It didn't need to be obvious ANYMORE . I'm referring to Windows 7 there. You're making my point for me. We trained people for YEARS to use the start menu. Eventually having the word "start" on it was superfluous.
You have a very broad definition of the word "obvious." If someone needs training in something before something is obvious to them, that something is not generally obvious. The answer to the problem d/dx x^2 is obvious to me. It is not obvious to most people. Using your logic, the start menu in Windows 7 and Windows 8 have the same degree of obviousness for someone completely new to Windows. That person would need some training or instruction in order for the start menu to be obvious.
Their customer base, the only people that matter. The people who have been trained to use the start menu.
This same logic could have been used to defend the program manager over the start menu in 1995. By making the switch, Microsoft expanded their user base, and is hoping to do the same now after all the resistance settles down.
Re:It's just training for future geekery
on
Has Lego Sold Out?
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· Score: 4, Informative
Yeah, I remember as a kind one thing I wanted for Christmas and never got was a $100 Lego castle. This was in the late 80 early 90s. This also serves to note that even back then, Lego wasn't just a box of generic bricks. They had soldiers, weapons, horses, specialty mountains and trees.
I remember lego space started out pretty generic, but over time the pieces got more and more specialized to the theme. Eventually you got these flying saucers with big alien logos on the pieces that you couldn't use for much else. The only difference between now and then is you have Galactic Republic logo instead. This may be "selling out", but I don't see how it would have much of an impact on a child's creativity, as I got along just fine with the old imaginary brand sets.
Now you're just being argumentative. I offered that I would provide my take on the downsides of Windows 8 if you were genuinely interested, and you flew right past that and continue to call me a shill. This pretty much confirms you're just trolling. Guess this explains your lack of karma.
It didn't need to be obvious anymore because it was called "Start" for about 10 years, which made it obvious
It absolutely did not make it obvious. Windows 95 included tips on log on that instructed the user about the start menu. There was also a bouncing animated arrow that would fly down the task bar reading "Click here to begin." Or do you remember the massive "Start me up" ad campaign, which highlighted the start menu and effectively taught people what it was and how to use it?
Prior to the start menu, people were trained on the program manager, which had all their applications right there in front of them. In 1995, it was the start menu which was unintuitive and cumbersome; hiding all a user's programs away in a corner requiring at least two additional clicks was seen as backwards to many. To access calculator in Windows 3.1 you just had to open Applications and there it was. In Windows 95 it was start -> all programs -> accessories -> calculator. The start menu was also very difficult to manage for many. In the program manager you would just create your own folder and move your stuff in there. In the start menu, you had to access a hidden folder somewhere in the file system and create folders there. It is still like that today. Not user friendly.
And don't get me started on putting "Shut Down" in a menu labeled "Start"
Yet today, for some reason, the start menu is begin hailed as some sort of paragon to UI design. It is not, and as someone who lived through resistance to the start menu, it's just so amusing seeing this happen all over again.
Put someone in front of Windows XP and Windows 8 and let's see who figures out how to get a list of applications first.
But who exactly? Someone who has been trained for the last 17 years to use the start menu? Someone who has never used a computer in their life? Someone who has has never used Windows or OSX or Linux, and whose sole exposure to UI design is iOS or Android, where things like hidden UI elements are more common than not? Everyone is coming from a different base set of skills.
This measure of "How much can you figure out without being told anything" (which people here mistakenly label "intuitiveness") is completely meaningless. A user who has never used Windows but only iOS would feel very foreign using a mouse in a file explorer, something most computer users today are familiar with. Does that make them unintuitive? Many users of desktop operating systems are very confused with the concept of right clicking, double clicking, and click-drag. Does that mean we should scrap these interfaces?
Windows 8 assumes you know how to use a mouse and a keyboard. Then they tell you "Here's one more interface element you have to use, hot corners, and how to use them." It's right up there with Windows 95 telling users "Here's a new UI element, the start menu, and how to use it."
My girlfriend did. And her sister. And my parents, my sister, my aunt... even I did.
