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Microsoft Reacts To Feedback But Did They Get Windows 8.1 Right?
MojoKid writes "Microsoft's Windows "Blue" 8.1 update has been long-awaited. Those who've been using the base OS since launch have no doubt been anticipating some of the enhancements that are coming. At the moment, Windows 8.1 is available only as a preview, and if you are looking to give it a try, there are a couple of things to be aware of. The most important is the fact that once you upgrade, you can't easily downgrade — so you may wish to try the update in a virtual machine or on a test machine if possible. In addition, your current product keys will not work, so you'll effectively be turning your activated OS into an evaluation (it's assumed that once 8.1 goes final, we'll be able to update using our original keys). That said, Microsoft's free update offers a slew of enhancements like a new Start Screen, the return of the Start Button, even quicker shutdown and restart, boot to desktop, quicker integrated search and Skydrive enhancements. All told, Microsoft's new OS release is a more than worthy successor for end users but now Microsoft really needs to work on getting developers on board."
I gotta say I'm impressed with Windows 8.1 preview. It is by far the best OS there is. I'm happy that the start button is back and that they've improved Start Screen. The performance upgrades are fantastic. Everything runs so smoothly.
Windows 8.1 is by far the best Windows there is!
Soviet Microsoft requires that YOU pay to make positive posts...
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Microsoft sends letters today announcing that Technet is being retired and this is the story they run today?
No.
I downloaded the dev preview.
Yeah, there's a Start button. Big deal. All it does is drop you into Metro -- pardon me. Into The-Interface-Formerly-Known-As-Metro. There's still no Start Menu, which is what the "I want the Start Button" was all about.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Penny Arcade.
'nuff said.
...to Windows 7?
It's pretty obvious that someone high enough in their business-customer focused product guys heard enough Start button complaints to get that put back. I know a lot of people wanted the menu to return, but that was doubtful given how much Microsoft wants to see the Store and the whole Apps thing succeed.
They have made a lot of tweaks to make using Windows 8.1 on keyboard-and-mouse PCs much easier, and I'm happy for that. One thing that I desperately want back is the "themeable" user interface on the desktop. I'll even give up the Start Menu for that. I want to be able to choose between the new "Windows 2.0" desktop, the "dated and cheesy" Aero Glass theme I like in Win7, or even go all the way back to "Windows Classic" like I've been able to do since Win2K. That's just the in-box themes too -- lots of vendors used the theming code in the OS to completely transform the desktop. I was really hoping for Aero Glass to make a return (or even Aero without the Glass acceleration.) Unfortunately, it looks like they're still not listening to people on that front.
Start8 (boot-to-desktop, Win7 start menu, remove hotspots) slapped on top of Win8 solves most of my complaints about Win8, and ModernMix makes Metro apps (like Metro Netflix, since it can view SuperHD content) helps with Metro-only apps.
Start8 already has a beta out for Win8.1, to account for the fact that there is now a built-in boot-to-desktop, and that there is a system start button that needs to be removed before the fake one can be added. I'll undoubtedly get Win8.1 to get the improvements, and let Stardock fix the major annoyances for me.
I was holding off buying a Surface RT until there was base support for POP3 mail - does anyone know if the new Outlook RT allows POP3?
Korma: Good
Since when is fixing a fuckup that everyone bitched about so mmuch they were forced to reverse course an "enhancement"?
Common Sense isn't as Common as people think...
Pretty much mirrors my own. Although I would add in an extra side of "fuck you"...
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/06/28
Dream as if you'll live forever.
Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
~Anonymous~
Microsoft should pay people to beta test their stuff. At least $500/month. Then the company might actually pay attention to the bug reports. And these beta test jobs will be good jobs for all the American high tech workers Microsoft displaces with H1-B visa workers.
.. was naming it Windows 8, instead of Windows Tablet Edition, which could also be added to Windows 7 as a Tablet Mode.
Windows 8 creates the presumption that it is a follower in a series, and a natural replacement for Windows 7. But people usually prefer limited change, and existing systems are often in place because they are the most useful and preferred. If you make something too different, make it a new series instead of a step in the old.
