what the hell is windows 8 ?

its like a mac and linux had a baby and produced an unintuitive offspring.

I managed to get the hang of ubuntu and fedora in a few minutes, little bit longer for a mac

its like microsoft got a mac and went – how can we be like this but without infringing patents ?

so glad my dads and girlfriends laptops are on 7 or id just get moaning !

just setting up my girlfriends mums new windows 8 laptop and trying to explain how it works and even i cant fathom why they have done what they have done….. not fun – office and internet explorer have just ended up as short cuts on the desktop and thats that !
i can see it working better if it was a touch screen , but this is a laptop so its not actually any good

does it ever get any better ?

No its rubbish but you just get used to it which isnt what IT is about really.

I put it on a virtual machine, couldn’t even close things when I managed to open them. Got so angry I gave myself a headache. Deleted – got on with my life, never regretted.

thought the front page bit was like “my first tablet/smartphone”.

sure the squareness of it is a patent pool with apple. between them they’d own the rights to every variation of square/oblong and samsung would be doubly shafted.

can’t stand 7 either. or at least there’s a load of stupid stuff that’s not been thought through.

I was informed the other day by someone who knows such stuff that: Its Windows 7 with a touchy feely swipey GUI front end…. apparently.

They even added the crappy interface to server 2012

I thought you could disable the crappy metro bit of windows 8. I heard someone somewhere mention it at some point.

They even added the crappy interface to server 2012

I went on a 2012 tech briefing at Microsoft HQ a couple of weeks ago. Didn’t see the Metro interface once.

So either, it doesn’t have it, or even MS disable it.

What exactly are you having trouble with?

Just think of it as Win 7 but with a full-screen start menu, instead of a tiny series of menus that you have to dig through. It drove me up the wall for the first day or so, but now I really enjoy using it – the full-screen, interactive Start menu is fab 🙂

I went on a 2012 tech briefing at Microsoft HQ a couple of weeks ago. Didn’t see the Metro interface once.

So either, it doesn’t have it, or even MS disable it.

I was testing a hyper-v build with the 2012 beta, maybe they removed it since then

Just think of it as Win 7 but with a full-screen start menu, instead of a tiny series of menus that you have to dig through.

You can think of it like that all you want, but that’s not what it is.

Without a touch interface, HOTKEYS are your friend. Like a Mac, you’ll get more from it too.

Windows logo key + start typing – Search your PC
Ctrl + plus (+) or Ctrl + minus (-) – Zoom in or out of a large number of items, like apps pinned to the Start screen
Ctrl + scroll wheel – Zoom in or out of a large number of items, like apps pinned to the Start screen
Windows logo key + C – Open the charms / In an app, open the commands for the app
Windows logo key + F – Open the Search charm to search files
Windows logo key + H – Open the Share charm
Windows logo key + I – Open the Settings charm
Windows logo key + J – Switch the main app and snapped app
Windows logo key + K – Open the Devices charm
Windows logo key + O – Lock the screen orientation (portrait or landscape)
Windows logo key + Q – Open the Search charm to search apps
Windows logo key + W – Open the Search charm to search settings
Windows logo key + Z – Show the commands available in the app
Windows logo key + spacebar – Switch input language and keyboard layout
Windows logo key + Ctrl + spacebar – Change to a previously selected input
Windows logo key + Tab – Cycle through open apps (except desktop apps)
Windows logo key + Ctrl + Tab – Cycle through open apps (except desktop apps) and snap them as they are cycled
Windows logo key + Shift + Tab – Cycle through open apps (except desktop apps) in reverse order
Windows logo key + PgUp – Move the Start screen and apps to the monitor on the left (Apps in the desktop won’t change monitors)
Windows logo key + PgDown – Move the Start screen and apps to the monitor on the right (Apps in the desktop won’t change monitors)
Windows logo key + Shift + period (.) – Snaps an app to the left
Windows logo key + period (.) – Snaps an app to the right
Esc – Stop or exit the current task

Modern UI is on Server 2012 as well, unfortunately.

mangatank > Nice round-up, thanks for that.

Did anyone ever use the W7 start menu ever, anyway? Hit Win, start typing, launch app. I can count the amount of times I’ve used the Start ‘menu’ on the fingers of one hand.

I quite like the server 2012 interface. As above, you need to use the keyboard rather than the mouse.
If you are attached to the mouse, have fun trying to find the small hot spots for the menus in a Remote Desktop window.

Do i print that out and put it on the coffee table at the mrs parents house ?

Imagine the scene out the simpsons where homer works from home.

A tab – oh yes ill have a drink …. Give me my tab !

Everything normal monitor core temp – y

Thats how well i see windows 8 going down in this house.

I still run xp on my work systems due to propriatory expensive softwear that only runs on stuff below xp – and even getting it to run on xp is an art.

