Windows 8.1 Start button SPOTTED in the wild

[ICIT2LOL]

Well they reckon in this they are changing it to default to something that sounds ok but I still don't like the idea of shifting I mean the wheel isn't broken.

Windows 8.1 unveiled: will it change your mind about Windows 8? | ZDNet

 

[Faladu]

M$ hasn't given us non-tablet owners A REASON to want 8, or at least I am not aware of any. [a small % overall speed increase is not going to cut it for me vs. cost & hassles]

Windows by now should be a lot faster imho, not a more bloated stinky mess, that even your dog would be embarrassed by.

 

[Gary]

What about Windows 8?

A good read on a bad product.

 

[jimbo45]

What about Windows 8?

A good read on a bad product.

Hi there
From what I've seen the upcoming Windows 8.1 actually seems to be passably OK -- this is what they SHOULD have done in the beginning.

It seems that one of my biggest gripes has been fixed -- installing classical windows applications has now been cleaned up -- instead of creating a zillion and one tiles the install process puts the application into a single place which you can re-arrange quite decently.

Metro apps can also be used with multi monitors on ANY of the screens in conjunction with classical desktop apps and the windows (max 4 for metro) can be re-sized and aren't of fixed pixel size -- finally somebody at Ms must have sat behind a LARGE monitor with the original W8 and said "What a load of !!!!"

Boot to desktop directly will be popular, the start screen can be significantly customized if you want to use the start screen and the whole application search is improved (although I don't find too much wrong with the search in the current W8).

When it becomes available (either via leak or officially) I think quite a lot of the people who HATE W8 now might change their mind a little.

BTW there are SIGNIFICANT changes from the latest leaked build (build 9385) in the REAL preview version. Ms is keeping the preview away from the wild with security that makes Fort Knox seem like a Womens Institute sunday afternoon tea party.

Waiting to see -- but from what I've seen so far in preview demos etc Ms is moving in the right direction (finally).

Haven't yet seen the preview out in the wild yet - but give it time. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I tend to go along with Jimbo as I think he is meaning it maybe time to stop and re-evaluate 8 and it's processes.
Plus as I said in another thread my brother who is relatively new to using computers installed 8 onto a Vista machine blissfully unaware of the debate and to my surprise was quite adept at using it like we are to 7.

So I along with my earlier post I am guessing M$ are trying to make 8 more usable I suppose in my brothers case he went in without any bias and just used it so perhaps it takes some lateral thinking.

So I was thinking of maybe trying the 8.1 out on the spare laptop when I get chance. in the meantime I am not suggesting that everyone rush out and ditch 7 and I for one never will but it is food for thought.

 

[Gary]

Yes Jimbo that is exactly what Microsoft should have done but they didn't. If they did offer at least a choice with the Windows 8 releases to use the metro or the standard start menu, I would have jumped on it for $39.00 . Now they are going to fix it and release it as Win 8.1, This had to cost MS a great deal of money and in the end consumers will pay plenty for their mistake.

 

[whs]

I tend to go along with Jimbo as I think he is meaning it maybe time to stop and re-evaluate 8 and it's processes.
Plus as I said in another thread my brother who is relatively new to using computers installed 8 onto a Vista machine blissfully unaware of the debate and to my surprise was quite adept at using it like we are to 7.

So I along with my earlier post I am guessing M$ are trying to make 8 more usable I suppose in my brothers case he went in without any bias and just used it so perhaps it takes some lateral thinking.

So I was thinking of maybe trying the 8.1 out on the spare laptop when I get chance. in the meantime I am not suggesting that everyone rush out and ditch 7 and I for one never will but it is food for thought.

You make a good point. Nevertheless, the touchscreen UI is kind of cumbersome for use on a non-touchscreen system.

