As long as...
... I can still get "Desktop" as my top-left tile, I won't complain too much...
Windows Blue - the supposedly leaked sequel to Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system - will apparently look a lot more like Windows Phone 8 and allow users to further personalise their computers. Copies of what appears to be build 9364 of Windows Blue are circulating on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks; once the alpha-grade …
Nobody wants? are you sure you can vouch for every single member of the human race?
Guess what, tastes vary. Not everyone likes One Direction despite them being very popular. So I guess because so many people do like them all the other people who don't should be forced to listen to it and stop choosing to listen to something else?
I didn't install Windows 8, I haven't seen a tile since the Consumer Preview.
Microsoft presumably would like to sell their product. Unless/until I have the option, without messing about with 3rd party add ons, to have a "classic" mode (or whatever you want to call it) then I will continue to not buy it*. It's pretty clear I'm not alone in this.
*I may well not buy it even then, of course. Win 7 continues to be working just fine here, and next time I need to update my work hardware it will quite likely be a Linux + VM for when I need Windows. Nevertheless, as things stand right now it's a guaranteed lost sale.
On my xp box I have 382 files in 144 folders. How any serious user could migrate to windows 8 without a decent start menu is a sign of micrisoft's insanity
As it is I have to waste time removing useless tiles every time I install anything on my touchy feel slab.
And those 144 folders all end up in your "start" menu? Wow - talk about unusable/deep structure. IIRC the "last used" popup is a Win7 (maybe Vista) feature.
My start menu never had more than the programs in it (< 72) and the rest was done through them. If I really need documents - I pin them on the desktop. Easier now than ever since my programs are pinned on the seperat Modern screen.
I agree with hahnchen, the mouse does NOT work in Windows 8. Here's the proof - I insert a CD, and get a pop-up on the screen that says
"DVD Drive (D:) OFFICE11
Tap to choose what happens with this disc"
So I tap the screen with my mouse, but get no response. Nothing. Tap again. Still nothing. Tap twice quickly, but no difference. It's not until I CLICK that I get a response. Tapping does not work, so at least part of the mouse interface for Windows 8 DOES NOT WORK WHEN YOU DO EXACTLY WHAT THE FUCKING SCREEN TELLS YOU TO DO.
"Every version of Windows should have a 'Classic' UI option emulating Win 95. This would remove 99% of the complaints... "
Well that, and a decent file manager. As a li'l sidenote, I'll add that the WinXP Windows Explorer qualifies as a "decent file manager" only in comparison to all succeeding versions of Windows Explorer in subsequent Windows releases.
It will only be a "decent file manager" when it manages to stop occasionally crashing for no apparent reason (as it has done since Windows 95) and they give us the option to turn off the stupid "jump down the screen 2 seconds later*" that they added in Windows 7. Classic Shell can sometimes fix the latter but often only after you call up the CS settings and OK them again.
* this is what I mean: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/windows-explorer-expands-folders-inappropriately/50a81b05-da98-4d55-821d-55ffbbd0e998
A decent file explorer?
Is this a reference to the old two-pane file explorer that disappeared at the same time MS tried to claim Internet Explorer was an integral part of the OS in a bid to avoid an anti-trust ruling?
I get on okay with Windows explorer on 7... it doesn't crash too often, and the Win7 'Snap to half screen' feature makes it easier to recreate the old two-pane functionality.
> Every version of Windows should have a 'Classic' UI option
Maybe users would want that, but it would fail to meet Microsoft's future plans. MS's mobile market share has decreased from 42% of the US smartphone to less than 3%. Eventually this would impact on desktops as users move to Android, ChromeOS and OS/X or even Linux as being more familiar to them than the archaic Win95 derived UI.
In order to make Metro UI familiar MS needs to force it down users throats until they love it. Then they will demand that UI on phones and tablets. Making it optional it not an option.
W7 explorer was far better than XP explorer IMHO. The fact that it wouldnt tank large file copies due to one file being iffy was the biggest bonus. Various copy/rename functions and a proper "just remember what I chose the first time dammit!" options were good too.
Cant say ive had it crash many times, if it does then unless it is a hard blue screen error then it picks itself up again neatly.
