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As a lifelong PC guy, Here's a summary of my first day with W8 (i.imgur.com)

submitted ago by RCalvin

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[–]Velcrocore 24 points25 points ago

Off topic maybe, but a static image would have been more effective.

[–]jdarwood007 4 points5 points ago

As somebody who has used Win8 for over a month now and uses OS X and windows interchangeably everyday. I got to say that I found Windows 8 to be much more complicated, mostly because the lack of the start menu removed my known shortcuts to many places in windows. Good thing I know other routes around it, such as win+r, win+e, and go to lower left and when the start menu icon pops up, right click. Thats how I now navigate and get to most places in win8 that I need to get to.

I've only had a few issues and they are troublesome ones. Such as using RDP, I usually have about 5+ RDP sessions going to multiple servers. When running in full screen mode, I can't always bring another application to the front. They get stuck behind the RDP window. Really annoying.

Another which is going to cause many remote IT techs grief is booting into safe mode. I have found it near impossible to do so on a non booting system (because a driver is crashing it). I only got into safe mode that time because it started up enough that the login screen was there for a short while for me to hold shift and click restart. The traditional F8 (or shift+f8 as some sites say for win8) just offered no luck to bring me into safe mode.

[–]IRBMe 3 points4 points ago

Another which is going to cause many remote IT techs grief is booting into safe mode. I have found it near impossible to do so on a non booting system (because a driver is crashing it).

Yes, I remember watching a video about that. One of the common use-cases during Windows development required booting the system with some different boot parameters, which they would usually do by pressing a certain key combination during boot, giving them various boot options such as booting into safe mode. They found that with Windows 8 on modern computers (particularly with SSD's), the computers booted so quickly that they didn't have enough time to press the correct key combination. As a result, they had a major rethink about how to provide this functionality, and decided to put it in the restart options instead so you can tell it to reboot into safe mode, or whatever else you need. Unfortunately that doesn't really help you when you can't boot into the OS properly at all.

[–]HelloMcFly 0 points1 point ago

I got to say that I found Windows 8 to be much more complicated, mostly because the lack of the start menu removed my known shortcuts to many places in windows.

You can just pin programs and folders to the Start Screen just like you did the Start Menu, or hit the windows key and start searching just like you've always been able to do.

[–]jdarwood007 0 points1 point ago

I have handled that. Mostly its the fact that I am used to having Computer to right click on, the control panel there, printers and devices, etc. Not so much applications but the contextual menus which easily let me get to other aspects of managing a system. I've had to find new ways to get to all of these (a good deal of which show up when you right click on the start menu popup in the lower left).

[–]Demosecrecy 19 points20 points ago

Vista = Windows 8.

SKIP.

Wait for Windows 9 Professional edition.

[–]yuuray 12 points13 points ago

That's the first time i've seen 'windows 9' written down. I like it already.

[–]sjs -1 points0 points ago

I used Vista for about a year starting with SP1 and had zero problems with it. I liked it more than XP. I did all my work in a Linux VM but used it for every day browsing, other light use, and gaming. It had cool new behaviour like recovering gracefully from video driver crashes and the ability to be installed without SATA drivers on a floppy disk. Just more modern in general.

What do you think Windows 9 will change that will cause people not to hate it? It's not like they're going to go back on Metro. They are committed to it because they think all computers will soon have touch screens.

[–]Guy-Manuel 0 points1 point ago

I too had no problems with Vista, I actually think it's a fairly good, usable system.

[–]cwstjnobbs 0 points1 point ago

Same here, and I started with one of the beta versions. The only gripes I had with it were the memory usage and the lack of driver support from hardware vendors early on.

[–]Kyoraki 2 points3 points ago

You started with SP1, which fixed just about every problem people had with the system. Of course at that point, everyone had either switched back to XP, or used a Windows 7 preview of some sort.

[–]Cheesejaguar 3 points4 points ago

They'll probably bring back the start menu.

[–]quantumcoffeemug 8 points9 points ago

I still don't understand why they insisted on having the same UI for both touchscreen and mouse-and-keyboard devices. All they had to do was design two separate UI's on top of the same kernel, and they would have had a winner.

[–]ericanderton 9 points10 points ago

My semi-educated guess: All the major vendors are migrating towards an Apple Store like monetization model. In order to get maximum return on app-sales percentages, you need to make it really easy to engineer for every shred of hardware you support. The most straightforward path to success there is to make everything support the same mode of user interaction and run the same software. That translates to: run the same OS, with the same UI, everywhere.

With the current state of the art, this means: multi-touch, optional mouse, optional keyboard, and tablet-like user mode on everything. The only assumption you can make is that there's a full-color touchscreen, and one of a handful of aspect ratios.

Apple is already there with the largest deployment of stuff on iOS (iPhone, iPad, etc.). It wouldn't surprise me if Apple moved to replace OSX with iOS, or at least provide an iOS UI layer, for macbooks once they get touchscreen support. The money points in that direction.

[–]WinterAyars 1 point2 points ago

Actually they even did that, but then they soldered the two together...

[–]sjs 1 point2 points ago

Because they think all computers will have touch screens.

[–]Kyoraki 4 points5 points ago

It's like they don't care that computer professionals exist anymore.

[–]HelloMcFly 10 points11 points ago

Having now installed W8, I don't understand this sentiment. Everything works for me like it used to work except the search function works better, the task manager is awesome, and the computer boots slightly faster. I'm sure I'll find some things that are notably different, and I'm trying to see how I can optimize the corner context menus, but it's pretty much been business as usual.

[–]idrawinmargins 2 points3 points ago

I think folks problem with windows 8 is it is like dlc for 7. Not worth the cost at all.

[–]HelloMcFly -1 points0 points ago

Eh, $40? I'll take the three clear improvements I mentioned in my statement above for $40. I'm also liking the integrated calendar and mail.

[–]idrawinmargins 0 points1 point ago

not enough to get me to even shell out $40 more dollars.

[–]cwstjnobbs 1 point2 points ago

Best new feature IMO is the ability to mount ISO images without third-party software.

[–]HardlyWorkingDotOrg -3 points-2 points ago

If that is the best feature than Windows 8 really has nothing going for it.

[–]cwstjnobbs -1 points0 points ago

You mean besides the performance improvements, better multi-monitor support, touch support, ability to run all new mobile / tablet apps on the desktop, etc? Well no, apart from being better there's no reason to upgrade from Windows 7, change is terrifying and bad after all.

[–]kkjdroid 1 point2 points ago

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/35189-Windows-7-explorer-for-Windows-8

[–]wagedomain 3 points4 points ago

I've been using it for a little while and I like it. Why do you hate it? It's basically Win7 with more UI shortcuts and a souped-up start menu.

[–]RCalvin[S] -2 points-1 points ago

Bottom Line: Windows 8 - Touchscreen = Endless Frustration

[–]dak58 -2 points-1 points ago

I'm still not sure whether win8 will be a success or failure. At the very least, I am curious to see what happens in the electronic and semiconductor industry because of this.

Usually Apple does this thing every couple years. Half of everyone hates it, half of everyone has so much faith in Apple that they just buy it. Eventually if the half that bought it likes it, the other half gets on the Apple train. But, this is Microsoft making a similar move.

[–]Lilchef -2 points-1 points ago

Windows versions seem to alternate between good and bad in my opinion:

  • 98 - good
  • ME - bad
  • XP - good
  • Vista - bad
  • 7 - good
  • 8 - bad
  • 9 - ? Should be good!

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