Poll: Windows 8 Experience (How do you like it?)

By Steven P.
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Grand Master

neo1911

Posted
Posted

Why the scrollbar buttons in IE have to be inconsistently big compared to explorer is beyond me. Do they think its there for easy press for touch screen users? Those users will swipe up and down to scroll pages. Another sign of amateurish UI design.

I like the new task manager. Looks slick. But it reports my CPU frequency as 5 Ghz when my i5 3550 can boost and reach a maximum frequency of 3.9 Ghz only.

Another of my laptop has a tendency to hang randomly which is the dynamictick issue carried forward from RP.

Thus it is clear that Windows 8 was totally rushed to be available in time for holiday season. We can expect day 1 patches on retail availability, no sh** Sherlock in that!

Neowinian

Digi Justicer

Posted
Posted

Unusable. Went back to 7 after a couple of days of testing. Serious compatibility with my daily use apps. Metro UI is... Something I can't even define. To sum it up in a single word: Horror.

Thanks for Windows 7 Microsoft!

  • Gordon Keenan and rhianntp
  • Like 2
Experienced

Fid

Posted
Posted

I've been using Win 8 Pro from Friday night and so far so good. Love the multi-monitor improvements, still trying to figure out what the point of Metro is though (on a desktop).

How do I quit Metro applications I have launched? For example, if I open Mail, the only way I can get out of it is by going back to Start and choosing Desktop... how do I stop Mail from then running?

Otherwise, mostly looks good, very fast, very slick.

Forgot to mention, also like the idea I can log into my Microsoft Account and everything is synced between PCs (well, settings wise) and everything is set up to go (i.e. if I wanted to use Mail).

Mentor

grayscale

Posted
Posted

I've been using Win 8 Pro from Friday night and so far so good. Love the multi-monitor improvements, still trying to figure out what the point of Metro is though (on a desktop).

How do I quit Metro applications I have launched? For example, if I open Mail, the only way I can get out of it is by going back to Start and choosing Desktop... how do I stop Mail from then running?

Otherwise, mostly looks good, very fast, very slick.

The old Alt+F4 or you can drag the upper edge all the way down.

Grand Master

NEVER85

Posted
Posted

I like nearly everything about it so far, although I'm having a strange issue where Firefox seems to crash frequently and at random times. Never had this issue on any prior Windows OS.

Collaborator

contextfree

Posted
Posted

Why the scrollbar buttons in IE have to be inconsistently big compared to explorer is beyond me. Do they think its there for easy press for touch screen users?

The scrollbars only appear when using a mouse. They aren't present at all when using touch (it has an iOS-style mini-scroll indicator for that). So, no, that's not the reason. (The reason is actually that desktop IE10 is a shell around immersive IE, so it uses the new immersive-style scrollbars, while Explorer uses the older desktop style.

People who haven't actually tried using the OS with both mouse and touch seem to assume the interface is the same with both, while in reality, it adjusts depending on what input method you're using. The scrollbars are an example of that. I will agree that the new scrollbars look ugly though.

Rookie

Gordon Keenan

Posted
Posted

I just wanted to post this

http://www.theverge....-next-windows-8

Awesome review from a mac user! :) Gives an amazing image of the endless possibilities of next gen UI

The different points of view are what make the OS world so interesting!

http://tasystems.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/windows-8-released/

Have to say, I'll not be buying WIndow's 8, nor will I even install any free ones that I get access to (legitimately). I'll stick with Windows 7.

Grand Master

cork1958

Posted
Posted

I gave the hardware part 5 of 5 and the others 4 of 5. Very seldom rate anything at max, especially with something brand new.

Windows 8 isn't bad for anyone who knew it would be slightly different to begin with, but most common users, I predict it to be unfavorable.

Personally,

I'm sticking with Windows 7 though.

Veteran

deck

Posted
Posted

I installed Windows 8 when the Release Candidate was made available. I later upgraded to the RTM. Today I have re-installed Windows 7 and I feel like I'm home again.