When will they learn that I don't want to spend hours rearranging / resizing tiles? I have work / games / etc to do. It's one of the main reasons I dislike TIFKAM. I want an unobtrusive system that automatically arranges itself into alphabetical order like, oh I don't know, the start menu in Win7!
As for the advanced feature that allows you to have two whole windows on the screen at once!!! Wow how did they think of that. I currently have 4 windows open on one screen and 3 on another in Win7. Multiple windows are part of my workflow. Hell even my phone can do two windows at once!
Making Win8 even more like WinPho is not the way to fix it.
The raspberry pi uses a "toy" ARM processor and manages to run a normal desktop OS. That's *probably* because 2013's "toys" have more oomph than anything you could buy in previous years, but it *might* also have something to do with the OS not being a bloated steaming pile.
Sorry but that's BS. The tile UI is about supporting touch screens well.
When Microsoft released XP tablet edition people moaned they couldn't use the whole OS with touch. So they produce a fully touch capable OS and people are now complaining that their desktop is gone.
I think you'll notice that you made your own statement redundant
"XP tablet edition"
See that little word in the middle there, that word, tablet, you know, for small touch screen machines.
As I sit here reclined in my sofa my monitor (tv screen) is a good 3 meters away from me, so yeah, I couldn't give a fuck about touch, also all my computers have normal stand up monitors and only an idiot would think touch screen was anything but an RSI/Health and Safety law suite waiting to happen.
So argue the pro's of metro as much as you like, but don't bother talking about its touch capabilities on a normal desktop or laptop pc.
Actually the "tablet" in XP Tablet edition refered to 10-14'' tablets WITHOUT any touch - pen only WACOM or NTRIG digitizers back then. Even today they have the option "disable smear mode" as part of the control panel - and many users do.
And once you have a penable - it beats a notebook in truely mobile use AND can still be one on a desk (BT keyboard/mouse) even with adjustable distance between keyboard and screen for the "pure" tablets (Convertibles/Hybrids are like notebooks)
When Microsoft released XP tablet edition people moaned they couldn't use the whole OS with touch. So they produce a fully touch capable OS and people are now complaining that their desktop is gone.
Why do we have to have one or the other exclusively? We could have, I don't know, two versions, so they could offer both a desktop version, for those who want to use big monitors, mouse and keyboard, and a tablet version, for use with touch screen devices. You, know, something called choice, that radical concept where you get the privilege of making decisions about what kind of interface you prefer to use to do a particular job?
How many versions are really needed, regular win8 already has both and works fine here, they gave choice and the majority of people cant handle the choice!! as proven by the number of crackhead comments here how windows 8 sucks so badly because you switch between metro ui and desktop ohhh noooz
And a pi is - NOT a tablet! Currently all ARM tablets run castrates OOB - be they iOS, Fragmentdroid or Win/RT. The only ARM tablet in production that barely qualified for "tablet pc" is the Note series. Barely since the software is at best WinXP quality in the critical areas like Handwriting, often not even that
As soon as I get to non-mobile devices the small benefit an ARM may have in power consumption is lost and the Atoms, even the aging CTrails, win hands down.
"How many programs can a ARM toy tablet run at the same time?"
Why should your cheap, battery dependent, small screened, input deficient ARM toy dictate the behaviour of my high end, hex core, multimonitor, mains powered PC?
Microsoft cross promotional marketing requirements is not an acceptable answer.
When Xerox-PARC let Apple engineers view it's GUI work, the Apple guys mistakenly thought they had seen overlapping windows. They then clean sheeted designed that into the Lisa OS. Guess MS needs to send some of their Win8 guys over to Xerox. Or maybe just as far as the Win7 area?
Hours? Try minutes. Ask yourself honestly how many programs do you use regularly. Less than 80 most likely including games. And those fit nicely on the Modern start screen. The "rarely used" are quickly launched through the very powerful search.
As for the "multiple windows" - where is the problem? Your "workflow" will use classic applications and those work like they did in Win7. The "multi windows" only applies to Modern apps
I too hate server 2012 but I do like the VM licencing changes saving me money so thats why I used it. W8 got downgraded to W7 until there is a robust cheaply licensed (multiple PCs) start menu widget I can supplant into W8.
On a second note, I did (for shit n giggles) backup and restore to hyperV VM from 2008R2 to 2012 to see if it would actually work. It did! I never thought it would have been possible but it did work.
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