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You Can't Bypass the UI Formerly Known As Metro On Windows 8
colinneagle writes with this excerpt from Network World: "The final build of Windows 8 has already leaked to torrent sites, which is giving the propellerheads a chance to dig through the code. One revelation will probably not sit well with enterprise customers: you can't bypass the don't-call-it-Metro UI. Normally, you have to boot Windows 8 and when the tiled desktop UI (formerly known as Metro) came up, you had to click on one of the boxes to launch Explorer. Prior builds of Windows 8 allowed the user to create a shortcut so you bypass Metro and go straight to the Explorer desktop. Rafael Rivera, co-author of the forthcoming Windows 8 Secrets, confirmed to Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet that Microsoft does indeed block the boot bypass routine from prior builds. He also believes that Microsoft has blocked the ability for administrators to use Group Policy to allow users to bypass the tiled startup screen. There had been hope that Microsoft would at least relent and let corporate users have a bypass, if only for compatibility's sake."
...Windows 8.
Didnt we just cover this very thoroughly yesterday?
....Make people need you. - bill gates
And the way you make people need you is to not teach them to fish, but limit what they can do for themselves and make the rest so difficult that they have to need you.
I hope it won't be that bad. If the Interface Formerly Known As Metro is as bad as the Ribbon, I'll struggle for a while to adapt, and then probably go back to the previous version or install Classic Shell. I don't mind experimentation with something new. Maybe it really is better. But I don't understand why Microsoft doesn't provide a "classic" mode for people who are willing to try, but eventually decide they like the previous arrangement better. How many of you stuck with the default theme for Windows XP? Anyone? Can you imagine if there was no way to change it?
And to not allow it or make it easy for enterprise users. That's just cruel. Is Microsoft *trying* to increase training costs for companies?
It's not horrid on a touch-enabled device. The problem comes when you try to use an interface obviously designed for touch with no touch input. Sure, you can use it with a mouse, but that just feels awkward and weird.
Windows 8 is probably going to be amazing on tablets, but i don't see why Microsoft tries to force it on desktop users. In their stead, I would just keep the Windows 7 UI, and put that on top of the upgraded codebase. Or if they want to tie the platforms together so badly, make the OS detect the type of device it is installed on, and use the appropriate interface (Not-Metro for touch-based devices, regular for non-touch-based ones).
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
As someone who actually has a copy of Windows 8, TFA and TFS are correct and the OP is wrong. Microsoft has removed the previous methods of booting straight to the desktop.
They want people to make what was formerly known as Metro apps to play in the new UI, because they'll also work on the tablet & phone version. The goal is to have a unified platform to boost the amount of applications on the tablet and help it sell.
Of course, making Metroized apps means they don't work in Windows 7, which now that XP is gradually going away will be the dominant enterprise OS. And of course Metro is so unpopular with desktop users that the tablets are going to get a bad name just due to bad name recognition. So it's a risky strategy at best.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
Or they can just ... not install Windows 8, and stick with Windows 7, which'll be even faster on the new, more powerful hardware.
There's always another way, you know.
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
I can understand why Microsoft decided to remove that option, though I disagree.
They want to the users to give Metro a fair try by living with it for a while. It is different enough where most people only see it once until they set an option to get rid of it. I've been using Windows since 3.0 and the first thing I do at a new job is get rid of the XP theme and set things up to look classic.
I think this is a mistake for Microsoft. Forced changes without easy options to go back angers users. Ubuntu and Unity are in a similar situation. Between Microsoft and Canonical trying to promote a tablet desktop on non-tablet PCs I think Apple and the KDE will be the winners.
On my formerly Ubuntu box at home the change motivated me to give the KDE and Kubuntu a look for the first time in years. Luckily I really like it and am now unlikely to go back to Ubuntu and Unity(or GNOME )
It's called Windows 7. You can expect it to be a lot more popular in the enterprise then 8.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
It's not horrid
A sentiment I find often associated with various versions of Windows. Just yesterday I was speaking with a former Vietnam POW who'd had his fingernails pulled out with pliers, and he commented that the time he bought a mid-range laptop in the early days of Vista was 'pretty fucking awful but not the worst thing that has ever happened to me'.
So good job Microsoft!
