Windows 8.1 offers plenty of Metro enhancements, but mostly forgets about the desktop

[VitalyT]

Evidently, Microsoft doesn't consider it a rain, a bunch of nerds spitting on each other, to be making any change in Windows 8.

I've been happily using Start 8, and will continue to do so when 8.1 arrives. It is good to have a choice.

 

[stansfield]

I will not be downloading this update! I have already modified my system with third party software etc. to provide exactly what I want and don't want it screwed up by 8.1 with reversion to an inferior interface!!!

 

[richalone442]

If I had a full sized keyboard with a built-in 5" to 8" touch screen, using the start screen probably wouldn't bother me that bad. At least then I could confine all those ugly color coded squares to a small screen. This would also give touch capabilities, without needing to purchase a larger touch screen monitor.

Ugly is the real point, who wants their desk top to be ugly, I installed W8 developers edition and almost threw-up, I can only imagine what is does to people with epilepsy.

 

[Duckula22]

I am not a Linux fanboy, as a matter of fact my favorit OS is Windows 7, but I am preparing myself for an eventual switch over to the Linux camp, when Windows 7 is no longer supported. When I buy a new laptop, it'll probably come with Windows 8, or Windows 9 installed from factory, but I will delete all hard drive partitions and install then what will be my favorite Linux distro, right now Elementary OS is looking pretty good, and it's comatible with Ubuntu. Windows will finally be just for games.

 

[Guest]

That's because the Enterprise market is THE market.

MS takes them for granted at their own risk.

So some pimply faced ***** buys a laptop with Win8? Big deal, MS makes1 license sale. whoopee.

One IT chief cuts a cheque for an Enterprise wide upgrade of 25, 50, 100, 500, or maybe a 1,000 systems. Perhaps 10's of thousands.

You getting it now, sunshine?

 

[TheBigFatClown]

Windows 8 was designed for the consumer market, the consumer market according to every analysis out there is moving more towards mobile devices, is it so crazy to think that Microsoft will be making 2 operating systems one for business and enterprise focus and one mainly for consumer tech? From what I have heard from my relatives in Redmond Microsoft has no plans of dropping windows 8's style or "metro" anytime soon for the consumer market, does this mean they won't offer another version desktop focused for those who want/ need it for business usage, no, is it gonna be on the consumer PC's when you walk into a local PC store prob not, but they can prob sell it to you. As someone who sells Windows 8 computers everyday the biggest scare I see in the average consumer is just the fact Windows 8 is prey different, same thing I saw when Vista was released, but after time they adapted and Windows 7 came out and was one of the best. I am sure by Windows 9-10 most users will have no problems with this new Windows layout, especially when there using it on there tablet or phone (or both)

OMG, please get off the "they don't wanna upgrade cause it's different" bandwagon. I am so tired of hearing that song I wanna put a bullet in my own skull right now.

People complained about basically two things in Vista, bad drivers, and the "in your face" UAC. Microsoft fixed both of those issues in time. Your comparing apples to oranges. Said another way, your just blowing smoke up peoples asses.

9 out of 10 users would have no problem with the Windows 8 UI *IF* it were confined to a tablet/cellphone. To apply that same statistic to desktop users of Windows 8 would, again, be blowing smoke up peoples asses. If 9 out of 10 people had no problem using the Windows 8 UI on a DESKTOP then 9 out of 10 desktops that were running Windows 7 in the past would already be running Windows 8 right now. Guess what? They aren't.

If Microsoft doesn't give a rat's *** about desktop users anymore they would have been better off having not released Windows 8 on a desktop AT ALL. But since they did, I would argue that they in fact, do want to control the desktop market in spite of the fact that it may be shrinking because it would still be bring in millions if not billions of dollars a year in enterprise and home consumer sales.

And lastly, you say it's crazy for a company to cater to two different groups of people, huh? Should I even respond to that *****ic comment? Okay, yes I should to make it clear how ignorant the comment really is. LOL. Look at almost any product in America and tell me if there is only version of that product from lawn mowers to computers to cars. Tell all those companies to stop making low-end, mid, and high-end products. They will laugh your *** right out into the street.

When you go into a restaurant would you be happy to see one item on the menu? That would upset you right. So you start complaining about having just one food item on the menu and then you get the response from the cashier. "Oh please stop whining, your just afraid of change. Don't worry...you'll get used to it. So just #DEALWITHIT".

Microsoft wants the METRO interface to be in your face at all times because you will be more likely to give it up a second thought and wander into the app store to make spontaneous purchases. Touch on a ******* 30" monitor....LMFAO....are you ******* kidding me...who would even want to do that? Oh yeah, the news jouranlists on CNN. I forgot.

