Returning laptop cuz of Windows 8

[SPIKER_01]

Watching End Of Watch right now on the 60" Plasma running Win7...awesome..no Judder..player working fine.

Right now the Win8 x64 Player builds are nothing more than Betas.

 

[Throckmorton]

Zaap has it right on this one. Win8 is Vista Jr...or Senior? It depends how you look at it. As soon as I realized it..and yes prodigy, you didn't take the time to understand that I was giving Win8 a chance by adding startisback so that I could take the time to learn the new system while being able to get work done using the old.

The aero is gone, and the graphics look like 3rd graders designed them. Or maybe the guys from South Park?

Everyone keeps saying ..just go to the desktop in the metro, and you can have that feature back...wrong..carefull how you swipe or the charms menu will jump out at you, obscuring what you are trying to do. IMO, integrating the 2 sytems just leads to confusion.

The metro section might as well be called "window"..just drop the "s" to keep it accurate.:sneaky:

And the main problem. Just like Vista, by the time all the third party software companies have truly compatible programs...microsoft will launch Win9.

I remember the printer that CAME WITH my HP Pavillion loaded with the ultra new version of Vista wouldn't work because the software was not compatible. I had no plans of letting that happen again with my video players, etc.

I got my refund from Best Buy..over $800, and spent my mony elswhere on a Win7 machine, that btw was not easy to find.

Aero was garbage. Why do you want your OS to look like Lisa Frank's fevered dreams? Win 8 is clean looking, which Windows hasn't been for at least 10 years.

 

[Mem]

Zaap has it right on this one. Win8 is Vista Jr...or Senior? It depends how you look at it. As soon as I realized it..and yes prodigy, you didn't take the time to understand that I was giving Win8 a chance by adding startisback so that I could take the time to learn the new system while being able to get work done using the old.

The aero is gone, and the graphics look like 3rd graders designed them. Or maybe the guys from South Park?

Everyone keeps saying ..just go to the desktop in the metro, and you can have that feature back...wrong..carefull how you swipe or the charms menu will jump out at you, obscuring what you are trying to do. IMO, integrating the 2 sytems just leads to confusion.

The metro section might as well be called "window"..just drop the "s" to keep it accurate.:sneaky:

And the main problem. Just like Vista, by the time all the third party software companies have truly compatible programs...microsoft will launch Win9.

I remember the printer that CAME WITH my HP Pavillion loaded with the ultra new version of Vista wouldn't work because the software was not compatible. I had no plans of letting that happen again with my video players, etc.

I got my refund from Best Buy..over $800, and spent my mony elswhere on a Win7 machine, that btw was not easy to find.

I disagree with you and Zaap(he talks a lot of nonsense IMHO),you always get some software incompatible ,thats why they bring out new versions etc...been this way for decades etc so nothing new there(I've had software that did not work on Win98,XP,Vista,Win7,etc over the years or decades..)...also you can't blame drivers on Win8 or even Vista,end of the day that's down to the manufacturer in question for example I always go with Canon for my printer because their driver/customer support is 100x better then HP,they were one of the first to get drivers out for Vista/Win7 and even Win8 within days.

I liked Vista a lot, it was a good OS(I used it for 3 years including beta games testing),never game me any issues,main problems were lack of driver support by a lot of companies and OEM hardware companies shipping Vista with their laptops etc below recommended Vista specs,throw in the FUD etc and you can see Vista got a lot of unwarranted FUD,samething is happening Win8 with regards to FUD,however its driver support is very good.

Metro is not an issue,you can avoid it for 99% of the time and even if you don't its not rocket science to use ,come on.



When Win9 arrives you can bet some people will be bitching about same thing ie "don't like this" or "that don't work", "driver support sucks",funny how always same old spin by a lot of users,get over it.

As for Aero thats just eye candy,does nothing useful and drains batteries quicker when enabled on portable hardware.
I don't think Metro is going away,probably see it refined in Win9,10 etc...if you don't like it tough stay on Win7 forever or go on Linux.

End of the day you have to adapt and learn every new OS that is released even with Linux ,however nobody is forcing you and for every person that hates one OS there are other users that like it,end of the day you have a choice but bitching gets you nowhere.

 

[SPIKER_01]

I disagree with you

Not entirely..

end of the day that's down to the manufacturer in question for example I always go with Canon for my printer because their driver/customer support is 100x better then HP,they were one of the first to get drivers out for Vista/Win7 and even Win8 within days.


main problems were lack of driver support by a lot of companies and OEM hardware companies shipping Vista with their laptops etc below recommended Vista specs,throw in the FUD etc and you can see Vista got a lot of unwarranted FUD,samething is happening Win8 with regards to FUD,however its driver support is very good.

