MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Was out looking at new laptops this afternoon and everything seems to be shipped with Windows 8 now, there were a few with Windows 7 but not many.
The interface is obviously very targeted at touch screens, but I seemed to stumble across a more familiar "Windows" view so that may not be an issue in day to day use.
But.....What's it like in daily use? Is it any good as an OS? Still riddled with bugs?
Should I stick with a Windows 7 machine?
Cheers for any insights.
Oh, and Mac is not an option.I'm on a budget!
Opinion seems to be divided at the moment. At least some of it is going to be "change is bad", we have that every time a new OS comes out. It does seem to be touch-centric though, but it's not all that dissimilar underneath as far as I can glean.
It's not buggy afaik, it's pretty slick and more efficient generally than W7.
I wouldn't upgrade for the sake of it though unless like me you love beautiful looking things, cos I think it's visually stunning.
Been using it for a couple of weeks now and I miss it when I have to go back to 7. Really wasn't expecting that as I hated it initially
See, MS know what they are doing generally.
Cheers guys. Sounds like I won't be buying into a dog if the machine I choose has W8 then. Seems that I can download language packs FOC too for W8. Where as W7 I would need to re-install from an English DVD or buy the Ultimate upgrade to allow me to choose the language. So it is probably the best option.
After a few days I've found everything I regularly use. So far it's been totally bug free. I've only used W7 on other people's machines so my main comparison is with Vista and XP. Not so much as a video faltering or a programme not responding so far.
Obviously speed depends on processor and memory capacity as much as OS, but it is very fast.
The only minor irritation is the accuracy needed to hit the corners and the menu popping up when I really want the vertical scroll bar. I used to bounce the arrow around the corners to get where I wanted fast and that triggers the side menus.
Edit: and they've change the French names for some things which had me guessing initially.
I've been using it for about 4 weeks now...I don't use the Metro interface, as soon as it boots I go to the Desktop - which is almost the same as Windows 7 but no Start button so no quick access to programs.
It seems very stable and boots very quickly...annoyingly I can't switch Metro off (the touchscreen interface - it works fine with a mouse but I just don't use it so would rather not have it) - in Mentro the annoyance is that all options seem to get you online i.e. click Music and it takes you to a Music 'site' - same with Videos...this is the main annoyance with the Metro interface - it tries to hook everything up to online and an online Microsoft account.
The desktop is fine but without a start button accessing programs isn't as quick as before (although I could stick them on my Metro Start panel, I guess).
Overall I'm happy with it, seems stable. I did an upgrade from Windows 7 so lost some of the programs I had (or just can't find them anymore)...but I'm glad I upgraded.
Learn metro and put on the stuff you use regularly, it makes life way easier
The only minor irritation is the accuracy needed to hit the corners and the menu popping up when I really want the vertical scroll bar. I used to bounce the arrow around the corners to get where I wanted fast and that triggers the side menus.
I had that to begin with but now I use the windows shortcut keys. So far windows-c, windows-I and just the windows key seem to get me everything fast ( e.g windows- wo gets me to word fast). Funnily enough my kids found most of this. It doesn't stress them at all and they seem completely comfy with it. Maybe it's a case of old dogs and new tricks 🙁
The only minor irritation is the accuracy needed to hit the corners and the menu popping up when I really want the vertical scroll bar.
Is there an option to change the size of the zones? There often is on this kind of thing.
.annoyingly I can't switch Metro off
There is a fairly simple registry hack for this, and a third party tool too. Google for it.
Whilst we are on the subject - my work laptop has a fancy trackpad that supports gestures. I turned them all off, but I wonder - does W8 let you configure touchpad gestures to work the metro stuff? like say, touch a corner of the trackpad instead of mouse to the corner of the screen?
The windows key is indeed useful but use of the letters illogical. Executer is R (wouldn't E be logical) Screen change is P (wouldn't M be logical). It's random.
Just been reading some articles. It sounds like there are lots of new things and ways to learn to really get the most out of W8.