With the iPad is that the basic functionality of launching an app and closing an app is simple: tap an app to open, click the only button on the device to leave. Microsoft has the same implementation of this basic functionality in Windows 8.
But as soon as you want to get to anything more advanced, iOS suffers from the same problems about discoverable UI elements people here are complaining about. How do you discover how to re-arrange apps? How do you discover how to make folders? What about multitasking, or closing apps permanantly? What about how to even lock the device (when they changed the hardware button)? What about the hidden notification center, which you have to swipe down from the edge to access? What about siri? I had to show all of the aforementioned how to access this functionality on iPad.
not good; or you agree. Which you didn't even mention explicitly, but you directly went on to discuss the offtopic subject - whether or not the problem was major.
Again, I think you're having trouble following the discussion. 1) I did explicitly say that it would be a good idea 3) You're the one who drailed the 2) You're the one who derailed the thread with discussions about my "major problem" comment with your very first reply in this thread. I really don't understand your fascination with this singular comment I made in passing, that has almost no consequence or bearing on absolutely anything.
As to the problem actually being major, well it is a hidden user interface artifact you are dealing with, every bit helps when making it easy to use. With such an obvious issue, where is the every bit being done by Microsoft?
Seems like they're doing just fine, as their own telemetry is showing that 90% of users are discovering and using the new interface on their first session. With all the hyperbole being thrown around here, you'd think that no one would be able to use the metro UI.
I have read at least hundred of your posts. All of them strongly defending Microsoft, none of them pointing out the least of an issue with their products, and almost none on any other topic.
I'm flattered you felt the urge to go back and read my posts. Thank you for taking the time. If you pay close attention, you'll notice the majority of my posts w.r.t. Windows 8 are pure facts or information, backed up by sources and data. The vast majority of posts on this site regarding Windows 8 are founded in ignorance, as most people here haven't even used the OS. Even the author of the TFA spent more time composing a video review than he spent actually using the product he was reviewing. Hell, the video review was almost as long as the time he spent trying the product.
As for going into the negatives of Windwos 8, why should I? That would just be adding to the echo chamber here. I've been using Windows 8 since the developer preview, daily in my work since release, and there's a whole list of things I don't like about Windows 8 and various other Microsoft products (which I could get into if you really care, since they're probably things you have never heard before). But piling on the negativity here is not conducive to any sort of discussion about the merits of the product, as the discussion is already as one-sided as it's going to get. Most threads can't can't even move past the UI. It's the ONLY thing anyone ever complains about Windows 8 here. Every single thread. So what exactly are my complaints about the specifics of the OS going to do when the general population here can't move past their own prejudices about a UI most people here have used on average for 10 minutes?
However, you quote from Patten and your comments about sheep are very apt. I don't think you realize though that they apply much more to the Slashdot population in general than me as an individual.
You are saying that something must be a "major problem" for it to matter,
You're just putting words in my mouth now. I called it a problem, which signifies that I acknowledge it does matter. But every problem has a different degree of severity, which is why I qualified it as "not major." That the animation comes out the side instead of the corner is in no way a critical issue, and it wasn't even something I considered before yesterday. Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7 all have their own set of idiosyncrasies, and this is one of them for Windows 8.
As for corporate overlords, it says a lot about you that you figure everyone with an opinion contrary to yours must be getting paid to think as they do. Good luck with that mindset in life.
Everyone has their own preferences for how an OS should work. Hundreds of millions of people use Windows. I can give you a list of why Windows XP is worse than Windows 8. In fact in my previous reply I listed about 400 reasons. You're the one handwaving those away and saying XP is good enough. The only thing I'm handwaving away here is the direction of an animation.
Then you go in and stop the task. Apps are only allowed certain background functionality. It's reserved for always-on stuff like VOIP, Music, and IM, or for things like notifications. You can control which apps can push notifications via a central notification control area in PC settings. For the other tasks like Music and VOIP, it's your job to end the call or stop music playback.