I think that we are agreeing about the same thing here. The difference is that I don't have the patience to wait for third party manufacturers to catch up. I left Vista at service pack 2, which was actually pretty good (but took a long time to get there).

Win 7 was just a natural extension of it IMO, and the PC technology had gotten a lot better, so I bought a new machine wth Win 7, downloaded all my programs, and continued on without a glitch.

Just tried to do the same with 8, and things didn't work out. None of my players..VLC..POT..WMP..UM...etc..would play H264/MPEG 4s without the dreaded "Judder" that can happen on a large screen Plasma. And that's after downloading them all in Win 8 x64 format. Plugged in the Win 7 machine, and zero issue. Am I supposed to wait 8 months before they come up with truly compatible software for these apps?

As for Aero thats just eye candy,does nothing useful and drain batteries quicker when enabled on portable hardware.

I agree that Aero is just a visual preference, but doesn't that effect how much you like to look at the screen? It is power hungry as well, but that's not stopping plenty of people from creating hacks to get it back along with the start menu. Certain things in American culture become popular for whatever reason, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to have it. JMHO

 

[Mem]

Just tried to do the same with 8, and things didn't work out. None of my players..VLC..POT..WMP..UM...etc..would play H264/MPEG 4s without the dreaded "Judder" that can happen on a large screen Plasma. And that's after downloading them all in Win 8 x64 format. Plugged in the Win 7 machine, and zero issue. Am I supposed to wait 8 months before they come up with truly compatible software for these apps?



I agree that Aero is just a visual preference, but doesn't that effect how much you like to look at the screen? It is power hungry as well, but that's not stopping plenty of people from creating hacks to get it back along with the start menu. Certain things in American culture become popular for whatever reason, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to have it. JMHO

I have had no problems with playing movies etc on any of my three Win8 PCs,maybe a driver issue you have with stutter?....as to compatible software lets be honest here it happens on any new OS and is the risk you take when moving/upgrading to any new OS ,as to Aero again it may look nice but end of the day its not needed or a deal breaker,its purpose is really unimportant,many things I want but any of the day you have to let go sooner or later.

I think that we are agreeing about the same thing here. The difference is that I don't have the patience to wait for third party manufacturers to catch up. I left Vista at service pack 2, which was actually pretty good (but took a long time to get there).

Why pay for the hardware in question where the manufacturer gives you crappy driver support?..one reason why I choose the companies I go with carefully,they want my money they have to earn it and give me good driver support etc.....

 

[colonelciller]

as to Aero again it may look nice but end of the day its not needed or a deal breaker,its purpose is really unimportant.

anyone telling anyone that the absence of Aero is not a deal breaker needs to can it already.

anyone telling anyone that Aero is not needed needs to can it already.

people have aesthetic preferences, and they are completely justified for having them. preferences are often deal makers &/or deal breakers.

can it already.

 

[blankslate]

Ive used the stardock products before.... they seemed very resource intensive at the time.... do they still operate that way? I'd hate to get the functionality back only to lose 2-3 hours of battery life.

If you don't want to use something by stardock try Classic Shell. It's open source and lets you boot directly to an xp like desktop and startmenu on win8

Free too.

*edit* you can find skins that make the start menu looks like the ones for win7 or vista as well if that is your preference.

 

[Mem]

anyone telling anyone that the absence of Aero is not a deal breaker needs to can it already.

anyone telling anyone that Aero is not needed needs to can it already.

people have aesthetic preferences, and they are completely justified for having them. preferences are often deal makers &/or deal breakers.

can it already.

I've the right to my opinion,if you don't like it tough,Aero did not arrive until Vista was released and we all know a lot of users bitched about Vista and gave it a lot of FUD(for the record I liked Vista),end of the day Aero is not important,if you buy an OS because of that then maybe you should rethink your priorities that an OS needs.

I could say Microsoft have the right to remove it if they think its not needed as well(actually they gave their reasons why it was removed),again Aero is really unimportant,things like security, programs etc.. are far more important aspects in the OS then Aero.

 

[colonelciller]

I've the right to my opinion,if you don't like it tough,Aero did not arrive until Vista was released and we all know a lot of users bitched about Vista and gave it a lot of FUD(for the record I liked Vista),end of the day Aero is not important,if you buy an OS because of that then maybe you should rethink your priorities that an OS needs.

