Windows 8 totally new tablet touch screen look

fseal · 26 Jan 2012

Have had the preview installed since it came out. Was dubious at first (to say the least) but the more I play with it (every week or two) the more I seriously dislike it as a desktop interface. It's positively maddening sometimes.

Try launching media player on it (no not by double clicking a media file, by just launching the player).

There is no list of installed programs anywhere. The metro UI has a few well chosen preplaced items but 90% of the preinstalled programs are not there and there is no actual Start Menu that shows them (That I have been able to find). The search box is gone and that was a truly great thing on windows 7. If I wanted media player and couldn't find it, typing it into the search box would give me a shortcut to launch it (on 7). I finally had to use explorer to search for the media player app find it then create a shortcut to the desktop for it... yeah that was SO much easier than the old start menu.

(Ok, maybe there is an easier way? But if there is and I could't find it, that's the most damning testimony for the new UI of all)

And what is with that IQ test to shut the machine down?

First you need to click on an "icon" and "log off", wait for it to log off, "raise the shade" and then click on another icon and select "shut down". The more I do it the more I realise someone needs to be put into solitary for a month for coming up with that

So yeah, on desktop... a resonding "No thank you". BUT I would love to have windows 8 on a nice tablet sometime soon. Or as those star trek pictures show, as some sort of in wall/built in flat screen AIW computer on the wall for casual computing updates as I'm zipping through the house. (hopefully with fully working sleep mode of course)

[Edit] If there is any sense at MS, I'll be made to look like an idiot for this rant when the beta is released next month (crosses flippers) [/edit]

msdos622wasfun · 26 Jan 2012

I guess I'm trying to see it from Microsoft's perspective. Does it make more sense for them and would it also be easier to manage if they converge the Windows platform into something unified and cohesive that works more universally across the range of machines, from PCs to tablets to phones? Because obviously, they want a big piece of the market in all those areas, and maybe just having one overall OS design will make it simpler and more seamless to go from one device to the other. I'm always willing to embrace something new when Windows tries to innovate, but I can only hope that they somehow find a way to accommodate the users who are going to resist this rather drastic overhaul.

lehnerus2000 · 26 Jan 2012

fseal said:

There is no list of installed programs anywhere. The metro UI has a few well chosen preplaced items but 90% of the preinstalled programs are not there and there is no actual Start Menu that shows them (That I have been able to find). The search box is gone and that was a truly great thing on windows 7. If I wanted media player and couldn't find it, typing it into the search box would give me a shortcut to launch it (on 7). I finally had to use explorer to search for the media player app find it then create a shortcut to the desktop for it... yeah that was SO much easier than the old start menu.

(Ok, maybe there is an easier way? But if there is and I could't find it, that's the most damning testimony for the new UI of all)

I don't like Metro either.

When you are on the awful Metro Tile screen, you can just start typing to do a search.
There is a way to get a list of all of your installed programs (sorted alphabetically) but I can't remember what it is.

Notice the usual MS inability to provide any useful instructions on the OS features.
Why not have a message on the screen saying that?

M1GU31 said:

For those have tried windows 8 does it run any better or about the same as win 7 and can you take off those tablet features and make it like a regular win desktop like win 7 if not.

I've performed the "Registry" hack, so I have a desktop and "Start Menu".

Windows 8 totally new tablet touch screen look

Once you get Metro out of the way, Windows 8 performs well.
It seems as fast as W7 and it uses 2/3 of the RAM (on my PC).

M1GU31 · 27 Jan 2012

eh win 8 was made for dummies that's why they simplified it with the one click and tablet look. Disappointed

fseal · 27 Jan 2012

lehnerus2000 said:

...

When you are on the awful Metro Tile screen, you can just start typing to do a search.
There is a way to get a list of all of your installed programs (sorted alphabetically) but I can't remember what it is.

...

Really... that is probably the last thing I would have thought to try, just start blindly typing on a screen full of icons

I'll have to try that out.

I realise that there will be a learning curve and I generally LIKE new things, but when the UI is just so obtuse that an intelligent person can't even figure it out without buying a dummies book on it... something is wrong...

JerometheGiraff · 28 Jan 2012

Why they didn't release Windows 7.5 as a upgrade that wouldn't cost much (Less then $50) would have made sense. I'm not upgrading to Windows8. I think Microsoft is becoming extremely greedy.

Infinite · 28 Jan 2012

If it didn't remove my Linux bootloader, and it was easier to use, I might begin to like it.

AlexRD · 28 Jan 2012

I like the lock screen.
I think the lock screen should be the start screen, all i would need then is a tab to open apps, and the other one to open games, and another search tab.

M1GU31 · 29 Jan 2012

you got to watch this you will know why when you watch it

flirno · 30 Jan 2012

IggyAZ said:

Kingnothing412 said:

I Hear its performance is great but that look is really ugly imo.

I have seen and used every version of Windows (yes I'm that old lol) and yes they all looked different. If they didn't change the look no one will buy. LOL

Remember this is still beta and many part are left out from the final version.
I'm sure we will lots more information in the coming months before the release.
As far as I have heard it may be released in 2012 but no one is saying that in concrete. Actually I don't think we need another version for desktops because I feel Win7 has been the most outstanding Windows ever developed. For now I'm sticking with 7.

Sometimes no one will buy anyway due to reviews or first impressions -- Win ME or Vista for example. I completely skipped those iterations and based on what has been published about Win 8 it looks like I will be skipping it too.

That plus I (this includes my mother's 2 computesr and 3 of mine) switched over to Win 7 (I had been on XP Pro and XP x64 Pro for quite a while) only a year ago and I am not about to shell out for another OS this soon OEM prices or not.

By the time I am looking to upgrade OS again I expect Win 9 to have been out for a while.

First version of windows I used is 3.0 (briefly then 3.1 and 3.11 for a long while). Although this was more as an alternative to the command line interface (made heavy use of the DOS shell from 2.1 all the way up to the last version of 6.xx).

I did 'play' with Windows 286 and 386 but they were not good for much of anything at the time and competing environments like GEM seemed more functional.

Windows 8 totally new tablet touch screen look

Windows 8 is good, but Metro is bad.