Microsoft Unveils New Look

effectively a wall to come down which interrupts what I'm doing which is jarring.

Exactly, that is my experience with trying to do anything with Windows 8 the way it is designed. Install Classic Shell, configure it full Classic, and Windows 8 becomes marginally usable. Its aesthetics and dynamics still suck big time. Then there is that pointless splash screen on boot you must click on to get to the log in screen then the totally unnecessary few second dwell on the Metro screen. That is over the top annoying.

Overall the experience is that no one really thought about how real people who use real computers to do real work must do their work. They simply patched together a set of incomplete components from incompatible environments, cut out features until they met their arbitrary memory budget, and called it a product . It doesn't come close to the polished and completed feel that Windows 7 has.

I was doing touch screen programming in the early 1980's (monochrome) and again worked in the 1990's (sixteen colors). They were using 16 bit OSs under the GUI I had added to them. Even that primitive environment had better aesthetics and dynamics than the Windows 8 GUI. Doing things right is not that much harder than doing them wrong. Working with something not done right is like working in the middle of hell during a hurricane. Not a pleasant experience.

I don't like Classic Shell menu which is a mess, while ViStart is identical to Win7's but isn't customizable to have fold-out menus which I rely upon: Start Menu - Restore in Windows 8

In the comments section of the tutorial SIW2 posted up Start Menu 7 which is not exactly the WIn7 start menu but has its full functionality.

I don't like Classic Shell menu which is a mess

That is the point of configurable features. Not everyone likes, needs, wants the same thing. The point of a programmable computer is that it CAN BE PROGRAMMED TO BE CONFIGURED to individual choice. It is likely that nearly everyone will like 80% of a given OS out of the box. If 15% can be configured to the individual likes, the remaining 5% might be annoying but livable depending on which features are unmodifiable.

Allow Metro, Start Button, and windows/controls colors to be configurable, then all is well. All types of users will be happy with it. Lock those things down or out, you get a bimodal population: lovers and haters with both having a lot of energy behind their love or hate. I see this as a mistake unless you are aching for a knockdown drag out fight with both sides digging in for a long and painful battle. Even then, everyone looses more than they win - including Microsoft. It is damn dumb and stupid especially in light of how easily it could have been avoided. However, the path is set with Microsoft being not willing to allow the simple solution. Conflict it is.

I don't hate Microsoft. I love Windows Seven. I also think the touch aspects of Win 8 are good but the desktop changes in Win 8 suck. Explorer looks hideous. The window decoration are very ugly. If they released Win 8 with the Win 7 desktop then I think it would be pretty good. They also should allow the Win 7 start menu as an option. I guess once a few custom visual styles are released it won't be that bad, but the default desktop is hideous. You would think that a company as big as Microsoft could do better. It seems to be a business model to release a half finished OS in between a complete OS so they can keep people buying product over and over.

The ViStart Win7 Replica start menu in Gornot's post is the one I like best, if only it had the fold-out Menu's for Computer, Control Panel and User folder. Has anyone a mod to get that?

Seriously????? Can you see my surprise they are going back to the graphics of 3.1....is it deja vu or Back to the Future? Wait....there is some dimension in 3.1's logo, forgive me for comparing them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brqlko9pTkk

I like that new Microsoft logo.

gregrocker said:

But Jimbo the difference is I want to be able to access programs, controls and settings alongside my Firefox windows without having to go to some other wall to do that - and why should I have to when the Start button screen works perfectly?

An app-centric touch screen interface and functionality doesn't translate to a desktop except with extreme modifications. I spent an entire day finding the perfect Win7-style Start Menu and setting it up. You've spent months configuring your second desktop screen.

Hi there
It's NEW and of course totally unlike Windows 7 so there's always going to be "Learning" environment and I only play with this stuff at odd periods so it's not a full time occupation -- too many EXCELLENT pubs in central Brussels for that. !!!!

I LIKE Windows 7 and will stick with it for the foreseeable future but there's nothing wrong in experimenting with the new OS.

I agree the whole start screen and and metro tile design are positively TERRIBLE in design - someone in Ms's graphics dept needs to get fired pretty smartly - as I'm quite sure there are plenty of 8 year olds in primary schools who could have done a much better job of the design.

But organising work in a new way turned out better than I had expected - again I suppose this is something that people have to work out for themselves.

My first reaction to Win 8 was "WOTIZIT for a POS". I thought I'd play with it for a while.

I'm actually quite sure that if some customisation features are added to Win 8 a lot of arguments will disappear.

I'm not enthoused in any way whatsoever in "Live Full screen" Metro apps -- that's what tablets and smart phones are for but I can see some possibilities in the start screen if used slightly differently.

The real error all along with this is that while Windows 8 brings some values to the table such as Virtual ISO mounting, File update tracking, HUGELY improved security, and generally a snappier all round performace improvement it's still a schizophrenic nightmare of a mix of a Tablet / phone OS or a Desktop OS and IMO fails to deliver properly in BOTH areas.

At install time the prompt should have been

Install device ==>phone/tablet/desktop.

If you install desktop extra choice should be presented ===> install Metro UI interface Y/N.

If N should get standard windows 7 like start up.

(Windows 2012 server gives you a choice of whether you even want a GUI - and you only get the full metro if you choose GUI and then afterwards enable desktop experience). Although why on earth you would want Metro on a SERVER beat me. !!!

Anyway we shall see what transpires with this -- I'm sure there will be a lot of de-installing W8 on new machine as people buy W7 and install that instead like they did with XP when VISTA first appeared.

Cheers
jimbo