While I admire the desire to be really creative and shit and try to come up with a cool "new" interface, functionality still remains one of the key desirable attributes for a user interface. We can thank Apple and all the Apple wannabe copycats for useless, ridiculous new ways of doing things that are less accurate and more time consuming by design. Who said that dragging page after page of stacked thumbnails as if they were pages from a book is an improvement over a plain old list? Especially when the constraints are so narrow that you often end up "dragging" two at a time. Want an example? Here, go look for a specific picture on this site. Have fun. Oh it looks cute. It's not functional. You will waste time waving your mouse back and forth trying to get the picture you wanted. A UI is supposed to be something that helps you, not something you have to fight with.
Now I'm not saying this is how (formerly known as) Metro is going to work, I haven't used the beta, and I've only seen a couple screen-shots. But I understand that Microsoft is going for the "smart phone" look and feel, and that means lots of big colorful buttons you have to drag everywhere, and crap like this. And considering what they've done with "Ribbons" when they obfuscated their "Office" suite - and I'm talking about the 2007 version, I refuse to "upgrade" and see what else they managed to fuck up, I can't imagine this UI will be better. I remember an argument in the late 80's about how computers hadn't really lived up to their promise of greater productivity in the office. Well Microsoft, I guess we'll have to congratulate you for lowering the bar even more...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
it will turn out that the final build of Windows 8 does have such restrictions.
But you will be able to remove said restrictions if you buy the Pro Gold Game of the Year Ultimate edition for $389 instead of the regular $89 "Vanilla" edition.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Your first hint should have been his reaction when asked "take a seat over there" and threw a chair across a stage.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
It never was "Metro", it seems. I found this article... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/10/metro_is_modern_ui_now/ Also found this, a bit off topic, but get ready for £the "Surface2"... http://m.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/microsoft-is-already-working-on-surface-2-tablets-1091358
I feel like a police negotiator desperately trying to talk a man out of shooting his foot off.
Repeat after me Microsoft: The desktop market is not the smartphone market, and any attempt to ram it down reluctant consumers throats will turn it destroy what is still your biggest cash cow. http://waysofteaandfailure.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/the-many-problems-of-windows-8.html
...the year of the Linux desktop, because if this doesn't turn people away from Windows in droves, I don't know what will.
oh come on AC. Show us your true feelings. Even M$ shows everyone that yes you cant boot to a legacy desktop but using KB shortcuts you can remove the new desk for the legacy one.
That's a nice double standard. If that were Linux people would say "yes but if you have to follow cryptic steps from the knowledge base then clearly Linux isn't ready for the desktop. Users just want to get their work done not relearn a new interface!".
Maybe next year will be the Year of the Windows Desktop?
well, things like http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/ still work. not sure about something like litestep though.
there's a limit how much they can limit on the PC consumer version of 8. on some versions sideloading metro apps is kind of a bitch from what it seems.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I use windows 7 and there are a lot of things you can't do on windows 7 that you could do in windows XP or Vista. For example, you could manually organize folders in windows in those operating systems. I mean, literally pick up folders and move them from one side of a window to the other. This is something I've gotten used to doing since windows 3.1. So I was deeply annoyed when window 7 disallowed it. Finally I found some registry hacks that would re-enable the feature.
Beyond that, there are full shell replacements for windows. I expect that using shell replacements might become more and more the thing to do on windows systems. On top of everything else, some of the shell replacements are much more configurable then windows shell meaning that if you want to hide features from users you can literally remove them from the GUI entirely.
A combination of those two factor should make more then a few companies look at shell replacements.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Yeah. After all, we were forced to go to Vista because support for XP was discontinued. Oh, wait. That's not what happened at all.
Well, almost. I've got Classic Shell installed on the leaked version of Win8 Enterprise N. What happens is that it'll load Metro for a fraction of a second and then CS takes me back to the old "desktop" environment complete with start menu.
So it's not a complete bypass but it's close enough for my purposes.
If, like me, you prefer the Win7 start menu's look to the default Win98/2000 look Classic Shell provides, there's a skin to make that possible.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
This is the most ignorant, useless release of Windows 8 ever made. Change for change sakes it seems.