 

[Capaill]

Has anyone seen the ad where the girl is playing AngryBirds on a large touchscreen monitor with Windows 8? It looks like at least a 20 inch widescreen monitor. How much does that cost?! I guess this means that Windows 8 is not intended for the consumer or enterprise market but only for the rich kid market. Rich kids who have nothing to do but play games and flick through photos of animals. Ya, you're gonna make a lot of money there Microsoft.

 

[NetNut]

I am one of those techies that said he would not move to Windows 8... Not in a million years. Yet, after building a new PC for the wife and using her as a guinea pig, along with Stardocks Start8, I too migrated to Windows 8. I also use Start8 to boot to the desktop and have my Windows 7 look. I occasionally use the Modern UI but very rarely. The OS is just as speedy as my old Windows 7, faster in some instances, and provides me with some technical niceties like the new task manager. I have not had an issue as of yet.

 

[captaincranky]

I am one of those techies that said he would not move to Windows 8... Not in a million years. Yet, after building a new PC for the wife and using her as a guinea pig, along with Stardocks Start8, I too migrated to Windows 8. I also use Start8 to boot to the desktop and have my Windows 7 look. I occasionally use the Modern UI but very rarely. The OS is just as speedy as my old Windows 7, faster in some instances, and provides me with some technical niceties like the new task manager. I have not had an issue as of yet.

You of course, are free to do as you choose. But to me, it doesn't make any sense to upgrade, then to install software in order to prolong the Win 7 experiecne. Add to that, now you have to buy Windows Media Center separately.

If Win 8 is a smidge faster, that's no big deal. IMHO, neither you or I are that important to quibble over a millisecond here or there.

Windows 200 was a huge hit. But, many people were forced to abandon it, simply by virtue of that fact you could no longer secure the OS sufficiently to browse the web with it. To me, that's a tangible reason for an upgrade.

Lurking in the bowels of Windows 7 is the ability to enable touch screen, and Voc Rec. I don't know how evolved these functions are, (don't need, and haven't tried them), but if they're workable to a reasonable extent, there is no justification for going to Windows 8, just to pay for software to get around the (what seems to be), almost universally hated "Metro" GUI.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Self-driving cars aren't far away. Google it. And currently there are cars that parallel park themselves.

Yeah, dont get me wrong, they are cool, but I think this will need a lot of development to make it safe.

 

[tipstir]

Microsoft is trying to change the way we all use Windows. Windows 7 is still used by Corp America and one large Insurance Company is rolling it out as we speak to 15,000 employees. Of course this company was still running Windows XP Pro systems. They are not going to Windows 8 though. As you can see why. Making App as Icon Tiles the idea works for their Smart phone with touch, but more Windows 7 customers don't have touch monitors or touch laptops.

So using the mouse to navigate in the Windows 8 Icon Tiles is issue. Not easy to do without a touch panel. So the desktop feel is changed also. Windows 7 Dialog boxes are gone for this fancy graphical base full screen dialog.

I know they want to make some fun changes to the OS but still work on this project and don't just send it out and it's not 100% yet. Now we have Windows 8.1 to fix the Windows 8 issues.

Windows 7 for now and so is the rest of Corp America. Unless they go out and get Windows 8 RT or Windows 8 Pro tablets or laptops or desktop. Try to get their in-house software to function too. Cost a lot do full scale re-deployments of OS.

Not cheap!

 

[Railman]

Windows RT is no use for enterprise. One major reason is lack of macro operation.

 

[NetNut]

I am one of those techies that said he would not move to Windows 8... Not in a million years. Yet, after building a new PC for the wife and using her as a guinea pig, along with Stardocks Start8, I too migrated to Windows 8. I also use Start8 to boot to the desktop and have my Windows 7 look. I occasionally use the Modern UI but very rarely. The OS is just as speedy as my old Windows 7, faster in some instances, and provides me with some technical niceties like the new task manager. I have not had an issue as of yet.

You of course, are free to do as you choose. But to me, it doesn't make any sense to upgrade, then to install software in order to prolong the Win 7 experiecne. Add to that, now you have to buy Windows Media Center separately.

If Win 8 is a smidge faster, that's no big deal. IMHO, neither you or I are that important to quibble over a millisecond here or there.

Windows 200 was a huge hit. But, many people were forced to abandon it, simply by virtue of that fact you could no longer secure the OS sufficiently to browse the web with it. To me, that's a tangible reason for an upgrade.

Lurking in the bowels of Windows 7 is the ability to enable touch screen, and Voc Rec. I don't know how evolved these functions are, (don't need, and haven't tried them), but if they're workable to a reasonable extent, there is no justification for going to Windows 8, just to pay for software to get around the (what seems to be), almost universally hated "Metro" GUI.

I could not agree more. My reasons for upgrading were my own. I received the OS for free, I have backups, I have a corporate state entity asking to move to it, I have an AD environment in my home, and I wanted to eat he same dog food I would have to support if they force me to install it for them. So there was no cost other than my time and I had a back out plan. If it weren't for receiving it for free, I would have never given the upgrade a second thought.

