<p>Given all the negative things I heard about Windows 8, I must admit that I was a bit “scared” to be buying a windows 8 laptop. Now after using one for practically 5 days I’m not seeing “What’s wrong”. Sure the start on the desktop is missing but I practically forgot about that when using the home screen. Some said that touchscreen wouldn’t help much. I say if you been on a smartphone/tablet for at least a year you would be doing things faster if you “touch” (although regular typing is still faster for most people). </p>
<p>And basically I had no problem working out all the gigs without looking at the instruction or basic function book or whatever it was called.</p>
<p>Windows 8 was designed by monkeys. It is absolutely the worst user interface I have seen. No wonder PC sales are dropping so much. </p>
<p>Try using your browser and moving drag your cursor quickly from the right upper corner to the left. These stupid charms pop up. It is extremely annoying. If you try moving your cursor quickly from the upper left corner of the screen to the middle, it throws you out of your browser. </p>
<p>BCEagle told me about classic shell which you can download and restore the start button. It isn’t perfect but it is much better than a PC that pretends its a tables or windows phone.</p>
<p>Yes, exactly. I end up swearing at it every time I am on. It was designed as a touchscreen and most PC’s and laptops are not touchscreens. Although, even if I HAD one, I would still hate it. Getting kicked out of your browser is just maddening. The start button is only one of many irritating issues. Many more steps to do what used to be simple, not to mention compatibility issues with older programs.</p>
<p>My take is it’s ok but the marketing and some of the execution is misconceived. As noted above, there is too much emphasis on touch. The ads are embarrassing: few people want to touch their laptop or desktop screen. The proper interface is the touchpad, not the screen, except for special purpose computers like POS - and those are essentially tablets that look like PC screens. It’s awkward to touch your regular PC screen and hard to clean versus the natural motions of using a tablet and the way those screens handle dirt and grease (and are easier to wipe clean). Look at your tablet and think about how you use it despite not cleaning it off and then think about how dirty your laptop looks.</p>
<p>The “Metro” interface has some great points but it lacks the kind of basic thought needed. For example, it’s nice to have live tiles but there is no system enforced method for even telling which tile is which or how they display so it tends to feel like roadside neon signs competing for eye contact. </p>
<p>They make odd choices generally. Take the Surface. It has a keyboard, if you buy it, but it only attaches in landscape and user surveys show people tend to use keyboards in portrait and use the tablet without a keyboard more in landscape. And many add-on keyboards can be used in any orientation so the only differentiator is that it connects with a couple fewer steps - as in on my iPad I hit settings/bluetooth. Not much of a motion saving. That kind of advertising focus makes me think of the Miller Lite bottle ads: if you are spending so much money on a bottle that looks different but has no actual advantage other than looking different than before, you are really admitting you have nothing much to say about your product.</p>
<p>My major beef with Windows 8 was the lack of ability to resize apps…for example if I am Skyping with D, I can’t resize the Skype window so that I can check on an email, or look at a website, etc. Annoying.</p>
<p>S told me that in the Windows 8.1 beta (which he installed on his laptop) some of my gripes are addressed so I (I know, I know, big mistake) let him install the 8.1 beta on my machine. Now I keep getting driver<em>power</em>source_failure errors on my computer and have to shut it down multiple times each day when it freezes. </p>
<p>Ohhhh, to go back to Windows 8…but I cant figure out how to do it (I don’t have the disk with 8, it was pre-installed on this machine)</p>
<p>“Try using your browser and moving drag your cursor quickly from the right upper corner to the left. These stupid charms pop up. It is extremely annoying. If you try moving your cursor quickly from the upper left corner of the screen to the middle, it throws you out of your browser.”
…I tried everything I could think of. Aside from the Right side stuff nothing is really annoying…</p>
<p>“Getting kicked out of your browser is just maddening. The start button is only one of many irritating issues.” HOW are you getting kicked out your browser? Are you using IE? Chrome? What is wrong with the start button?</p>
<p>“It’s awkward to touch your regular PC screen and hard to clean versus the natural motions of using a tablet and the way those screens handle dirt and grease (and are easier to wipe clean). Look at your tablet and think about how you use it despite not cleaning it off and then think about how dirty your laptop looks.”