It is one thing to state an opinion or a preference - and there is no such thing as a right and wrong answer with opinions regarding preferences in design.

Aero is not important (your opinion).
Aero is important so many people (fact).

enough already, with the childish attacks on anything an everything that isn't pro metro.

 

[Mem]

It is one thing to state an opinion or a preference - and there is no such thing as a right and wrong answer with opinions regarding preferences in design.

Aero is not important (your opinion).
Aero is important so many people (fact).

enough already, with the childish attacks on anything an everything that isn't pro metro.

Whats this to do with pro Metro?(I'm not a big fan of Metro,actually I'm a DOS fan from the 90s)..did XP ,2K,have Aero or Win98 SE?... all good operating systems if you asked users here,my point is only two operating systems that Microsoft ever made used it so its not like its been around for decades etc...

My second point is simple, end of the day Microsoft have the right to remove it regardless of what you or I think,plenty of OS choices out there for preference thing as you call it.

Take it easy, guys
-ViRGE

 

[SPIKER_01]

Mem, at this point your immaturity level is really shining.

You are not content to just express your fondness of Win8 without attacking anyone who doesn't like it.

In the end, I guarantee that it will be the worst showing for any OS, including Vista. Vista didn't have the pre warning that a lot of PC users have gotten for Win8. XP was so old..yet still great at the time...that people just naturally thought that it would be better...except they were wrong, until SP2.

Don't assume that your needs are the needs of everyone else. Many users just like the way the screen looks, some play videos, and some are gamers, which brings me to another shortfall of Win8.

Ever read this article? It seems that Win8 doesn't really perform any better than 7 on any of the tests, but falls short on some, and then completely fails on one game.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-8-gaming-performance,3331.html

Also, you mentioned that you play videos with no problems. Which file types?

Can you play MP4/H264 files? AVI?

If so, what player loaded with which codecs are you using? And which movie?

I would really like to know the details.

 

[Mem]

Mem, at this point your immaturity level is really shining.

You are not content to just express your fondness of Win8 without attacking anyone who doesn't like it.

In the end, I guarantee that it will be the worst showing for any OS, including Vista. Vista didn't have the pre warning that a lot of PC users have gotten for Win8. XP was so old..yet still great at the time...that people just naturally thought that it would be better...except they were wrong, until SP2.

Don't assume that your needs are the needs of everyone else. Many users just like the way the screen looks, some play videos, and some are gamers, which brings me to another shortfall of Win8.

Ever read this article? It seems that Win8 doesn't really perform any better than 7 on any of the tests, but falls short on some, and then completely fails on one game.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-8-gaming-performance,3331.html

Also, you mentioned that you play videos with no problems. Which file types?

Can you play MP4/H264 files? AVI?

If so, what player loaded with which codecs are you using? And which movie?

I would really like to know the details.

I thought this thread died,but to answer your question in a calm and polite way,I use Win8 Pro with WMC ,works with most files ,I do have KLite codec installed on one of my Win8 PCs however, link here http://codecguide.com/download_kl.htm .

You might find this a good read http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-8-media-playback-support-explained .

Btw I was not attacking everybody just giving my opinon especially on little trival things that I thought some users were moaning about ,sorry if you thought otherwise and yes everybody has different opinions etc..I like Win8 as much as Win7,Vista,DOS,Ubuntu,Mint etc ..so quite a lot of operating systems nothing wrong in that is there.

As Virge stated lets keep this thread calm and easy .


I forgot to answer about your link,yes I read Tom's link back in Oct,btw fix for sleeping dogs here http://steamcommunity.com/app/202170/discussions/0/864950398910108168/

 

[todpod]

So did he take it back?

 

[wiin]

So did he take it back?

probably not. he was just trying to show what a smart alec he was by ranting here. When I don't like something, I return it, period. None of this whining in a forum.

Be nice...
-ViRGE

 

[osii]

Ok, everyone keeps wanting specific on why 8 is a POS.

1. Skype never worked properly. Calls would "ring" about a half hour after.

2. Most of the programs I used are now "apps" that will not multitask or run in the background. Because of this if you are trying to use acrobat and open office, you have to switch back and fourth and cannot have multiple windows anymore. It should really be called window8, not windows8. Forget about watching netflix in one window and browsing in another.