Windows 8 forced people to revisit the dogma of the desktop for the first time in decades. Sure, they screwed up with the panes and the fullscreen start panel, but this is the latest shot in a battle that won't be over in our lifetimes.
Its easy to see its a troll.,they crave a lot of attention and they get it with all these shill accusations. Ignore them and they get bored and go away.
No one is interested in the Modern UI apps and the Start screen is harder to use than the Start menu. It's a jumbled mess of icons which steals your whole screen and you have to move your mouse much more than before. Actually, I have noticed that many resort to just typing the application name they want to use into the search bar as the GUI is so clunky to use.
The minimal performance improvements, improved file transfer dialog, improved task manager, ISO mounting and DirectX 11.2, are not big enough features to justify an upgrade. All those features are good enough in Windows 7 already. Those improvements could have been released as a free Platform Update for Windows 7.
I put time and money and effort into making salable sofware products. What Microsoft has told me repeatedly is that I don't matter to them. At all.
What would motivate me, as a developer, to invest 1 more minute in a platform that's almost guaranteed to go the way of VB6, Winforms, Silverlight or XNA? Want to go to the web as your customers are demanding? Recode. Want to upgrade that game? Recode? Want to keep that nifty Silverlight app going. Find another platform and recode. Only C++ developers were extended the fundamental courtesy of running unmanaged old code along with .net. Everyone else is essentially told "tough shit." Worse, half-hearted efforts like the VB6 upgrade or WPF/Winforms hosting aren't developed to actually *work* and so end up wasting even more of your time.
VB6 should have upgraded with one click, or run between tags as unmanaged code. Winforms should either have actually been hostable in WPF, or come with a one click upgrade to an ASP simulacrum of Winform code. VBScript and JScript should have migrated to VBScript.net and JScript.net rather than the syntactic abomination that is Powershell. Those would have been the right decisions, had Microsoft given a shit.
When Microsoft finally realizes that the word "Recode" IS ALWAYS THE WRONG ANSWER when a developer needs to migrate to another platform, they might actually get some interest in their products. Not before.
Common courtesy and consideration of the financial needs of real developers would go a long way. The ISV world is not made of C++ elite. It's made of people who have to get some work done and make a living - who do not, and will never aspire to the at the top of the programming heap. That's your core audience, not the 20-something genius you hire from Kazakhstan. Cater to them and their ilk, and them only and you will fail.
Like you're doing now.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Let me know when I can use it on a desktop without ever seeing any part of Metro for any reason, AND has some improvement over 7 that makes it worth buying. Until then, I have no interest in even trying it.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
Still no classic start menu.
But then again how often do you really use the start menu? I run windows 7 on my general desktop and between pinning apps to the taskbar and using fences for some groups of icons on my desktop, I really have no need for a start menu. The downside is some programs come with help files, utilities and other ancillary programs that are better off stuck in a folder of an alphabetically arranged list. But those are a simple windows key -> type name and hit enter when the search finds it. That I will certainly miss.
On Linux I still do not run Gnome 3 and prefer Mate. I put shortcut icons in the upper bar and use the "start menu" from time to time. At least Linux gives you the freedom to say fuck you to new UI's.
sexy
I don't know if they could get it much faster, after I installed the update to my bios fully supporting UEFI, I was right around 7seconds on the OS after post on a 1st gen SSD. Where they're going to trim and get a faster boot time even from that I have no freaking clue.
Om, nomnomnom...
Three times a year since the middle 90's there are news of people revisiting the dogmas of the desktop, and building something completely different.
Every time they screw up the same thing: people want desktops, not something completely different.
Rethinking email
but now Microsoft really needs to work on getting developers on board.
Come again? Unless they completely broke the OS from the cloud down, they already have somewhere around 80% of developers actively working in their environment.
Oh! Riiight - By "8.1", Microsoft doesn't mean "Win7-plus-1.1 and we fixed the useless bullshit we did in Windows-FisherPrice-edition", it means they gave their latest defective-by-design codebase a facelift so as to not completely alienate those of us who will use 7 until MS comes up with their next "real" OS.