Haha I notice that a little bit. It look exactly like my kindle except the thing with touchscreen is that you won’t be seeing prints when the screen is on. laptop screen can be cleaned right?</p>
<p>My daughter hates the way Windows 8 “looks”. She hasn’t really used it, except on laptops in the store. She refuses to buy a laptop that has it. I’m thinking that the only way around it is to buy a Mac. If I ever buy another laptop, and that’s a big if, I think I’m going to seriously look to Apple for my purchase. But that’s a long way off.</p>
<p>You can still buy laptops with Windows 7. That would be good until you need the next computer, and by then, who knows what the operating systems will look like.</p>
<p>Another option is to install a Linux based OS the computer you just purchased. DS uses Ubuntu and will never go back. Most of the applications like word processing and spreadsheet can be gotten free for Ubuntu and they can create output that can be read my Microsoft applications.</p>
<p>Descuff, there IS no start button. THAT is the problem! You have to go to the right of the screen, bring up “Settings”, then click on the “Power” button, THEN on “Shutoff”. Why in the world should it take THREE steps to power off? </p>
<p>Just last night I was on a page, moved my cursor somehow and I got thrown out of my browser and some random tile opened-I think it was the financial one. Yes, it’s easy to go back, but WHY is this even a feature?</p>
<p>Chowdy-my S uses Linux-I’ll have to look into this.</p>
<p>My poor dad (age 86) listened to Walter Mossberg from the WSJ and waited for Windows 8 to come out before upgrading his computer. The dramatic change in the user interface has been just awful for him. I spent several days (shot the whole long Thankgiving weekend last year) helping him load software and develop lists of steps for him to do all the stuff he used to on his old XP computer. I was on it last weekend while visiting, and ended up cursing the $%#^ OS – you get into applications or windows and can’t get out – no X in the corner, no bar on the bottom. Ugh. Disaster for Microsoft – I will probably buy a Mac next time I get a new laptop myself.</p>
<p>That’s a seriously unfair insult to monkeys. Especially considering IMO…they could have designed a much better interface if given the chance. </p>
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<p>No need to wait for 8.1. It will come as a free win 8 update…albeit a large one.</p>
<p>I would wait, however, for the Haskell chipset to become more commonplace so you’ll get more for your computing dollars.</p>
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<p>Mint Linux is another userfriendly linux distribution and one I plan to load on a client’s old PC as she insists on not replacing it once Microsoft stops supporting XP with further security/any updates on their announced date of April 8, 2014.</p>
<p>Interface is very similar to Windows XP/7.</p>
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<p>This is one key reason to never load beta operating systems/software on a computer needed for mission-critical uses(I.e. Main personal computer).</p>
<p>I downloaded the 8.1 beta but am planning to load it onto a spare tower so if it flakes at some point…I’m not going to be terribly worried.</p>
<p>Having recently used (and hated) a Macbook Pro for a few months I will just keep my Windows7. I know the Mac’s are good for ‘artsy’ applications, but I’m a software developer and it drove me crazy.</p>
<p>It is a very fast and powerful OS once you learn all of the touch and keyboard shortcuts. The problem is that, for most people, it needs to come with about a week of training. Once you get used to the interface, you would not want to return to Windows 7. </p>
<p>My next computer will probably be a 2nd generation Microsoft Surface, Windows 8.1, coming soon. (I do not work for Microsoft)</p>
<p>To be honest, after I used windows 8 for a couple hours, I didn’t notice the difference between it and windows 7. It just takes a little bit to learn all of the shortcuts and where everything is, but once I did that, it was easy enough.</p>
<p>I’ve never had the problems that other people are talking about (getting thrown out of windows), so I don’t know what in particular the problem is. I never really used the start button to begin with, so it’s absence doesn’t bother me. I also only shut down my laptop every once in a while (I usually just shut it to put it to sleep), so it doesn’t matter to me that I have to go to a different location to do it.</p>
