Windows 8 * for desktops

You obviously mean a dedicated desktop OS? I doubt it is going to happen. Windows 8 wears both hats, so it represents a move forward into new generation Oss. Possibly a mod to return the more familiar start menu, but even that I doubt.
 
Oh dear! This is very bad news indeed! There is a general trend by the market to kill PCs and force people to use consoles for gaming and tablets and smartphones for all their computing needs. The only ones holding out are the professionals, and enterprises in general. By forcing METRO as the default boot UI; Microsoft has basically forced the above group to stay with win 7.

METRO is very good on tablets and smartphones but fails miserably on PCs. Perhaps Microsoft will revise their strategy and make windows 8 into a desktop OS. It really makes no sense trying to mate two totally different things like hand held touch screen such as tablets and smartphones with Desktop PCs.

METRO caters to the inferior in capability appliances mentioned above while PCs need a dedicated desktop UI and OS.

Anyway I and my company are not planning in moving away from win 7 for the reasons given above. Win 7 is more than enough for our company needs!

Happy new year everyone! :)
 
As I said, Windows 8 wears two hats. Unfortunately, it requires, for the moment, a third party to reinstall the old style start menu. But, having done that, with a built in feature, to by pass the Metro", it is a fully working Desktop of the legacy style. It operates almost to 100%, in the same way as Windows 7. But this is an old story now, of which you can find many threads on this site, or by googling. I would not care to see it reopened here in yet another thread.
But. Regarding your last Para. I do not see a performance improvement, that would warrant the spending for multi purchase, unless your company are all planning to sit with touch screens or tablets.!!!!
 
There is a general trend by the market to kill PCs and force people to use consoles for gaming

I'm not sure this is the case..

Developers have realised that the emerging 'Free to play' market is huge. Almost every big developer is or has plans to put down roots in this area and as of yet no end in site. Sure we are in the middle of a world recession and generally pc sales are down but the feeling is that there is still money to be made so I wouldn't write the pc off just yet.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...pirates-to-unlock-emerging-market-growth.html
 
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Yes. I agree with kemical. I did choose to ignore your first para but, in support of kemical, the whole statement is erroneous. You are most certainly not being "forced" to use the Metro, although it is the opening page, anymore than you were forced to use the desktop and start menu in previous Oss
 
I use Metro all the time and yes it's a little clunky but hey it's still got some features I like to use.. The Windows Blue update next year is supposed to give more functionality so you can customise the menu more to your liking. But then again how many times have we seen this before... A brand new os is released and is a tad rough around the edges. XP was the same, so was Vista.

Only with Windows 7 have we seen no major update although it could be argued that Windows 7 is what Vista should have been....
 
No arguments as to the merits of METRO on touch screen appliances but on PCs? As for the trend in games; most game developers develop games for consoles and then port them over to PC, and this basically downgrades the games for PCs.

I don't mind METRO residing in the OS so long as there is a way to totally deactivate it without resorting to 3rd party applications. It is not that I do not like METRO but I have really no use for it. Perhaps I am in the minority but so far I see little that win 8 has to offer above win 7. Also boot times mean little as the PCs are only turned on once a day (gives us time to make a cup of much needed coffee :) ).

I hope Microsoft releases an update that will give the option of booting directly to desktop and also the option for start button and classic menus. If she does this then win 8 will be considered as an upgrade. I (we) do not want to use 3rd party applications in order to bring functionality in the OS.

I hope Microsoft reconsiders.

:)
 
It takes one key tap to get to the desktop from Metro. If you move the Desktop Tile to the upper left hand corner, as soon as the Win 8 Style Start Screen opens, tap the Enter key and you will be magically transported to the Desktop UI. Can any one consider this difficult?

If you install one of the excellent Start Orb replacement apps, you can set them to automatically switch to the Desktop UI without tapping the Enter Key.

Our 2 laptops both are conventional, non-touch laptops and both work very well with Win 8. IMO it does NOT "fails miserably on PCs"! It works very well on desktops and conventional laptops. It's just a little different. It can be customized to look and act almost identically to Win 7.

The only part of Win 8 that still needs maturing are the Win 8 Style apps. This is mostly due to how new this is. There are tons of apps that are basically not worth downloading. IMO over time this will change as well. Developers will begin creating apps that can actually be used to get some work done. Until then, just do your work on the Desktop UI.
 
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As I said - I really didn't want to start a lead in to yet another very repetitive thread, but it seems to have happened anyway!
Buit
"I don't mind METRO residing in the OS so long as there is a way to totally deactivate it without resorting to 3rd party applications. "

Is that such a burden?. Since the innovation of Windows, I have been installing third party programs whcih I regarded as an improvement over the built in ones. (Paint for example). It matters little to me, to download and install a third party start menu, if I wish to go along that path. fwiw, if you look back as far as Windows 7 early posts, you will find countless entries advocating downloading and installing the "Classic" menu, as an alternative to the Windows 7?
Like Kemical and others, however, I have eliminated the "junk" from the metro start screen and use it 100% as a mouse point and click menu.
 
