Windows 8 thoughts and suggestions

General Discussions
#1

So I just got my new PC last week with the whole shiny new Windows 8 thing, and it’s been a bit of a bumpy ride, but maybe if others who have it also had suggestions on annoyance/bugfixes, it would be a bit smoother.

The whole “start screen”. I actually don’t mind Win8’s split personality all at that much – it’s not substantially different than KDE workspaces – but I should also mention that I also have a touchscreen monitor now (this thing) which is convenient to have with that screen. The main annoyance with the screen itself is that it’s missing a clock (other than the one that comes up with the charms bar), but there’s a tile called The Time you can get from the store that fixes that.

A lot of the metro apps are really just eye-poppingly gorgeous. The weather and news apps just to name two. Among other pretty metro apps, IE10 Metro is also quite slick … shame that if you ever set a different default browser, it goes away permanently until you set IE as your default browser again. As in, trying to launch the IE tile will insist on opening links in the windowed IE10 instead, which is basically a different browser that’s just meh. Oh well, I don’t care to browse full-screen most of the time anyway, and I certainly don’t want IE as a default.

Searching by mashing the win key and typing still “works” but the interface is now kind of cumbersome, shows less results than win7 did, and even fails to index some filenames for whatever reason (it couldn’t find my vmware .vmx file, but it did find the .vmxf file right next to it instead)

Lockups and bluescreens – this one comes with a handy suggestion: I’ve gotten four BSOD’s in a week, which is about as many as I’ve had running Win7 ever. There were a reports of Win8 freezing on bootup on Sandy Bridge systems, and it turns out the likely culprit is a power saving feature they ported from linux called “dynamic ticks”. Well, the implementation is buggy as hell, so time to disable it. With an elevated cmd prompt (I keep one of those on the desktop now), do this:

bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes
#2

I did a fresh install of Windows 8 on my computer and so far I like it. I don’t mind metro, although I rarely even use it, and everything else is much better.

My new favorite toys are the Task Manager and File Explorer (the new Windows Explorer). The Task Manager got a huge face lift and displays much more info than it ever did before. File Explorer now has a ribbon UI, got the ‘Up’ button back from Windows XP, and there is also finally a button to open a command prompt in normal or elevated mode from the current folder.

What mostly pushed me to Windows 8 was the multi-monitor support. Having a taskbar on all my monitors is something I’ve always wanted natively and free…

No BSOD’s or lockups or anything weird so far. Everything has been smooth.

#3

Oh God Why? :cranky: ??? :-\ >:(

#4

Hey I actually like the ribbon UI! :frowning:

Either way, it’s hidden by default.

#5

I have been on windows 8 since release.

Although I tried out the metro stuff for a while, I tend to avoid it now. Just not a big fan of most of the apps. Mostly because of their limited functionality/customization. Also with dual monitor and a larger monitors, I rarely want anything ‘full screen’

I would highly highly recommend the classic start shell plugin
http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/

I am not sure if it was default or not, but you can still access metro, the exact same way. You lose zero of windows 8’s functionality, but you gain so much more. Also, it hasn’t ever crashed once and I am pretty hectic on my computer with the amount of stuff I have going on.

#6

No thanks, I’ll stick with win7!

#7

Me too. I will wait for Windows 9, I hope they will switch back to normal interface. If not… Linux, I welcome you!

#8

Will stick with Win7. Windows 8 is a total failure here. Metro just doesn’t work.

#9

I would rather shove a pineapple into my ass D:

#10

lol
Anyways just bought a new laptop with win 8, so I don’t really have a choice…

#11

I never by them with windows pre-installed, you have to pay for it anyway, there are still plenty with no OS or Linux

#12

Save money and just buy the parts. The only hard thing (the part that requires the manual) is connecting the power/reset buttons to the motherboard. Why isn’t there a standardized socket/plug. It’s 2012 people.

On topic:
I’m going to delay using Windows 8 for at least a year, until the most annoying bugs are out, and getting a rough impression on how people value it. From what I saw on youtube, the first thing I’d do is install Start8, and then discover the OS.

I really wonder what Microsoft was thinking… they said the idea behind the start-button was that they observed that people didn’t have a clue what to do, when the desktop appeared on their screen. They’d literally just sit there for a while. So they added a button named ‘start’ and the rest is history.

Suddenly Microsoft decides to measure usage of the taskbar, and determines that the start button is barely used. It might have something to do with the fact that everybody used the start-button to configure their taskbar in an optimal way. That doesn’t mean the start-button has no purpose. Just like it’s a bad idea to strip out airbags out of your car, because they are rarely used.

#13

Yeah well we was talking about a laptop, never bought a finished pc actually - build every one, I guess I was raised that way ;D

Yeah one of the main points, I agree completely.
Try getting from desktop back to metro is popular problem to make video about, I’ve seen old and young people struggle to frustration on youtube.
Taking away the Start button completely, which has been burned into everyones mind since windows 95 or maybe earlier, does NOTHING to improve the experience, the is ZERO gain.
Its just frustrating, like taking away your hands.

#14

Definitely my thoughts about Windows 8 exactly. I don’t really get what Microsoft is doing here. On one hand they have a really big “forced” community that they are trying to maintain. On the other hand, they want to try and short circuit the other big name companies by creating a interface that limits their influence. The result, Windows 8. An OS that seems to be torn on what it really wants out of itself.

I still think XP > 7. Coming from this, I find it really difficult to swallow Windows 8 and feel somewhat alienated by it. Having a nice tablet interface in Metro is cool, but having a normal monitor where you can’t touch the screen seems dull. Having the old desktop and new task manager features seems great, but having to reteach the computer illiterate how to use an OS again is horrific.

I want to be able to take advantage of all the features an OS has to offer. It is only right if I’m paying money for all of those features. :yawn:

#15

If you really believe that then you have worse problems than Windows 8 :slight_smile:

#16

I love it. It boots a lot faster, runs smoother and is a lot more stable than Windows 7. After a while the metro will not really bother you anymore and since a lot of those computer manufacturers ship their custom start menu with Windows 8 it isn’t a problem at all. The only thing that annoys me about Windows 8 is the fact that you are not able to change the window title bar color. It is almost impossible to read dark grey text on a black background.

#17

I think many people easily loose their objectivity and are blinded my pretty colors.

Well I dont have to repeat Valve and even Notch’s opinion on Windows 8, but what I really liked was Carmacks remarks, because he is a microsoft supporter, and even he said “I don’t see anyone in the company switching to win 8 for any reason” - paraphrasing from the quakecon2012 keynote

#18

Nay, I’ll stick with Win 7. What I like is only the color scheme when you hit the traditional look but hey i can download that theme for win7.

In truth if I see less ppl posting probs about Java on linux I’ll jump to linux. All of my installed applications now has linux port.

#19

LSHIFOMDJKIDHADBIIDINIW!!! (If anyone asks I’ll tell you what it stands for ;))

XP is ugly. Even if I switch to the silver theme, it still burns my eyes.
Windows 7, yes, it could be better, but it’s the job of Linux developers to do things better than Microsoft and Apple. ;D

Windows 8 is OK. There is nothing wrong with it. I’ve heard it’s faster than Win7. What’s wrong is what comes in Windows 9 if Microsoft keeps going in that direction.
I am unsure of which is more restrictive right now: Microsoft or Apple.

#20

What does it stand for?
(I also think Windows XP is ugly ;D)