My test of Win8 CP

Executive summary: Forget it. They can keep this crap.

Perfectly fine for touch interfaces I am sure, but completely inappropriate for a standard desktop environment. Who was the Einstein that decided that because Windows needs to be relevant on touchpads, now everybody needs to operate their computer like a touchpad? What would have been wrong with offering Metro as an option? I won't even start to list the number of places where the forced touch metaphors are just plain awkward, or make no sense whatsoever. Given that there's almost no Metro apps out there, and taking into account that even the vast majority of applications that come bundled with Windows are not, and do not make sense as, Metro apps, why are we forced to muddle our way through an interface that simply does not belong on the desktop?

O.k., here's a real simple example: After I have booted my machine, what do you think I might want to do? Look at a pretty picture? Or, log in, perhaps [gasp!]? So, once we have established that chances are pretty good I might want to log in, why in all the world do I have to jump through some inane hoops to do so? I certainly have no interest in performing some awkward mouse gymnastics for no good reason whatsoever. Sure, I can just hit Enter, but why is that step even necessary on a desktop? I know this might seem petty, but it's symptomatic for the rest.

Another example: I happen to have very significant number of applications and utilities, large and small, installed. There's hundreds of those, in fact. It is very easy and intuitive to access them through a well-organized start menu, either by clicking through a simple hierarchy, or by typing in the Search Box. In Metro, searching through screen after screen becomes a nightmare of pointless mouse acrobatics. Sure, I could search for the application, but what if I don't even remember its name, or I want to access some utility that has a generic name? What if I happen to just want to look at the Help file for an application?

In addition, by now we have split up configuration settings into an even more mysterious mess of Control Panel plus "PC Settings" plus other stuff, depending on where you are. Clicking on tray icons randomly brings up either a menu, or a Win7-style info window, or a Metro-style sidebar (in the case of the WiFi connection icon). There's a "Personalization" item in "PC Settings", which has somewhat similar, but really different stuff in it from what's in "Personalization" under "Settings". You got to be kidding me. Not sure whether to laugh or cry at that kind of idiocy.

While we're at it: What's supposed to be the point of bringing up some random little window showing time, date, battery status and WiFi signal strength if I activate the Charm Bar? Believe it or not, all of that information already is in my taskbar on the desktop, by default!

And don't even get me started on the inanity of having to activate that Charm Bar by navigating with the mouse all the way over to the top-right corner...

So, who designed this? I am sorry, I am one of the people who feel that quite often Microsoft indeed manages to design good products, but certainly not this time. The UI of Windows 8 is a train wreck, plain and simple, and I have a hard time seeing them being able (assuming they'd even be willing) to fix this by the time this has to be released.

In my opinion, at this point they have two options: Either make their Metro stuff an option that is automatically selected for touch devices, but allow desktop users to continue being productive in a startmenu/taskbar environment, or loose (again) the goodwill of millions of customers, along with the customers themselves.

For me this is thanks, but no thanks. Maybe there is something to this idea of Microsoft making progress with every other version of Windows. If it's true, then maybe Windows 9 will be o.k. again. I'll check it out when they release that one, but until then I'll stick with Win7. Too bad.

 

Same here , I formatted it after 10 minutes not 20 though.
It's polluted OS , and it's obviously not meant for PC.
Metro interface is not mouse/keyboard friendly.

 

Pirx Excellent points, I would add no AV installed by default? Or did I just miss it? thanks Prix,
I used method 2 here to get the start orb back where it belongs - rather convoluted but effective!!
http://www.askvg.com/how-to-enable-good-old-start-button-orb-and-start-menu-in-windows-8/
This fix will load the desktop after login http://www.addictivetips.com/window...creen-to-jump-directly-to-desktop-on-startup/
MSE seems to be called windows defender now, JEEZ now I am confused not LOL

 

I think you missed it, kind of. As I understand, MSE is now integrated In Win8.

 

Change is hard.

Use it for a month unchanged, and then say if it's appropriate or not, that helps you fix your prejudgement based on the fact that it's different. Don't judge it any moment before that.

Well, then again, wait till it's released and do it then, as the apps are right now very few and of quite low quality.

The rest is just a matter of habit, nothing else. You'll believe otherwise, and you can enjoy doing so, but habits can change over time and do, so the problem won't be a problem anymore, then.

Anyways, i'll have to stay out of win8 hate threads for a while.

