Talk to me about Windows 8

I’ve just bought a new (to me) PC. It has Windows 8 on it, but I have the discs to roll it back to 7 if needed.

I use OSX on my current laptop and Windows 7 at work. I’ve had a brief play with Windows 8, and it enraged me.

Does anyone use 8? Does it have any real advantages over 7 that make it worth persevering and learning or should I stick to what I know?

The world isn’t going backwards so better just to get on and learn it 🙁

I struggled to begin with but love it now, only rarely do I miss something from Win 7. Key for me was learning a few of the Windows Key shortcuts that made finding my way around much easier. Also, it’s way quicker to search for settings rather than try and find out where they are now eg. Pres Win-W then device manager to find the device manager for example

It does feel a bit like they’ve gone backwards bit (no more cleartype) but I suspect you just have to get on and learn it

Yeah… That was kinda what I thought. There seem to be some speed advantages. I think I maybe just need to have a good play…

Yep,but really go and hunt out the keyboard shortcuts and learn how to customise the metro interface with what you want rather than all the debris that ends up there. Once you’ve done those two things I find it works quite quickly (eg I have an stw icon on the metro interface rather than fire up a browser and then start stw)

Excellent design – a GUI that requires use of the keyboard to work well…

It’s not an excellent design if you don’t have a touch screen but you know that. I suspect that MS think that the world is heading towards tablets rather than desktops or laptops 🙁

I bought a laptop with Win8 and sent it back within days, because a little research showed that my library of existing games and software wouldn’t work. (Such research should maybe be done before purchase.)

I found the GUI absolutely fine though, but I ignored metro completely because it was a laptop not a tablet. I just hit the windows key the moment it started and used it like XP/7.

Install Classic Shell [/url]or similar.

Fixes the start button and allows starting up straight to the desktop. Not to mention the lack of an ‘Up’ button in Explorer.

The world isn’t going backwards so better just to get on and learn it

Or don’t and wait to see what actually comes from the new version, just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s better or it will last. At least wait and see what the business uptake is, a lack of uptake may lead to some toning down of the touch screen stuff.

I really don’t like the Windows 8 interface either but it’s not going to go away and learning the keyboard short-cuts certainly makes it bearable (and actually an improvement for many) but agree with the comment above that a GUI that relies on the user remembering a bunch of keyboard short-cuts in order to use it efficiently is a failure.
Next they’ll be having us write scripts on the server-side to do simple things that used to take a couple of mouse clicks, oh wait they already have…

Used Windows 8 for several months, but some hardware issues came to light (gtx 680 really didn’t like it), and some apps played up. Reverted back to 7, but I do find I miss 8, much to my amazement!

I bought a laptop with Win8 and sent it back within days, because a little research showed that my library of existing games and software wouldn’t work. (Such research should maybe be done before purchase.)

Unless it was the RT version of Win8 then most legacy software will still work – it just gets installed via the desktop rather than the Metro interface.

There was some furore over Steam but that was because the only way they could install Metro UI-based games was if they sold them through the Microsoft app store..

I think what really annoys me is the weird duality of it, ie constantly swapping between the desktop and Metro. Classic Shell sounds interesting, cheers.

I found while trying to back it up to preserve the license (just in case) that it was mostly Win7 under there. It had been slickened up for some of the simple stuff but just looking round trying to find out what was and wasn’t 100% compatible convinced me to drop it back (that and trying to explain it to the missus who had just about mastered 7 and was about to start a new distance ed course)

Fixes the start button and allows starting up straight to the desktop. Not to mention the lack of an ‘Up’ button in Explorer.

There is an up button. Look next to the path box, there is a little up arrow.

As I’ve said before I much prefer W8 to W7. Definitely runs better and the metro interface can be ignored but I like it as a distraction from my work on the desktop. The apps are quite nice to use when you don’t want to stare at a normal PC desktop.

If you have a modern multitouch trackpad it will mimic a lot of the touchscreen functions but not perfectly. The right hand pop up bar still annoys me a touch and a lot of stuff is hidden, but that was true of windows 7 over XP.

I’m not going back though and borrowing a W7 laptop reminds me why.

the thing I really miss is ‘previous versions’ of files which has now been replaced by ‘File History’. Previous Versions just worked and everyone knew where to find it. They could right click on what they were working on and go back through versions.

File History works but isn’t as intuitive

Excellent design – a GUI that requires use of the keyboard to work well…

Well you have one, don’t you? So why not?

I use keyboard shortcuts all the time in OSX / 7, so no problems there! Though when I tried 8 there seemed to be no help as to how to use it, which was a bit of a bugger with it being so different in some ways.

Key for me was learning a few of the Windows Key shortcuts that made finding my way around much easier.

This. TBH I don’t really use the Metro/Start page much.

andyl – Member
There is an up button. Look next to the path box, there is a little up arrow.

Oh, you’re right. I’m muddling W7 and W8. It’s 7 which lacks the Up arrow (Classic Shell does fix it though).

Windoze 8 think of the ‘Metro’ Tiles as a big ‘Start Button’
Anyone remember Millennium?
This is similar in that it is a look at what future releases will look like imho
I quite like it though…