Looking forward to the arrival of a new PC with Windows 8 next week.

Well, I was till I read this thread…………

spend a bit more 🙂

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/08/modernmix_saves_windows8/

Compatibility Mode FTW.

Is there a compatibility mode ? All i saw was you needed to apply skins etcetc cannae be fussed wit that

You can download any one of a million programs that boot it to look like windows 7
or try this

First, open the Task Scheduler by typing Schedule task in the Settings search on the All Apps screen, or by deep-diving to Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Schedule Tasks.

Once the Task Scheduler is open, click Create Task under Task Scheduler Library in the Actions pane. Name your task “Boot to desktop” or something similar. Open the Triggers tab, select New, and choose At log on in the ‘Begin the task’ drop-down menu at top. Click OK, and then open the Actions tab, select New once again, and enter explorer in the Program/script field.

Save the action and the task, and you’re done! From now on, every time you log in to Windows, you’ll automatically jump to the desktop, where an open Libraries folder will greet you.

Maybe a bit easier to follow here

Cougar – Moderator
Hit Win, start typing, launch app. I can count the amount of times I’ve used the Start ‘menu’ on the fingers of one hand.

well i never – that’s an amazing thing i’ve completely overlooked until now – for finding pictures, emails and everything! good one! 🙂

Hmm, I don’t get it really. The O/S is just an interface for launching applications, so why hide all the lanching of applications? Why, on a Graphical Interface, should you need to remember a load of damn keystrokes?
Was on a 2012 server earlier – not read up on it, but by chance managed to get the Start button to appear… so could launch stuff. Later the Start button would not appear with the same mouse action i used before!
Just don’t understand what MS are up to or indeed why companies like mine are letting them get away with it.
wish, even more than ever that I cold escape from IT!

Umm… the launching of applications isn’t hidden? Start screen pops up, you can configure what apps you want there. Put the ones you use up, Bob’s your uncle.

If you’re looking for something specific, press Winkey and start typing… just like Windows 7.

If you don’t like the whole Start screen when you fire up Windows, you can press the Winkey to jump to the desktop. What would you do next though – launch an application? So you need to go back to the Start screen I guess….?

Like I say – I did NOT like Win 8 when I started using it, but some of the UI changes are actually really handy when you get used to them 🙂

It’s complete bobbins.

I thought MS had finally nailed stuff when I saw windows 7. I think that’s great.

But then they released windows 8. Jesus.

Why a touch screen on a desktop anyway?
One hand on the keyboard, one on the mouse, why lift up a hand to touch the screen when I can use a mouse?

I quite like it, just use the desktop and then charm bar to search

Why a touch screen on a desktop anyway?
One hand on the keyboard, one on the mouse, why lift up a hand to touch the screen when I can use a mouse?

It’s for the Surface tablet, which has a touchscreen and keyboard, but no mouse.

I think W8 and office 2013 are utter crap from a U.I. perspective. I’ve been using it on a desktop, a laptop and a tablet (as well as a surface). Any OS that makes you touch or click more things to do something than you previously had to is really poorly thought out. Everything is just less intuitive. The type to search is the one saving grace.

Install Classic Shell. Gives you back a conventional desktop start button and program menu, and you never have to see the Metro interface again, unless you want to.
Agree the default interface setup is poor out of the box, but you can fix that. I upgraded from XP on a netbook and an old desktop, and they are both running very nicely, with faster start up times.

Windows 8 No Better Than Vista, Says Samsung Exec
http://allthingsd.com/20130308/windows-8-no-better-than-vista-says-samsung-exec/

The Late Microsoft Windows 8

The Late Microsoft Windows 8

Right, I’ve just installed it on my VM.
First impression – totally not oriented to business use (but then what MS o/s ever is?). Also, completely crap that it can’t detect (or ask during the install?) if it’s installed on a PC or tablet. I mean why would I need a pop up touch keyboard?!
More playing required to see if I can make it look usable.

Can’t imagine rolling this out to dopey users who have only just got used to Win7…

kcr – how do you install the classic shell? that sounds like it would make life a lot easier for me.

Can’t imagine rolling this out to dopey users who have only just got used to Win7…

” Dopey users” – or normal, everyday people as I like to think of them!

That’s them 🙂

Update – signed in as an admin and its got a load of admin tools on the start screen now (useless ones, but its a start)

http://www.classicshell.net/

There are various similar programs available. For me, this seemed to be the best free solution for getting a conventional menu and desktop interface.

A friend got a Windows 8 PC last week, it seems to be a computer that aspires to be a smartphone.

I’ll stick to XP thanks until my old laptop dies.

I really can’t see the problem. Start screen with big buttons instead of a start menu with small ones. Big deal.

The latter is a lot easier to ignore.