4 ms·

I have been using Win8 as a main OS for the past 4 months. I can't seem to find anything I need that was there in Win7 and missing in the new version. I love th

by lini 14y ago

I have been using Win8 as a main OS for the past 4 months. I can't seem to find anything I need that was there in Win7 and missing in the new version. I love the new keyboard shortcuts (esp. Win+X, A). Metro is by no means a requirement - the old desktop is still there and all programs (even games) run the same. I guess it's just easier to bash MS than to really see that Win8 is not just Metro/Modern, at least on the desktop. I haven't used it on an ARM device yet so I cannot comment on that.

pixie_ 14y ago
How do you open an application quickly? For instance, in windows 7 I click start, start typing the name of the app I want, press return, and it opens. I thought the start menu in Windows 8 loaded the Metro UI. How do I use that to launch my app quickly? All the time it takes for the full screen metro UI to animate into and out of view, is time I could be searching for something.
- dpark 14y ago
  1. Click start 2. Start typing the name of the app you want 3. Press return 4. It opens Same exact flow as Windows 7. Typing while on the Start Screen will perform an app search.
- gregstoll 14y ago
  You can do the same thing - pressing the Start key does bring up the Metro UI, but if you just start typing there it does the same sort of search for apps/files/etc. that Windows 7 does.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- vaultboy21 14y ago
  you can essentially do just that, and the process is exactly the same: (1) mouse-over to the bottom left of the taskbar (same place as before) and in place of a fixed icon (start ‘orb’) a small image of your start screen will pop-up which you can click to open the start screen (2) from there just start typing (as before) and it will automatically change the layout showing you results for apps. by default the first app in results is selected so you can just press enter to launch it or navigate to others via keyboard/mouse (same as before). that’s it. you can, of course, still just hit the windows keyboard button and start typing as well which i find faster. there are also now additional keyboard shortcuts that let you quickly search for specific items (win + q/f/w allow you to narrow search between apps/files/settings respectively) pro tip: if you right-click in the same space (bottom left of taskbar) a menu comes-up with more power-user specific commands (run, command prompt, admin tools, etc...)
louthy 14y ago
I totally agree. I thought the developer preview was a bit flaky, the left/right-scrolling start-screen was too jolting for example (so it was good to see that's been replaced with a fade-in/out). Having now installed the RTM I really rate it. It's so much quicker and more responsive than W7, the start-search feels more accurate too and again much quicker. Some of the UI changes take a little getting used-to, like the charms pop-ups, but it also brings some consistency to things like per-app settings. For anyone who wants to largely keep the W7 experience there's no reason to worry, the desktop is there, the start-bar is there, the start button is there (just without a logo), and the start-screen works very much like the start-menu, you can still alt-tab between screens, and as mentioned above the shortcuts make some of the power features easily accessible without going through the start-screen. There's always going to be people afraid of change, but I really don't see what there is in here to be so scared about. You're not forced to use the Metro apps at all.

by lini 14y ago

pixie_ 14y ago

How do you open an application quickly? For instance, in windows 7 I click start, start typing the name of the app I want, press return, and it opens. I thought the start menu in Windows 8 loaded the Metro UI. How do I use that to launch my app quickly? All the time it takes for the full screen metro UI to animate into and out of view, is time I could be searching for something.

dpark 14y ago
1. Click start 2. Start typing the name of the app you want 3. Press return 4. It opens Same exact flow as Windows 7. Typing while on the Start Screen will perform an app search.
gregstoll 14y ago
You can do the same thing - pressing the Start key does bring up the Metro UI, but if you just start typing there it does the same sort of search for apps/files/etc. that Windows 7 does.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
vaultboy21 14y ago
you can essentially do just that, and the process is exactly the same: (1) mouse-over to the bottom left of the taskbar (same place as before) and in place of a fixed icon (start ‘orb’) a small image of your start screen will pop-up which you can click to open the start screen (2) from there just start typing (as before) and it will automatically change the layout showing you results for apps. by default the first app in results is selected so you can just press enter to launch it or navigate to others via keyboard/mouse (same as before). that’s it. you can, of course, still just hit the windows keyboard button and start typing as well which i find faster. there are also now additional keyboard shortcuts that let you quickly search for specific items (win + q/f/w allow you to narrow search between apps/files/settings respectively) pro tip: if you right-click in the same space (bottom left of taskbar) a menu comes-up with more power-user specific commands (run, command prompt, admin tools, etc...)

louthy 14y ago

I totally agree. I thought the developer preview was a bit flaky, the left/right-scrolling start-screen was too jolting for example (so it was good to see that's been replaced with a fade-in/out). Having now installed the RTM I really rate it. It's so much quicker and more responsive than W7, the start-search feels more accurate too and again much quicker. Some of the UI changes take a little getting used-to, like the charms pop-ups, but it also brings some consistency to things like per-app settings. For anyone who wants to largely keep the W7 experience there's no reason to worry, the desktop is there, the start-bar is there, the start button is there (just without a logo), and the start-screen works very much like the start-menu, you can still alt-tab between screens, and as mentioned above the shortcuts make some of the power features easily accessible without going through the start-screen. There's always going to be people afraid of change, but I really don't see what there is in here to be so scared about. You're not forced to use the Metro apps at all.