What is the verdict on Windows 8?

[Pierre3400]

I used windows 8 for about an hour. I spent 30mins of that hour looking for Control Panel.

I gave up, formatted and installed windows 7.

I had a friend that went all crazy for Windows 8, kept telling me it was great on a laptop, and i he really loved it.

Odly last time i used his laptop it had Windows 7 on it, and funny part is, he never told me he went back to W7, and all of a sudden now doesnt speak of windows 8 in a good way anymore.

I look at W8 as an in between OS. Like Windows Millennium.

 

[c627627]

Why!? In 30 seconds he could have had Classic Shell turn his 8 into Win7.

That would have been a lot quicker than getting rid of 8 and installing 7 from scratch.

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

Windows 8 = Windows 7 except metro, get past metro, your on a newer faster windows 7.

 

[Omsion]

I used windows 8 for about an hour. I spent 30mins of that hour looking for Control Panel.

Really now?

Start -> Type "Control Panel"
Exactly the same way I normally get there in Win7.

I also went and tried to find where how you could get there without using search. Opened up an explorer window, went to Computer. Clicked on Computer.

Almost exactly the same place as in Win7.

(Win7 image stolen from here)


I personally don't have that much stake in my OS - I'm happy using whatever (having happily worked with Macs, Linux, Windows), but I'm starting to get annoyed at the exaggerated vitrol.

Please don't turn me into an OS zealot

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

alot of people are still used to the old start menu way of things, not using windows / type to search, i was one, but starting to use the search more

 

[Kylesims]

You can also click on the desktop app.. Move your mouse to the lower left corner.. ALL the way to the corner.. It'll show the little square representation of your Start screen. Right click on it, and a menu pops up that lets you access Computer, Control Panel, Disk Managment, Device Manager, etc.

 

[Culbrelai]

Really now?

Start -> Type "Control Panel"
Exactly the same way I normally get there in Win7.

I also went and tried to find where how you could get there without using search. Opened up an explorer window, went to Computer. Clicked on Computer.

Almost exactly the same place as in Win7.

(Win7 image stolen from here)


I personally don't have that much stake in my OS - I'm happy using whatever (having happily worked with Macs, Linux, Windows), but I'm starting to get annoyed at the exaggerated vitrol.

Please don't turn me into an OS zealot

That's what Windows 8's Explorer UI looks like? I spent 30 minutes on a Win 8 computer in Best Buy and could not for the life of me find that "charms" menu that supposedly has replaced the start menu on the desktop. Neither could my two other friends. The laptop was a Dell, non touchscreen. That is a horrible UI, Why would you ever need an office style ribbon on Windows Explorer? So ugly.

 

[cullam3n]

My laptop came with Windows 8 installed. After getting used to it, it's really not that bad. To be honest I spend most of my time in a VM these days, but there's nothing really that bothers me about the UI anymore. The tile screen is just a full screen start menu, the charm bar (mouse to the right side of the desktop) is convenient. I do miss the option of having Aero at least (I don't Aero on my Win7 box currently), and the only real issue I have is with SMB shares. It seems unable to resolve the hostnames in explorer (eg \\computer) so I have to do \\IP.Address instead. I'm not sure if that's specific to my application or not, I haven't really researched that. It's also a pain to dual boot with for Linux, but that's also partly due to the way my laptop is set up with its mSATA boot SSD and hard drive.

It boots fast, and the new task manager is awesome. I'm not complaining. I'm not sure if I would upgrade from 7 to 8, but I definitely wouldn't downgrade from 8 to 7 like some are doing.

 

[Bobnova]

Wow that's ugly, lol. No thanks.

 

[cullam3n]

You can also go to the Control Panel through the charm bar.

 

[Omsion]

That's what Windows 8's Explorer UI looks like? I spent 30 minutes on a Win 8 computer in Best Buy and could not for the life of me find that "charms" menu that supposedly has replaced the start menu on the desktop. Neither could my two other friends. The laptop was a Dell, non touchscreen. That is a horrible UI, Why would you ever need an office style ribbon on Windows Explorer? So ugly.

