W8 interface not to horrible

[Rotary]

how come they removed the transparency from win8? I kinda wanted it lol

 

[YoshiMon]

Saying the Start Button has not left just been hidden is a bit disingenuous. The interface for that part of the UI has totally changed. It has been made into something that is not designed for a desktop UI rather a tablet/touchscreen.

Further this design philosophy is pretty evident in the rest of the UI. Making interacting with it via the standard keyboard/mouse setup annoying and inefficient. That they left the Taskbar but did not given an option to put the Start Button, and its old functionality, back shows their intent. This is not even as bad a change for change's sake. Rather it is MS forcing change on the market such that they can buy their way back into the cell/tablet market where they have fallen far behind.

And they are buying their way back into that market. That they are pricing Win8 so low is a clear indication of that. There is no way that such prices are indicative of the R&D costs for, mind you the 2 versions, Win8.

All that being said there indeed some incremental improvements to the OS 'under the hood'. To that point I say ok. That should be SOP, they win no points in my book for doing what they should be doing.

Now this is my opinion and that the OP, and anyone else, who feels the Win8 UI is 'not horrible' has every right to their own opinion. Further I am no stranger to UI changes given that I am old enough to have used computers when you learned CLI or did not use a computer. Then all of the graphical UIs over the years including early touch screen UI's via Palm and such. And so I have then to ask, why should we have to accept something as 'not horrible' vs something good?

 

[c627627]

Excellent Post ↑

Going to be quoiting that for the win and I've read a lot of opinions on this. You summed it up great.

Spoiler

Saying the Start Button has not left just been hidden is a bit disingenuous. The interface for that part of the UI has totally changed. It has been made into something that is not designed for a desktop UI rather a tablet/touchscreen.

Further this design philosophy is pretty evident in the rest of the UI. Making interacting with it via the standard keyboard/mouse setup annoying and inefficient. That they left the Taskbar but did not given an option to put the Start Button, and its old functionality, back shows their intent. This is not even as bad a change for change's sake. Rather it is MS forcing change on the market such that they can buy their way back into the cell/tablet market where they have fallen far behind.

And they are buying their way back into that market. That they are pricing Win8 so low is a clear indication of that. There is no way that such prices are indicative of the R&D costs for, mind you the 2 versions, Win8.

All that being said there indeed some incremental improvements to the OS 'under the hood'. To that point I say ok. That should be SOP, they win no points in my book for doing what they should be doing.

Now this is my opinion and that the OP, and anyone else, who feels the Win8 UI is 'not horrible' has every right to their own opinion. Further I am no stranger to UI changes given that I am old enough to have used computers when you learned CLI or did not use a computer. Then all of the graphical UIs over the years including early touch screen UI's via Palm and such. And so I have then to ask, why should we have to accept something as 'not horrible' vs something good?

 

[Psittac]

The reason i say its not to horrible is a few days before it came out i posted basically saying f this, then i downloaded it and changed my mind. yeah i dont like learning a general rearranging of things but im getting used to it and im kinda starting to like the feel of it.

i still think its just a general reskinning of w7 because your start menu is still there, just rearranged in a drastic way. your all programs is still there just takes a right click to access. i found the control panel too.

your right about it being designed for a touch screen. my friend brought over an rt surface and thats obviously what it was made for.

i think theyre not just trying to get into the tablet market but change the way our pc is used. a while back i saw a video of "ms future desktop" and it was a touch screen coffee table which i think is epic. theyre moving the desktop into the livingroom with a whole new function which is awsome, mine is allready hooked to the tv in my livingroom and seeing it merge into that scene is perfect, i just dont want to lose my desktop for gaming on a large screen.

they had to start the change some time

 

[TeknoBug]

I'm not a fan of clicking alot, I come from a Unix/Linux background. I messed around with a Windows 8 PC today and still didn't like the UI even in aero form.

 

[jstutman]

Ok. Using the $30 upgrade. You are saying you can do a clean install using the key?

The process involved downloading the windows 8 compatibility program, buying the upgrade. downloading windows 8 and telling it to put it on a usb drive. How do you do a clean install when it tries to find a previous qualified OS before it will even install. I am speaking of a legal install....if you have to do something not so legal to use the upgrade key. I am not sure I want to do that.

On the upgrade, windows 8 leaves a nasty folder called windows.old which takes up a lot of valuable SSD space so does anyone know if that folder can be deleted?

