[......]
— May 7: Microsoft says it will retool Windows 8 to address Complaints and Confusion, though it offers few details. Microsoft also discloses that it has sold more than 100 million Windows 8 licenses.
— May 14: Microsoft says its Windows update, previously codenamed Blue, will be called 8.1 and will be Free to Windows 8 users.
— May 30: Microsoft details some of the changes. Users will be able to set their machines to start automatically in the older, desktop mode.
A Start button is restored in look, though clicking on it will lead to Window 8’s full-screen startup page rather than the Start menu found in older Windows.
— June 26: Microsoft is scheduled to release a Preview version on Windows 8.1 as it kicks off Build, a three-day conference in San Francisco for partners and other developers.
[......]
POLL
Microsoft is unveiling changes to Windows 8 after Complaints, what's your opinion of the operating system?
Love it (4367) 7%
Hate it (13980) 22%
Somewhere in between (9333) 15%
Don't care/haven't bothered to find out (34728) 56%
Now tempted to go back to Mac OS in order to get work done instead of having a harder time doing more than one thing at once, while having an unworkable search in the OS.
I don't care how they patch it, never going to Windows 8.
I'll skip a generation again.
A Start button is restored in look, though clicking on it will lead to Window 8’s full-screen startup page rather than the Start menu found in older Windows.
Leave it to Microsoft to completely misunderstand the problem.
Now tempted to go back to Mac OS in order to get work done instead of having a harder time doing more than one thing at once, while having an unworkable search in the OS.
Leave it to Microsoft to completely misunderstand the problem.
Now that is funny... unworkable search... not being able to find things in Windows 8....... admit it, you have not tried it. Finding things in Windows 8 and soon 8.1, is so easy... just start typing on the start page! How hard can it be?
Leave it to Microsoft to completely misunderstand the problem.
I've been using my mother's system for weeks. It's abysmal for research, dude. I don't know how on earth you could manage 10 browser windows, with upwards of 20 tabs in each one, at least one window of OneNote (frequently 2-3), a tabbed PDF reader with several documents inside, a Word document for writing, a music player, and an audio editor-without staying in the Desktop environment (which they made incredibly god damned inconvenient).
That's why I have been sticking with 7 proudly. Compared to 8, 7 looks incredible for searching through documents and getting crap done.
Why on earth is it so stupid difficult to close out of an application or window on a track pad? I have to actually pull out an external mouse to deal with it effectively enough.
Why is the multitasking snap feature so ungodly useless?
Furthermore, why is it turned into yet another layer I have to interact with to get anything done, let alone why it looks absolutely atrocious?
There is no excuse for making metro damned awful and prominent. It was as if Apple had decided to make the widgets layer the primary layer for operating the bloody OS. Just absolutely bonkers stupid.
On Windows 8, I feel like I have to go through extra steps just to do more than 1 thing at once.
Sorry, man, but my PDF collection is growing, I need to search through documents quickly and effectively, without errors or not finding anything at all (something that Windows is actually great at-screwing it up badly).
I need an operating system that cares for actual productivity instead of suggesting that I must stick with touch and an ungodly dumb number of unworkable layers to do my work. I don't give a damn about touchscreens, I don't want to be hankered to a crippled multitasking interface. I would rather buy a low level Mac mini to supplement a Windows 7 notebook than deal with 8. Even the simplest features of Mavericks involving the aging Finder convinced me that I could save more time on a Mac than in Windows.
Considering that the naysayers cant articulate what the problem is in the first place, then it is not hard to misunderstand...
Oh no there is no Start button. Well actually there is, it just does not look like it did once.
So what does Microsoft do.. add a physical "Start" button, that no one uses anyways, since most people put shortcuts on the desktop.
Okay you could not boot directly to desktop... with Windows 8.1 you can. So in other words, you can make Windows 8 look exactly like Windows 7 now, totally by passing the "metro" look. Happy now? No of course not..
Nuts and bolts Windows 8 is far better than Windows 7. If the start button issue and the new start button are what worry you then just spend an extra $5 on Start8. It rertores the look and full functionality of the old Windows start button and sets the system to auto-boot to desktop.
Problem solved.
Proof one that perhaps the notion of "the button" in and of itself isn't necessarily what the issue is. The Windows 7 start button doesn't look like the standard start button of old, but that didn't seem to garner nearly as much complaints. Could it possibly be because the way the start button FUNCTIONED was relatively similar?
Well, here's something useful...PeteEU, speaker of truth about what "most people" do with their computers and how they use it. Clearly, these "naysayers" are just crazy people who don't understand that "most" people don't function like them at all. Thank god we have PeteEU here to tell us the FACTS about what "most people" do.
So, since you're seemingly all knowing I'll just ask you rather than bothering to google it....you can make it so that when you hit the start button in Windows 8/1 it doesn't take you to the "metro" app menu? Because if not, you're not actually "Totally" passing the Metro look, you're just delaying it.
Eh? No one is forcing you to use the metro interface.... As for 10 browser windows.... why on earth? That aint research, but chaos.
