Windows 8

I'm used to having nothing on my desktop except the recycle bin and my most used profs on the task bar and start button. The most annoying thing is on win 8 is when you install a new program you then have to dtop to metro and search for it. For me it just gets in the way. I have used windows since 3.1 and have an ONC in computing so like to think I know a bit about IT. I know one thing apple would never launch anything like that. Oh yeah I remember first time I used a mac looking for two hours for the browser I mean safari come.on how obvious id that lol...

Not that it impresses me much, but at least I am used to working with Win8... The computer program we use at work is written for DOS, but with one or nine "tweaks", the computer bod's can just about get it to run in Win7 Pro, albeit temporarily!! As a fail-safe, all our office pc's are Win8-ready, but loaded with XP Pro!!

DAVID,DAVID,DAVID where not all pc wiz kids, micro megleamania like most software writers and for that matter poloticiances think they know better than use what we want they don't,we mybe soft in the head but we know when we are being taken for a ride.
This is the ramblings of an idiot.
Cheers
Evad

I work on history to make an educated guess. Every alternate version of Windows has been 'iffy' - I usualyl wait until an OS has been in general use before taking the plunge and for this reason I didn't install Windows 95, Windows ME and windows Vista and I won't be installing Windows 8.

I went through Windows 3.1, windows 98, Windows XP an currently windows 7 and will probably install windows 9 ( or whatever they call it ).

I've heard no one give any valid reason why windows 8 is any better than W7 and plenty of complaints about it.

Windows 7 is working great for me ( both 64bit and 32bit versions ) and can't the point in upgrading.

I use Startisback, it brings back the start menu and with a few clicks in it setting windows 8 can look and behave like windows 7. I dont see the metro thing any more

My wife has "8" on her PC and would agree with all of the above.
Plus it bugs her no end that every (every) time she switches on there is an update which requires her to spend time "fiddling" rather than the task at hand.

Me - I'm sticking with XP, and when that dies I might even jump to Linnux, but AutoCad doesn't appear to run under this (could be I've not found out how).

regards
Bernard

This topic has been discussed since last December on the Dell Community Microsoft forum. As on this forum, most people have expressed dislike of Windows 8, with a minority favouring it and explaining how it can be made to work/look like the older systems.

Martin

W8.1 will be released for testing Wednesday, next week. If you find an error you could earn yourself $100,000 from Microsoft.

His Nibs has a W8 laptop, and gets on with it just fine. Mind you he had a Windows phone first so maybe that helped. His doesn't have a touch screen but I get the impression it is easier to use with a touch screen than just with a mouse.

The age old policy of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" rings true here. If you have a working, reliable Windows 7 installation that is still running at a speed you are happy with, don't upgrade to Windows 8 unless you have some really good reason to do so.

Windows 8.1 looks interesting though, especially for corporate users.

If you new PC already has Windows 8 installed, best get used to it.

I didn't have much choice as my new Laptop shipped with Windows 8, but as I mentioned earlier I've actually been very happy with it and not found any major downsides yet. Granted, you do have to learn to use the 'desktop' view, but that's not a big issue for me. More important to me is the boot time (very fast, only around 20 seconds, was nearly 3 minutes on my Windows XP machine) and the stability (no crashes yet)

I am really not sure what that's all about, but there's no need to SHOUT! I can only tell you about my experiences with Win 8, I can't and don't speak for anyone else and I'm being honest with you all when I say I like it and don't find it difficult or annoying. Just so you all know, I am not a software writer, a PC Whiz Kid or anything remotely similar to this I work for an organisation that provides software solutions to the Retail Motor Industry, but I work there for my Retail Motor Industry knowledge and experience (28 years), not my software writing experience, of which I have none!! So, I am just a normal PC user, like most of the people on this Forum.

I'm not surprised there are split opinions on Win 8, this tends to happen when something changes significantly. I'm sure Microsoft are hearing the dissent and working on improvements. After all their products are still dominant in the business world and they will probably want to keep it that way.

Regards
David

I find the way browsers behave in Windows 8 really annoying, and I have IE, Chrome and Firefox installed; they all seem to behave strangely, ie scrolling sometimes doesn't work on the touch-pad and I have to use the touchscreen. While trying to edit an email in my browser I often get a hand appearing instead of a cursor and it won't let me select any text, but just scrolls the page. I try to scroll the page and it selects text instead....it's very erratic.

The computer does boot up really fast, but that's probably down to the SSD as much as the operating system. I'll try installing the Start button, as one of the things that really annoys me is there is no easy way to navigate to some functions (ie Control Panel) without installing a shortcut on the desktop. I have the task bar set up to access often used programs and the browsers. I find, however, that the touchscreen functions don't always do what you want, and a wrong key press on the keyboard or accidental touch of the screen will often switch it out of desktop view.

I was hoping the touchscreen with the stylus would be useful in editing images, but without the keyboard attached half the menus in CS6 and Lightroom can't be used (I have yet to find a way to open images from Lightroom in CS6 using the stylus), and with the keyboard attached the touchscreen is much harder to use than the mouse for fine work, ie cloning, selecting areas of an image, or using a brush, as the keyboard gets in the way of using the stylus efficiently.

Perhaps some of my problems are due to lack of familiarity, but I've been using Windows since it's inception, and I think I am pretty proficient with computers. I find Windows 8 a really clunky and non-intuitive OS.

Hi John, hope you're well! I haven't seen any erratic browser behaviour with my copy of Windows 8 and IE10, everything seems normal and is no different from my work laptop that runs Windows 7. Regarding Control Panel, all you need to do is move the mouse to the bottom or top right and click on Settings, then Control Panel. This is no more effort or clicks than doing the same thing in XP or Windows 7.

Regards
David

PS: I think the boot time is mostly the Operating System, I don't have a SSD and it boots in approx. 20 seconds.

Prompted by some posts in this topic that indicate Windows 8 may be causing some of us some annoyances / issues, here is a link to a few helpful tips that I hope you will appreciate.

link

One of the reasons I probably don't find it annoying is that I've got it set up the way I want it to work, so for example I don't get the stupid Metro IE Browser Windows, I get the normal desktop ones that we are all used to. I also have it set so I can go straight to the Desktop view after booting up, simply by hitting the 'Enter' key.

Hope this is useful.

Regards
David

When I work with photoshop, I use a Logitech G13 gaming keyboard. That thing is compact, has a "mouse"button operated with the left thumb, and all the keys can emulate any keys or combination of keys on a regular keyboard.

That little thing is simply amazing.

http://gaming.logitech.com/en-ca/product/g13-advanced-gameboard