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Mind. Blown.
Presumably by the utter uselessness of that "feature"?
People are weird.
Presumably by the utter uselessness of that "feature"?
Don't get me wrong, I'll never use it again but for now I'm flicking aimlessly between SQL Server, Chrome and Spotify in a whole new and exciting way.
hardware business is up in arms as they can't shift any pooters with W8 installed. According to our IT bod.
Yup Dell are still selling new machines with Win 7 installed. I use Win 7 at home and work but have used 8.1 and it's absolutely fine besides [url= http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/new-product/windows/3496959/windows-10-uk-release-date-price-features-beta-technical-preview-launch-event-update-upgrade-spartan-screenshots-insider-tcs/ ]Win10 is going to be a free upgrade for everyone running win7 onwards.[/url]
[i]People are weird.[/i]
If we weren't this forum would be so dull 🙂
Windows 8.1 I can handle (even though upgrading from 8 takes an inodrinatelly long time)
However I can't stand office 2010 - I need a classic shell for it...
that ribbon was stupid when it first came out, and it still is
that ribbon was [s]stupid when it first came out, and it still is[/s] [b]needs getting used to, but when you have it is ace, especially in office 2013[/b]
FTFY
nope. still stupid. still has useful things in illogical places.
except the bit where you can totally hide it and add a few favourite buttons to a tool bar (just like you've been able to do since win3.1).
Windows 8 then 8.1 on this machine. It took about a week to get used to it and since then it's been a pleasure to use. Nothing have ever gone wrong. No crashes, no blue screens. it just starts up fast and runs till I send it to sleep or turn it off. Updates have worked fine, it's compatible with every programme I used and every device I've got (including ones that were for Vista and wouldn't run under XP). I'll no doubt go for the free upgrade to 10 if that happens but will miss the phone feel of 8.
Edit: only problem was that I never did manage to get the machine to boot off an old hard driven despite telling it to do so in the bios.
It's not as terrible as people make out, but I do find it slightly infuriating working with it.
Hitting the windows key and then typing the name of the application to launch is quite good. But it's full of annoying little quirks, such as if you are typing the name of an application it behaves slightly differently than if you are trying to find a directory. And say I want to run notepad but I already have one open, it'll open the one that's open, so I then have to use the mouse to open it from the start. If I wanted to go to the one already open I'd have tabbed to it.
And tabbing between windows is not always consistent, so that it doesn't always return you to your last application.
It is impressively stable though and I've only seen it crash the once.
seosamh77 - Member
The start menu is a terrible UI. Just because it's been about fro 20 years does not make it good!
Why?
How would you improve on it? Apple haven't managed it*, so I'd be impressed if you could!
* See Launchpad (which is slow and inconsistent with the rest of the OS and nobody uses, and the Dock which wastes screenspace and has no means of accessing items not dragged into it). Oh but you can search with Spotlight - yes, but you can from the Start menu as well, so no advantage there, and it's less discoverable as the icon is out of the way next to the clock.
and it's less discoverable as the icon is out of the way next to the clock.
cmd-spacebar
Well,
Inspired by this thread, I've just been playing with the tech preview of W10.
First impressions: it's ace. W10 is to W8 as W7 is to Vista; it's the all the good bits of the core OS with all the really bloody annoying bits fixed. Some really lovely little "you've thought about this" touches. I haz teh hopefuls.
Windows releases are ostensibly following the same development model as Star Trek movies.
I was resistant at first based on the media view on it which makes 8 sound like it's awful, but frankly 8.1 is actually fine and has many under the hood improvements. In the main most people think it's awful purely because of the lack of start menu and the metro/modern apps.
Well the old Start menu is no loss. Just stick shortcuts on the desktop and common items pinned to the task bar, and trust me it's no different in normal use to 7 or XP really. If you really can't cope without the menu, there are third party apps to add it back in. Anyway, if you're a Luddite that prefers the old start menu, Windows 10 returns it (and to be honest it does look quite nice).
You can ignore all the Metro/Modern apps if you like. However they start to make a lot of sense if you use 8.1 on a tablet. On the desktop, just don't use them.
Windows 8 got a lot of bad press basically because it used to boot desktop PCs into the Start screen and people would get confused. They'd think they have to use the apps, and even fail to notice the big tile marked Desktop that gets them back into their comfort zone. 8.1 however detects a desktop install and dumps you into the desktop on boot.
Big improvements - Much faster boot up (and with the right hardware it's literally just a few seconds). Proper touch support. HD display scaling on small screens. UEFI support. USB 3 support. Better power management. Connected Standby (instant on from sleep, apps update while in sleep but very low power, almost no battery consumption). Various performance improvements, and better recovery from crashes.
Oh and OneDrive integration with Smart Files. So to save space on small SD/SSD memory devices, you can have files just in "the cloud" and only download when you access them, but still appears in the drive folder. A major benefit if you have 30gb of photos etc but are using a tablet with small storage. Sadly though, Microsoft have decided to removing this feature in Windows 10, so either you have all your OneDrive content on the device or none of it!
I hate windows now, loved W7 but w8 is awful worst thing I did was to upgrade, its just horrible to use that unsigned drivers nonsense wtf! Its so bad I have gone apple. Always been a PC and Android user but w8 and I was out.
that unsigned drivers nonsense wtf
Unless you're installing unapproved dodgy drivers, you shouldn't have unsigned driver problems. If the manufacturer of the device is pushing unsigned drivers then that's their problem. I've not had anything use an unsigned driver in years.
Plus, it has nothing to do with Windows 8. Driver signing has been going on since XP days, or earlier. Unsigned drivers always required prompts and admin rights to install them. It's better now as at least they can't be installed without permission and Windows 8 makes it harder, so manufacturers have to get them signed, as they should be.
Still, Apple's walled garden keeps things simple so nothing can go wrong. You just aren't allowed to do anything that's all 😛
The basic problem is that Microsoft don't seem to be able (or willing) to separate the OS from the UI. From all accounts 8.1 is a good OS, stable and efficient, but the UI is biased towards touch screens, so awkward for some people without those. If MS would just say "here's our new OS - and you can control it with this UI or this one" there'd be no difficulty.
... which is what W10 does. There's a "tablet mode" tick box.
So how can I get w10? I'm thinking for my bargin w8.1 tablet (lynx 7 - £60!)
You can wait till it's released, then get it for free.
I got a Garmin Virb camera and the Virb Edit software wouldn't run on XP so I upgraded to 8.1 and have been pleasantly surprised. It does everything I want it to (faster than XP) and I've had very few problems at all.