I recently tried installing it on my netbook with a resolution of 1024x600 (the typical netbok resolution) and I cannot run a SINGLE metro apps because my resolution is not at least 1024x768. What is that bullshit? The apps can scale at all? They expected this to be on some older devices that supported it, so why the limitation? I know future Surface devices will have to meet a certain standard, but why throw compatibility out the window? Why not an 800x600 resolution minimum? That way you'll know everyone within a reasonable time period (not the short time period of 2 years ago where my netbook sits) can use the full features.
There reasoning I think is so app developers don't have to cater to tons of resolutions, which is fine. FOR A MOBILE DEVICE.
They expect Windows 8 to be used on Desktops but completely cripple usability.
It's true I only really use the start menu for searching programs and rarely go straight to the icon itself. But the search is even worse in Windows 8! I hit the WinKey and start typing. I type in "device" looking for the Device Manager. Nothing. There are some metro quicklinks for installing hardware and whatnot, but not the Device Manager. Not until I search "device m" does it show up. Meanwhile in Wndows 7, I type just "d" and there it is, as well as everything else that starts with "d".
Now the sad part is, I would use it if it still had the start menu. It runs wonderfully on my netbook. It scrolls smooth and everything is snappy.
But it's useless. The XP I ran before worked better.
And all this crap they're giving to corporate users is hopefully gonna hurt them. It'll run terrible, it'll *feel* terrible. Maybe they've just decided to give this area to linux like Apple has and just focus on consumers. Well that's fine and dandy but the Apple user experience on a laptop or desktop is not in any way horrendous, while Metro leaves me feeling frustrated.
Can't wait for Windows 9 now. Its sure to be good.
Given that there's already apps out there to let you run Android apps on desktop OSes, why not switch corporate systems to Android?
What benefit would that give them? They'd still need the underlying OS, plus there's hardly any desktop-oriented corporate-friendly software for Android. Not only that, but there is no way of remotely managing all the Android-software with proper security settings and all.
Oh, wait. That's not what happened at all.
It kind of did. Windows 7 is really Vista Service Pack 3. Which Enterprises are moving to. Windows XP has two years of support left.
If you hate the UI changes in Windows Vista, which Windows 7 kept, and you don't like Metro, then you are kind of screwed.
Yeah yeah, I'm primarily a Windows guy and have actually been damned pleased with Win 7.
But this does appear to be in their usual cycle of releasing garbage first (ME, Vista) just to make some fairly decent release soon following (XP, Win 7).
As a Windows admin I don't even bother with the first releases of their seemingly usual 2 part deal. Not even worth it.
There's already 3rd-party start menu replacements ready.
No we just need a good 3rd-party Metro remover, which probably won't be too far off...
Kinda suspicious since they are also banning open source applications from their moble app store.
Apple isn't much better these days. It almost feels like Microsoft and Apple have some secret agreement to simultaneously lock down their desktop OSs and turn them into content-consumption-only devices, that only run signed code that's been filtered, censored, and taxed by the App Store gatekeepers
Am I alone here? I think it is pretty cool. I hear a lot of "change for the sake of change" being bad around here, but why is staying the same for the sake of staying the same a good thing? One of the biggest draws (for me) to Linux was that it was something new and different. Why are people suddenly so set in their ways that anything remotely different from their crufty old UI is instantly the worst thing ever? What happened to the spirit of "new and cool"? Maybe Metro isn't for everybody, and maybe it won't last, but it is certainly different and, dare I say it, kind of fun.
It's a shell game.
"Like the look of the Metro Interface? Well it's right here in one of these shiny boxes! That's right, ooh shiny. Sick and tired of the Metro Interface? Well one of these boxes here has the NotMetro Interface! That's right, just what you asked for. No, no sir, no shell game here, just good fun. What's that? Oh, you wanted an actual shell? That's right here inside one of these boxes, inside the NotMetro Interface, inside the NotDOS prompt! Something for everyone! Step right up!"
Well, sort of. You can still install any OS X apps yourself, but only apps that go through Apple can go in the OS X market. Windows will be only slightly worse. You can still install any software yourself as long as it doesn't use the new interface. That all has to go through the Microsoft market and they get a cut.
Of course, Linux still has the best approach, with its central update mechanism for installing software from multiple sources in its 'store' (Ubuntu's 'Software Centre' for example.). The advantages for keeping things up to date and ease of use are huge, but alas, no lock-down and reduces profits.
as Windows XP still holds half of the market. Enterprises are still getting around to rolling out Windows 7. Those companies are not going to touch a brand new operating system to begin with, especially one that makes such a radical departure.
any OEM that does the lock down will not only lock them self's out of the web sever market but the desktop and laptop Enterprise market as well.
