Windows 8 hate?

[Tym]

I just picked up a new laptop, I only just discovered that every damn laptop has Windows 8 on it, even though I slated it earlier on, I shall have a play with it and report back later on. Luckily I do have a spare copy of Win7 lying around I can downgrade too.

First things first, quest for replacement Start button.

[Hypersphere]

I just picked up a new laptop, I only just discovered that every damn laptop has Windows 8 on it, even though I slated it earlier on, I shall have a play with it and report back later on. Luckily I do have a spare copy of Win7 lying around I can downgrade too.

First things first, quest for replacement Start button.

That's strange -- my Macbook Air didn't have Windows 8 on it.

[Tym]

Hahaha )

[daerid]

Windows 8 is everything wrong with Microsoft at the moment, ran by a visionless CEO who has no clue about how to take MS into the future other than failing to copy other company's, it's pathetic and has been an abject failure, Windows Phone 8, Surface and Windows 8.

For me Vista is a better operating system than Windows 8, it's easier to use and was designed around a good idea that then manifested it's self in a better more optimal OS called Windows 7. Windows 8 is some half arsed horrible crack to pair two interfaces that should never be paired together, and has kinda failed. Yeah Windows 8 has made money, but it's windows ofc it would make money.

It's a dumb OS that is harder to use than previous OS's and highlights just how clueless they are going forward.

"blah blah blah get off my lawn"

[Tym]

Now I have my Start button back, I don't mind it too much. Although seems the same as Win7 to me.

[daerid]

The Start Button in Windows 8.1 bugs the crap out of me. It makes it look like an app icon, so I always get my Win+(number) shortcuts mixed up.

[Tym]

How do you get to 8.1?

[IvanIvanovich]

Well... start screen more or less is a metro app is how I think about it. It's an app that is an app/program launcher.

You can get the 8.1 preview here.

[daerid]

How do you get to 8.1?

MSDN subscription

[kaotikb]

I have Windows 7 on my laptop and windows 8 on my desktop. I don't really have a problem running one or the other. On windows 8, i never use metro since there is no apps that interest me.
I also changed my default programs so i don't get kicked out of desktop when i am viewing an image file or checking my email.

If you really don't like windows 8 start screen you can install classic shell or buy start8. That will get back the start button and the ability to boot to desktop.

[minimal]

How do you get to 8.1?

Last I checked the full release of the 8.1 update was set mid-October.

As far as it goes, I have a StarDock sub so I've had a start button for a long time. The OS itself has a few under the hood improvements that won't do much for most people. The main one is that they finally updated the memory management in a few pretty important ways: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2011/10/how-windows-8s-memory-management-modifications-make-for-a-better-user-experience/

[oscillik]

How do you get to 8.1?

Last I checked the full release of the 8.1 update was set mid-October.

As far as it goes, I have a StarDock sub so I've had a start button for a long time. The OS itself has a few under the hood improvements that won't do much for most people. The main one is that they finally updated the memory management in a few pretty important ways: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2011/10/how-windows-8s-memory-management-modifications-make-for-a-better-user-experience/

Actually the tickless kernel will be beneficial to everyone, most importantly for laptop users.

[daerid]

Actually the tickless kernel will be beneficial to everyone, most importantly for laptop users.

I actually haven't heard about this. Got a link?

[oscillik]

Actually the tickless kernel will be beneficial to everyone, most importantly for laptop users.

I actually haven't heard about this. Got a link?

here you go section called Tick Tock

[Turkishrambo]

Windows 8 as an OS is okay.

Working in comp  repair i DO NOT ****ING KNOW WHAT THE **** THEY WERE  THINKING. Every windows 8 laptop or PC is a ****ing pain to repair. Doing repair installs just straight up dont work alot of the time. Itll just sit there doing nothing. for laptops and prebuilt oem machines the product key is built into the BIOS . wtf? What is wrong with just using product keys like 7? Alot of  win 8 laptops need modification to the bios to just get it to boot to disks.. again, why? Theres other things i've come across but forget at this moment.