After nearly 3 months of using Windows 8 I can safely say the following:

  • It didn't get any easier to use. Neither Windows as a whole, nor Windows 8 on its own was more pleasant.
  • After the first couple of weeks of playing, I never used the Metro Start Desktop Menu thing again.
  • Although I spent most of my time in 'classic' desktop mode, I was always frustrated about how Windows tried to default the application use to the Metro mode. Be it a movie or PDF or even opening Chrome, if I opened a file in desktop mode I would be thrust into Metro mode. (Music was the worst; I never figured that one out)
  • I didn't like the task management between the two modes. I frequently 'lost' my running apps because some would be open in Metro mode and others would be open in desktop mode.

I started this adventure with an open mind. I understand why MS has removed the Start Menu (stats show that people rarely use it, and chose to pin apps or use their desktop to access them). But when I wanted to find an application which wasn't pinned, I didn't want to jump to Metro and then use the very busy applications screen to hunt for what I was looking.

I tried using the Metro mode to manage my time and take advantage of the dynamic content. But too many things got in the way.

  • Integration with Gmail is crap and the Mail tile was always hours or days behind what was reality. And the email application just doesn't work well with the way Gmail works.
  • Similarly for the Calendar, it was always behind the times for me.
  • The news tiles that I selected were also days behind schedule.

The worst problem, though, was the fact that I couldn't have Metro running on my second monitor and the desktop running on my primary at the same time. The moment I used something on my Metro monitor, my primary monitor would display the application and I would loose focus on what I was really doing.

The Metro screen is basically a glorified widget desktop. But I don't want widgets to be the primary focus of my life. I wanted Metro to be my 'always' on news source, which I could consult alongside actually being productive on my desktop. But I couldn't do that.

Using apps in Metro was not intuitive. Bars to the left of me, bar to the right, bars below. Maybe on a tablet this will work more efficiently, but on a PC it was confusing and slowed me down. Perhaps I'm just too used to clicking File - Print to get to my Printer dialogue. It's a simple 2 step process, versus dragging my mouse to the bottom right, clicking on Devices, click in on my printer and then going. I don't know.

I would consider myself an advanced user. I know my way around a PC. And Windows 8, despite my best efforts, did not work for me on a PC.

That said, I will be buying Surface the moment it is available. I am going to be buying a Windows Phone 8 Lumia. I see the potential with Metro, but its application on the desktop just doesn't work. Not in the way Windows 8 did it. I think that Windows 9 (or whatever they call it) will address these issues, as Win7 did for Vista and XP did for ME. Sadly, despite their best efforts, MS has produced another mid-cycle product that needs another 2 years of public outcry before they get it right.

At least they tried something new, which is good. I guess I am just not ready for the newness that they are offering.

Good bye Windows 8. I'll see you again in a couple of years.

Grand Master

Hum

Posted
Posted

Praise Buddah -- another Windows 8 topic :D

And you have reached the same conclusions as my intuition gave me -- not worth 'updating'.

The one silver lining: Windows 8 makes Windows 7 look great.

... and I feel like I'm home again.

Wasn't there a song like that for Windows XP ... :shifty:

  • Elliot B. and FlintyV
  • Like 2
Grand Master

articuno1au

Posted
Posted (edited)

You know I would genuinely consider buying Neowin just so I could slap the people starting these topics.

I think we have well and truly covered whether people like or dislike the damn OS. I don't care if you like it or not, I just want the minispy to be something other than "WIndows 8 and how it murdered my entire family" or "Windows 8 saves small child".

It's beating a dead horse. Worse than that, it's beating the small stain where the horse used to be. Soon enough we will have beaten the ground where the horse was sufficiently to have dug through to China -_-

****.

EDIT::

This post is out of context as it was made prior to the thread merger.

Edited by articuno1au
Proficient

FATILA

Posted
Posted

Yeah the mail 'app' is a total pos! I've had it on gmail and it gives me no notifications, and even when I opened it today it sat there on 4 day old email doing nothing. The only advantage of using that metro crap might be a mail notification, and if it can't even do that it is worse than useless.

Veteran

hjf288

Posted
Posted

Guys sharing his opinion about how he couldn't get used to it, I'm half surprised the Rabid Win 8 koolaid drinkers havent come in and flamed you to hell.

I'm still undecided on the Start screen, it doesn't seem as bad as first thought.. and my mail app seems fine then again I'm not using Gmail

Grand Master

Charisma Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

Good grief, chill out you guys. This wasn't a whinge-fest, the OP made his points very eloquently and shared his experience without much emotional bias at all. He said he was open-minded at the start, and based on the quality of the post, I believe it. I'm glad to have mature, honest evaluations like this on the site to read. Thanks, deck.