To be honest it was the Metro interface that stopped me buying the machine I saw there and then. It had a lot of preloaded stuff which made me think that it might be heavily tied to Microsoft products...Skydrive, Bing etc and wanted to be sure that it wasn't that way before I commit.
Reading up suggests my concern was unfounded, although other browsers etc may not sit quite as nicely as the MS ones.
Registry hack works on pre-production Windows 8 systems...but the entry isn't in Windows 8 Pro...
It works and it works very well, but the Metro piece annoys me...and I'm not entirely sure why, I suspect for just now, it's a glorified web browser so I'm not using the machine as much as it should be getting used...
Executer is R (wouldn't E be logical)
R = run
I guess they haven't changed the hotkeys for different languages. It's arguable wether or not they should, actually, since it would really mess you up if you had to move between different language machines.
It had a lot of preloaded stuff which made me think that it might be heavily tied to Microsoft products...Skydrive, Bing
Yeah they got in massive trouble for tying people in a while back if you remember. Well not exactly tying in, just heavily leaning on people.
The windows key is indeed useful but use of the letters illogical. Executer is R (wouldn't E be logical) Screen change is P (wouldn't M be logical). It's random.
R is for Run and M is already for Minimise I believe. C for the 'Charms' bar is difficult to guess
Edit: beaten to it
It had a lot of preloaded stuff which made me think that it might be heavily tied to Microsoft products...Skydrive, Bing
Yep. Just right click, remove all that crap, put up what you want and suddenly you have something that works the way you want
for example, it is easy to put an STW button up if you happen to spend way too much time on here
Ta, I'd already eliminated the azerty keyboard being the problem, it's just I'm not thinking of the right translations.
'Find' always gets me. It seems to be the main one that changes between languages so i'm never quite sure what I'm going to get.
If you haven't got a touch screen (who has?) I've been trying the voice recognition. And it works really well - e.g. saying "start" gives you the Metro screen and saying "desktop" gives you the desktop, or just say "Firefox" etc and it opens Firefox on the desktop. You get some funny looks from people around you though.
This thread has cost me 306e. That CRC banner ad' with 10% for European customers did it's job.
It's probably going to cost me about 400€ on that new laptop 😕
I've always been fairly agnostic about MS and windows, but windows 7 was promised to be a huge leap forward in security and speed. But I had to reinstall it about 6 weeks ago as the laptop was running like a dog, and it is still installing countless updates and patches every time I turn it on. I kinda get the feeling windows 8 will be just the same.
Really want to ditch windows completely, but ubuntu is too user unfriendly for the family to enjoy, and I don't really want to spend >1k on a mac.
Seems that computer os's are lagging way behind when compared with mobile os's. I keep hoping something new and fresh will be just around the corner, but it doesn't seem to be the case...
But I had to reinstall it about 6 weeks ago as the laptop was running like a dog, and it is still installing countless updates and patches every time I turn it on.
That's a problem with your machine then. Most people don't have that experience of course.
What, of constant updates, or running like a dog?
That is an unusual experience kevin1911 as Windows 7 has been pretty much the best version of the Windows OS probably ever. I don't think Win8 is quite as slick or polished as Win7 but it is pretty stable and reliable. Not sure what people mean about disabling metro as it is an integral part of the OS. It is the common part of the OS that users will see if they move between devices such as Surface / tablet, phone and traditional computer (as in laptop or desktop). The Desktop is there and is easily accessed by Windows key + D. Best way to look at is that although there is no "start" button the main screen is essentially a giant start page. Press the Windows key and you are right there. Be aware that there are some limitations on metro apps eg the metro version of IE does not have, nor does it support, add-in's. But then again, if you need add-ins then use the desktop version of IE. And you don't need a touch screen at all to benefit from using Win8.
Plus stuff like Skydrive is not an app bundled with Win8. Skydrive is a "cloud service" that allows you to store docs etc from which you can view / download from any machine that you can logon to.
And back to the OP. You will find it harder to get a machine that is running Windows 7 because pretty much all new PCs will be shipped with Win8 as that is now the current OS.