You hit the windows button on the keyboard. Or you go to where the windows button used to be. That's for the start menu/screen.

But you do have a point:

You can also click on the desktop app.. Move your mouse to the lower left corner.. ALL the way to the corner.. It'll show the little square representation of your Start screen. Right click on it, and a menu pops up that lets you access Computer, Control Panel, Disk Managment, Device Manager, etc.

This really is the problem with Windows 8. Many things are not discoverable, which certainly gives good reason to complain. Though I still don't understand how people aren't finding the stuff thats in the same place as previous versions!

And then the things they change to make features actually discoverable, aka moving stuff out of nested menus or right click menus and into the ribbon interface, you guys still complain! Seriously! It's driving me nuts.

Be consistent damnit!

 

[c627627]

You can also go to the Control Panel through the charm bar.

Yeah by jumping through multiple circus hoops
whereas with http://sourceforge.net/projects/classicshell/files/


you do Control Panel, Shut Down and Reboot all with one click:

 

[Omsion]

More on the ribbon - actual options for working with folders. All of this stuff was previously buried in menus or right click options, and some even in the folder options dialog. All exposed now. I find this is an obvious improvement (though it'll be great if it could be smaller), apparently an opinion not shared.

 

[c627627]

I agree with you that the size should be customizable. As should the ribbon itself.

I also agree that it is an obvious improvement. But why not allow us to have a custom single ribbon with both custom size and most importantly -- custom buttons. Then there would be no need for Classic Shell Explorer in Windows 8:

 

[Kylesims]

More on the ribbon - actual options for working with folders. All of this stuff was previously buried in menus or right click options, and some even in the folder options dialog. All exposed now. I find this is an obvious improvement (though it'll be great if it could be smaller), apparently an opinion not shared.

Oo, now that's something I hadn't realized yet... That IS pretty nifty, putting the folder/file controls all right there, rather then having to find them in the submenu. Looks a lot like what some of the newer versions of Office look like.

 

[Culbrelai]

Ribbons are very useful, said nobody ever

 

[nd4spdbh2]

Yeah by jumping through multiple circus hoops
whereas with http://sourceforge.net/projects/classicshell/files/


you do Control Panel, Shut Down and Reboot all with one click:

god .... that looks HORRIBLE.... if the win 8 flat color interface wasnt bad enough put a janky *** start button from xp and an xp start menu on it.... may as well just go back to xp.

If win 8 had a start menu i would use it, the closest thing to do it right, start8, you have to pay for which is bs, it should be built in functionality.

Just this weekend in the two days i worked we probably had 4 to 5 computers returned due to them having windows 8 on them.

 

[briansun1]

what about this one it is free and dose what it is ment to do.

 

[c627627]

god .... that looks HORRIBLE.... if the win 8 flat color interface wasnt bad enough put a janky *** start button from xp and an xp start menu on it....

lol, I made those myself because just the *notion* that they did not allow us to use the Start Menu made me make it just to prove a point. Everyone who sees it thinks it's a Windows XP machine . Here's the default Windows 7 Start Button people tend to use:




or else they use any Start Button they want.

Our entire point against MS Approach is that there is no 'good' or 'horrible' look. If we choose to have one click functionality of the Start Menu, Shut Down, Restart, Control Panel buttons, we can use whichever actual buttons we want... especially horrible looking ones to prove the point of customization!

 

[c627627]

If win 8 had a start menu i would use it, the closest thing to do it right, start8, you have to pay for which is bs, it should be built in functionality.

Why use start8 when you can have any kind of Start Menu you want for free with Classic Shell?

Just this weekend in the two days i worked we probably had 4 to 5 computers returned due to them having windows 8 on them.

Why not install Classic Shell with Windows 7 Start Menu button and disable Charms - there's Windows 7 if they don't want Windows 8... for free and in less than 30 seconds.