We need a Windows 8 thread!

[NeoCracker]

Discuss Windows 8 and your thoughts!

I start this thread because I am getting a new PC in the next month or two, and am pondering the need to go to windows 8 over Windows 7.

[Fonzie]

Man, I'm still coastin' it on Vista.

Dark days, man.

[Ergroilnin]

My policy with Windows OS is to get every second one. I ignored Vistas and I will ignore 8's. Get 7.

[Edge7]

If you can get 7, get 7.

However, my current Laptop has WIndows 8.1, and I'm beginning to adjust to it.

[Shorty]

I have no intention of ever switching to Windows 8. I will stick with older versions until they revert the platform, and forever remain with Windows 7 if I need to.

[Spuuky]

Windows 8 is fine, anyone complaining about it simply hasn't acclimated to its idiosyncrasies in the same way they have with whatever OS they like. You can customize it however you need to. I use Windows 7 because it's what I already own.

[CimminyCricket]

I really like 8/8.1, so I'm a bit biased towards it. Before 8.1 came out, 7 was still my favorite operating system. The part that sucked was I first installed it on a computer that started out as a Vista machine. Once I built a computer with newer parts I didn't have any problems installing Windows 8 and having all of my hardware functioning appropriately.

My favorite part of 8/8.1 is the start screen (which is funny because this is the part of the OS that people hate the most). The start screen is full customizable and let's me keep my desktop and taskbar nice and clear and allows me to put whatever programs/shortcuts I want as charms and organize them however I want.

[Dr Unne]

On the plus side, the flat tiles look pretty good, the look of the window manager is better than goofy transparent 3D from Windows 7. Windows 8 looks a bit like Openbox on Linux. If I had a tablet I might like Metro.

On the minus side, pretty much everything else. There's a cost to re-learning all of your habits, and I'd like to have a good reason before I pay that cost. Windows 8 offers no good reason. Forcing people to use a tablet interface on a desktop was a bad idea. Pointing at random corners and sides of the screen to evoke commands is silly and hard to discover and remember. The awkward divide between Metro and the classic desktop is jarring.

Why did they remove the Start menu? Probably for business reasons. It probably benefits Microsoft but it surely doesn't benefit the user. It does force people to use Metro, so maybe if they're used to Metro, they'll go buy a Windows phone/tablet.

Overall I don't like how computers are giving users less choice. Why not offer Start Menu as an option? Why not an option to pick classic desktop or metro, turn one or the other off entirely? It's disturbing. I want a computer I can use for business and tweak and program and own. I don't want a locked-down toaster with all of the important choices made by the company selling the thing. Which is why Windows is still on my braindead gaming computer and Linux is on everything else.

[Crop]

Windows 7 was awesome, but I recently got a new laptop and had to go with Windows 8. After a period of adjustment I don't think it's too bad. I only use my laptop for basic things anyway, so I pretty much cleared out that annoying start screen of everything and just use the desktop.
I've managed to customise it so it is very similar to using my old laptop which had Windows 7.

[escobert]

I have 8 on my laptop and 7 on my desktop. when I go to solid state drives on on my desktop it too will be going to 8. 8.1 gives you taskbars and taskbars on all of your multiple displays! yay! as someone who uses two displays on his desktop and often two with his laptop (I connect it to my 40" TV) I like having taskbars on every screen!

[edczxcvbnm]

I have had windows 8 since it came out (I was still on XP) and I made the transition fine. I use Windows 7 at work and some of the things that I do translate very well.

I never use the start menu...ever. I just hit Windows Key and type the program I want to open and hit enter. Works like a charm.

I also use Quick Launch Icons on the start bar (they removed the feature in 7 and 8 but there is a work around by creating a toolbar that points to a folder with a bunch of shortcuts in it).

I in all honesty cannot figure out why people are so attached to the start menu. I never use it because it is just a giant mess in the first place. I will admit that tiles and the start screen is not perfect by any means but at least the tiles give you the ability to organize things the way you want so your most used stuff is right in your face. Whatever.

I also like that Windows 8 is pretty efficient and fast. 7 was pretty good but 8 is fine tuned it big time. I am waiting for the next update which will allow Metro apps to be run in desktop mode (If I remember this correctly).

8 has a lot of nice little changes that I appreciate like the long over due task manager redesign or IE finally entering the modern browser age with IE 10 and now 11. True they still are far behind the other guys but if you occasionally need to use IE for something at least it isn't going to kill you >.>

I really see no reason to stick with 7 if given the choice but to each their own.

[Calliope]

I have a laptop with Windows 8 and every time I try to use it, I end up having to close it and put it down before I break it in half due to pure rage and frustration. I've spent the last hour trying to uninstall all of the useless bloatware on the start menu, except I'm also using a trackpad and half the time I accidentally end up opening the thing I'm trying to select, and apparently I can only choose to uninstall one programme at a time. Now it's at the point where it wants "administrator passwords" in order to do anything, but that's Spuuky's fault and now I can't even try to fix it myself until I can get the stupid password. I also feel stupid just hovering and hovering my cursor and still not triggering the stupid menu prompt thing. Ugh.

[escobert]

Uh just unpin them from the start page. I have yet to run into anything that really took up any substantial space on my laptop with 8. and to that matter now that I have 8.1 and a normal task bar, I never use that stupid windows screen anyways.

[Calliope]

I have been unpinning them, as I said in my post. It's not a matter of the icons taking up harddrive space, it's a matter of clutter and being told that I want functions that I don't actually want or have any use for, and then making it difficult and unintuitive to remove them.

[Mirage]

Can't you just use Win8 without the metro thing and stuff?