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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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.