Sorry, Ballmer, but if you want developers, give us something worth developing for. Because if you really want to force the PC-vs-tablet issue, Android and iOS already won. Your move, though...
Nope it still sucks...move along to another OS......Preferably OS X.
You know about all the bitching and moaning. It is just about a new UI, that really isn't that big of a deal, especially for a group of people use to using a bunch of Operating Systems.
I haven't read many comments about Windows 8 with problems with more important things such as Driver Compatibility, Unexpect crashes, other technical problems, or Slowness.
It just sounds like a bunch of Whiny people who wants to get an Apple or Defend Linux, or are so old or autistic that they cannot handle any change.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
It took me forever to get it installed on my clean system due to likely high download demand. I thought it ran slower than Windows 8.0, and iTunes hung like crazy when opening. Other programs will likely need updates when this upgrade goes final. They added shutdown to the right click start button menu. I cannot understand why they NEVER thought about making a SHUTDOWN TILE in the first group of tiles. that would have saved them a bunch of early adopter complaints.
you can always use MyCleanPC to safeguard the purity of your HOSTS file. that will keep Junis from getting your GameMaker files full of HOT GRITZ and causing SCO to sue your ::Cue::Cat.
Microsoft may have "reacted" to feedback. But they sure as hell didn't LISTEN to it.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Microsoft owns the desktop, and has tons of money. They didn't ever say, "How do we make the desktop really good? How do we use our massive resources to make our customer's lives better?" That can include serious and radical rethinking---if it makes desktop experience better.
Microsoft had a 'smart phone' -- a real computer on a phone with a reasonably capable OS -- long before Apple and Android. Microsoft did see the future and drove into a ditch.
This Windows Phone OS UI was awful. Terrible, revolting. The UI was really bad---because they tried to do a Windows XP on a tiny thing with a stylus. (I had a treo 700 something which I got for free). There was even a little mini "control panel" and similar confusions. Because at that time the ideology was Windows Uber Alles and serving the Windows empire.
Jobs didn't insist on stuffing MacOS UI on the iPhone, because it wouldn't be GOOD for those uses. Even though it was quite different there were no deep strain of serious complaint about the UI.
So phones and tablets get popular. And Microsoft makes the same mistake AGAIN as with Windows Phone (pre 7) -- stuffing a totally inappropriate interface (and one which isn't even that pleasant) somewhere else. This time, unlike Windows Phone, greatly annoying their enormous number of paying customers.
There are all sorts of ideas about how to make better desktops at a deep level (at least browse academia for 20 years) which are substantially more than another skin.
Back in 1995, Microsoft had the good sense to copy something decent for the Win 95 UI, NeXTSTEP, though of course it was degraded, it was still clear and effective enough. Nobody missed Win 3.1's UI. Desktop customers are not stupid dinosaurs, maybe they actually notice better from worse.
Even today, if they re-implemented NeXTSTEP 1993 for Win 9 desktop, they'd still be ahead. Really.
...is a strange way to "work on getting developers on board."
Microsoft Java with the "Strategic Objective" described as to "Kill cross-platform Java by grow[ing] the polluted Java market."
Instead of trying to compete on merits and offer a superior product, Microsoft came up with a different strategy: Give our developers poisoned tools.
As a developer, this is all I need to know (to stay the HELL away from Microsoft platforms).
I don't know if they could get it much faster, after I installed the update to my bios fully supporting UEFI, I was right around 7seconds on the OS after post on a 1st gen SSD. Where they're going to trim and get a faster boot time even from that I have no freaking clue.
My home and office PCs run 24/7, so boot time is basically irrelevant to me.
Wear and tear from that usage? Minimal. The last enterprise F/W SCSI disk on my home PC lasted 10 years running 24/7 (seriously). It was still working when I retired it - due to some bearing noise and start-up sticking on those rare occasions I had to power things down for a time. (extended vacation, severe thunder storm, etc...)