I still stick to 7 and still recommend customers too stay aswell unless they want to use touchscreen features.

[oscillik]

Windows 8 as an OS is okay.

Working in comp  repair i DO NOT ****ING KNOW WHAT THE **** THEY WERE  THINKING. Every windows 8 laptop or PC is a ****ing pain to repair. Doing repair installs just straight up dont work alot of the time. Itll just sit there doing nothing. for laptops and prebuilt oem machines the product key is built into the BIOS . wtf? What is wrong with just using product keys like 7? Alot of  win 8 laptops need modification to the bios to just get it to boot to disks.. again, why? Theres other things i've come across but forget at this moment.

I still stick to 7 and still recommend customers too stay aswell unless they want to use touchscreen features.

LOL are you serious? You work in computer repair, but can't understand why Microsoft didn't want product keys printed for everyone to see on the bottom of the computer?

[inteli722]

Windows 8 as an OS is okay.

Working in comp  repair i DO NOT ****ING KNOW WHAT THE **** THEY WERE  THINKING. Every windows 8 laptop or PC is a ****ing pain to repair. Doing repair installs just straight up dont work alot of the time. Itll just sit there doing nothing. for laptops and prebuilt oem machines the product key is built into the BIOS . wtf? What is wrong with just using product keys like 7? Alot of  win 8 laptops need modification to the bios to just get it to boot to disks.. again, why? Theres other things i've come across but forget at this moment.

I still stick to 7 and still recommend customers too stay aswell unless they want to use touchscreen features.

Why do you bleep out your swears yourself instead of letting the website do it?


And seriously? Wow. Even more to put me off Windows 8.

[Elrick]

And seriously? Wow. Even more to put me off Windows 8.

Unfortunately Windows 8 has hurt Microsoft more than it helps it's bottom line.  Even BUSINESS still refuses to upgrade when Windows 7 works perfectly with all current hardware/software without needing to upgrade to 8.  Just the likes of us here seem to be interested in using 8 above the conservatives out there.

[hazeluff]

Windows 8 is a frankenstein of Tablets and PCs. How Win8 tries so hard to be a tablet when it's on a PC is just painful to use. Maybe the next Windows will do better.

[microsoft windows]

JUST ADD A "9" ONTO WINDOWS 8 AND YOU'VE GOT ONE OF THE BEST OPERATING SYSTEMS EVER!

[kaotikb]

I remember i had an oddball Toshiba laptop that would bluescreen on Windows 98 all the time... on Windows ME it would work flawlessly.

JUST ADD A "9" ONTO WINDOWS 8 AND YOU'VE GOT ONE OF THE BEST OPERATING SYSTEMS EVER!

Show Image

[Turkishrambo]

Windows 8 as an OS is okay.

Working in comp  repair i DO NOT ****ING KNOW WHAT THE **** THEY WERE  THINKING. Every windows 8 laptop or PC is a ****ing pain to repair. Doing repair installs just straight up dont work alot of the time. Itll just sit there doing nothing. for laptops and prebuilt oem machines the product key is built into the BIOS . wtf? What is wrong with just using product keys like 7? Alot of  win 8 laptops need modification to the bios to just get it to boot to disks.. again, why? Theres other things i've come across but forget at this moment.

I still stick to 7 and still recommend customers too stay aswell unless they want to use touchscreen features.

LOL are you serious? You work in computer repair, but can't understand why Microsoft didn't want product keys printed for everyone to see on the bottom of the computer?

Enlighten me, please. Why is the a better solution than product keys?

[oscillik]

Windows 8 as an OS is okay.

