WIndows 10

Thanks Steve, the sign out option is included in that drop-down list there also. Does anyone know if the keyboard shortcuts will work from the start screen or when a full-screen app is running, or is it only from the desktop?

My own view is that the previous start button, with direct access to all of these options, plus the choice of which one to feature on the actual button, was a better and more intuitive solution.... Even despite all the familiar jokes like ' how do you stop a windows computer? ... Click on start!

In answer to earlier questions about what I was talking about re 'add-on' ... It is the hugely popular third party tool called 'Classic Shell', which provides a start button and the familiar links to programmes and library and settings features. It is customisable to the style of a few older windows versions. A member here mentioned having had trouble with win8 in a business environment until they installed Classic Shell.

My point in relation to this is that it is wrong to go against the grain of so much user familiarity and easy functionality. An OS should provide the path of least resistance in terms of how users interact with it, in the interest of assisting them getting on with doing their stuff on the computer. If this element is not fully integrated and needs additional programming via an add-on, then it had failed. It is not the customers who need to change and learn it in this case as the new processes are a backwards step.

At the end of the day Nigel, times change ... you adapt or basically get left behind moaning that nothing works like it did in the old days.

People have been using addons since the days of Windows 3.1 and will carry on doing so if it works for them but just because it does that doesn't mean it will for everyone. We all have our own way of doing things. You may find Windows 8 unintuitive but from the replies on this and other threads a lot more get on with it fine ... which brings me back to my first sentence.

As I said in a previous thread I hated W8 with a passion but took the time to learn how to use it properly and now prefer it to my W7 laptop.

I don't accept your painting my thoughts as moaning or being some kind of old fogey resistant to change ... That it unfair in this context. The resistance to these changes is widespread and well documented and there's plenty of evidence that win 8 has not been accepted by a significant number of Microsoft customers. The issues I'm concerned with do not count as any sort of logical onward progression ... They are only retrogressive and poorly thought through, so deserve rejection.

Lets hope its not too late ... It will be very interesting to see which attitudes and feedback Microsoft will be taking seriously with its new version 10. They can only be hoping that the physiological and numerical gap between 8 and 10 is big enough ....

I rebooted my mac for just the third time in 15 months ownership a few weeks back. It just never crashes and two of those reboots where due to mavericks and Yosemite being installed.

I haven't had a BSOD on Windows 8 or 8.1. I only restart the machine after updates.
This thread is supposed to be about Windows 10 being free, not another slag fest for 8.1 haters and. Apple fanboys.

It really has served it's purpose now.

There plenty of information and instructions for both W8.1 and 10 on the web now.

I suggest you go read up on both.

Well we'd have to find something else then to fight over and get all sensitive about What could it be .... Maybe AA filters or.... Even Pentax cameras! I've long ago given up getting frustrated that my threads take on a life of their own. You just can't control that on a Public forum. A topic about win 10 being released will inevitably lead to discussion of the whys and wherefores and issues that relate to the current version and what needs to be changed.

As I've said, lets hope that the new release will address the problems and allow many more people to embrace, or re-embrace the windows platform and put win 8 era firmly in the past ...Microsoft know themselves it has to be ' moving rapidly on .... '

But Gwyn, just again telling those who don't like win8 to go and ' read up', as though we just don't understand it or are ' stuck in the muds' is arrogant, and will just end up like the last thread.

W8.1 starts in the desktop.
But yes, if you are in a full screen app, alt+F4 will close it and dump you back to the desktop, alt+f4 brings up the shutdown dialogue.

Also, new to W8 is the Winkey+X option.

That menu is awesome, all that stuff presented in one place. I like it a lot.

8.1 natively includes the start button as I understand it so no need to dwell on the past when it didn't have this in the original 8 release.

As opposed to Windows 8.1 fanboys? Or are we only allowed to use that particular disparaging term for Apple users?

Anyway, due to curiosity and a slight surplus of funds, I recently bought myself a cheap Lenovo 8.1 laptop to see how much of an improvement it is over 8, which I tried last year and dumped after a couple of weeks.

It doesn't have a great deal of memory, so it's a bit slow. And, to stay in desktop and other reasons, I've had to disable quite a lot of the options for the touchpad driver. But I'll only be using it for the internet and other simple stuff so I'll stick with it and see how things go.

Major annoyances so far include hiding the ability to create local accounts in an attempt to force users to have Microsoft internet based accounts and when you do manage to create a local account (or any account) the first time you log in it goes through a load of, to my mind, unnecessary setting up.

It also took a heck of a long time to set up the first time - including a gig and a half of updates to the OS! But that is not 8.1 specific - I had the same problem when I upgraded to 7.

It will do for simple use and for trying out 10 when it arrives, but I'm not that impressed so far.

Nope, all it starts is the new Start UI. Not the Start menu you were hoping for.

That's right, 8.1 did not reverse the regressive failures of 8. The ' concession ' button is just a link really, but it did add the right-click options as detailed here earlier.

Its always refreshing when a company gives something away (even though we know there is probably a commercial reason behind it) so the free upgrade is welcome. We have had Dx0 Pro 8 free lately and though not free it was brilliant when Adobe reduced the cost of buying Lightroom from over £200 to just over £100! All these things help us people on a budget.

The reason this thread is going the way of the other one is simply because you have chosen for it to do so by banging on again and again about how much you hate Win 8.1
We all know that Nigel, don't keep on about it. It is getting boring, and tbh verging on trolling.

I was never referring to any specific person with my previous stuck in the muds comment as I said in the other thread.
I am sorry you chose to take it personally, but I apologised for it. I am now leaving this thread. i regret starting it. I should have known better.

I shan't be around on the forum for a while while I consider my future here.

No need for anybody to take things personally.

The bit I don't quite get is why people feel so tempted to upgrade the OS, unless we're upgrading the computer itself. The OS should be pretty much invisible and it's the programs that are the interesting bit. Windows Update keeps the current OS in good form.

I just think it's always a good idea to have the latest software installed. Yes updates are useful but sometimes a new operating systems is required because new programs wont run on the older system e.g. Lightroom 5 would not run on my Vista.
I upgraded to Windows 8.1 and I'm happy with it but when Windows 10 comes along for free I will upgrade, I wouldn't have though if I would have to pay for it, I'd have left it util I needed to upgrade again.