And the final deal breaker was this entire registration package that integrates and hijacks your user names and then makes it impossible to even log into your computer. I had to reset and pretty much lost all my data, or at least access to it. I'm sure there are ways to go in and admin my way back to my data, but why should I have to.

Most win8 boxes can't downgrade to win7.

Returned it after three months of giving it a try and bought a tf700. If I must live in a tablet environment, might as well have a tablet.

Windows is dead to me. Thank god for android.

 

[ControlD]

Ok, everyone keeps wanting specific on why 8 is a POS.

1. Skype never worked properly. Calls would "ring" about a half hour after.

2. Most of the programs I used are now "apps" that will not multitask or run in the background. Because of this if you are trying to use acrobat and open office, you have to switch back and fourth and cannot have multiple windows anymore. It should really be called window8, not windows8. Forget about watching netflix in one window and browsing in another.

And the final deal breaker was this entire registration package that integrates and hijacks your user names and then makes it impossible to even log into your computer. I had to reset and pretty much lost all my data, or at least access to it. I'm sure there are ways to go in and admin my way back to my data, but why should I have to.

Most win8 boxes can't downgrade to win7.

Returned it after three months of giving it a try and bought a tf700. If I must live in a tablet environment, might as well have a tablet.

Windows is dead to me. Thank god for android.

I'm confused by your point #2. Are you saying all of your applications are Metro versions? Open Office has a Metro version? I find that hard to believe because I have found almost nothing that actually runs under Metro.

I can watch Netflix and have any number of other programs open in their own windows because they require the classic desktop to run. The classic desktop has the same window management we have seen forever in Windows.

I'm calling shens on this entire post.

 

[JEDIYoda]

You would think some of these people who say and I quote -- Bought my wife a laptop last night (just a quick and cheap one) and I saw it had windows 8 on it. I figured "oh nice, the new windows" so I picked it up. In actuality they have no wife and they are not mature enough to buy themselves anything.....what a childish rant...

No matter how you feel about it, this is the right place for such a rant. So if that bothers you, you should stop reading. Attacking someone for having an opinion is the wrong thing to do.

-ViRGE

 

[lakedude]

All fine and good, but I go by my experiences. (Others can judge by their own, that's fine.)

ME: That was the first time I saw people that were PC/OS novices realize that an OS was a flaming POS and express it often. Had people wanting me to install Win 98 or Win2000 in place of it.

XP: never personally had a *single* person want to go back to a previous OS version, let alone pay to do it.

Vista: Had a ton of people pay me to replace with XP on their systems. I lost count of how many. I've read where plenty of others reported a similar experience. That's not exactly a rip-roaring success for an OS in my book.

Windows 7: Not a single person ever wanted me to put Vista back on their hardware in place of 7- the idea is even a bit absurd.

Windows 8: already 4 people have paid me to return to Windows 7. I'm already sensing a pattern similar to Vista when it first came out. You can blame the individual people all you want, but most people won't be forced to like something they don't like.

I've been in the game professionally since before the PC and personally since W95. I'm not big on memorizing commands so any UI that requires a specific syntax or specific commands is useless for me. W98SE was pretty darn good. ME was not all that bad. XP was much more reliable but also much more bloated. Vista has been 100% reliable and bomb proof in spite of all the complaints. In fact I still have functional ME and Vista systems, they are fine really. W7 is more bloated still but very solid, especially in the way it works with both 32 bit and 64 bit apps (XP-64 was terrible).

W8 is the worst so far and in a way I admire people who tell M$ to pound sand and return their computers. Thing is W8 isn't really all that bad and if someone were to invest a little time learning and installing workarounds W8 is perfectly usable and for the first time ever, a little less bloated than its predecessors.

That said, if it were not for gaming I'd tell M$ to pound sand as well and stick with Puppy/Fat Dog Linux which is a full featured distro that weighs in @ under 200MB. It is so tiny it runs completely in RAM which makes it super fast and responsive. We are spending a small fortune on SSDs and other ways to speed up M$'s bloated pig of an OS, Puppy is this brilliant, tiny, efficient OS that will run circles around anything M$ has put out ever.

 

[Synomenon]

Everyone in my family has transitioned to Windows 8 already. It's a lighter OS and their PCs are "faster" with Windows 8.

A couple of the family members couldn't get over the start screen vs. start menu issue so I simply installed "Classic Shell" on their PCs. It's a free / open source program that installs the start menu everyone is used to.

Once you have something like Classic Shell or Start8 installed, you never have to see the Metro UI again.