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
From what I can tell: Windows is trying to move away from the .exe that can hose your system files. As such, they have Ap files and legacy support. You have to trust your legacy support, while the Aps can be run without a worry. This is how it should have been back in windows 98. But still, there is low adoption for 8.1, which means there is less people writing Aps. It is a chicken and the egg problem. No one wants to make aps, and no one wants 8.1 because there aren't many aps. Now in a few OS releases in the future, more and more people will have Ap capable OS, so more people will develop aps. I think over the course of 5-10 years, the whole ap thing will catch on. Windows could have a resurgence because people are no longer afraid of downloads hosing their PC, and can download hundreds or thousands of aps to play with risk free. I think IE could even catch on if it has a "Safe download" mode. Where when you download an AP, IE makes sure it isn't an .exe renamed.
God spoke to me
Instead of "Start" button it should have been named "Easy" button, got one from Staples once. Works about the same when pressed, doesn't do much.
Amazed so few people notice/care about the real issue here. It's not about UI fails and touch/mobile focus - that's a minor issue.
It's about Microsoft moving from a 'general purpose computing' model to an 'app store computing' model. Where everything has to be code-signed, approved/censored, and taxed at 30%+.
They are doing this by gradually phasing out the desktop and applying pressure to users to use Metro, by making it harder to avoid - whilst the desktop gradually has functionality stripped out (first the Start menu, now the control panel)
This is why we should absolutely reject Win8. Not because the new start screen is annoying.
...to use their desktop monopoly to gain a foothold in the tablet market. And if there were an antitrust regulator left anywhere on earth that still had the intestinal fortitude to go after Microsoft, they would be getting fined for it.
"Getting developers on board"... yeah, on board the doomed ship SS Surface.
0 1 - just my two bits
in the ass. with ballmers dick.
i think there is/should be a distinction for corp users. they are not trying to download hundreds or thousands of apps, they are not allowed to download exe's either. non corp users can download those apps on their iDevice/droid .
MS should not have shat where they make their money, the corp world.
Server 2012 has horrible UI flaws too. Have they been fixed?
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/06/28
a sortable list of all your apps
A categorisable list.
I suffer from domestic blindness. That means that too much information just becomes a jumble. It's not something I get over, as it's the way my brain works. So one of the first things I do to a new Windows setup is to arrange the start menu into folders of 8-12 items, and nest those folders 2-4 folders deep. That way I can always find what I'm looking for. Sure, other people think it's more complicated, but for me that works.
If Win81 allows me to something of that ilk then good. If not, then for me (and I accept that I might be in a very small minority) a configurable start folder with nested sub folders simply works best.
Thank goodness I can fall back on ClassicShell. But don't be me wrong. When there are new options that work well, I do adopt them.
I like not having a start button. I never use it and my task bar looks nicer without it. I hope I can disable it.
Who actually uses the start menu. REALLY?
the return of the Start Button
Disingenuous.
But I suppose technically correct IS the best kind of correct, after all.
All good things start at the top.
If the top is unchanged, then nothing below it will be.
The BIG question is how will present programs run on that platform? Printer drivers. Sometimes device providers no longer upgrade drivers then devices become garbage. Some programs I use to develop on our website www.cancunsteve.com no longer functioned on Windows upgrades. Don't forget Windows Visa a mess!
The fact that almost no one knows about this menu is foolish... and a hint to what Microsoft has done wrong. I only found out about that menu because of tutorial software that ASUS ships on its Win8 notebooks.
No, it is proof that slashdot is full of ignorant and irrational Microsoft haters who take great pleasure in ranting about made-up problems they have never actually experienced themselves.
Reading slashdot one-liner: (irm http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot).rdf.item | fl title,desc*
Windows 8.1 looks like it addresses all the major concerns (some legitimate, some not) people had with Windows 8.
I'd buy Windows 8 (for the improved file copy dialog, task manager, and the return of the "up one directory button"), but it's not worth the price when 7 suits me fine.
They should offer the $30 deal again when 8.1 drops (or has it already?) to spur sales. I'd buy a license. Dunno if I'd install any time soon though.
Since the Windows 3, there have been complementary products to supplement Microsoft's short-sighted approach to their OS.
Who remembers products like ICS, and the early CD-writer plug ins for Explorer?
They're still around, and as good as ever.
