Windows 8 Windows 8: Good or Bad?

[Sonny]

I have no complaints. I am using a 22" non-touch screen and like Drew it is working great. In fact I have taken Windows 7 out and just running with 8. I have no problems with Windows 7 but finding my response time with 8 somewhat faster.

 

[kemical]

I also read in an article today that the app store could well be getting PowerDVD. This is the kind of stuff I see making a difference to whats already there. Excellent little apps like this would be a great addition especially if free.

 

[davehc]

Back to you Kemical.

OK I played around with the Metro, as you have done. I have uninstalled all the full screen icons, as they are all replaceable by Non full screen third party add-ons. So now I have a (metro) start screen which, basically, is a graphical representation of my old Windows 7 start menu. Only problem so far is that I have to scroll over two and a half screens to see everything. Just looking through GPedit and the registry, to see if there is a way I can collapse those folders.

 

[Drew]

Cool, Sonny but, be prepared, eh? you'll have to put 7 back in sometime cus the 8 Beta will expire (unless, of course) you buy the GA when it's released. Just saying...

And, yes, there, certainly, is a performance gain w/ 8.

The PowerDVD would be great, as, currently, it's one of the few things (a DVD player) that needs to be added to the OS from outside it.

Dave,

Please, take a close look @ my screen shots, earlier in this thread. As I said & show, I only have (few) enough tiles that all can be seen w/out scrolling. Just because something exists or is installed does not mean a tile for it needs to be (kept) on Start. However, if, you create the Applications folder on the Taskbar ALL the applications (that the tiles represent) can be accessed directly from & while on Desktop w/out going to Start or leaving Desktop. When something goes on Start as a tile, that tile can be remove, to keet things 'tidy' & the # of tiles small BUT, that item will, still, be listed in the Applications folder. Additionally, never mind the Registry or any need to add 3rd party anything. The tiles not only can be removed, w/out sacrifice, but, they can be selected to be large or small... Rt Clk on 1 & bar @ bottom has an icon to do that. Plus, again, looking @ my screen shot, you can see they can be grouped, put in whatever Group & the Group named.

The shots are in entries # 8 & 10 of this thread.

Cheers,
Drew

 

[kemical]

Back to you Kemical.

OK I played around with the Metro, as you have done. I have uninstalled all the full screen icons, as they are all replaceable by Non full screen third party add-ons. So now I have a (metro) start screen which, basically, is a graphical representation of my old Windows 7 start menu. Only problem so far is that I have to scroll over two and a half screens to see everything. Just looking through GPedit and the registry, to see if there is a way I can collapse those folders.

I suppose you could cut the tiles down further as Drew suggests. That will stop you having to scroll although personally I don't mind having to do that.

The way I see Windows 8 (if I've have got this correctly) is that we have an os which is basically the same over three different form factors.
Phone, Tablet and PC.

I see Windows 8 being used slightly differently though with each form factor. Like for PC for example, where one would presume that the desktop will be used far more than say on a tablet or a phone where perhaps Metro apps would be more ideal.
Each form factor has it's own needs and requirements and it will be interesting to see how each field develops and whether it will be across the board or no.

 

[Sonny]

Unless something turns sour in Windows 8 by the time it is on the market, I will be buying it. I am impressed. Will keep Windows 7 in my laptop for now.

 

[Drew]

It is impressive, Sonny...especially, technically, under-the-covers & the in practice results of same.

Damn, I've forgotten kem's name

I think your analysis is quite accurate...just a wee mention, Desktops (& laptops) can have Home, Pro, Ult & enterprise flavours BUT, phones & tablets get their own version called Windows8 RT. I would suggest, that reflects the somewhat slightly different & dedicated treatment for 1 group of devices vs the other yet, still, a cross-device OS... and that being 1 of the major design goals from the onset.

Cheers,
Drew

 

[Trouble]

I think your analysis is quite accurate...just a wee mention, Desktops (& laptops) can have Home, Pro, Ult & enterprise flavours BUT, phones & tablets get their own version called Windows8 RT.

I have only seen mention of Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro (for x86 processors, 32 and 64 bit) and RT for ARM based devices. No mention that I can find regarding Home, Ultimate.

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/.../04/16/announcing-the-windows-8-editions.aspx

 

[Drew]

Yes, I know better than what I wrote, too. My damn brain rattled that off out of habit or my fingers went faster than my brain or both. (bad excuse since, I'm a slow typist, lol) Yes, it's simplified, now... instead of the Baskin & Robbins flavours of the past, 8 is, indeed, just 2 flavours, 8 & Pro, plus Enterprise for Volume Licensing & RT for ARMs.

Thanks, Randy, for giving my head shake

Cheers,
Drew

 

[davehc]

Thank you for your input, Drew. (post#24), but I think you missed the point. My many posts must have escaped you. I have been having a thorough experience, experimenting with Third party menus, booting direct to the desktop, etc.
I have found It is quite impossible for anyone to offer solutions to individuals, unless they are familiar with their usage of the OS's. As I am obliged to install and customise, for others, over and over again, I am attempting to find the solution for the majority, who are interested in Windows 8, but do not want to many alarming changes. I have found that most of those I deal with, have become accustomed to the old menu, with their individual shortcuts/.exes, wrapped inside those folders. They are in the category of "no longer young, but still have the spark to show an interest in moving on, and in the metro menu..
The post you referred to, was an individual discussion between myself and Kemical, on the possible benefits of trying to simplify the Start menu so that it's use is more normalised. removing what Microsoft, or the system, has placed there, is defeating that object.
The performance benefits for the people (not wealthy) that I help, are so marginal, that I need a damn good argument to convince them that they should move on to Windows 8. One way to do this, I perceive, is to get those icons into closed folders, so that they are then looking at a pretty graphical representation of their more familiar, old, start menu.