<p>I’m always in desktop mode, though, because I have no use really for the new metro interface. I would have loved to get a touchscreen, but I was too cheap and preferred to spend my money on more ram. I use my tablet+keyboard like a netbook all the time, and I’m so used to using touch to navigate that sometimes I do it on my laptop out of habit. In my experience, most people say that windows 8 is only worth it with a touch laptop, since it’s meant to make it look like a phone/tablet, but I suppose other’s have heard differently?</p>
<p>I think the biggest problem with it is just that it’s a big change, and people don’t like change, especially when many of the changes don’t seem particularly necessary. It makes no difference to me, really, just a couple hours to get accustomed to the shortcuts. I know that my parents, though, would hate it because it takes them forever to figure out new operating systems (one of the reasons they would never switch to a Mac; it would take years to teach my mom to use it, and my dad wouldn’t be able to help her). I still prefer windows 8 to the Mac OS (and I’m accustomed to using both), but it’s really all just personal preference, I suppose.</p>
<p>“Descuff, there IS no start button. THAT is the problem! You have to go to the right of the screen, bring up “Settings”, then click on the “Power” button, THEN on “Shutoff”. Why in the world should it take THREE steps to power off?”</p>
<p>So if there is no start button… Why is there 4 squares indicating a start button…?</p>
<p>And I don’t know about you but I can just hold the power button to turn my PC off.
And for previous windows (at least the one I used): Start, Turn off.(W7) Start, Turn off, turn off again (WXP).
Yea I fail to see how THREE steps can delay SECONDS of your time.</p>
<p>So batrax are you suggesting that there is an age barrier surrounding the “issues”?</p>
<p>holding the power button to turn your PC off is bad, you could be corrupting things and breaking your computer. Do a proper shut down and save yourself a headache later.</p>
<p>I won’t be buying windows 8. If they keep with this interface, they lost a customer. I currently have two computers running windows xp, 2 computers running windows 7 and an android tablet and an android phone. Mac’s are too expensive. If they can’t make something that is user friendly my next computer will more then likely be chrome based.</p>
<p>I love bright colors but that start screen drives me crazy. I consider myself to be a very savy user. I work in IT. I have a degree in this stuff. It’s just ridiculous. I clean my tablet and phone every day because the smudges drive me nuts and it drives me crazy when people touch my screen. It also isn’t compatible with older programs and I run quite a lot of them.</p>
<p>It’s not a matter of it delaying seconds of your time. It’s a matter of principle - you shouldn’t have to do three clicks to do something so simple. I am just curious to know if the people that did their usability studies are still employed there.</p>
<p>There may be a slight age barrier in that generally speaking it takes elderly people a longer time to learn new technologies then it takes younger people… but almost all of the younger people that I know are refusing to use windows 8. My grandmother has it and hates it. My sister and mother needed new laptops and one went mac and the other went windows 7 bought online after using hers.</p>
<p>Not necessarily. I just think it’s a personal preference thing. Some people adapt to it really quickly and don’t care, some people don’t want to change for something that they don’t consider superior to what they have, and others just don’t like the new interface. For some people, little things bother them more than others. For others, there are big, deal-breaking issues with windows 8 (like compatibility issues). There’s no right or wrong answer here, really. But in general, people who are dissatisfied with a system are often more vocal than people who are fine with it.</p>
<p>I think windows 8 is just as usable as windows 7 was, and I don’t think my speed of doing anything has slowed down. It’s just different. Do those differences make it better than windows 7? Not that I can tell, but I don’t really know anything about why they made these particular changes. And I think that’s the big problem that people have with it. Change is great if the end product is obviously superior to the new one, but if it’s just change for change’s sake, then it’s understandable why many would oppose it.</p>