I have 2 words for Windows 8. "New Coke." I'm sure on the laptop and desktop market it will be even less popular than Coca-Cola's forray into reformulating a new taste.
"Care about people's opinions and you will be their prisoner." ~~Tao Te Ching~~
If you hate the UI changes in Windows Vista, which Windows 7 kept, and you don't like Metro, then you are kind of screwed.
Not really, you can tweak 7 to make it look almost the same as XP.
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
DOING IT THE WINDOWS ME WAY!
Now, now. Let's be honest here. It's not like Windows 8 has a ~20% risk of booting into a blue screen of death like Windows Me.
Instead, there's a near 100% risk of booting into a light blue screen of productivity killing, +4 against workers.
Windows 8 is probably going to be amazing on tablets, but i don't see why Microsoft tries to force it on desktop users. In their stead, I would just keep the Windows 7 UI, and put that on top of the upgraded codebase. Or if they want to tie the platforms together so badly, make the OS detect the type of device it is installed on, and use the appropriate interface (Not-Metro for touch-based devices, regular for non-touch-based ones).
The problem with that is that the apps are designed for tablets too. There's so much wasted screen real estate to accommodate fat fingers instead of precise mice, and assumptions that the apps will run full screen. Running them in any sane way in a desktop UI might be difficult at best.
And what about functionality that's gone away, like support for multiple mouse buttons? It won't magically reappear.
What was the question???
There is always React OS :p
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
I seem to recall Android apps having to have the ability to distinguish between tablets and phones, and offer up potentially different UIs for both, each optimized for the amount of screen space available. I don't see why Microsoft can't go the same way, even if it means developers having to work extra to create two different UIs.
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
Why would we ever waste police resources on this kind of person?
Because most of the civilized world has public health care, and it costs less to talk him out of it than it would to fix it after the fact.
but i don't see why Microsoft tries to force it on desktop users.
Here's my theory: MS knows desktops users will hate it. Enterprises will skip it. Win 8 is not about advancing desktops or enterprises. Win 8 is about MS trying to force their way into the mobile/touch space. If MS had developed a separate OS for tablet/mobile, it would languish just like WP7 when it comes to developers. Instead MS will force all future Windows developers to be Metro developers. Developers will have no choice; problem solved in the minds of MS.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I can also see the store ending up littered with hundreds of cloned and rebranded GPL apps.
So now it will languish because of a seriously bad rep, even before it's released, and developers will keep developing for desktop architectures (for what it'll be worth), because they expect low tablet/phone market penetration. This means they won't take the time and effort to make their apps cross-compatible (has anyone developed a cross-platform Metro app already? Is it a lot of work to make the jump between the two architectures?), there will still be few tablet-compatible apps, and the problem still won't be solved, unless Microsoft intervenes actively by developing native tablet or cross-platform apps, that are equal in capabilities between the two platforms (so no crippled tablet versions).
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
The thing that annoys me is if the OS just sucked period, ok no problem. It sucks, give it a miss, life goes on. However everything I've read says technically it is exceedingly good. Cakewalk tried out Sonar X1 on it and found an across the board speedup. This wasn't a recompile or mod for Windows 8, just regular X1d that we all use. Windows 8 just has better multi-threading, and better latency, which equals better performance for high end audio apps.
So it is a very good OS from the low level, crippled by a shitty UI. Not really a problem for me, I'll just replace the UI with Classic Shell or Start 8 or whatever (I do Windows support professionally so it is my job to learn it). However users will hate it, refuse to use it, and then decide 7 is the One True OS(tm) and we'll be fighting to get them to upgrade to 9 or 10 or which ever one next doesn't suck.
The programmers at MS must be all kinds of sour right now that their excellent dev efforts were screwed over by this shitty UI.
1) You have 100 employees who use MS Office. .docx docs and xlsx spreadsheets they are starting to receive? Yes.
Did they want a new interface? No.
Did they need one? No.
Do they have learn one to use the flood of
Do you have to spend money retraining them again? Yes.