Working in comp  repair i DO NOT ****ING KNOW WHAT THE **** THEY WERE  THINKING. Every windows 8 laptop or PC is a ****ing pain to repair. Doing repair installs just straight up dont work alot of the time. Itll just sit there doing nothing. for laptops and prebuilt oem machines the product key is built into the BIOS . wtf? What is wrong with just using product keys like 7? Alot of  win 8 laptops need modification to the bios to just get it to boot to disks.. again, why? Theres other things i've come across but forget at this moment.

I still stick to 7 and still recommend customers too stay aswell unless they want to use touchscreen features.

LOL are you serious? You work in computer repair, but can't understand why Microsoft didn't want product keys printed for everyone to see on the bottom of the computer?

Enlighten me, please. Why is the a better solution than product keys?

I didn't say it was a better solution, I never even inferred that. I just pointed out that it's funny that as someone who works in computer repair, you cannot see the benefit for Microsoft to have the product keys embedded in the BIOS.

piracy

[vatin]

Jamming the tablet ui down the throat of desktop user is enough for me to hate it. Xubuntu all the way.

[IvanIvanovich]

Takes less than 5 minutes to get rid of all the tablet stuff with preference changes. Go to desktop at sign on, show apps view on start, change filetype program associations to desktop programs instead of metro apps...done.

[heissler]

Win8 fixes most of my itches I had with Win7, only improvements down the line for me. I upgraded day 1 and haven't regretted it yet.

[tp4tissue]

Win8 fixes most of my itches I had with Win7, only improvements down the line for me. I upgraded day 1 and haven't regretted it yet.

what problems did you have with 7

[heissler]

Win8 fixes most of my itches I had with Win7, only improvements down the line for me. I upgraded day 1 and haven't regretted it yet.

what problems did you have with 7

Slow indexing and overly aggressive UAC.

[rowdy]

Win8 fixes most of my itches I had with Win7, only improvements down the line for me. I upgraded day 1 and haven't regretted it yet.

what problems did you have with 7

Slow indexing and overly aggressive UAC.

Who doesn't turn UAC off?

[heissler]

Win8 fixes most of my itches I had with Win7, only improvements down the line for me. I upgraded day 1 and haven't regretted it yet.

what problems did you have with 7

Slow indexing and overly aggressive UAC.

Who doesn't turn UAC off?

People working with company hardware with restricted user privileges?

[Zeal]

I have 2 rigs, each with Windows 7 & 8 Pro. I really like the in-dept chart you get when transferring files and the task manager of Windows 8. And that hybrid sleep mode that allows it to boot in less than 10 secs on an SSD is always a plus.

Only thing I'm still trying to get used to is the lack of confirmation on deletes on Windows 8. I don't get the "Are you sure you want to move this file to the recycle bin" dialogue box anymore whenever I click on something and press the DEL key, but apparently my friends still do and they're on 8 too. 

And @microsoft windows,Windows ME best OS evar.

[kaotikb]

I don't like the windows 8 touch interface being on a desktop or laptop. It works fine on the surface tablet, but on a desktop or laptop I don't want finger prints all over the screen. Running game is not a problem on Windows 8.

[daerid]

I have 2 rigs, each with Windows 7 & 8 Pro. I really like the in-dept chart you get when transferring files and the task manager of Windows 8. And that hybrid sleep mode that allows it to boot in less than 10 secs on an SSD is always a plus.

Only thing I'm still trying to get used to is the lack of confirmation on deletes on Windows 8. I don't get the "Are you sure you want to move this file to the recycle bin" dialogue box anymore whenever I click on something and press the DEL key, but apparently my friends still do and they're on 8 too. 

And @microsoft windows,Windows ME best OS evar.

Right click the recycle bin and click Properties, then check "Display delete confirmation dialog"

[ynrozturk]

Been using it for around 8 months now and I really like it. First thing I did was get the Start button from Stardock, but ever since then it's been pretty perfect. No complaints with it. I don't even see the metro interface.

[ijprest]

what problems did you have with 7

Slow indexing and overly aggressive UAC.

Who doesn't turn UAC off?