LOL seriously? Search is the same on both. The only added search feature is in the metro look where you can search across apps, music, online and anywhere in between.
Ahh I agree ... but then get a mouse. They cost like 5 bucks.
Again, you dont have to use the metro interface...I barely dont as it is.
What other layer? The metro interface? I use Windows 8 daily, and spend about 1% time in the metro interface.
You mean like the Apple launch pad thing? HATE it...Beyond useless and cluttering up the screen always.
funny... I feel the opposite... it has improved my productivity... I can find my files much easier, move then faster and so on.
Searching for PDFs? *.pdf in the search field and wupti all your PDF files..That is piss easy. Is it searching IN PDFs, then how on earth is that Microsoft's fault that Adobe sucks? Do you expect that Microsoft build in the ability to search WITH IN PDF files.. any files of 3rd party programs?
... seriously no one is forcing you to do anything in Windows 8 and with Windows 8.1 you can even boot directly to the desktop if you wish.
As for Mac... it is not even close to catching up to Windows... gezz....
As for Finder... you do realize there are 3rd party programs that have been doing similar on Windows since.. hmm Windows 95?
For all the slack that Apple gets in terms of stealing developers ideas, Microsoft should've just swallowed the group that created that with how often I see it posted.
Windows 8 practically does force Metro on you, Pete. No, Pete, it's research. Research databases, book reviews, library catalogs, Amazon book tabs, etc.
The search anywhere feature would be more useful if it didn't still suck major, ungodly, ass. What I meant was, I could put up with a terrible search functionality if the rest of the OS allowed me to get work done at a reasonable pace. 8 does not do that.
For a notebook? It has to work on the trackpad easily for such a basic operation. I can't close the damn windows without 2-3, sometimes 4-5 times on a trackpad. Do you know how unbelievably ridiculous that is, how much time I would have to waste every damn day just to do basic computing?
Then why is it the primary layer to the OS? Am I not allowed to criticize the front-freaking layer to an operating system that is embarrassing?
When you multitask through metro in 8 you have to deal with it as a big colored blob, in which you have to think as a separate entity.
Unlike snapping windows in 7, when you can quickly and easily use other apps that are not snapped in place, you have to go through a more complicated process to just access other applications and windows.
Great, Pete, you spend 1% in Metro. I would like to as well, minus the freaking stupid amount of times where I feel like I am being pushed away from "Desktop mode" as the only mode of operation.
Feel the opposite. I'm just telling you it sucks for my needs.
Hi, welcome to 2004! If Apple could do it with Spotlight back when John Kerry was running for President of the United States, Microsoft has no excuse. I cannot tell you how many times doing a keyword search for any document that makes mention of a certain bill, a certain person, etc. made my live easier. Let's say I took notes on the documents in question, but as I go along I notice something incredibly common or unique about some of these documents. I can use Spotlight to help speed that comparative process along. That's just PDF documents. There's a great deal more useful about Spotlight than that.
Spotlight was fantastic at so many things. I was utterly shocked to find out that Windows, highly touted by folks "who do work," had a slow, bloated, and utterly useless search mechanism. I mean, good God, what kind of a moron puts up with waiting 10 minutes to find out if a document exists on your system? What kind of a fool thinks that incredibly long document titles are the only way we should be able to figure out what is in the documents?
They minimized the desktop experience, and you know it. They double and tripled down on touch. Great, I can boot directly to Desktop mode. Where's the improvements? They essentially dinged up the Desktop environment, refused to make it better, and I am supposed to be pleased with that. How hilarious.
Nuts and bolts Windows 8 is far better than Windows 7. If the start button issue and the new start button are what worry you then just spend an extra $5 on Start8. It rertores the look and full functionality of the old Windows start button and sets the system to auto-boot to desktop.
Problem solved.
Only in Pete's world is it the customers fault they do not like your product....
Hell no.. dislike all you want that is your problem.
But dont come here and say that it is because of supposed non existent start menu that no one really used in previous versions of Windows. That is nothing but a lame excuse... what is the real reason? Are you an Apple fanboy? Linux nerd? Or just hate Microsoft? There must be some reason since blaming a "start menu" issue is overblown and totally irrational, since the start menu is still there... it just looks different.
Or do you just hate the metro look and feel on a desktop? Fine that is rational... I dont like aspects of it that is for sure... but guess what... then dont use it.. no one is forcing you to use it.... and I rarely use it.
Just saying... much of the hate against Windows 8 seems overblown and irrational and often comes from people who praise Apple oddly enough...
I'm not at all interested in using Bing in any form. I know and love Google and I'll continue to use that. Not one person was asking for the return of the start button, we want the start MENU back. There are those of us who know our file systems, have no problem managing them - LET US! Libraries and file system obfuscation from the user are the wrong way to go after more than a decade or two of user education in file system management.
Not saying there is no start menu, saying that it does not function as nicely as it used to in previous versions, that it is less convenient and less appealing. The problem is not that people are not explaining their complaints, it is that you refuse to understand them and claim it is something else.
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