Just taken delivery of a new laptop….with Windows 8! It’s driving me nuts – anyone else thinking “what a mistake” I hope it will get easier?

I liked XP

It’s fine, just breath. Google for windows 8 keyboard shortcuts – it will take a load of the pain away

If you really hate it, there’s supposed to be way to make it look like W7

I thought it was OK when I tried the beta one but admit I haven’t bought it

As above its fine but watch some YouTube videos and guides on how to use it

Just before Christmas I got a new PC with Win 8 on it. I tried to use it but gave up and got Win 7.
Yes, you can add things to make it look like Win 7 , but then you click on something and it dives off to the (what was) Metro interface, then its Win key x (or something) to get back to the desktop. And why remove the start button?
And no Pop3 on the email, so that’s another download that doesn’t quite work.

Sounds like you have a pirate copy.

Well, I’m using it here. It odes have it’s annoyances, but since I’ve added a shut down button to the task bar, these have eased. I do have a very annoying glitch with updating, in that updates refuse to install and the system spends the next half hour rolling back before I’m allowed to use it again.

I can’t find a solution to it…

But hey, Windows 8 is cheap.

windows……aaarrrrggghhh!

Fix it for you…

Every other windows is good 7 was good so 8……
98 was good, millenium was ……. xp was good, vista was ……
Msoft seem to learn from their mistakes, its unfortunate on the users though 🙁

I sent my dads new computer back to John Lewis and swapped it for the latest imac. Windows 8 a hateful thing. Even the technician said so. Full of bugs and needed another 12 months beta testing before release. Windows 9 is on its way

Windows 8 a hateful thing

Nope, it’s just very different from what was before. If you are willing to try and relearn a bit it is much nicer to work with than 7 imho and 7 was better than Vista. But you have to relearn a bit as if you try to do everything in the way that you did before it just doesn’t work. A bit like going to Office 2010 from 2003. If you don’t bother to spend 10mins looking at one of the guides then you waste way more than that randomly clicking. I really don’t like going back to my Win7/Vista machine now

edit:

in that updates refuse to install and the system spends the next half hour rolling back before I’m allowed to use it again.

ok, apart from that bit. Something seems to have got screwed up a couple of weeks ago and until now I thought it was just me but I had it with a brand new Lenovo today 🙁 . heyho, switches off updates for a week until it sorts.

If you want a start button go to http://www.pokki.com and download it. Its free and makez windows 8 bearable.

Maybe that’s the problem – trying to do stuff like before, I;ll give it some more time….and patience!

You Tube for tutorials?

But why remove the start button? i don’t mind learning something new if it’s better but…
As for the add ons: they work, just about, but not 100% when you have several users switching from one to another.

You Tube for tutorials?

Don’t know, I just looked up keyboard shortcuts. Key for me was sorting the start page to only have the stuff I used regularly on it rather than all the crap. So stw icon, folder I go to, programs I use etc. Everything else I get to by just tapping the Windows key and typing the name of the program. Feels much faster to work with than using the start menu and the desktop is clear of all the clutter that used to be there

eg. finding a file is Win-F then type some words in the file, way faster that hunting around folders

But why remove the start button?

– Yep, that seems mad. I’m guess it’s because they wanted identical interfaces for mobile devices that you don’t switch off any more. I just press the button on the machine now but you can either Win-I and click on power or add a power off shortcut (which you shouldn’t really need to do – it’s silly)

Upgraded from XP recently, and installation has given my ageing PC a new lease of life.
The Metro interface may be great for touch screens, but using a keyboard and mouse, I just didn’t get it.
I installed the free Classic Shell utility, which hides all the Metro stuff and gives you a conventional Windows start menu and desktop. With that fix in place, I’m pleased with the upgrade overall.

Don’t get me wrong, there were many things I liked about Windows 8, it started fast, switching users was fast, the search was better, but after a month of trying to get on with it I gave up and went back to 7. Within an hour it was installed, email worked and there was a start button.

I think the key thing is to get into the mindset that they haven’t gotten rid of the start menu… it’s just that now when you press the Windows key it takes up the whole screen, not a piddly little menu bar.