This one provides a Start button for Windows 8. Its very cute...
The problem is, if this is the most significant/compelling difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8(.1), why would anyone buy it? Microsoft's obsession with rationalising their product set down to one-size-fits-all will ultimately result in them losing all markets instead of simply continuing to dominate one. We all knew that Bill Gates departure from the M$ helm would result in its downfall. Its just painful to watch someone die of cancer.
Start button but no start menu, right. Microsoft takes careful aim, blows the other leg off.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Windows 8.* is a non-starter because Microsoft took upon itself to give its rabid WPF/Silverlight developers the finger with this abomination called WinRT. Now nobody is carrying Steve Ballmer's water on the mobile platform and mobile was the whole reason for the new Metro design.
My biggest problem with all the Windows 8 blathering is that there are two forces making Windows anything more irrelevant. One is that your average computer user is moving to a smartphone for all personal use. The average Joe out there just has little need for a PC. If they do need a PC a little bit then they can use their 6 year old Laptop they bought from a guy named Doug. So beyond work Windows 8 is not relevant to most people's lives.
/. Linux. I am not going into the which one is better it is the which one is good enough. For many people both personal and business the only difference between a PC with Windows and a PC with Linux is $100. Does it run a browser and print? Check.
The other force is as we all love here on
Does this mean that Linux is going to win overnight? No. Apathy will keep the PC world installing Windows 8 by default. The key here is that if people buy a machine tomorrow they don't really care if it has Vista, 7, or 8.1. The only real screw-up for MS was the start button in that it left normally apathetic people scratching their heads thinking, "I don't like this." Did they download and install Linux? No but it did make them say, "I'll take the old Windows please."
So what this says to me is that there is no compelling case for most people to use Windows; but that there is also not a terribly compelling case for them not to; in that it is too much trouble to switch.
Now compare this to the days when 3.11, 95, and then 98 came out. Each of those were huge improvements that made many people's computer lives much better. I'm not saying 8.1 is worse than 7 it is just that most people would find an SSD more of a computer quality of life improvement. Or even replacing Norton or whatever bloatware AV came with their machine.
When you start a full-screen application, such as a Windows Store app or the Windows 8 Start Screen, you lose the visual context of having the application semi-visible in the background, and you tend to forget what you were working on. The effect has been called doorway amnesia; see also my previous comments. Classic Shell makes it about as tolerable as Windows 7.
For me, the start screen is much more customizable, much more informative, and easier to use all around.
So how do you keep the jarring full-screen transition from derailing your train of thought? Please see my other comment.
Microsoft's Windows "Blue" 8.1 update has been long-awaited.
Well, not by me, at least!
....I can't shut down my win8.1 laptop. Icon just sits there and spins. And in typical microsoft fashion, as has been the case in every OS they've ever had since their first release, the logging is horrible so I don't have any idea what the problem is.
Alternatively, if I step away from it and it goes to sleep, it won't come back out of sleep. It tries, and just gets to a black screen with the mouse pointer. I'm guessing the two issues are related. Does logging provide a clue? Nope.
Didn't have these problems at all, until exactly when I installed 8.1. And as it so happens...I can't uninstall it. Lovely.
With such a significant bug, you'd think there would be a place to report such things. You'd think they want to know. Nope - no bug reporting is open.
You can now set the background of the start menu to just show the same image as the desktop
Do the tiles appear on top of the windows that are on the desktop, or do they still hide all the windows that are on the desktop? The presence of the windows that are on the desktop acts as an anchor to keep the user's train of thought on its proverbial tracks. If the tiles showed up on top of the windows, possibly with a dimming or blurring effect like the UAC prompt and the area behind window title bars in Windows 7 Aero, that might be enough to avoid doorway amnesia.
There must be a reason nearly every Linux desktop, at least since FVWM, has copied some form of the Start menu
It might be because Microsoft all but lifted the Start Menu from Apple. Since System 7.0 (June 1991), classic Mac OS allowed users to put "aliases" (shortcuts) to their favorite applications in the Apple Menu Items folder. System 7.5 (September 1994) added the ability to organize these shortcuts into folders, producing roughly the same effect as the Start Menu that Microsoft would add to Windows a year later.