I think more people would be willing to deal with that if there were incentives in Windows 8 to upgrade. However, up to now there is very little in new attractive functions that make an investment in Windows 8 worthwhile. The quoted performance improvement may be visible if you operate on a HDD, but on a SSD it is hardly noticeable. And for the rest there is really nothing to excite me.

I do have one of those $39.95 Win8 Pro licenses but I hardly ever run Win8 - maybe once per month to keep it up-to-date. The pre-releases I ran a lot more often (I guess out of curiosity) and even made a dozen Windows 8 tutorials in the early days. But my enthusiasm has vanished.

 

[alphanumeric]

What about Windows 8?

A good read on a bad product.

Hi there
From what I've seen the upcoming Windows 8.1 actually seems to be passably OK -- this is what they SHOULD have done in the beginning.

It seems that one of my biggest gripes has been fixed -- installing classical windows applications has now been cleaned up -- instead of creating a zillion and one tiles the install process puts the application into a single place which you can re-arrange quite decently.

Metro apps can also be used with multi monitors on ANY of the screens in conjunction with classical desktop apps and the windows (max 4 for metro) can be re-sized and aren't of fixed pixel size -- finally somebody at Ms must have sat behind a LARGE monitor with the original W8 and said "What a load of !!!!"

Boot to desktop directly will be popular, the start screen can be significantly customized if you want to use the start screen and the whole application search is improved (although I don't find too much wrong with the search in the current W8).

When it becomes available (either via leak or officially) I think quite a lot of the people who HATE W8 now might change their mind a little.

BTW there are SIGNIFICANT changes from the latest leaked build (build 9385) in the REAL preview version. Ms is keeping the preview away from the wild with security that makes Fort Knox seem like a Womens Institute sunday afternoon tea party.

Waiting to see -- but from what I've seen so far in preview demos etc Ms is moving in the right direction (finally).

Haven't yet seen the preview out in the wild yet - but give it time. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Can you open Metro on more than one monitor at a time? IE, more than one instance running at a time? If that is true that would be great?

 

[jimbo45]

What about Windows 8?

A good read on a bad product.

Hi there
From what I've seen the upcoming Windows 8.1 actually seems to be passably OK -- this is what they SHOULD have done in the beginning.

It seems that one of my biggest gripes has been fixed -- installing classical windows applications has now been cleaned up -- instead of creating a zillion and one tiles the install process puts the application into a single place which you can re-arrange quite decently.

Metro apps can also be used with multi monitors on ANY of the screens in conjunction with classical desktop apps and the windows (max 4 for metro) can be re-sized and aren't of fixed pixel size -- finally somebody at Ms must have sat behind a LARGE monitor with the original W8 and said "What a load of !!!!"

Boot to desktop directly will be popular, the start screen can be significantly customized if you want to use the start screen and the whole application search is improved (although I don't find too much wrong with the search in the current W8).

When it becomes available (either via leak or officially) I think quite a lot of the people who HATE W8 now might change their mind a little.

BTW there are SIGNIFICANT changes from the latest leaked build (build 9385) in the REAL preview version. Ms is keeping the preview away from the wild with security that makes Fort Knox seem like a Womens Institute sunday afternoon tea party.

Waiting to see -- but from what I've seen so far in preview demos etc Ms is moving in the right direction (finally).

Haven't yet seen the preview out in the wild yet - but give it time. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Can you open Metro on more than one monitor at a time? IE, more than one instance running at a time? If that is true that would be great?

Hi there
apparently you will be able to run 4 metro apps with re-sizeable screens on multiple monitors and switch them around -- and what is good is to have the DESKTOP application running concurrently as well.

Now I can't verify this as I haven't got the latest W8 version to hand (got the leaked 9385 build which has a few improvements) but all the "Noise" coming out of Redmond seems to indicate that what I've said above is true.

We'll see in around 2 - 3 weeks when the official preview is opened up --remember also that changes can still happen (and probably will) between the Preview and the final release later on this year.