 

[c627627]

Yes. windows.old is safe to delete. It is your old Windows folder from before Win8 was installed.

 

[Psittac]

Ok. Using the $30 upgrade. You are saying you can do a clean install using the key?

The process involved downloading the windows 8 compatibility program, buying the upgrade. downloading windows 8 and telling it to put it on a usb drive. How do you do a clean install when it tries to find a previous qualified OS before it will even install. I am speaking of a legal install....if you have to do something not so legal to use the upgrade key. I am not sure I want to do that.

On the upgrade, windows 8 leaves a nasty folder called windows.old which takes up a lot of valuable SSD space so does anyone know if that folder can be deleted?

as far as legal, I upgraded my w7 install to a w8 install. I didn't check my ssd space but it wasn't hurt that much, i'm on a 120g drive and with my games and windows I've got 30g free. honestly I didn't look before and after but on a personal level it didn't hurt me enough to need to delete anything I didn't need to. previously I wanted to free up room and still managed to end up with plenty of space.

 

[Teko]

Further this design philosophy is pretty evident in the rest of the UI. Making interacting with it via the standard keyboard/mouse setup annoying and inefficient. That they left the Taskbar but did not given an option to put the Start Button, and its old functionality, back shows their intent. This is not even as bad a change for change's sake. Rather it is MS forcing change on the market such that they can buy their way back into the cell/tablet market where they have fallen far behind.

I would have to disagree, but I will admit there is a steeper learning curve with mouse/keyboard interaction. But to call it inefficient is reaching. It's more of the fact that you're used to navigating Windows in a certain way with the mouse & keyboard so there's a muscle memory issue. I've been using W8 since the Consumer Preview and I've ran it as the primary OS on my laptop and not to pretend that I was sold from the get go, but now I honestly like the new Windows 8 navigation.

 

[Rotary]

I installed windows 8 again last night, because i wanted to try start8

Its ok after you install start8

I end up uninstalling and putting windows 7 back because this is nothing more then a windows 7 2.0 tablet os. why do i need all those blocks on a 30'' IPS monitor. so ugly

when i tried to do a backup image like how 7 is, its not easy... win8 is a step back for me in alot of ways

 

[Teko]

I installed windows 8 again last night, because i wanted to try start8

Its ok after you install start8

I end up uninstalling and putting windows 7 back because this is nothing more then a windows 7 2.0 tablet os. why do i need all those blocks on a 30'' IPS monitor. so ugly

when i tried to do a backup image like how 7 is, its not easy... win8 is a step back for me in alot of ways

• Storage Spaces
• File History
• Faster boot times
• Windows To Go
• Windows Live Syncing
• Improved Task Manager
• Improved File Explorer
• Detailed File Copying
• Recovery Options (Refresh & Reset)

...all pretty huge features in Windows 8, or you can continue to pretend this is the same OS with a new modern UI slapped over the top.

 

[Rotary]

• Storage Spaces, really!
• File History, are you saying I cant see a file history in win7?
• Faster boot, not really if you're running a SSD
• Windows To Go, google does this
• Windows Live Syncing, google does this
• Improved Task Manager, normal users like my grandmother would care less
• Improved File Explorer, its ok
• Detailed File Copying, 50% of copying only takes 10 sec, whats the big deal
• Recovery Options (Refresh & Reset) you can do the same in windows 7

...all pretty huge features in Windows 8, or you can continue to pretend this is the same OS with a new modern UI slapped over the top.

 

[Ajay57]

Well guy's here is a post to get your teeth into, not much in Difference between Win 7 and Win 8. Given the choice Win 7 it stay's on this PC, because that version is for Tablets and Cellphones. AJ

1,http://www.techspot.com/review/561-windows8-vs-windows7/page2.html

 

[soulwatch5]

Is there any difference in OCing between the two OSs? If the new OS is able to get a stable 100mhz out of the cpu then that alone might be worth it. I've spend more than $40 on parts just to beable to oc more.

 

[rogbur22]

Since my first days with Win 7 I have loved it. This is the first MS operating system I have truly been happy with. With that said and 8 being built on the 7 shell and yada yada yada I will no doubt get around to Windows 8 at some point. For right now though I have only been using Win 7 since Feb 2010 and Im just not ready to move on yet. I don't see enough benefit for me to scrap a perfectly good/great OS for another one that's so similar. I gotta give 7 at least another year

 

[kmo_9000]

Well I put windows 8 on my desktop just to see what it was like, I got in on the $15 upgrade and I gotta say it's not as horrible as I had imagined.