So I'll document it: "When I press the Windows key or click the Start button, I want the Start screen to open snapped, not full screen."
A thoroughly themed Windows might confuse the support technician on the other end of the phone line. But on the other hand, icons without text do the same thing.
We have a Win 8 laptop at home that nobody uses, since it's.. just horrible. Not bad, horrible.
I thought I'd install the preview "because it can't be worse, right?". I seem to underestimate Microsoft all the time.
I got far enough to log in again.
Silly old me goes "Ok, I'll just log in with the local account."
"Local account?" Windows asks. "Im not sure what you mean" it says.
"You know, the one I created so I wouldn't need some silly Microsoft online thingie" I say.
"Ah! now I know what you mean" Windows exclaims! "Don't worry, I've been upgraded. You can't get in to your own laptop without going through an online Microsoft account".
"You're kidding" I say. "I can't get on to the computer?"
"Nope!" Windows happily chimes.
KABLAM
"aargghh..." whines Windows
Reboot
"Good morning! What can I do for you today?" Ubuntu asks
"Could I log in and use the computer without getting horribly frustrated and angry?"
"But of course!"
The End
I still don't like it, as it's still the same boring flat windows 1 look.. They need to add aero glass back as an option (it already was optional in windows 7, but you could turn it off, and that's actually what they did for windows 8 and removed the code, THAT is one of the biggest reasons why it uses less resources, just turn it off in windows 7 and you'll see that much less resources are used..
Personally I don't like the boring flat look of windows 8, but I don't want to use 3rd party software to get back what was standard in windows 7, and the worst part I think it's because some lame designers thought it looked better to them and some stupid testpanel... Just let us decide how windows should look and not some dumb trendy designer.. Just look at how they fubarred Visual studio 2012(2013) with all those monocolor icons so people can't find anything anymore, and all because some lame designer thought it looked cool to them.. Well guess what, design is in the eye of the beholder, and to me most designers don't know jack what looks good, only what is hot..
The desktop restrictions for RT are very, very clearly because they expect the desktop to go away as the modern shell and development platform evolve and are eventually able to replace it.
"Development platform"? Hmmm... Let me know when Visual Studio becomes fully Modern and a Windows RT device with a keyboard becomes capable of native development even in theory.
If you don't want a locked down, consumer electronics-style experience, don't buy an RT device!
Now that netbooks don't exist anymore, let me know when the price of x86 tablets falls toward Surface/iPad range instead of being double that like the Surface Pro is.
Tomb Raider, Civ V, Castle crashers all play fine. Mechwarrior Online, WoW, Borderlands 2, Neverwinter (F2Pmmo) all seem to crash at random ("Program has stopped working").
A small sample of working and non working games, but there seems to be nothing tying them together. Had to downgrade to 7 to get all my games playing reliably.
Been saying this for a while, MS is clearly looking over the fence at the Apple walled garden with growing envy, and trying to manipulate their product strategy to let them segue to that model ... but they're ignoring that not even Apple has tried to force that model down DESKTOP users' throats.
... the market conditions are so desperate in the mobile arena that it's forcing them to tip their hand, and it's so blatantly anti-consumer in the desktop context that even the average man/woman on the street is starting to get an inkling of it (and maybe will twig to the fact that a mandatory walled garden is anti-consumer on mobile devices as well). It deserves its own reverse meme - "I for one welcome the disappearance of our former desktop overlord" or somesuch, because if they don't give it up, that's where it's headed (not with them disappearing, I don't really think that's going to happen - but certainly with them becoming just one of the players, amongst Android PCs, even more Macs, Ubuntu PCs, etc. - not dominant the way they are now on the desktop).
I'm actually glad they're doing it
"Ahh! I see you're in that indeterminate Schrodinger state where - oh, uh
Anyone I've talked to about their use of Windows 8 has them telling me they've "... fixed it by installing [program name] to restore the Start Menu and boot direct to the desktop ..." so Micro$oft returning the Start Button is just a bit of window dressing.
