Gave windows 8 a proper try, still sucks

[Maximilian]

Ive gotten windows 8 pro for free through dreamspark premium so i thought i would give it a proper try and use it as my main OS, doing all my day to day things on it and see how it fares. I tried windows 8 CP on a VM a while ago and didn't like it but maybe if i gave it a proper go for a few days it may change. Well i was wrong, its just worse in every way than windows 7, the improved task manager and pausing file transfers and all that additional jazz is nice don't get me wrong but it isnt worth squat if the UI is garbage which is the thing you spend most of your time with.

Its not like avoiding metro will work either because metro effectively is the start menu, so if you install something and no desktop icon appears theres two options C:\program files\folder\yourprogram and make a fkin shortcut yourself which sucks, or navigate metro and find it in that mess then pin it to "start" and go back to metro every time you want to open it. The UI has absolutely no advantages over windows 7 and that is what damns this OS to failure.

Some people cite "getting used to it" well thats difficult when you know theres a much better UI in windows 7 that wont cause issues, other say "fear of change" which IMO is also bollocks, change is great when its for the better and this unfortunately is not one of those occasions. In fact the reason im so ticked at this is because i was looking forward to a change, i like new things im always updating applications/drivers/BIOS etc and plenty of them come with new UI's, XBMC and the asrock UEFI are recent examples, i also liked the ribbon they added in office 2007. These examples have better UI's than the previous versions windows 8 does not and i think it will be a fail on the scale of vista however this time its entirely microsofts fault, nothing to do with 3rd party's crummy drivers etc.

tl;dr
- windows 8 is balls
- tablet OS sucks on desktop
- i anticipate massive amounts of backpedaling with windows 9
- you probably already know this but hey ho i felt like sharing

 

[Blazer7]

Have you tried Classic Shell ?

 

[Maximilian]

No i just went with bog standard windows 8 pro, no mods hacks or anything. Ive re-installed windows 7 now, wont be leaving it for quite a bit longer it seems.

That looks okay, dosent seem to do the newer type of start menu though, think it first appeared in vista, this one:

http://cdn.trickyways.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/start-menu-icons-04.png

 

[Blazer7]

You 're right, it can't do that ... yet, but it's still way better than Metro.

I use it on a VM and I'm quite happy with it. In fact I was about to kill the VM and that just stopped me. I hope that these guys implement a real Vista/7 menu in their next release.

 

[gizbug]

Another topic stating "I dont like windows 8...."

Then don't run it, move along now, nothing to see here. Windows 8 runs and works fine on my rig..........and many others.

 

[dagamer34]

Honestly, what is the goal of these topics?

 

[ViRGE]

Have you tried Classic Shell ?

Honestly Classic Shell has all but melted my hostility towards Windows 8. Out of the box it's still a tablet OS poorly shoehorned into being used with desktops, but once Classic Shell supplants Metro, it solves most of the problems I had with Windows 8.

Honestly, what is the goal of these topics?

People are angry that Microsoft is chasing tablet users while ignoring desktop/laptop users. It's like the wife who becomes bitter once she finds out a younger woman has her husband's eye.

 

[Muffinsrevenger]

Been using it for a few days now, never had this few problems with drivers and the increased performence with everyday tasks makes the whole experience pretty comfortable

By the sound of things, you are doing things wrong

 

[Mem]

No i just went with bog standard windows 8 pro, no mods hacks or anything. Ive re-installed windows 7 now, wont be leaving it for quite a bit longer it seems.

That looks okay, dosent seem to do the newer type of start menu though, think it first appeared in vista, this one:

http://cdn.trickyways.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/start-menu-icons-04.png

Another option is the new improved version of Start8 from Stardock http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/ .

Yes Win8 is leaning more towards tablet users and desktop users got the short straw,however with a bit of work/tweaks like using third party programs or making shortcuts etc..you can get Win8 more desktop user style.


Start8 is more then good enough for my Win8 usage and I'm happy to use it as my main OS with that installed.