See the following resources for more implementation specific information:
I would say there's nothing wrong with using Windows XP in 2012 the same way there's nothing wrong with currently driving a car from 1970. Sure it'll do the job and some people still choose to do so and get by just fine, but there have been a lot of advancements since then that make our lives easier.
Which was brought up in the video. He mentions that from windows 95 to XP... the button says "Start" letting users know this is where you should Start.
Yet labeling a button start wasn't quite enough in Windows 95. The label was accompanied by tutorials you would see at log on, a big yellow arrow pointing to the start button with the label "Click here to begin," and a "Start me up" ad campaigning with commercials showcasing the start button. The *only* reason the start menu is regarded as "intuitive" *especially* in Windows 7 and Windows Vista is that users were trained to use it over a decade.
In windows 8, you would need to know to hover in the corner to make the charms bar appear (which appears from the side of the screen, not the corner). It is NOT intuitive.
Just as in Windows 95 you would need some prior knowledge that the start button is the place to access all your programs and functions when you've been trained previously on a program manager. Not intuitive.
Luckily Microsoft realizes this and at least tells you where to find the start button, search, settings, and devices on first log on.
Why not? Why ctrl+x, or ctrl+v? It's just a shortcut, the vast majority of which have no rhyme or reason and are simply memorized. For instance quitting is alt+f4.... why that? ctrl+u might be a better option. Keyboard shortcuts are for power users. There are other ways for other users.
Name an operating system and I'll give you a list of things users found not intuitive, undiscoverable, or backwards. Even very fundamental things you probably take for granted like double clicking, click-drag, selecting multiple items with shift and ctrl, and right clicking. Hell, didn't even understand the start menu at fisrt; Microsoft needed to provide a giant arrow pointing to it, saying "click here to begin."
I mean alt -f4 is a great shortcut key, but for that to be the great "answer " for closing full screen apps.
Alt+f4 is not the "great answer. The answer is you don't close them, you just leave them, the same way you would on iPad, and they are put to sleep. They use no CPU (as long as they are not performing a background task like playing music), and what RAM they use is recovered when needed. Alt+F4 and the dunking gesture is for advanced users only... hence the obscurity.
The tutorial lasts about 30 seconds and vaguely says "try hovering in various corners"
No, it very specifically says: "Move your mouse into any corner" and shows what happens when you move into the upper right corner. Subsequently doing this and performing the most cursory exploration will lead you to all the functions of the OS you need.
Friends and family have been asking me how to do various things in OSX, Windows 7, Windows XP, iOS, Android, etc. for years. Most of iOS is completely hidden from the user: Switching apps, closing apps, deleting apps, accessing siri, turning off... all completely undiscoverable. Sure you get the basic functionality of opening apps and going to the home screen.... but that's it.
Recall all the training Microsoft had to do to get people used to the Start Menu when it was first introduced. Tutorials, arrows point at it telling you to use it, an ad campaign focused on the start menu.... this was not some magical thing that just happened. Now people are hailing it as the best most intuitive UI ever.
100 steps? You install one executable and it's back to Windows 7. The benefit of Microsoft leaving this to third parties is you get to choose the start menu you prefer instead of being stuck with the one they give you. How soon we forget that when Microsoft changed the start menu to Windows 7 style, there was a contingent calling for a return of the "Classic" start menu. Everyone is now united in calling for the start menu back, but everyone is calling for a different start menu. Leave it to Microsoft and you get one option. Leave it to third parties and you get dozens of options.
Exactly! Can't you even see the difference? With Windows 95 there's a frigging new BUTTON on the screen.
Yet this still confused users.Windows 95 had tips on how to use the start menu, and even a little arrow reading "Click here to begin" pointing to the start menu. Don't forget the massive "Start me up" advertising campaign which taught users what the start menu was and featured repetitive images of the button and people clicking it. If you think people automatically took to the start menu without any training whatsoever, I have to question whether you were around in 1995.
I'd rather just go to ONE corner that has a little menu that pops up, allowing me to go anywhere I want to go today.. Seriously, that's all that's needed.