And yes, I've installed Win8 on a PC, and recently bought two laptops (one with a touch-screen) so I can learn it and help people use it. ... it's painful on a PC, especially a non-touch screen.
I'm sure Windows 8 Tile Start screen is great on a tablet / smart phone
Don't blame me, it's usually 2 in the morning when I post
or after PRISM:
Microsoft introduced touch screen functionality only to be able to provide fingerprints to the NSA
and/or
Microsoft is earning more money from the NSA that from Windows 8 sales, so who the f**** cares about feedbacks !
Anecdote != scientific survey, I admit. Nor is entering windows 8 start screen distracting scientific. But I know I get more distracted with Windows 8's Start screen or Android's launcher than with Windows 7's Start menu or Xfce 4 Panel's application menu. My aunt's PC shipped with Windows 8, and until I got Classic Shell installed, I kept losing my train of thought when it came time to launch an application in the same way that I had been losing my train of thought in Android. Full screen is not always superior, or we'd still be using DOS task switchers.
...haven't right-clicked the start button. As you were.
Right-clicking the start button in 8.1 is arguably more economical and efficient than the start menu.
As they say, there's never a second opportunity to make a first impression. Microsoft has blown the first impression for Windows 8.
There is also (probably, although I don't think I've heard it said) never a second opportunity to make a second impression. The "apology sequel" needs to be damned good, if its purpose is to alter the mindshare generated by the first. And it looks like 8.1 does not cut the mustard. In fact, it insults the intelligence of the user base, by pretending not to understand what "we want the start button back" actually means. There's also a little taste of "we know better than you what you want" which heaps annoyance on what's already a negative experience.
So, even if there exists (or will at some point exist) some cabalistic set of gestures that magically does every single part of the user workflow as good or better, it doesn't really matter, because the damage has been done. And then doubled down, with 8.1. This is a disaster.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I just can't believe how they keep hiring total fuckups at microsoft. The group think and bad management must be rampant in that company now. Just look at the recent xbox one drm debacle, any discussion with people outside of their company, perhaps a few gamers would have told them this, they needed to lay down a record of steam like summer sales and the rest to gain the trust before online drm would be an acceptable thing to ask for. Its not rocket science, its demonstrated in the market place by a competitor for them already... Now this windows 8 UI mess, how many times do people have to explain that they don't want this nonsense, they won't even give us the OPTION of disabling all the new junk to switch back to win7 UI. Its like they know people would turn metro off en masse and they'd be embarrassed, so what, they should have buried it and moved on, but no, they hang on and torture us for no reason at all. So the alternatives just keep looking better at this point. And add to this mess their recent announcement about technet being over, and they are just driving the nail into their own coffin as they push even more people to find and build alternatives to their system. Its not good for a desktop UI to constantly switch to a different screen to do other functions, the point of a desktop is not always have to "context switch", its like having to clear your desk, clean it and wipe out off do minor multitasking, it wipes your memory a little in a bad way, its just how human brain works. Hell science has shown us that memory wipes a bit when you just walk through a doorway even. Their new interface is just broken, it has no place at all being on a desktop machine, and the more they force it, the more obvious how unsuited to task it is. Windows 7 evolved to where it was, windows 8 just skipped evolution and is just arbitrary. As the penny arcade said already http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/06/28 This is just a big middle finger to all of us that use their o/s's. A whole boat load of managers across microsoft need to be fired, they've grown tone deaf to criticism and reality. Problem is balmer is at the helm, and he was the guy that dismissed the iphone because he said microsoft was just fine selling millions of their phone....yea oops.
7 is a great os. 8 may be goodon tables or phones but as a desktop os it pure fucking crap. Even the 8.1 watered down horse radish. All these articles about 8.1 being an improvement are gross exaggeration and the only reason I can think is Microsoft in some journalists pockets.
7 stopped me from considering Mac OS, 8 and its variants has me signing off on desktop altogether. Maybe that what they want.
Did I miss something?
There is no "return" of a start button.
I guess if you through a lie around long enough, people will start to believe it.
They are called Decor8, Start8 and ModernMix. On a non-touch setup, that's better than Windows 8.1.