 

[Maximilian]

Been using it for a few days now, never had this few problems with drivers and the increased performence with everyday tasks makes the whole experience pretty comfortable

By the sound of things, you are doing things wrong

Yep clearly im the problem when people are using hacks etc to avoid metro completely

Another option is the new improved version of Start8 from Stardock http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/ .

Yes Win8 is leaning more towards tablet users and desktop users got the short straw,however with a bit of work/tweaks like using third party programs or making shortcuts etc..you can get Win8 more desktop user style.


Start8 is more then good enough for my Win8 usage and I'm happy to use it as my main OS with that installed.

I came to post this actually, looks pretty good from the demo i watched, neat as well unlike dicking around in the registry to re-enable things.

 

[Blazer7]

Yes Win8 is leaning more towards tablet users and desktop users got the short straw,however with a bit of work/tweaks like using third party programs or making shortcuts etc..you can get Win8 more desktop user style.

What scares the heck out of me is that there are numerous articles out there about Microsoft actively trying to stop these 3rd party programs from working by deleting "legacy" code from the OS. As I am a desktop user, if Microsoft wants to sell their brand new shinny toy to me and the likes of me, they'd better leave these programs alone.

 

[Mem]

What scares the heck out of me is that there are numerous articles out there about Microsoft actively trying to stop these 3rd party programs from working by deleting "legacy" code from the OS. As I am a desktop user, if Microsoft wants to sell their brand new shinny toy to me and the likes of me, they'd better leave these programs alone.

I believe Microsoft and Stardock have some sort of agreement arrangement with regards to Windows,besides once OS goes RTM they can't change much,Stardock Start8 program will IMHO be very popular with desktop users and I can see Microsoft happy with that ie more Win8 users so win win situation for Microsoft.

 

[oynaz]

That makes sense. However, decisions like deliberately sabotaging people supporting your product are high-level business decisions. Thus, sense is not applicable.

For instance, decisions like: "Let's stop making Coca-Cola!" does not exactly signal sense.

 

[dagamer34]

That makes sense. However, decisions like deliberately sabotaging people supporting your product are high-level business decisions. Thus, sense is not applicable.

For instance, decisions like: "Let's stop making Coca-Cola!" does not exactly signal sense.

More like, let's HEAVILY push New Coke, but the old Coca Cola recipe is still available. These people are complaining about New Coke ads, but they can still get Old Coke if they want. And then you realize that these arguments are rather stupid.

Microsoft isn't like Apple. Windows 7 will be supported until 2020, so you can keep using it until then. Heck, 40% of the world still uses Windows XP today and that OS is 11 years old. If you NEVER want to upgrade, no one is making you. That's why I find these posts silly.

 

[dagamer34]

What scares the heck out of me is that there are numerous articles out there about Microsoft actively trying to stop these 3rd party programs from working by deleting "legacy" code from the OS. As I am a desktop user, if Microsoft wants to sell their brand new shinny toy to me and the likes of me, they'd better leave these programs alone.

Is there a reason they should keep legacy code that isn't being used inside of their product? Microsoft isn't stopping them from making their own start menu, they just don't want people relying on old code (because that means when it needs to forcibly be removed for other reasons, they have to write work-arounds).

Microsoft does not want companies writing code based on unsupported quirks in the OS, it's what creates legacy OS bloat in the first place.

 

[Muffinsrevenger]

Yep clearly im the problem when people are using hacks etc to avoid metro completely

Not really, but the whole "ohgodsmetro" reaction is pretty stupid
What they have made is essentially something that behaves like the old start menu, only it has more options

I mean, winkey+three first letters in the program you want to use still finds everything more or less instantly, and if you for some reason you have some sort of strange allergic reaction to the look of the damn thing then this still only expose you for about .5 seconds at most

Iv'e got into the habit of using the calender app, thats about it so far, apart from leaving my machine at the metro interface when going afk since it looks way more stylish then the regular desktop, but it has in no way shape or form got in the way of everyday use


I understand peoples negative reactions to the design choices being made, they are quite brave and i'm fairly sure i would not have done the same if i was responsible for a product so critical to my company, but the sheer amount of "nhargh mettro r terrible y0" reactions i see across the web have gone past the point of being stupid ages ago

