straight to your files and browser.

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A small victory. I'm still waiting for the "disable metro" option.

nathan

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#800733 17-Apr-2013 09:56

GBristow:
macuser: Windows 8.1 (Blue) will include a 'boot to desktop' mode. This should make some happy who wish to get straight to your files and browser.

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A small victory. I'm still waiting for the "disable metro" option.

That's called Windows 7. Windows 8 runs Modern Apps, which if you disabled Metro wouldn't work anymore

tdgeek

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#800744 17-Apr-2013 10:10

I do too. Smartphones and tablets are great, and in certain uses/situations they are massively more useful/convenient than a desktop PC. But they are portable, thats their benefit. PC is not. PC is bigger, better and designed to do everything, and when the need is power, features, screenspace that is their domain only.

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#800755 17-Apr-2013 10:23

A few times I am using the Surface RT in the lounge and then something pops up that need my attention. Rather than fiddle with the on screen keyboard I just walk to the home office and use my laptop to type a proper response.

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#800759 17-Apr-2013 10:30

nathan:
GBristow:
macuser: Windows 8.1 (Blue) will include a 'boot to desktop' mode. This should make some happy who wish to get straight to your files and browser.

Source

A small victory. I'm still waiting for the "disable metro" option.

That's called Windows 7. Windows 8 runs Modern Apps, which if you disabled Metro wouldn't work anymore

I don't mind if Modern Apps don't work any more, if I disable Metro. If you are in fact saying Windows wouldn't work any more, it would be hard to fathom why, since it worked fine in the developer builds.

You (Unintentionally I suspect) make it sound like Windows 8 is only good BECAUSE of Metro. There ARE lots of good things about W8, and the thing is, it's optional to use most of them, you can uninstall them or disable them if you don't want to use them. Not so with Metro, which isn't because it's not technically possible but because MS has decided what THEY want is more important than what it's customers want. Even customers who say they don't hate Metro, say they think it's reasonable MS would allow people to turn it off if they wished.

GBristow

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#800760 17-Apr-2013 10:31

nathan:
GBristow:
macuser: Windows 8.1 (Blue) will include a 'boot to desktop' mode. This should make some happy who wish to get straight to your files and browser.

Source

A small victory. I'm still waiting for the "disable metro" option.

That's called Windows 7. Windows 8 runs Modern Apps, which if you disabled Metro wouldn't work anymore

Perfect :) I don't use metro apps.

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grant_k

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#800764 17-Apr-2013 10:32

freitasm: A few times I am using the Surface RT in the lounge and then something pops up that need my attention. Rather than fiddle with the on screen keyboard I just walk to the home office and use my laptop to type a proper response.

My son has one of these with the Touch Cover keyboard and I was surprised how good it was for typing in lengthy passages of text. With a battery life of 10 hours +, it would be my tablet of choice should I decide to buy one in the next little while.

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#800772 17-Apr-2013 10:43

nathan:
GBristow:
macuser: Windows 8.1 (Blue) will include a 'boot to desktop' mode. This should make some happy who wish to get straight to your files and browser.

Source

A small victory. I'm still waiting for the "disable metro" option.

That's called Windows 7. Windows 8 runs Modern Apps, which if you disabled Metro wouldn't work anymore

Metro apps are actually... crap. Seriously an "app" is good when it has a small feature set and it's exceptionally good at performing it. I haven't seen a really good app for Windows 8 Modern Apps (is this what they call it now?)

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#800773 17-Apr-2013 10:45

grant_k:
freitasm: A few times I am using the Surface RT in the lounge and then something pops up that need my attention. Rather than fiddle with the on screen keyboard I just walk to the home office and use my laptop to type a proper response.

My son has one of these with the Touch Cover keyboard and I was surprised how good it was for typing in lengthy passages of text. With a battery life of 10 hours +, it would be my tablet of choice should I decide to buy one in the next little while.

The Surface (and other Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets) are very good. Really enjoying using it. The keyboard is ok. But typing fast requires a bit more than a keyboard.

nathan

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#800774 17-Apr-2013 10:45

freitasm:
nathan:
GBristow:
macuser: Windows 8.1 (Blue) will include a 'boot to desktop' mode. This should make some happy who wish to get straight to your files and browser.

Source

A small victory. I'm still waiting for the "disable metro" option.