You've just described the charms bar. Start menu gives access to search, settings, devices, and application/folder shortcuts. Charms bar does the exact same thing. That's the top right corner.
Another option is the bottom left corner. There you have access to run, search, desktop, explorer, control panel, task manager, command prompt, disk management, device manager, system, power options, event viewer, programs and features, network connections, personal folders, and the start menu.... all 2 clicks away in a smal radius.
It wasn't just that the weather app was full screen, it was that it went fullscreen unexpectedly because metro took over when it decided his mouse movements were swipes.
The swipe gesture is very specific. I don't know how it works on this guy's machine, but on mine it's implemented such that you have to swipe in from off the touch pad to active the gesture. It's next to impossible to activate just through using the touch pad. Seems like this particular laptop had a bad implementation or a sensitive touch pad.
Metro should've been an install or control panel option... Metro or explorer. choose.
Why? You can already completely disable it with any of the dozens of third party start menu replacements.
The "tutorial" plays while setting up your computer. It's a 10 second animation that says "Move your mouse into any corner." It depicts a giant cursor moving into the corner, which displays the charms bar. It loops this animation several times while your user profile is set up. If you have a touch screen, it also tells you to swipe in from any side and shows a hand swiping in.
Slow enough to be completely understandable for those who are slow, and if you want to skip it.... too bad. Your user profile is being set up and apps are being installed.
Nobody cares about him. His little video only has 300 views. He's just a guy trying really really hard to be Yahtzee. He published a negative opinion of Windows 8 and that gets you on the front page of Slashdot these days.
Slashdot Mirror
I think using the identity of his gardener proves they are pretty damn stupid.
It didn't need to be obvious ANYMORE . I'm referring to Windows 7 there. You're making my point for me. We trained people for YEARS to use the start menu. Eventually having the word "start" on it was superfluous.
You have a very broad definition of the word "obvious." If someone needs training in something before something is obvious to them, that something is not generally obvious. The answer to the problem d/dx x^2 is obvious to me. It is not obvious to most people. Using your logic, the start menu in Windows 7 and Windows 8 have the same degree of obviousness for someone completely new to Windows. That person would need some training or instruction in order for the start menu to be obvious.
Their customer base, the only people that matter. The people who have been trained to use the start menu.
This same logic could have been used to defend the program manager over the start menu in 1995. By making the switch, Microsoft expanded their user base, and is hoping to do the same now after all the resistance settles down.
Yeah, I remember as a kind one thing I wanted for Christmas and never got was a $100 Lego castle. This was in the late 80 early 90s. This also serves to note that even back then, Lego wasn't just a box of generic bricks. They had soldiers, weapons, horses, specialty mountains and trees.
I remember lego space started out pretty generic, but over time the pieces got more and more specialized to the theme. Eventually you got these flying saucers with big alien logos on the pieces that you couldn't use for much else. The only difference between now and then is you have Galactic Republic logo instead. This may be "selling out", but I don't see how it would have much of an impact on a child's creativity, as I got along just fine with the old imaginary brand sets.
Now you're just being argumentative. I offered that I would provide my take on the downsides of Windows 8 if you were genuinely interested, and you flew right past that and continue to call me a shill. This pretty much confirms you're just trolling. Guess this explains your lack of karma.
It didn't need to be obvious anymore because it was called "Start" for about 10 years, which made it obvious
It absolutely did not make it obvious. Windows 95 included tips on log on that instructed the user about the start menu. There was also a bouncing animated arrow that would fly down the task bar reading "Click here to begin." Or do you remember the massive "Start me up" ad campaign, which highlighted the start menu and effectively taught people what it was and how to use it?
Prior to the start menu, people were trained on the program manager, which had all their applications right there in front of them. In 1995, it was the start menu which was unintuitive and cumbersome; hiding all a user's programs away in a corner requiring at least two additional clicks was seen as backwards to many. To access calculator in Windows 3.1 you just had to open Applications and there it was. In Windows 95 it was start -> all programs -> accessories -> calculator. The start menu was also very difficult to manage for many. In the program manager you would just create your own folder and move your stuff in there. In the start menu, you had to access a hidden folder somewhere in the file system and create folders there. It is still like that today. Not user friendly.