 

[Mem]

I've been in the game professionally since before the PC and personally since W95. I'm not big on memorizing commands so any UI that requires a specific syntax or specific commands is useless for me. W98SE was pretty darn good. ME was not all that bad. XP was much more reliable but also much more bloated. Vista has been 100% reliable and bomb proof in spite of all the complaints. In fact I still have functional ME and Vista systems, they are fine really. W7 is more bloated still but very solid, especially in the way it works with both 32 bit and 64 bit apps (XP-64 was terrible).

W8 is the worst so far and in a way I admire people who tell M$ to pound sand and return their computers. Thing is W8 isn't really all that bad and if someone were to invest a little time learning and installing workarounds W8 is perfectly usable and for the first time ever, a little less bloated than its predecessors.

That said, if it were not for gaming I'd tell M$ to pound sand as well and stick with Puppy/Fat Dog Linux which is a full featured distro that weighs in @ under 200MB. It is so tiny it runs completely in RAM which makes it super fast and responsive. We are spending a small fortune on SSDs and other ways to speed up M$'s bloated pig of an OS, Puppy is this brilliant, tiny, efficient OS that will run circles around anything M$ has put out ever.

I agree with a lot of the first paragraph,however WinME offered nothing really new and IMHO was probably my least favourite OS,as to bloat well I have seen this happen ever since they went away from Dos 6.22 which you could fit on some floppies etc...

XP was full over security holes and had some sound driver issues by manufacturers,one reason why Vista was released ie OS with improved security and redesigned sound system ie drivers based around software sound to make it more stable.

Win7 is a solid OS but offered nothing really new apart from speed over Vista unless you want to add improved UAC(ie less nagging to users).Win8 at least offers more with new redesigned UI which was long overdue( remember Win7 UI goes back to Win95 days) and can be improved over next few versions of Windows etc..at least its stable and fast, pricing was great so nothing really bad about Win8.

As for learning keyboard shortcuts again I don't really use any ,happy with mouse and keyboard for gaming and desktop use without keyboard shortcuts (I still do some beta games testing now and then for some companies on Win8).

Windows Blue is supposed to have improvements in Metro so it should be very interesting to see the feedback from anti-Metro fans,personally I want more customization in Metro,as a desktop/gamer myself I can live with Metro etc but want more customization ie option to color code tiles,more size options , maybe new shapes and styles etc...

I'm not a Metro fan as such but can work with it,even if they removed it which I think they won't do, I can live with a Metro replacement as long as it gives me good customization options etc....

As to Linux yes I would probably be on Linux all the time if I was not a Windows gamer.....I still have a Linux PC that I use to keep me Linux savy,that reminds me I must check out the Linux games that Steam has on offer .

 

[yinan]

The tiles in Metro just suck. Why on earth would you want an icon that takes up so much damn screen real estate?

Also, like others have mentioned, the ability to truly multitask efficiently has been removed.

I also really like Aero and I do not want it to go away.

 

[osii]

I'm confused by your point #2. Are you saying all of your applications are Metro versions? Open Office has a Metro version? I find that hard to believe because I have found almost nothing that actually runs under Metro.

I can watch Netflix and have any number of other programs open in their own windows because they require the classic desktop to run. The classic desktop has the same window management we have seen forever in Windows.

I'm calling shens on this entire post.

When you watch a netflix movie in win8, you must use the windows "app." you cannot reduce the window and keep it running. As soon as you flip back to the "desktop," the movie stops.

FACT: you cannot have multiple "app" windows open on one screen anymore. For this reason alone Win8 is a loser.

I call whatever you called on me, on you.

 

[Synomenon]

FACT: you cannot have multiple "app" windows open on one screen anymore. For this reason alone Win8 is a loser.

Have you used Windows 8. I have Firefox, Photoshop, Outlook, Skype and VMware all open and a couple of them side-by-side right now. I'm able to use Windows 8 just as I did Windows 7.

 

[lakedude]

When you watch a netflix movie in win8, you must use the windows "app." you cannot reduce the window and keep it running. As soon as you flip back to the "desktop," the movie stops.

This is only going to be true for the default app. I'm sure you can still watch NetFlix in a browser window in desktop mode.

FACT: you cannot have multiple "app" windows open on one screen anymore. For this reason alone Win8 is a loser.

This is only true if you use apps. If you don't like apps (which I generally don't), don't use them. Use desktop mode.

I call whatever you called on me, on you.

Um, really?

 

[Remobz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4boTbv9_nU