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I installed Windows 8 this weekend on my primary machine (my school has an MSDN subscription). My initial impression is that it's actually an upgrade on the des

by BruceIV 14y ago

I installed Windows 8 this weekend on my primary machine (my school has an MSDN subscription). My initial impression is that it's actually an upgrade on the desktop - the Start screen really is better as an app launcher, and the app search works quite quickly (it was always dog-slow on Windows 7 on the same computer); the small upgrades to the task manager, taskbar, and Windows Explorer are nice too. It took a bit of time to figure out the new UI (it's all hot corners, but they're well hinted if you know to look for them), but it's pretty reasonable. That's the good news - the bad news is that all Metro apps (especially the Microsoft-branded ones) are useless, ad-ridden, under-featured dreck - if you clear them all from your start screen, it's a decent OS, but even Solitaire has ads, and takes a good 10 seconds to load because of its pointless XBox live integration.

freditup 14y ago
You summed up my thoughts too. Windows 8 starts up about twice as quick for me, which is great. The explorer changes are nice enough, and if you don't like the rather large ribbon UI, you can just hide it. However, I also agree with you on the apps. On a laptop, I haven't once used a Windows 8 app for anything (other than the weather app once or twice to try). First, the apps take awhile to start. Secondly, they are unintuitive on a laptop. Third, the ads. Why are there ads in the apps made by microsoft? Customers aren't going to like seeing ads in a OS they just paid for. Also, navigation between Metro apps and desktop apps is somewhat confusing. Mousing over the top-left corner seems to only show your last used application unless you awkwardly swipe your mouse downwards. The only easy to use app switcher seems to be alt+tab. Overall, Windows 8 isn't bad at all. But it is somewhat confusing. And if it seems confusing to people who use technology all the time, will it make any sense to those less tech-savy users? I don't think it will, but we'll have to see.

by BruceIV 14y ago

freditup 14y ago

You summed up my thoughts too. Windows 8 starts up about twice as quick for me, which is great. The explorer changes are nice enough, and if you don't like the rather large ribbon UI, you can just hide it. However, I also agree with you on the apps. On a laptop, I haven't once used a Windows 8 app for anything (other than the weather app once or twice to try). First, the apps take awhile to start. Secondly, they are unintuitive on a laptop. Third, the ads. Why are there ads in the apps made by microsoft? Customers aren't going to like seeing ads in a OS they just paid for. Also, navigation between Metro apps and desktop apps is somewhat confusing. Mousing over the top-left corner seems to only show your last used application unless you awkwardly swipe your mouse downwards. The only easy to use app switcher seems to be alt+tab. Overall, Windows 8 isn't bad at all. But it is somewhat confusing. And if it seems confusing to people who use technology all the time, will it make any sense to those less tech-savy users? I don't think it will, but we'll have to see.