Chill out, sit down, breathe and think, then go on to think about what part of your everyday usage is actually impacted negatively by having the option of accessing simple apps on your desktop, and compare that to the benefit of performance gains and all the other thousands of little upgrades windows 8 has compared to 7

Raging about how hard it is to remove and replace it is pretty pointless, just stick to 7 if you really don't even feel like adapting

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Chill out, sit down, breathe and think, then go on to think about what part of your everyday usage is actually impacted negatively by having the option of accessing simple apps on your desktop, and compare that to the benefit of performance gains and all the other thousands of little upgrades windows 8 has compared to 7

That's the problem, essentially every part of my daily usage is impacted by that abomination of a UI. I'd rather use OS X than Windows 8 and that's really saying something because I hate Apple.

I have two free copies of Windows 8 but I have no plans to use them and will be sticking with Windows 7 for the time being. Assuming Windows 9 isn't out in 3 years and Metro free I will be making the jump to Ubuntu or OS X at that point.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Thank you, i'm going to have to check that one out.

Another option is the new improved version of Start8 from Stardock http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/ .

Yes Win8 is leaning more towards tablet users and desktop users got the short straw,however with a bit of work/tweaks like using third party programs or making shortcuts etc..you can get Win8 more desktop user style.


Start8 is more then good enough for my Win8 usage and I'm happy to use it as my main OS with that installed.

 

[Blazer7]

Is there a reason they should keep legacy code that isn't being used inside of their product? Microsoft isn't stopping them from making their own start menu, they just don't want people relying on old code (because that means when it needs to forcibly be removed for other reasons, they have to write work-arounds).

Microsoft does not want companies writing code based on unsupported quirks in the OS, it's what creates legacy OS bloat in the first place.

If people like the functionality provided by this old piece of “legacy” code and Microsoft believes that this could result in problems in the long run (which I doubt since Win7 are using this “legacy” piece of code without any problems and will continue to do so for the foreseable future) they can very easily rewrite it to their liking.

The bottom line is that Microsoft made a business decision that has nothing to do with “legacy” code, bloat or anything else.

 

[dagamer34]

If people like the functionality provided by this old piece of “legacy” code and Microsoft believes that this could result in problems in the long run (which I doubt since Win7 are using this “legacy” piece of code without any problems and will continue to do so for the foreseable future) they can very easily rewrite it to their liking.

The bottom line is that Microsoft made a business decision that has nothing to do with “legacy” code, bloat or anything else.

Windows 8 isn't Windows 7. Code is considered legacy based on the OS version, not whether any OS around still uses it.

 

[SunnyD]

What about the control panel and configuration stuff. I tried navigating the "guts" of Win8 one day and was ridiculously frustrated. It was nearly impossible to find anything that "needed" to be found.

 

[ViRGE]

What about the control panel and configuration stuff. I tried navigating the "guts" of Win8 one day and was ridiculously frustrated. It was nearly impossible to find anything that "needed" to be found.

All of the good stuff is where it always has been.

 

[Mem]

What about the control panel and configuration stuff. I tried navigating the "guts" of Win8 one day and was ridiculously frustrated. It was nearly impossible to find anything that "needed" to be found.

When at desktop,right click in left bottom corner and it will appear in a list menu ,otherwise install Start8.

 

[hhhd1]

People who directly upgrade from xp to 8 will be pissed.

No start menu, no search function, update acts on its own. ...
and many other little things that people 'got used to' or 'learned to live with' in vista and 7.

(XP is set to end support on 2014)

 

[Pretty Cool]

Some folks will think Metro is fine. But for those who do not, they have no need to be pissed at 8 if they install Classic Shell as mentioned above since it will be almost like interacting Windows 7.

Microsoft never said they would ban 3rd party start menus. They said they are removing their own so no 3rd party could bring Microsoft's own Start Menu back. Anybody and his brother can create their own Start Menu if they want. So no. Start8 or Classic Shell are not hacks, nor will they stop working one day.