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Windows 8

scaramanga

scaramanga

Paul Miller
Staff member
Anyone using it yet?

I've been trying it in a VM for a day or so - managed about 20 mins before I installed Classic Shell. I normally embrace new technology and consider myself an early adopter, but in this case I can only report DON'T. LIKE. IT.
 
You working on a touchscreen?

If not, I'm not surprised

You have to run it on a tablet

I've been using it for about 6 months on my laptop

All I do each day is click the desktop button

Then it's more or less identical to Windows 7
 
Do you have classic shell installed? If not, how do you make the desktop like 7?

No touchscreen - I am a little tempted by a dockable tablet (like the surface but better) but I tend to need more grunt than that in a PC.
 
scaramanga said:
Do you have classic shell installed? If not, how do you make the desktop like 7?

No touchscreen - I am a little tempted by a dockable tablet (like the surface but better) but I tend to need more grunt than that in a PC.
Click to expand...

I would check out the Surface Pro devices when they appear.

I am running Windows 8 Release Preview. I never use the tablet UI (because I'm working on a laptop)

I just click on the desktop icon and the O/S is 99% the same as Windows 7

When I get a touchscreen, I'll no doubt make more use of the tablet UI and its live tiles
 
southstand1882 said:
I would check out the Surface Pro devices when they appear.

I am running Windows 8 Release Preview. I never use the tablet UI (because I'm working on a laptop)

I just click on the desktop icon and the O/S is 99% the same as Windows 7

When I get a touchscreen, I'll no doubt make more use of the tablet UI and its live tiles
Click to expand...

But without classic shell you don't have a start menu right? How do you launch programs?

I'm also very skeptical of MS's claim that soon all apps will be touch-friendly. I've used some very well designed Office apps on the iPhone/iPad and the experience is still way short of Win7 - and I don't have a clue how something like SQL server manager will become touch friendly.

I can see a lot of people using 8 via the old method.
 
I skipped Vista and from what everyone said it was a good move. Unless I hear rave reviews, I think I might wait until Windows 9 when they solve the problems in Windows 8. If I get a tablet that might change, but again waiting seems to better choice unless there is a killer app that I can't live without. I'll watch this thread with interest though.
 
scaramanga said:
But without classic shell you don't have a start menu right? How do you launch programs?

I'm also very skeptical of MS's claim that soon all apps will be touch-friendly. I've used some very well designed Office apps on the iPhone/iPad and the experience is still way short of Win7 - and I don't have a clue how something like SQL server manager will become touch friendly.

I can see a lot of people using 8 via the old method.
Click to expand...

Which Windows 8 did you install

The Release candidate has the classic shell

Just click the "Desktop" tile and you're in Windows 7/8

You would be surprised at what can be achieved with touch (eventually)

Even full blown ERP solutions will have touch interfaces
 
No need to run Windows 8 on a laptop or desktop in my view, so i'll be sticking with 7 for the forseeable future. If anything its a hindrance on anything but a tablet
 
Armenia Spur said:
No need to run Windows 8 on a laptop or desktop in my view, so i'll be sticking with 7 for the forseeable future. If anything its a hindrance on anything but a tablet
Click to expand...

Definitely

But I work in Sales, so I need to be able to demonstrate a particular Windows 8 app, even though its on my 3 year old Dell Latitude
 
I installed it last night to have a play about with, didn't do much on it but I quite liked it. 8-[

It's on a normal desktop PC with a mouse and keyboard, no touch screen and it works fine. All you have to do is hover the mouse in the bottom left corner and then click on the start tile that comes up, the tiles are your start menu, just bigger clearer and easier to customise, I don't see what the problem is with it.
 
southstand1882 said:
Which Windows 8 did you install

The Release candidate has the classic shell

Just click the "Desktop" tile and you're in Windows 7/8

You would be surprised at what can be achieved with touch (eventually)

Even full blown ERP solutions will have touch interfaces
Click to expand...

I installed the Dev evaluation version - this one has a desktop but as far as I can see it can only be used for shortcuts. The start menu button just takes you back to Metro.
 
SpursLodge said:
I installed it last night to have a play about with, didn't do much on it but I quite liked it. 8-[

It's on a normal desktop PC with a mouse and keyboard, no touch screen and it works fine. All you have to do is hover the mouse in the bottom left corner and then click on the start tile that comes up, the tiles are your start menu, just bigger clearer and easier to customise, I don't see what the problem is with it.
Click to expand...

That's where some of the issues come from for me - I'm running in a VM so it's really difficult to hover over any corner. I can see the same issue occuring for people like me who often use multiple monitors though.
 
scaramanga said:
I installed the Dev evaluation version - this one has a desktop but as far as I can see it can only be used for shortcuts. The start menu button just takes you back to Metro.
Click to expand...

- Switch to tablet view
- Type name of program (e.g. Word, SQL, Control Panel)

You can also pin these to the tablet UI or the Taskbar (if you want them on the desktop)
 
southstand1882 said:
- Switch to tablet view
- Type name of program (e.g. Word, SQL, Control Panel)

You can also pin these to the tablet UI or the Taskbar (if you want them on the desktop)
Click to expand...

That sort of works - not sure about the concept of searching for my apps though.

Do they have equivalents for the old keyboard shortcuts? I try to use a mouse as little as possible so I spend most of my time with commands like:
Win+R > Winword > Enter
and I use Alt-Tab a lot too.
 
scaramanga said:
That sort of works - not sure about the concept of searching for my apps though.

Do they have equivalents for the old keyboard shortcuts? I try to use a mouse as little as possible so I spend most of my time with commands like:
Win+R > Winword > Enter
and I use Alt-Tab a lot too.
Click to expand...

Yes, these work too

Or another technique is:

- Hover mouse in VERY top right of screen
- Click search button
 
scaramanga said:
That's where some of the issues come from for me - I'm running in a VM so it's really difficult to hover over any corner. I can see the same issue occuring for people like me who often use multiple monitors though.
Click to expand...

I can see it being an issue for multiple moitors as well, I don't know why they didn't just put a little button in the corner or make it so you have to click both mouse buttons near the corner or something.
 
Ok try these bitches:

Windows Logo + C
Windows Logo + D
Windows Logo + I
Windows Logo + Q
Windows Logo + F
 
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So far there's just too much mouse movement for me.

I'm getting the hang of how to do things, but for someone like me who doesn't really use a mouse much (especially not from one end of the screen to the other) it's all just a bit awkward. Can see why it's succesful on a touchscreen though.

Now I just have to wait for the right hardware solution. Currently I'd be loathe to lose my 15.5" screen but really would like a tablet to use at home - 15.5" is way too big for that. I'm not sure how they'll get around that, but there must be enough people like me to make it worthwhile.
 
I tried it a few months ago - I hate the way you are supposed to hover over nothing at all, to bring up a button.

That is a terrible bit of design... just hover in a random corner and random things happen.

Just put a button you clusterfux.

I skipped Vista and Win7 so I reckon I can skip Win8 too... XP ftw, oldskool.
 
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