  • Arceles and Hum
  • Like 2
Veteran

deck

Posted
Posted

Ya'll are mean. And I sniff, ever so slightly. I could have posted in a Win8 topic... but I like the who singular feel to ones opinion.

Besides, there are as many of me as there are of people who really like Win8.

Community Regular

yardmanflex

Posted
Posted

I installed Windows 8 when the Release Candidate was made available. I later upgraded to the RTM. Today I have re-installed Windows 7 and I feel like I'm home again.

After nearly 3 months of using Windows 8 I can safely say the following:

  • It didn't get any easier to use. Neither Windows as a whole, nor Windows 8 on its own was more pleasant.
  • After the first couple of weeks of playing, I never used the Metro Start Desktop Menu thing again.
  • Although I spent most of my time in 'classic' desktop mode, I was always frustrated about how Windows tried to default the application use to the Metro mode. Be it a movie or PDF or even opening Chrome, if I opened a file in desktop mode I would be thrust into Metro mode. (Music was the worst; I never figured that one out)
  • I didn't like the task management between the two modes. I frequently 'lost' my running apps because some would be open in Metro mode and others would be open in desktop mode.

I started this adventure with an open mind. I understand why MS has removed the Start Menu (stats show that people rarely use it, and chose to pin apps or use their desktop to access them). But when I wanted to find an application which wasn't pinned, I didn't want to jump to Metro and then use the very busy applications screen to hunt for what I was looking.

I tried using the Metro mode to manage my time and take advantage of the dynamic content. But too many things got in the way.

  • Integration with Gmail is crap and the Mail tile was always hours or days behind what was reality. And the email application just doesn't work well with the way Gmail works.
  • Similarly for the Calendar, it was always behind the times for me.
  • The news tiles that I selected were also days behind schedule.

The worst problem, though, was the fact that I couldn't have Metro running on my second monitor and the desktop running on my primary at the same time. The moment I used something on my Metro monitor, my primary monitor would display the application and I would loose focus on what I was really doing.

The Metro screen is basically a glorified widget desktop. But I don't want widgets to be the primary focus of my life. I wanted Metro to be my 'always' on news source, which I could consult alongside actually being productive on my desktop. But I couldn't do that.

Using apps in Metro was not intuitive. Bars to the left of me, bar to the right, bars below. Maybe on a tablet this will work more efficiently, but on a PC it was confusing and slowed me down. Perhaps I'm just too used to clicking File - Print to get to my Printer dialogue. It's a simple 2 step process, versus dragging my mouse to the bottom right, clicking on Devices, click in on my printer and then going. I don't know.

I would consider myself an advanced user. I know my way around a PC. And Windows 8, despite my best efforts, did not work for me on a PC.

That said, I will be buying Surface the moment it is available. I am going to be buying a Windows Phone 8 Lumia. I see the potential with Metro, but its application on the desktop just doesn't work. Not in the way Windows 8 did it. I think that Windows 9 (or whatever they call it) will address these issues, as Win7 did for Vista and XP did for ME. Sadly, despite their best efforts, MS has produced another mid-cycle product that needs another 2 years of public outcry before they get it right.

At least they tried something new, which is good. I guess I am just not ready for the newness that they are offering.

Good bye Windows 8. I'll see you again in a couple of years.

What an idiot!!! These post are so me too...

Grand Master

articuno1au

Posted
Posted

Ya'll are mean. And I sniff, ever so slightly. I could have posted in a Win8 topic... but I like the who singular feel to ones opinion.

Besides, there are as many of me as there are of people who really like Win8.

I'm not meaning to criticise the point of view or even the absolute expression of the view. I am just sick of these threads in general.

My apologies if I offended you at all.

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted
The worst problem, though, was the fact that I couldn't have Metro running on my second monitor and the desktop running on my primary at the same time. The moment I used something on my Metro monitor, my primary monitor would display the application and I would loose focus on what I was really doing.

Are you sure you used the Release Preview and not the consumer preview ?

because I can have metro on one pof my screen and do my desktop or any other desktop app on the other as much as I want.

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