And don't get me started on putting "Shut Down" in a menu labeled "Start"
Yet today, for some reason, the start menu is begin hailed as some sort of paragon to UI design. It is not, and as someone who lived through resistance to the start menu, it's just so amusing seeing this happen all over again.
Put someone in front of Windows XP and Windows 8 and let's see who figures out how to get a list of applications first.
But who exactly? Someone who has been trained for the last 17 years to use the start menu? Someone who has never used a computer in their life? Someone who has has never used Windows or OSX or Linux, and whose sole exposure to UI design is iOS or Android, where things like hidden UI elements are more common than not? Everyone is coming from a different base set of skills.
This measure of "How much can you figure out without being told anything" (which people here mistakenly label "intuitiveness") is completely meaningless. A user who has never used Windows but only iOS would feel very foreign using a mouse in a file explorer, something most computer users today are familiar with. Does that make them unintuitive? Many users of desktop operating systems are very confused with the concept of right clicking, double clicking, and click-drag. Does that mean we should scrap these interfaces?
Windows 8 assumes you know how to use a mouse and a keyboard. Then they tell you "Here's one more interface element you have to use, hot corners, and how to use them." It's right up there with Windows 95 telling users "Here's a new UI element, the start menu, and how to use it."
My girlfriend did. And her sister. And my parents, my sister, my aunt... even I did.
With the iPad is that the basic functionality of launching an app and closing an app is simple: tap an app to open, click the only button on the device to leave. Microsoft has the same implementation of this basic functionality in Windows 8.
But as soon as you want to get to anything more advanced, iOS suffers from the same problems about discoverable UI elements people here are complaining about. How do you discover how to re-arrange apps? How do you discover how to make folders? What about multitasking, or closing apps permanantly? What about how to even lock the device (when they changed the hardware button)? What about the hidden notification center, which you have to swipe down from the edge to access? What about siri? I had to show all of the aforementioned how to access this functionality on iPad.
not good; or you agree. Which you didn't even mention explicitly, but you directly went on to discuss the offtopic subject - whether or not the problem was major.
Again, I think you're having trouble following the discussion. 1) I did explicitly say that it would be a good idea 3) You're the one who drailed the 2) You're the one who derailed the thread with discussions about my "major problem" comment with your very first reply in this thread. I really don't understand your fascination with this singular comment I made in passing, that has almost no consequence or bearing on absolutely anything.
As to the problem actually being major, well it is a hidden user interface artifact you are dealing with, every bit helps when making it easy to use. With such an obvious issue, where is the every bit being done by Microsoft?
Seems like they're doing just fine, as their own telemetry is showing that 90% of users are discovering and using the new interface on their first session. With all the hyperbole being thrown around here, you'd think that no one would be able to use the metro UI.
I have read at least hundred of your posts. All of them strongly defending Microsoft, none of them pointing out the least of an issue with their products, and almost none on any other topic.
I'm flattered you felt the urge to go back and read my posts. Thank you for taking the time. If you pay close attention, you'll notice the majority of my posts w.r.t. Windows 8 are pure facts or information, backed up by sources and data. The vast majority of posts on this site regarding Windows 8 are founded in ignorance, as most people here haven't even used the OS. Even the author of the TFA spent more time composing a video review than he spent actually using the product he was reviewing. Hell, the video review was almost as long as the time he spent trying the product.
As for going into the negatives of Windwos 8, why should I? That would just be adding to the echo chamber here. I've been using Windows 8 since the developer preview, daily in my work since release, and there's a whole list of things I don't like about Windows 8 and various other Microsoft products (which I could get into if you really care, since they're probably things you have never heard before). But piling on the negativity here is not conducive to any sort of discussion about the merits of the product, as the discussion is already as one-sided as it's going to get. Most threads can't can't even move past the UI. It's the ONLY thing anyone ever complains about Windows 8 here. Every single thread. So what exactly are my complaints about the specifics of the OS going to do when the general population here can't move past their own prejudices about a UI most people here have used on average for 10 minutes?