Think of the Metro UI as a bigger, easier-to-navigate start menu and it starts to make a lot more sense on the desktop 🙂

I upgraded my Windows 7 system to it as I rather like 8. Works really intuitively I found.

I can’t find a solution to it…

http://www.apple.com/uk

8)

I can’t find a solution to it…
http://www.apple.com/uk

He didn’t say he wanted a solution that was twice as expensive, a closed system and sporting hardware you can’t update without buying another one at the same exorbitant rate 😉

Cost twice as much but actually worth half the purchase price after three years…

there is a method behind the madness

I really like Windows 8

Cost twice as much but actually worth half the purchase price after three years…

Fair comment but with the PC you wont have to sell it to get better performance just change the chip. Well, until Intel do the unthinkable and solder the damn things onto the board 🙁

Well perhaps not but buying entirely new gives other benefits too.

I say this as someone who bought a £1200 Sony Viao laptop and an iMac around the same time for around the same price. Both well used (but Mac definately much more use). Paid around the same for both, Sony unusable for last couple of years other than for basic surfing and currently sat, worthless, under my desk with half the keys fallen off and a dim screen. The Mac – sold for £400 (to someone on here) and meant I only had to find £450 to get a refurb Air.

He didn’t say he wanted a solution that was twice as expensive, a closed system and sporting hardware you can’t update without buying another one at the same exorbitant rate

Um, not talking iOS here, but OSX. Which is totally open. And the hardware is updatable. Well, my PowerBook is to an extent, but it’s nine years old, and a PowerPC G3, so updates are limited to RAM and HDD. My Mini, on the other hand, has been updated from new. And can continue to be updated. Optical taken out, extra HDD installed, RAM doubled up.
Might look at going SSD now prices are dropping to sensible levels.

Ubuntu

+1 @mikewsmith. Or Linux mint.

Just noticed this morning that the OP is talking about a laptop which make the majority of my comments misdirected and irrelevant, sorry.
Gonna pull the too much beer excuse if I may 🙁

Windows 8 a hateful thing. Even the technician said so.

😀

My new windows 8 laptop has a power off button on the bottom taskbar when using it in the desktop.

It jumps all over the place, swopping my screen on its own accord every time I touch the mousepad, drives me nuts.

It also keeps crashing with the blue screen and ‘service exception error’ message.

Sorry to drag up an oldish thread, but I need to vent.

Elderly friend of the family says she’s having difficulty getting a printer to work with a new laptop, I offer to pop round before I go for a ride this morning. Laptop is running W8, but I’m fine using every other operating system, why should this be any different? Two minute job.

It’s now almost 2pm, I’m in too bad a mood to bother heading to the woods – I have no idea how I restrained myself from throwing that laptop through the (glass) window. This trash was sold to an OAP on the basis it’s supposedly simpler than previous versions of Windows and Apple. It’s as if the design brief was “make it as infuriating as possible, but with bright bold colours so the user feels inadequate in failing to make a playschool operating system do what it’s told”.

Rant rant, rage rage. Grrrrrrrrrr.

Pokki start menu is a good addition for those not wanting to use the start screen all the time.

On the whole I prefer it to windows 7. Definitely runs better and the apps are nice. It’s like using a PC without using a PC sometimes.

I’m only still coming to terms with W7 – much prefer XP.

As for Office 2010, utter crap – so much slower to use than Office 2003, endlessly switching between menus to find common actions which all used to be in one simple menu.

I’m only still coming to terms with W7 – much prefer XP

You must not have ‘got’ it yet; like any change there will be a learning curve. I can’t think of any reason at all I’d rather have XP than W7.

wordnumb – exactly what was the problem?

Easy to blame W8, but it’s mostly just the UI that changed.

You must not have ‘got’ it yet; like any change there will be a learning curve. I can’t think of any reason at all I’d rather have XP than W7.

I still think the shortcuts in the start bar thing was better in XP, as W7 chooses what to add (which isn’t what I want) and then gets confused if I upgrade something in the quick links, it keeps the old dead link and won’t add the new version – which is just plain retarded.

I still think the shortcuts in the start bar thing was better in XP, as W7 chooses what to add (which isn’t what I want)

Eh?

Right click -> pin to taskbar – what’s the problem there?

Right click -> pin to taskbar – what’s the problem there?

Right click where?