Everybody using Win8, since they don't allow you to turn it off anymore (without making registry tweaks that break Metro apps). 

[Neal]

what problems did you have with 7

Slow indexing and overly aggressive UAC.

Who doesn't turn UAC off?

Everybody using Win8, since they don't allow you to turn it off anymore (without making registry tweaks that break Metro apps). 

Pretty sure I turned it off without making registry tweaks.
I have not had any uac pop ups and my Metro apps still works so yeah. :/

[Zeal]

I have 2 rigs, each with Windows 7 & 8 Pro. I really like the in-dept chart you get when transferring files and the task manager of Windows 8. And that hybrid sleep mode that allows it to boot in less than 10 secs on an SSD is always a plus.

Only thing I'm still trying to get used to is the lack of confirmation on deletes on Windows 8. I don't get the "Are you sure you want to move this file to the recycle bin" dialogue box anymore whenever I click on something and press the DEL key, but apparently my friends still do and they're on 8 too. 

And @microsoft windows,Windows ME best OS evar.

Right click the recycle bin and click Properties, then check "Display delete confirmation dialog"

That's actually checked and I still don't get the confirmation. I'm not sure why.

[TLSC.wipeOut]

Windows 8 is so meh... I wonder how 8.1 will fair

[ijprest]

Pretty sure I turned it off without making registry tweaks.
I have not had any uac pop ups and my Metro apps still works so yeah. :/

Heh... I've already gone over this in this thread, but it's still on, trust me.  Setting the slider all the way to the bottom doesn't turn UAC off... it just hides all the popups.  There's still stuff it prevents you from doing.  (My biggest annoyance is that it prevents drag/drop between applications with different priviledges.)

You can still turn off UAC via the registry... but doing so prevents all Metro apps from running.

[rowdy]

Been using it for around 8 months now and I really like it. First thing I did was get the Start button from Stardock, but ever since then it's been pretty perfect. No complaints with it. I don't even see the metro interface.

Heh that's the first thing a lot of people do - make a new version of Windows look and act like the previous version.

[Elrick]

Windows 8 is so meh... I wonder how 8.1 will fair

Exactly the same with no speed increase just changing the gui slightly, to help lure people away from Windows 7.  I'm afraid it will take a lot more than that for customers to drop their Win 7 for the so-called latest/greatest OS by Microsoft  ) .

[microsoft windows]

I think Windows 7 is becoming the new XP. They'll have to shoot people to make them quit using it.

[daerid]

Or just stop supporting it. Next year will be very interesting when support/security patches for XP stop rolling out.

[saturnotaku]

Next year will be very interesting when support/security patches for XP stop rolling out.

That day will not come soon enough as far as I'm concerned. As flawed as Windows 8 is/was, it's still better than running a 12-year-old operating system.

[IvanIvanovich]

XP seems about as outdated to me now as 98. I don't understand why people want to keep clutching onto that old OS. It's especially bad on modern hardware, it can't even remotely take advantage of it and is actually very detrimental. It's especially funny to me when people want to install XP on new PC with SSD sata 6GBPS, 8GB ram, multicore cpu... ) Hardware has come such a long way over the single core 1gHz cpu with 512MB ram and slow IDE disks and less XP was designed to run on.

I still keep hoping for MS to be brave and let go of all legacy support much as Apple did a decade ago and go x64 only across all OS. I would like to see them do something with their experimental singularity/midori OS core. They could make a 32bit legacy OS with long term support much like Windows Thin for the enterprise to use all their old in house and specialty applications they are too cheap to update. I just don't see the need to keep in support for things like floppy drives, parallel printers and the ability to run programs designed for Windows 3.1 in current OS. If it wasn't for having to keep all that crap in for enterprise customers I am sure it would all be gone some time ago. I also wish they would stop adding more programs as part of base Windows. They should keep it lean and let people add the MS programs if they wish from the app store instead of having to remove them to use better alternatives.