 

[Guest]

thank God steam is catching traction on Linux

[LEFT][FONT=Arial]If you think Steam on Linux will spur a domino effect for other game developers to follow suit then you are in for a rude awakening.[/FONT][/LEFT]

 

[Guest]

I am not a Linux fanboy, as a matter of fact my favorite OS is Windows 7, but I am preparing myself for an eventual switch over to the Linux camp, when Windows 7 is no longer supported. When I buy a new laptop, it'll probably come with Windows 8, or Windows 9 installed from factory, but I will delete all hard drive partitions and install then what will be my favorite Linux distro, right now Elementary OS is looking pretty good, and it's compatible with Ubuntu. Windows will finally be just for games.

For you perhaps, but I use Windows for more than just games so unless Linux support the software (e.g. Sony Vegas, Adobe Photoshop, Netflix) and hardware (e.g. printer, iPhone) that I depend on heavily (most likely never thanks to lousy Linux zealots), I'd rather stick with Windows 7 even if Microsoft ends support for it.

 

[captaincranky]

I'd rather stick with Windows 7 even if Microsoft ends support for it.

I think most of us are with you on that. For my part, I won't buy another OS for an old machine.

If I decide to upgrade Windows to a new version, I buy an OEM copy, then build a machine around it.

Trying to force fit a copy of Win 8 to a however many year old computer, just sounds (IMHO anyway), counterproductive and possibly stupid.

 

[Guest]

TIPS FOR WINDOWS 8 USERS:
Instead of having to install third party start menu or live with windows 8 start menu disappearance. I actually found it a little helpful to put a shortcut menu for the apps list at the taskbar.

1. First I make a shortcut icon in the desktop for the 'all apps' list by using the target link as "%windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{2559a1f8-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}"
2. Then I simply drag the new 'all apps' shortcut to the taskbar. The same position as where the start menu used to be.

Its not perfect but I found it much useful compare to the new windows 8 start screen. Now I can even go further by adding more shortcuts in the all apps screen e.g. the document, all recent files and so on.

Hope this is useful for all. BTW Microsoft need to understand that their old way of getting around the windows was much better than the new start screen. Thank you

 

[avoidz]

The world constantly moves on, we have to move with it or get left behind. Ditching Win 7 is gonna be like dumping those old comfortable shoes you love so much. I wonder what Win 10 will be like...

Hopefully they utilize the kinect's technology into a webcam to make something like Leap Motion's gesture controls rather than touch screens. Heck, if I were Microsoft, I'd just buy that company. If that technology works, I think most could agree it'd be pretty sick!

https://www.techspot.com/news/52649-leap-motion-shows-off-gesture-controls-in-windows.html#comments

I would love to see an office full of workers controlling their computers with Kinect.

 

[teknovik]

I just switched to Linux Mint a week ago with the same setup as my win7 machine: LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox etc. The only missing program so far is a good raw photo importer, but its not a big deal.

Took about one day to setup. Went for the LTS version and could not be happier. Everything is very stable, convenient, and free

 

[Railman]

Quite a few persons have used the quote giving up a pair of comfortable shoes. Is moving to W8 akin to switching to stiletto heals?

 

[ReederOnTheRun]

I would love to see an office full of workers controlling their computers with Kinect.

I'm pretty sure those workers would love to see it too. It'd definitely be popular. It might even give people an incentive to use Windows 8 apps on a desktops, since those were built for touch. It would definitely make Windows more complete.

 

[captaincranky]

I would love to see an office full of workers controlling their computers with Kinect.

Although, it would make downloading porn appear much more indiscreet than doing it the old fashioned keyboard way

Meh, I suppose you could just "stick" to your "guns" and swear it was a new type of "exercise video"....

It would almost be mandatory (pardon the pun), to turn off the second monitor.
..

 

[Guest]

> I think it is time to move away from the classic menu we all know and love.

Why would anyone in their right mind want to move AWAY from something "we all know and love"? Because it's too handy? Too good? Too great? It works too well? Too intuitive? Too flexible? Too usable?

Let's remove 20 other things because we also love them.

(Promise me you'll NEVER design computer software for a living.)

 

[Guest]

> The world constantly moves on, we have to move with it or get left behind.

You don't seem to know the difference between "move with it" and "let's remove some great features and replace them with awful ones... or nothing at all".

Things can change... but they should IMPROVE.... not get worse and worse. There's a reason why huge numbers of people are avoiding W8 and W8.1 It's not just "for no reason".

 

[Railman]

It is clear that MS has failed to convince the majority that Windows 8 is a desirable product. They should have taken note of the comments during the beta stage testing. The changes in 8.1 are too little too late.