Did a whole generation of macros become useless? Mostly
2) You have 50,000 employees (say, Seimens) using XP who must now upgrade to Windows 8.
Did they want a new interface? No.
Did they need one? No.
Do you have to spend money retraining them again? Yes.
Did a whole generation of software build around Windows XP become useless? Pretty much.
3) You have 1000 customers using your VB6 application. You employ 3 programmers
Did they want to learn new code? No.
Despite the promises, does their VB6 app work on 64-bit Windows 7? Yes, it just crashes every few minutes now.
Do they have to learn new code and then recode and then retest to keep their customers? Yes.
Microsoft's Motto? Who cares about how much you have to spend upgrading or training or re-developing, asshole? You'll eat our shit with a smile.
Or not, actually. Linux gets more usable each year, and android pad OSs aren't standing still either.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Because you don't see what the PHBs are thinking friend, which is 1.-WinPhone won't sell, 2.-WinPhone is doubleplusgood UI so it MUST be the fact that the users aren't used to our new super paradigm so, 3.-Force everyone to use WinPhone Ui so they will "learn" to love doubleplusgood UI paradigm.
In the end its a Hail Mary pass, they know X86 is gonna stay flat, no reason for people to replace that quad desktop or dual laptop until it dies so no constant rollover like with cellphones, so they make one last throw and hope to gain some yards before the clock runs out. Will it work, I doubt it because the truth MSFT doesn't want to accept is that Windows IS X86 and without X86 programs nobody cares about Windows, so instead of accepting their market is mature and spinning off mobile to sink or swim we get a classic MSFT "we'll force you to take our crap" failwhale.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Yet.
Its called classic shell and you're welcome. When the PC gets ya down just make sure old Hairy is around.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Instead MS will force all future Windows developers to be Metro developers. Developers will have no choice; problem solved in the minds of MS.
But it doesn't work that way.
Suppose you're a Windows developer, even a new one - as in just writing your first app. You can:
1. Write it for Metro, such that it'll run only on Win8 PCs and tablets.
2. Write it for the desktop, and it'll run on any Windows PC, except for ARM Win8 tablets.
Even if Surface is a roaring success (hmmm), the numbers are still like an order of magnitude different. Some people would certainly write for Metro just to get a slice of the new market before competition is in, in hopes that it'll be big enough later on. But I don't see how the majority would do that.
Heck, have you seen the uproar that happened when it was announced that VS 2012 Express will only run on Win8 and only let you develop Metro apps? That was taken back pretty damn fast.
As I see it, software OS'es aren't a normal product. With the anomaly that XP was where it was at for some 8 years, sure Win7 is cute, it seems like a natural option, but the Windows 8 hype is some of the most desperately aggressive I have ever seen, way more than Windows 7. It looks as if it were an attempt to blind rational decision making by screaming "stop thinking and open your wallet and buy this now!"
Except it's a bit like D&D, if Win8 is awesome, why would we buy Win7? The computer world is different from the emerging days of Win95 Win 98 Win 2000 WinXP, when vital new tech was being thrashed out. Comp processing power came of age, so we don't need that hardware upgrade as importantly as we used to. Not counting some potential wear on the HD, I have a 1.75 Terabyte Quad Core system from 2006 that will do anything I ever (currently) need. So the mood is different, these frenetic changes feel wrong. The UI-Formerly-As-Metro really bothers me. I'm not a tablet/phone guy.
This feels like the marketing of the Zune, which shared a lot of "let's get our favorite 12 analysts to pummel the blogosphere with it!" So I am trying to hold on to the "Post Win8 World" and by then we'll have the perspective, but not today.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Easy way to fix that friend, its called "don't use Windows sucky file copy" but instead use something like Extreme Copy or if you want some serious control just get rid of Windows file management for Xyplorer which is crazy powerful and fully customizable to YOUR way of doing things.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Well if you want to schedule jobs, do batch processing, background processing then Xyplorer is probably what you are looking for. Just an insane amount of control over the entire file system and last I checked their forums had a simple reg file that would let you change out explorer for xyplorer so that when you click on a folder it'll open in xyplorer.
As for why Windows doesn't have no to all? probably because it goes by file name only and they don't want grandma screwing up and losing her pictures because her camera names everything 001,002,003,etc so instead it has the rename all.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.