Dave I cannot agree more that this is a tired old argument and to be honest I usually shy away from such discussions. To be really. really honest I couldn't give a fig what anyone thinks about Metro or Windows 8 for that matter. As I said before and I'll say again if you don't like it then don't use it. It's so easy.. Just like TV, if you don't like the programme then change the channel.
 
Thanks but as far as I know even CLASSIC SHELL cannot give you the proper desktop as we have come to know it. Yes Classic Shell is good and free but it is not perfect. Also I hear that even if Classic shell is installed you will always need to use METRO for some applications; Is this true? Can one use win 8 only on desktop without ever having to visit METRO? Even though We are not at present contemplating moving to Win 8; It is good to know as much about it as possible. Too many rumours are abound and Microsoft is hardly forthcoming in information as they seem to portray only the positive (as they see them) aspects. I need an honest down to earth review aimed at the enterprise user. We are not interested in Facebook, news, and generally having the weather and sports news at hand. We mainly use Office and CAD software for solid modelling. Have a happy new year everyone!
 
As kemical and Dave have stated, this is getting really old.

You do not need use any of the Win 8 Style apps or the Win 8 Style Start Screen if you so choose not to. In order to open the Win 8 Style apps you must do so from one of 2 places:
1) The Win 8 Style Start Screen

2) The Win 8 apps button on Classic Shell. If you do not use either of these methods, then Win 8 Style apps will NOT open.

Everything you use on your Win 7 desktop will most likely work exactly the same on Win 8!
 
In reference to the very first post here, my answer is that they do. It's probably the version you're using right now if you are not on a Tablet or ARM based device.

There's the Windows 8 RT version, and the general Windows 8 (Pro/Non-Pro), which is based on Intel processors. Windows 8 works just fine though. You don't have to have your monitor touch-based to make use of it, and after you realize how some of the things work, it doesn't give you really any disadvantage for not being able to make use of the touchscreen features.

The only downside for me is on the development side of things. I don't have a tablet to fool around with and test the touch features for my Windows apps. I've actually made more desktop apps than any of the Store apps, so it doesn't affect my main line of work anyways. If I choose to go that way, then it would though.

There's lots of little things in Windows 8 though, such that, as you start figuring them out, Windows 8 becomes much easier to use.

I have nothing against the "Modern Design Style" though, I actually enjoy it better or just as much as aero personally. I think it has to have something to do with my knowledge in programming. Metro should be less of a resource hog in terms of memory and CPU in the long run, but it's hard to judge accurately because of all the new stuff they've added into explorer. Even TaskManager has many new features, among a few other binaries that come with the Windows default instlalation.

Just looks simple and clean to me otherwise. Windows 7 was nice, Vista was a bit ugly, XP was the ugliest in my opinion. I'd prefer the 2000 view over XP anyday.

I've already noticed significant performance increases in the functionality of Windows 8 as a whole though, in comparison to Windows 7. Better filesystem search functionality, and a few others. I'm waiting for the day that Windows 8 source code is available to me, so I can see what the most important changes were in comparison to older build versions of NT.

~Ace
 
MSFT is very very stubborn. Look how long they persisted in the delusion that the web would come to work around IE's standards, before finally admitting that more and more web developers were shunning IE in favor of browsers that were standards compliant. In there desperation to gain share in the tablet and smartphone markets they are unlikely to budge on the "Modern UI" They simply believe that we'll just get used to it. I think what's more likely to happen is that Apple will see higher growth in PC and lap top sales as frustrated PC users give up on Windows. I'm seeing it suggested more and more that Win 7 will become the new XP that users will cling to it until they have no choice but to upgrade or change platforms. I went the Start 8 route to rid myself of the "Modern UI" crap and I really like it. I can forget that I'm on 8 because now it looks and acts so much like 7, that I'm not constantly aggravated by those hot corners popping the charms bar up on me or having to go to that fugly start screen. I don't see MSFT doing anything and if they do put the Win 7 UI option in, I think they will add it quietly. 2012 to 2014 the years of Vista 2.
 
Happy New year to you too :)

If the article doesn't help too much please come back to us and we'll try and help more..
The article was very helpful. However it left the start button hanging in the air as it seems that the only way to reinstate it is through 3rd party applications that at best come near but not 100% the functionality of the original. I hope Microsoft reconsiders reinstating the start button as desktop users like it and find it easy to use. I don't think that offering this option is a bad idea!

Thanks all for the feedback!
 
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