Between the usage of the full screen feature and a cleaner look I say it's worth getting used to, not to mention it's slightly snappier then 7.

Any interface change sucks because I like what i'm used to, but honestly I think I'll manage.

The start button hasn't left, it's just been re-skined and hidden. The corner where the start button used to be is now the spot that you can move your mouse and pull up a "full screen start menu". The same spot puts you back on the desktop, so it's not gone it just looks different and has some functionality that's tough to get used to.

I like the idea of connecting everything into the "start menu" but wish something like facebook was integrated properly as well as being able to have a google search button.

The overall look of it is much nicer and my animated background is gone but i'm sure stardock will come out with something.

pro: looks clean and full screen
con: hard to get used to (can't even shut down without several clicks or ctrl alt del)

conclusion: worth $15 and if I can't stand it i'll reinstall.

Not so easy when you have a dual monitor on that side, the mouse goes to the other screen instead of into the corner. Really annoying, I just want a button to press...

 

[YoshiMon]

That is fine

I would have to disagree, but I will admit there is a steeper learning curve with mouse/keyboard interaction. But to call it inefficient is reaching. It's more of the fact that you're used to navigating Windows in a certain way with the mouse & keyboard so there's a muscle memory issue. I've been using W8 since the Consumer Preview and I've ran it as the primary OS on my laptop and not to pretend that I was sold from the get go, but now I honestly like the new Windows 8 navigation.

Not to get all, get off my lawn!, but again I have been using all forms of UI's for a long time now. I am not just used to "navigating Windows in a certain way", rather I have seen what tends to be efficient and what is not.

Even MS admitted that when they forced the 'ribbon' change in the Office suite that users who were more advanced were slowed down. That that UI, even when the advanced users got their muscle memory trained up, did not allow them to get back to their old levels of productivity. Some UI changes don't pan out for everyone.

And that is the thing. If MS had put an option in to use another shell natively we would not even be having this discussion. Those who wanted the new UI could use it while those who wanted the time tested UI that has been a standard for almost 2 decades now could choose that. But no, MS is forcing this change. Ask yourself why.

 

[hafa]

...MS is forcing this change. Ask yourself why.

MS recognizes that market trends strongly indicate that the desktop PC is destined to become a niche market and that mobile devices will dominate in the future. They recognize that they're late to the game and their best chance to maintain relevance in a rapidly changing marketplace is to provide what was heretofore unavailable, i.e., a unified user experience and availability of applications across all devices.

Pursuant to cross-device applications, the issue that I find most troublesome is not that the UI is being forced upon users, but rather that, in Windows 8 RT, (for now) MS has (shrewdly) followed Apple's model of software distribution, which requires that software be purchased from their "store" and disallows the installation of "Apps" that are not approved for sale therein.

 

[YoshiMon]

...that the desktop PC is destined to become a niche market ...

Like how the PC gaming market was due to die 5 years ago? Golly gee Lassy! Better get Timmy the Toyboy out of the well because PCs are gonna die!

Look, I'm not going to call you a MS shill...but ok; you kinda look like an MS shill.

 

[hafa]

Like how the PC gaming market was due to die 5 years ago? Golly gee Lassy! Better get Timmy the Toyboy out of the well because PCs are gonna die!

Look, I'm not going to call you a MS shill...but ok; you kinda look like an MS shill.

Yep, <sarcasm>I'm the MS corporate rep in charge of the massive market of Micronesia and a real newbe here on OC forums</sarcasm>. Please, pointing out something that's not anti-Microsoft does not make one a "shill", although I do still like to lick Bill Gate's boots.

In all seriousness, take a look at the links I provided in my last post. Neither were pro-Microsoft from any standpoint and the second was decidedly anti-Microsoft.

The term "niche market" does not imply extinction, but rather a segment outside of the majority market share. Objective analysis of market trends shows a clear shift away from the PC. This has been reported everywhere from the BBC to ZDnet to CNN. Microsoft recognizes this and has charted a course that they see in their best interests. Once again, this has been widely reported.

Then again, I could be wrong and the new UI might just be an evil conspiracy between Ballmer and aliens from Uranus who wish to bring about mind control at the behest of the tri-lateral commission and the Illuminati.