However, you quote from Patten and your comments about sheep are very apt. I don't think you realize though that they apply much more to the Slashdot population in general than me as an individual.
You are saying that something must be a "major problem" for it to matter,
You're just putting words in my mouth now. I called it a problem, which signifies that I acknowledge it does matter. But every problem has a different degree of severity, which is why I qualified it as "not major." That the animation comes out the side instead of the corner is in no way a critical issue, and it wasn't even something I considered before yesterday. Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7 all have their own set of idiosyncrasies, and this is one of them for Windows 8.
As for corporate overlords, it says a lot about you that you figure everyone with an opinion contrary to yours must be getting paid to think as they do. Good luck with that mindset in life.
Everyone has their own preferences for how an OS should work. Hundreds of millions of people use Windows. I can give you a list of why Windows XP is worse than Windows 8. In fact in my previous reply I listed about 400 reasons. You're the one handwaving those away and saying XP is good enough. The only thing I'm handwaving away here is the direction of an animation.
Then you go in and stop the task. Apps are only allowed certain background functionality. It's reserved for always-on stuff like VOIP, Music, and IM, or for things like notifications. You can control which apps can push notifications via a central notification control area in PC settings. For the other tasks like Music and VOIP, it's your job to end the call or stop music playback.
See the following resources for more implementation specific information:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=27411
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsappdev/archive/2012/05/24/being-productive-in-the-background-background-tasks.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsappdev/archive/2012/05/16/being-productive-when-your-app-is-offscreen.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsappdev/archive/2012/04/10/managing-app-lifecycle-so-your-apps-feel-quot-always-alive-quot.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/11/08/building-a-power-smart-general-purpose-windows.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/11/02/updating-live-tiles-without-draining-your-battery.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/04/17/reclaiming-memory-from-metro-style-apps.aspx
The changelog from Windows XP to Windows 8 is pretty extensive.
Features new to Windows Vista
Vista Technical Features
Vista Security Features
Vista Management Features
Vista IO Features
Vista Networking Features
Features new to Windows 7
Features new to Windows 8
I would say there's nothing wrong with using Windows XP in 2012 the same way there's nothing wrong with currently driving a car from 1970. Sure it'll do the job and some people still choose to do so and get by just fine, but there have been a lot of advancements since then that make our lives easier.
Which was brought up in the video. He mentions that from windows 95 to XP... the button says "Start" letting users know this is where you should Start.
Yet labeling a button start wasn't quite enough in Windows 95. The label was accompanied by tutorials you would see at log on, a big yellow arrow pointing to the start button with the label "Click here to begin," and a "Start me up" ad campaigning with commercials showcasing the start button. The *only* reason the start menu is regarded as "intuitive" *especially* in Windows 7 and Windows Vista is that users were trained to use it over a decade.
In windows 8, you would need to know to hover in the corner to make the charms bar appear (which appears from the side of the screen, not the corner). It is NOT intuitive.
Just as in Windows 95 you would need some prior knowledge that the start button is the place to access all your programs and functions when you've been trained previously on a program manager. Not intuitive.
Luckily Microsoft realizes this and at least tells you where to find the start button, search, settings, and devices on first log on.
Why not? Why ctrl+x, or ctrl+v? It's just a shortcut, the vast majority of which have no rhyme or reason and are simply memorized. For instance quitting is alt+f4.... why that? ctrl+u might be a better option. Keyboard shortcuts are for power users. There are other ways for other users.
Name an operating system and I'll give you a list of things users found not intuitive, undiscoverable, or backwards. Even very fundamental things you probably take for granted like double clicking, click-drag, selecting multiple items with shift and ctrl, and right clicking. Hell, didn't even understand the start menu at fisrt; Microsoft needed to provide a giant arrow pointing to it, saying "click here to begin."
I mean alt -f4 is a great shortcut key, but for that to be the great "answer " for closing full screen apps.