 

Dave, spare me. From another posetr over at the Win8 Blog: "There's nothing wrong with change at all, ill-conceived change to cash in on an unproven market at the expense of a proven one however is sheer idiocy."

I have seen enough in the couple of hours I used it today. Besides, how many people do you think will say, "Oh well, right now I think it really stinks, but I'll give it a month or two, maybe it'll grow on me"? What planet are you living on? Dave, this is not how things work, and this is not how products become successful on this planet. This is how products, and companies, fail around here.

Incidentally, I visited a number of Microsoft forums today (their official Win8 CP forum, and their Win8 Development blog), and all I can say is "Wow"! These guys have a full-fledged disaster at their hands. Feel free to not listen to or believe me, but if you look at the sheer amount and intensity of the criticism there, that should tell you a story. Like somebody else has said, if I was Sinofsky, or work in his team, I would be afraid. Very afraid.

Specifically, it is entirely clear that Metro as designed right now cannot be a replacement for the start menu, for fundamental reasons, because it does not allow for a hierarchical structure (you cannot nest groups of tiles within a tile).

Like I said, if things don't change significantly, and I don't dare to hope they will, then I'll pass on Windows 8. Another five years or so down the road, and I may not be interested in a Microsoft OS anymore at all.

Nonsense. I am quite capable, as are others, of distinguishing between habits and necessities.

Here, I'll give you something on your way out: The graphical design of some of the UI elements I see in the CP is among the most pathetic excuses for design that I have seen in a long, long time. In fact, the graphics for some of those "switches" in Metro comes right our of early-day DOS. That's now, what, 30 years ago or so? Is this supposed to be some sort of a sick joke? Plus, all of the work on jump lists, graphical app switching, etc., etc., all thrown out? If I was in charge, I'd fire the whole Win8 UI team, starting with Sinofsky, and start over. Yes, that is going to be painful, but unless something happens before the release of Win8, some very serious damage will be done to the Windows franchise, right when it has just barely started to recover from Vista.

 

I disagree. Metro is useful for purely laptop/desktop use once you re-organize it to fit your needs. It needs re-arranging, and then it's brilliant. Try this. This way, you can launch everything you normally use in a Windows desktop environment with one tap of the Start key and one click of the mouse. That's it.

Column 1: Frequently-used folders in Windows explorer (work files, etc). You can pin individual folders to the Start window, and I've done so with my most-frequently-used half-dozen folders.

Column 2: Productivity programs (for me, this is Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc).

Column 3: Email client, music player, apps for news sites, FB when they release a FB app.

Column 4: Games.

Column 5: Everything else (i.e., stuff I almost never use).

Everything is now launching into the desktop instead of staying in the Metro UI (except for the news sites), but launching them is faster than using the Win 7 start menu. One keystroke and one click to open an Excel window, or to open Client X's file. That's it.

That's not how Metro is organized straight out of the box, but once you do that, I think it works great.

 

And when you begin to install more programs the metro start screen will populate more and more. Your column structure begins to lose integrity if the list gets too large. Because you want to categorize everything this means you have to delete all the unwanted tiles and shift them to their appropriate place everytime you install an application. Anytime an application is installed a new tile is created in the start menu. Also what happens when metro apps come out and it fills up more of the screen. Sure its all possible to move the tiles where you want them to be and if you never install another application for a while it can be great to access commonly used stuff, but its more of a pain than not IMO.

 

I tried it yesterday... Kinda liked the Metro UI and the revamped Aero windows, BUT it really isn't suited for power users and productive work. I have all the apps I use running all the time, so I'm pretty much in desktop mode all the time (thankfully, Dexpot still works), switching through them (and killing Metro apps because they clutter the ALT-TAB window). I still haven't found a way to open a new tab in the new Internet Explorer.

On a high resolution display, it's also a bit distracting having to go to a full screen interface to open a new app or use the search feature, especially since I'm never running them full screen. A few years ago, I was still running most apps in full screen, like a noob :-D and I would've liked Metro more back then.

I like all the other features of Windows 8 - fast boot, great task manager, smarter copy/move operations, etc., and if there's an option to disable Metro, it would be a perfectly fine desktop OS.

By the way, the one thing I actually hate is the super dumb settings in Metro - you have to search for the Control Panel in order to access the more advanced settings.

 

When I found out you actually have to look around a decent bit just to turn off the computer...fail.

How to, uh, turn Windows 8 off | Microsoft - CNET News