[abdulmuhsee]

XP seems about as outdated to me now as 98. I don't understand why people want to keep clutching onto that old OS. It's especially bad on modern hardware, it can't even remotely take advantage of it and is actually very detrimental.

People cling to it because it has the best Windows user interface there is, IMO.  I wouldn't mind upgrading to the latest Windows if it had an "XP Mode" or "Classic Mode" where the GUI would replicate good ol' Windows 95-XP.  You can get some stuff for later versions to change some aspects back to oldschool, but not everything.  The attitude of "get with the times already" is not necessarily going to win over any converts.  Many people also have no need to take advantage of powerful hardware if they are not graphic designers, computer programmers, hardcore gamers, etc.

I still keep hoping for MS to be brave and let go of all legacy support much as Apple did a decade ago and go x64 only across all OS. I would like to see them do something with their experimental singularity/midori OS core. They could make a 32bit legacy OS with long term support much like Windows Thin for the enterprise to use all their old in house and specialty applications they are too cheap to update. I just don't see the need to keep in support for things like floppy drives, parallel printers and the ability to run programs designed for Windows 3.1 in current OS.

What's wrong with wanting to run a floppy, zip, or parallel printer?  Why not just have a user option that allows you to check or uncheck a box regarding legacy drivers?  Perhaps I want to run an old application designed for Windows 3.1 or explore some old floppies some day.  You can take advantage of modern hardware and also keep the already-existing support/drivers/etc. for legacy devices without issue.  If you don't have a legacy device, then don't worry about it.

[microsoft windows]

I repair and work with a lot of legacy computer equipment, and having support for old-fashioned hardware is very important for me. Even on my Windows 8 box, I can make software disks for Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS machines with no trouble at all. (Except for hassling with that stupid new GUI) Zip-disks also are an immense convenience when working with old computer equipment.

[Elrick]

I still keep hoping for MS to be brave and let go of all legacy support much as Apple did a decade ago and go x64 only across all OS.

Apple is different because it was Steve Jobs's Baby.  A horrible little infant completely devoid of consciousness or practicality.  Hence what ever Steve wanted, it was put into motion because the Apple Fans would tolerate anything their KING announces.  Now the King is dead long live Apple, but the need to upgrade their hardware is still promoting their chosen platform as something great and needs to upgrade consistently.  Instead of refining their bloated OSX they keep releasing updates which you pay for.

The difference here with Apple verses Windows is that there are FAR greater numbers of Windows out there than Apple.  Apple has carved a mislabeled niche for themselves that ONLY Creatives and Publishing houses use their product but unfortunately for them - in some printing firms here in Perth, they've gone with Windows 7 and 8 to do their roles.

So even now Windows is carving a niche for itself within the heartland of so-called Apple ONLY Territory.

Not bad when Windows is suitably placed to deliver all to anyone wanting a customized system to run their businesses.  Hence I suspect Windows has always stepped cautiously when it came to updating it's OS's because instead of FORCING everyone to go with their latest version people will hold onto their older versions with greater zeal.  Why not, because it still works and gets the job done with little fanfare.

I'm glad they are treading lightly rather than stumbling about like Apple, fooling the idiot fans that their doing something "radical' when in fact their just releasing the same old stuff with different packaging.  You don't need to provide the details for a Mac User just put a 'Steve Jobs' face on the box and it's gone off the shelves  .

[rowdy]

Instead of refining their bloated OSX they keep releasing updates which you pay for.

Actually on this point minor updates are free, and analagous to Microsoft service packs.

Major updates (e.g. going from 10.7 to 10. are a paid update, around $30.

Compared to Microsoft going from Vista to 7 for $300?

[tbc]

i'm assuming that's australian pricing?

it's never correct to use australian pricing to analyze a NA market (i honestly don't understand why software - no shipping - would be so much more expensive).

windows 7 was ~$150 for retail new price.  8 was ~$100.  upgrade prices were drastically cheaper.