I use windows 8 for work, I'm an IT consultant / tetchy. There are loads of tweaks for windows8.
My favourite one is a start menu same as win7.
Just use google...
Upgraded from XP last week. I found the Metro interface poor (difficult to discover how to do things, with no obvious usability advantages. Jakob Neilson pointed out that it turns your windows computer into a window computer!).
However, installed Windows Classic Shell to get an old school start button and menu, and it all seems to run very smoothly with a conventional desktop. Much better start up time on my ageing PC.
What, of constant updates, or running like a dog?
Both. W7 very quick for me and I've done updates maybe twice in a year.
Twice a year? But ms release patches every week!
I let Windows update itself on shutdown. So yes, that's about once a week. W8 has already updated itself once in less than a week of use and after updating when I first switched the new machine on.
I dunno - I've only had the flashing windows update thing.. well maybe more like 3-4 times. It's not often though.
I remember when Vista first came out, the Internet was awash with "make Vista look like XP" tricks and tips. Ultimately though, I found the best approach was to give it a chance and try to get used to it. I'm glad I did. Being different isn't inherently bad, but people generally don't like change. The Vista / W7 way of doing things is way better than XP ever was, but there's a learning curve.
As an example, one of the things I immediately missed was the Quick Launch bar. There are, of course, plenty of Internet articles on how to get it back, but the NT6 pinning / jump lists are far superior to the old Quick Launch and I'd have missed out on the new functionality if I'd blindly hacked it about.
Similarly, the Start menu is different. I always put XP's menu in Classic mode as I don't get on with the default one; you can do this with NT6 too, but I've found that just hitting Start and typing what I want is far faster than sifting through menus. The OS can find programs way quicker than I can.
I've not used W8 yet other than an early preview version, but I do wonder if the same thing's happening here, at least in part. X is missing, but you have Y instead. Rather than hackery, maybe it's worth learning the new functionality?
The Metro front end did feel to me like a misfeature, I've got to admit. It felt 'in the way', but maybe it's just a case of getting used to it and learning properly how it works? I might get a VM running with it at some point.
Oh yeah,
Windows Updates come out monthly, unless there's an extraordinary release (second Tuesday of the month, fact fans). It shouldn't be continually prompting you, though on a first (re)install there will be a couple of rounds of install and reboot. This is pretty common; it'll install an upgrade, for example IE9, and then install that app's patches on a subsequent run. So what I'm getting at here is, it will quieten down once you're up to date.
Here,
Has the next page bug been fixed? That last post just worked.
Next page bug only come up on long threads no?
RE windows update - isn't it the case that if it fails it rolls back then just keeps trying?
Probably.
I've only seen that happen with XP, so I'm not sure about later versions. I've got a netbook with sort of random Windows Update asshattery going on. It applies an update, reboots, then tells me the same update is ready to install; rinse and repeat.
I forget now what it is exactly, something to do with Media Player IIRC; it's trying to patch an older version that doesn't exist any more, or something. I fixed it by scowling at it occasionally in a pointed manner and otherwise ignoring it.
asshattery
Anal millinery?
No, I think it's those things the donkeys wear on Blackpool beach.
I've just upgraded my laptop to Win 8 (from 7).
It drove me up the wall for the first couple of hours! I had to use google to find out how to turn the damn thing off, etc etc. However, once you're used to the interface, it's actually really good... The main issue a lot of people have is "the Start menu has gone". You need to think of it instead as "the Start menu is now a whole screen" - which is actually much more usable then a small menu.
You've got the same type-to-find function as in Win 7, but you can filter by programs / files / settings. Commonly-used apps can be given their own tile on the screen - and the tiles can be 'live' if the app has the functionality present (e.g. the mail app tile will show unread messages as they come in). You're not tied to any tiles - I've removed the Music and Video tiles and replaced with iTunes.
As Cougar says - give the new UI a try before putting some hack in place to get the old look back 🙂
Well,
I'm downloading the eval version as we speak, so I'll be able to have a play later today. VMWare FTW.