Alt+f4 is not the "great answer. The answer is you don't close them, you just leave them, the same way you would on iPad, and they are put to sleep. They use no CPU (as long as they are not performing a background task like playing music), and what RAM they use is recovered when needed. Alt+F4 and the dunking gesture is for advanced users only... hence the obscurity.
The tutorial lasts about 30 seconds and vaguely says "try hovering in various corners"
No, it very specifically says: "Move your mouse into any corner" and shows what happens when you move into the upper right corner. Subsequently doing this and performing the most cursory exploration will lead you to all the functions of the OS you need.
Friends and family have been asking me how to do various things in OSX, Windows 7, Windows XP, iOS, Android, etc. for years. Most of iOS is completely hidden from the user: Switching apps, closing apps, deleting apps, accessing siri, turning off... all completely undiscoverable. Sure you get the basic functionality of opening apps and going to the home screen.... but that's it.
Recall all the training Microsoft had to do to get people used to the Start Menu when it was first introduced. Tutorials, arrows point at it telling you to use it, an ad campaign focused on the start menu.... this was not some magical thing that just happened. Now people are hailing it as the best most intuitive UI ever.
Try to follow the conversion.... we're talking about an animation, not Windows XP.
100 steps? You install one executable and it's back to Windows 7. The benefit of Microsoft leaving this to third parties is you get to choose the start menu you prefer instead of being stuck with the one they give you. How soon we forget that when Microsoft changed the start menu to Windows 7 style, there was a contingent calling for a return of the "Classic" start menu. Everyone is now united in calling for the start menu back, but everyone is calling for a different start menu. Leave it to Microsoft and you get one option. Leave it to third parties and you get dozens of options.
Exactly! Can't you even see the difference? With Windows 95 there's a frigging new BUTTON on the screen.
Yet this still confused users.Windows 95 had tips on how to use the start menu, and even a little arrow reading "Click here to begin" pointing to the start menu. Don't forget the massive "Start me up" advertising campaign which taught users what the start menu was and featured repetitive images of the button and people clicking it. If you think people automatically took to the start menu without any training whatsoever, I have to question whether you were around in 1995.
I'd rather just go to ONE corner that has a little menu that pops up, allowing me to go anywhere I want to go today.. Seriously, that's all that's needed.
You've just described the charms bar. Start menu gives access to search, settings, devices, and application/folder shortcuts. Charms bar does the exact same thing. That's the top right corner.
Another option is the bottom left corner. There you have access to run, search, desktop, explorer, control panel, task manager, command prompt, disk management, device manager, system, power options, event viewer, programs and features, network connections, personal folders, and the start menu.... all 2 clicks away in a smal radius.
It wasn't just that the weather app was full screen, it was that it went fullscreen unexpectedly because metro took over when it decided his mouse movements were swipes.
The swipe gesture is very specific. I don't know how it works on this guy's machine, but on mine it's implemented such that you have to swipe in from off the touch pad to active the gesture. It's next to impossible to activate just through using the touch pad. Seems like this particular laptop had a bad implementation or a sensitive touch pad.
Metro should've been an install or control panel option... Metro or explorer. choose.
Why? You can already completely disable it with any of the dozens of third party start menu replacements.
The "tutorial" plays while setting up your computer. It's a 10 second animation that says "Move your mouse into any corner." It depicts a giant cursor moving into the corner, which displays the charms bar. It loops this animation several times while your user profile is set up. If you have a touch screen, it also tells you to swipe in from any side and shows a hand swiping in.
See here: http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/2/3214795/windows-8-tutorial-setup-guide
Slow enough to be completely understandable for those who are slow, and if you want to skip it.... too bad. Your user profile is being set up and apps are being installed.
Where the fuck do I shut the goddamned machine down?
It's in the charms bar under settings. Press win+i to get you there. Searching for "shut down" or "turn off" also points you here.
Nobody cares about him. His little video only has 300 views. He's just a guy trying really really hard to be Yahtzee. He published a negative opinion of Windows 8 and that gets you on the front page of Slashdot these days.