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Windows 8 is nice
SnowStorm86
Posts: 17,273
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I got a new computer and decided to put Windows 8 on it. After spending an hour customizing the start screen and mucking around with it, I've got it exactly as I want and I have to say I'm really happy with it. Only thing that is missing for me is a Start Button and some easier to access shutdown/restart options, but I believe that is coming in 8.1. The whole experience seems a lot smoother, faster and sleeker than Windows 7.
With all the horror stories you hear on the web about Windows 8 I thought I'd post this to demonstrate that it's not so bad if you give it a chance and approach it with an open mind.
Glad I gave it a go.:)
With all the horror stories you hear on the web about Windows 8 I thought I'd post this to demonstrate that it's not so bad if you give it a chance and approach it with an open mind.
Glad I gave it a go.:)
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So perhaps you can tell me?, HOW do you access your programmes without a Start Button? - once I'd downloaded and installed the free one I'm fairly happy with Win8 (upgraded from Vista).
Although I'd have been even happier upgrading to Win7
I don't like it, but at least I know how it works!
Download Start Menu from IObit its free and puts a nice little start icon in the bottom left hand corner
No joke, and googling didn't provide any help - other than installing a start button - which I did.
But I'll try the mouse in the bottom left corner, although I've certainly never noticed anything appear in the time I've been using it.
By telepathy was it?
You access your programs by having an icon installed on the desktop. Or by going to the start menu (for the pre-installed ones), which can be got to by hitting the Windows button.....the easier way.
The 1st time I tried Windows 8 I hit the video tile, expecting to see a media player - instead it took me to a shop to buy movies. Ditto the 'apps'.
After buying a Windows 8 computer, most people spend the next couple of days trying to make it work like 7 ie correctly.
I've used it in XP and 7. Not as necessary in 7 as XP but still more efficient in certain scenarios.
Start menu installed, 10 mins if that, simple quick and it now works like windows 7
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When I upgraded to Win8 almost all my programs disappeared from the desktop, and with no start button I was unable to access them.
Installing Classic Shell cured the problem
Maybe you would benefit for one of those courses for pensioners at the local community centre.....:rolleyes:
Not sure I'm believing you are that limited Nigel.....:D
This is the problem, while for a lot of people they know that it is possible to find the EXe file and make a short cut, either to desktop or task bar, a hell of a lot of of other people would have no idea how to.
Also, some people don't like having their desktop covered with icons, myself included.
You don't like adding icons to your desktop? I thought that's what the desktop was for.
If it makes it so hard to do things that are basic computer functions, then there's something BADLY wrong with it
So the windows key on your keyboard had also magically disappeared? Or in your mastery of computer use you had never noticed its existence?
If you had moved your mouse to the bottom-left corner like you would have done if there was a start button then the start pop-up would have appeared.
In any case the start button is returning in 8.1 which has now RTM'd.
All my Apps are organized into categories on the start screen and my main desktop apps are pinned to the desktop taskbar
Cursor to bottom left for start menu or useful functions (right or left click)
Switch between desktop/metro apps, cursor to top left
shutdown/restart cursor to bottom right and select settings
against popular opinion I am not looking forward to this new start button they are adding in 8.1, just seems to replicate what moving the cursor to the bottom left does now
old style start button gone, not missed by me at all
It's a problem that's getting worse with every OS update - that's across the board, OSX, Linux and Windows. There is no user's manual, they no longer ship any kind of walk-through tutorial (I remember Win3.1 had one). Same for swiping out the bars from the left and right of the screen. How are you supposed to discover that? First time I used Win8 I was baffled, and I've been using computers for more than 30 years since I was a kid. Yes, you can learn to navigate in a few hours. But really, we should be at the point where you can navigate straight away.
I've no idea what half of the keyboard shortcuts are beyond copy/paste - because the OSes don't tell them to you and I mostly use the mouse, but now in Win8 you're supposed to use them as the main navigation. Each feature of an OS is taken to be assumed knowledge for the next version. And by going down the road of removing even the visual cues, you being to lose usability and replace it with arcane knowledge.
I use OSX mostly, and for a long time I had no idea that option and control when dragging files would switch between Move and Copy. I still don't know which one is which and try them both.
iOS (much as I dislike it) has this right, though even it's recent updates forget to tell you things. How would you know a double-click on the home button brings up running apps? On iOS7 how do you know that a two-finger swipe down opens up a hidden menu?
And then people start moaning that "My mum doesn't even know when to single or double click". Of course she doesn't. No-one ever taught her.
When you switch on an Android phone, the first time you do something it tells you what and how to do it. PCs should do the same.
I agree with a lot of that. But... it's not just about the 'average user' not being told how to do something. It's also about them not being bothered enough to make the slightest effort to learn how to do something. This is where MS went so badly wrong - they actually expected all these 'average users' to spend time learning and getting to grips with a new OS. But those users don't want to spend hours waving the cursor around various corners of the screen to try and figure out how to do basic things. They also don't want to read manuals or watch tutorials. They just want familiarity. Ignoring such a huge segment of their user base was always going to be disastrous for MS.
Well if the user bothered to look, Windows 8 goes through a tutorial before the first login. Honestly it's not rocket science, I think the backlash is more about people being resistant to change. The OS can't move forward without changes.
Microsoft can't really be blamed because they do tell the user how to navigate the OS on first boot. It's up to the user whether they bother to take notice of that.
hmm i found loads
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=win8.1+walk+through&oq=win8.1+walk+through&gs_l=youtube.3...2711.8573.0.8970.19.19.0.0.0.0.113.1239.18j1.19.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.EsLklnOz8Pg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMUhMAmsrYg
osx, just ask in the shop.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi8NpwiEuzc
Ask or Google, you cant expect to be held by the hand to learn something new.
Yes it's so good Ballmer is on his way out following months of criticism of W8 by all the large OEM's pundits and consumers alike. W8.1 isn't going to restore the start button as most consumers want it. I think it will be a case of 8.2 quickly following 8.1 - watch this space. :rolleyes:
Many of us did exactly that and indeed, tried the new setup for some time before making a decision. I'm perfectly capable of understanding new front ends and so are most people who don't like it - but on a large screen(s) desktop/mouse system with very many installed programs and services, the Metro front-end is crap [technical term to encompass the many detailed reasons posted about it over the last year or so].
Thank goodness for Classic Shell, it makes W8 nice to use and has allowed me to benefit from the under-the-bonnet improvements. And I still think MS will eventually see the error of their ways and bring back Start Menus as a built-in option - as someone else said above, roll on 8.2