I'm now finally beginning to get a little bit excited with W8 (about time -- but even big corporations eventually learn).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[mjf]

As a related side issue I wonder what senior MS executives get paid. I'm yet to see a positive comment on W8 or maybe I missed them.

 

[alphanumeric]

Hi there
From what I've seen the upcoming Windows 8.1 actually seems to be passably OK -- this is what they SHOULD have done in the beginning.

It seems that one of my biggest gripes has been fixed -- installing classical windows applications has now been cleaned up -- instead of creating a zillion and one tiles the install process puts the application into a single place which you can re-arrange quite decently.

Metro apps can also be used with multi monitors on ANY of the screens in conjunction with classical desktop apps and the windows (max 4 for metro) can be re-sized and aren't of fixed pixel size -- finally somebody at Ms must have sat behind a LARGE monitor with the original W8 and said "What a load of !!!!"

Boot to desktop directly will be popular, the start screen can be significantly customized if you want to use the start screen and the whole application search is improved (although I don't find too much wrong with the search in the current W8).

When it becomes available (either via leak or officially) I think quite a lot of the people who HATE W8 now might change their mind a little.

BTW there are SIGNIFICANT changes from the latest leaked build (build 9385) in the REAL preview version. Ms is keeping the preview away from the wild with security that makes Fort Knox seem like a Womens Institute sunday afternoon tea party.

Waiting to see -- but from what I've seen so far in preview demos etc Ms is moving in the right direction (finally).

Haven't yet seen the preview out in the wild yet - but give it time. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Can you open Metro on more than one monitor at a time? IE, more than one instance running at a time? If that is true that would be great?

Hi there
apparently you will be able to run 4 metro apps with re-sizeable screens on multiple monitors and switch them around -- and what is good is to have the DESKTOP application running concurrently as well.

Now I can't verify this as I haven't got the latest W8 version to hand (got the leaked 9385 build which has a few improvements) but all the "Noise" coming out of Redmond seems to indicate that what I've said above is true.

We'll see in around 2 - 3 weeks when the official preview is opened up --remember also that changes can still happen (and probably will) between the Preview and the final release later on this year.

I'm now finally beginning to get a little bit excited with W8 (about time -- but even big corporations eventually learn).

Cheers
jimbo

That sounds encouraging. The one screen only full screen only restriction with Metro was a big turn off for me. If that does pan out I may give 8 another go on my main desktop that has dual monitors. I've got a spare monitor that I can plug into my laptop for a look see anyway.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

meh, I understand that Start button sucked, but the Modern UI is worse. What about ripping off the best linux distros?
Heck even Unity of Ubuntu is better.

 

[mohavepc]

I have 8 on my Lenovo laptop and with the bloat M$ and Lenovo crammed into it 8 is slower loading and slower performance. I have been all over this with both Lenovo and M$, to no avail. I took a 500gb hard drive and loaded my last copy of 7 pro oem on it and it screams, no bloat cause there's no need. I don't need the Cutesy Frames in my webcam app. I7 8core and 8gb ram. 8 actually took 3 times longer to boot right out of the box. and yes I know it's prolly due to bloatware but come on. I have a Dell with Xp pro factory installed WITH bloatware and 2gb ram that boots and responds faster.

Then there's the God Awful touchpad with Mac like gestures that keep popping up the settings bar if you move slightly to slow to the left with two fingers. I was exclusively using a mouse with 8.

I think M$ will have to really try again before I go to 8.

 

[alphanumeric]

My ASUS laptop came with Windows and as you noted the bloatware slowed it down. I replaced the stock hard drive with an SSD and did a clean install of 8. Nice and fast now.
lol, I hear you about the touch pad gestures. I get the charms bar popping up when I don't want it. I blame that more on the ASUS Smart Gesture driver than I do on Windows 8. There are one or two of those gestures I'm going to disable.

 

[Juxxize]

you've got to love to M$ sheer determination you will use windows 8 without a start menu even if you hate it because we said so ....so there