That's called Windows 7. Windows 8 runs Modern Apps, which if you disabled Metro wouldn't work anymore

Metro apps are actually... crap. Seriously an "app" is good when it has a small feature set and it's exceptionally good at performing it. I haven't seen a really good app for Windows 8 Modern Apps (is this what they call it now?)

Internet Explorer?

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#800775 17-Apr-2013 10:46

freitasm:
grant_k:
freitasm: A few times I am using the Surface RT in the lounge and then something pops up that need my attention. Rather than fiddle with the on screen keyboard I just walk to the home office and use my laptop to type a proper response.

My son has one of these with the Touch Cover keyboard and I was surprised how good it was for typing in lengthy passages of text. With a battery life of 10 hours +, it would be my tablet of choice should I decide to buy one in the next little while.

The Surface (and other Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets) are very good. Really enjoying using it. The keyboard is ok. But typing fast requires a bit more than a keyboard.

I would have to say of all the tablets in the marketplace, Windows Tablets are the only ones I feel you can actually do "real" work on. I love my Android tablets, but MS has done a good job with their implementation.

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#800777 17-Apr-2013 10:49

nathan:
freitasm:
nathan:
GBristow:
macuser: Windows 8.1 (Blue) will include a 'boot to desktop' mode. This should make some happy who wish to get straight to your files and browser.

Source

A small victory. I'm still waiting for the "disable metro" option.

That's called Windows 7. Windows 8 runs Modern Apps, which if you disabled Metro wouldn't work anymore

Metro apps are actually... crap. Seriously an "app" is good when it has a small feature set and it's exceptionally good at performing it. I haven't seen a really good app for Windows 8 Modern Apps (is this what they call it now?)

Internet Explorer?

If I had to buy a tablet based on a browser only, then a Chrome notebook would be cheaper and functional ;)

TwoSeven

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#800862 17-Apr-2013 12:10

nathan:
TwoSeven:

I think the fundamental issues were applying tablet concepts to desktops in the mistaken belief that desktops were on the way out (they are not, they are just changing form-factor), and the other is forcing everything into the cloud rather than giving people the option to use what suites them (on their personal cloud - a.k.a home environment).

I have a dislike of tiled interfaces - (xbox and windows phone included). I can never figure out which tile does what and it doesnt help that they keep changing shape and color on me.

What caused me to give up on Win 8 was removing the excelent backup stuff that Win 7 had, not being able to integrate desktop apps into the metro UI and things being just too difficult or not working or not having the same features as what I have on win 7.

Excellent backup stuff...
Control Panel
Windows 7 File Recovery
Create a System Image

What is forced into the Cloud?

I'd be interested to know what other things are just too difficult or not having the same features as in Win7

really you're not forced to use the Modern UI, I spend most of my time in the desktop since I'm a Power User/IT Pro like you, I have my app shortcuts on the desktop or on the taskbar

if you want to you can create your own "Start Menu" you can hunt and peck through, right click Taskbar, New Toolbar, point to a folder with the shortcuts you want or C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu

As an experiment you might want to try the following scenario on Win 7 then try it on Win 8 (and if you get it working then I will be happy as it removes an issue for me :) )

In windows 7 backup, create weekly backup that runs at say 3pm each friday, select files from two different hard drives (that are not library locations) and back them up to a fileshare on anothe system \\unc path to share. Run the backup.

On the other point, the default option I was presented with when upgrading to win 8 was that my email address was requried to log in (this I suspect ties the OS and user data to the cloud) which I am not keen on. The menu for local acounts was not obvious. Using the email thing is ok for a tablet (I dont need to do it on my Ipad though as an example) but for a desktop I prefer the local login, then type a credential if accessing an online service.

Modern UI would be great if it supported folders. With a folder the app-vendor could put some branding on it and then put important apps and services within it and use sub-folders to hide less important things. For example, I have Visual Studio installed and I have 6 blocks of 36 icons on the Modern UI, whereas with app-folders it could really just be half a dozen. Out of interest, folders are used in the old start menu, but they are just not tiled and branded like they could be on the modern UI.

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#800869 17-Apr-2013 12:16

macuser: Windows 8.1 (Blue) will include a 'boot to desktop' mode. This should make some happy who wish to get straight to your files and browser.

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Nice. After a number of months on it I'm fairly happy with Windows 8 (actually there are a lot of things I really really like) but this will pretty much get past on of my last niggles with it. I have no issues with the lack of start menu, but I do prefer starting in the desktop.

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