From Kemical "I suppose you could cut the tiles down further as Drew suggests. That will stop you having to scroll although personally I don't mind having to do that."

I have looked at your numerous screenshots, in this and other threads. No rudeness intended, but I see no move forward from the metro screen to that cluttered desktop you are showing.
I the Beta discussion sites, you can see quite a lot of support for my comments on having folders. I don't claim originality for the idea, but it does seem to be in favour.
I believe, in a nutshell, that what I am trying to do, is make a Windows 8 installation 100% workable for those without touchscreens, using only its built in facilities.

 

[davehc]

Kemical.
I am certain, as a fellow experimenter, that you have discovered that you do not need, (but can) to click the little minus sign to reduce the icons to minimal size. The CTRL + wheel trick also does it.

 

[Vlad Tudorache]

I must admit, it took a certain time to get accustomed with the new interface. BUT, for an old laptop with AMD Turion et ATI 1100 it works amazingly! And for those with ENE CardReaders they work with the Vista drivers, just one have to disable the Fast Startup option and to prevent hibernating with powercfg.exe /H off in administrator mode (the driver does not support the power management advanced features). For me it works really great.

 

[kemical]

I have looked at your numerous screenshots, in this and other threads. No rudeness intended, but I see no move forward from the metro screen to that cluttered desktop you are showing.

Cluttered Desktop? Nah, sounds like someone else that Dave.. And sure as I said before we all use it in different ways. It was never my intention to give the impression that 'my' way or any other way was best. This thread was created to promote discussion only.

I didn't know about the shortcut tho.. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[davehc]

Sorry Kemical. My post was addressed to Drew. No problem with your last picture!

 

[Drew]

Fair enough, Dave. I guess, after seeing so much grumbling & balking or bashing of the Win8 Start, that it might seen attractive to (some) ppl to know, as an alternative, that they didn't, HAVE to get caught up in it, by or have turn them off of Windows8. To let them know the choice to use the more familiar Desktop exists.

I do 100% agree w/ & empathise w/ your last sentence. The only thing I've made mine do that's not 'natural' is have an Applications folder on the Taskbar.

Overall, seems that we are, indeed, on the same wavelength. My current Desktop & taskbar are far from cluttered; it was a bit, I'll concede, I dropped QL & just went w/ Desktop Toolbar, alone.

I do appreciate all you have so graciously bothered to discuss w/ me. I feel, if, IT Pros discuss Windows8 & how to approach it w/ & to our customers, it can only be helpful & insightful (to share such thoughts & ideas).

Cheers,
Drew

PS: Here's the current Taskbar; there is nothing (showing) on the Desktop itself, except pretty photos, no icons showing. Folder @ the top is Applications, the only 'tweak' to the OS. Desktop icons are in Desktop Toolbar where one can drill down to anything in the machine. As such, I don't need to go to Start for things. Just one of many other arrangements, there could be, to be sure.
Link Removed

 

[shaneblack]

Hello everyone, I must say that at first I didnt care for win8. Everyone was saying how bad it was, and that turned me away from trying it. Well today I downloaded the release preview just to see if it would be good for the games I play, and right away I was impressed. They gave me better graphics driver and took care of all my other drivers too. On win7 my laptop didnt run games too well which forced me back to winXP. Now I'm having fun, I like some of the metro apps they have like weather and cookbook which is very useful and I can check things at a glance on the metro start. Of course most of my time is spent using the desktop which is very nice and looks great. I see no reason to put this version of win8 down. There are some bugs but none that render the os unusable. I feel like I finally found a good system that can give me the performance I need. My thinkpad r61 core 2 duo, 3gb ram, x3100 gpu is running great on win8 now. I'm happy microsoft actually is trying to please everyone and not just throw crap out there and say oh well (like winME and Vista) They are trying to make one OS that can serve as fun and be creative while still offering classic features.

 

[Drew]

Hi Shane,

It's cool how you feel about Win8. I don't quite grasp from your writing... is it the only OS you are running on your only computer?

Cheers,
Drew

 

[kemical]

Sorry Kemical. My post was addressed to Drew. No problem with your last picture!

Oops.. Soz Dave, I misread that but it was all good anyway.. To be honest I was hoping to perhaps generate some positivity about Win 8s start menu. Now advanced users like yourself and others have had chance to have a good play around it's interesting to see what we have all come up with. The way I see it, the start menu is still there with win 8, it's just a hell of a lot bigger.

I think most will like win 8 'if' they are prepared to give it a chance and perhaps shown a little of what can be done in very little time at all.

 

[Drew]

I agree. much of it is 'attitude'. Which will either open doors or make things less than could be or poor, instead or good & enjoyable.

Cheers,
Drew

 

[shaneblack]

Sorry I try to do my best on typing and letting everyone know what i'm talking about but sometimes I do make mistakes, it happens.

Anyway, yes It is the only OS i'm running now. But I have a win7 disc, win vista disc, and winXp disc so I'm covered in case I need to go back at anytime. This is the release preview, So improvements have been made. At first I couldn't install Apps, but windows update fixed that problem with some updates. My games work great, I tried a win7 driver for my graphics but it didn't like that. It has this special driver that was just developed not to long ago which really pushes the graphic speed along. I'm talking about the intel gma 965 / x3100 gpu. And I use this for older gaming from around 2005, not anything new. All the other drivers seemed to have some problems in certain parts of the game (GTA SA). But since Win8 is on here now I have been playing games just great, I have some fun with this now. Its really Nice