Do you use Metro/Modern apps on Win 8?

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MrCrispy

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May 14, 2007
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I've been using Win 8 RTM for a while now (and the CP, RP etc before that) and I've realized there are very few decent Metro apps.

There are some nice apps for things like news, weather, and esp games. Some really well designed ones like 'The Big Picture', but a bunch of apps I thought I'd like, such as Kindle, aren't really good. The website/desktop version works much better, doesn't disrupt my flow, and has more options. Apps like Newegg are obviously a total waste on a pc.

Metro is just a nuisance in the end, and its best to keep it out of the way as much as possible. I've tried giving it a fair use, it just isn't productive or have anything of value.
 
I love the metro remote desktop app. Tabs to switch clients? Its about time!
 
I'll probably use the Metro apps on the Surface when I get it, but on my PC, I stay within the desktop environment.
 
I use the Weather app on occasion. At this point, I'm essentially treating Metro apps as "big widgets", only because I haven't found a more compelling use for them.
 
MrCrispy said:
Apps like Newegg are obviously a total waste on a pc.
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Actually the Newegg app is pretty good, I use it instead of the website as it returns results faster than the web site. Plus I don't really understand why it would be a waste on a PC, its not like the website doesn't work on mobile OS tablets. It's just a nicer cleaner interface than the website.
 
MrCrispy said:
Metro is just a nuisance in the end, and its best to keep it out of the way as much as possible. I've tried giving it a fair use, it just isn't productive or have anything of value.
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Windows 8 hasn't officially gone on sale yet. The Windows Store won't officially open for business until the end of this month. Given that, how can you possibly say you've tried giving it a fair use? Instead, you are jumping to conclusions while offering no evidence to support them.

Most people wait for the game to finish before declaring a winner or loser. You're trying to do so before the game has even begun. And saying that's "fair." How about waiting for a year or so after the Windows Store has opened and then opining as to whether or not there is anything of value there.
 
Metro apps are just consumption based apps, very few are focused on content creation. They are giant widgets mostly fluff very few good apps that you can something with it. WinRT is gimped api I doubt it will ever have anything beyond stupid apps to feed you useless shit. Desktop is still the king.
 
Wrench00 said:
They are giant widgets mostly fluff very few good apps that you can something with it.
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Regrettably this seems to apply to Mail as well. I'm not overly-fond of any bundled email clients, but Mail.RT misses the mark by quite a bit in my book. I'd say it's even less capable than Mail.app on the iPad, which is a pretty well pared-down client by most definitions.
 
Giant widgets is the perfect description! The included ones like Mail, Pictures, Reader and Music are so limited in features and a pain to use on a pc.
 
Eman D. Rahym said:
Windows 8 hasn't officially gone on sale yet. The Windows Store won't officially open for business until the end of this month. Given that, how can you possibly say you've tried giving it a fair use? Instead, you are jumping to conclusions while offering no evidence to support them.

Most people wait for the game to finish before declaring a winner or loser. You're trying to do so before the game has even begun. And saying that's "fair." How about waiting for a year or so after the Windows Store has opened and then opining as to whether or not there is anything of value there.
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While your points are valid, initial impressions count a lot, and the store has been open for a while for paid apps. The quality of the included apps won't change and they are a letdown based on most reviews and reactions. The whole point of the releases of Win 8 till now was to let people form an opinion.
 
MrCrispy said:
While your points are valid, initial impressions count a lot, and the store has been open for a while for paid apps.
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First impressions may be lasting, but that does not mean they are correct. Ever hear the story of the ugly duckling? We don't crown superbowl winners based on preseason games, nor even based on regular season games. Why should we declare Modern UI dead before it has even had a chance to prove itself?

MrCrispy said:
The quality of the included apps won't change
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Now how do you know that? Ever own a video console? The console stays the same but as the years go by the games get much better. Why would Modern UI be any different?

MrCrispy said:
and they are a letdown based on most reviews and reactions.
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But these are still "preseason games." Teams are still installing their offenses and defenses. Let's at least wait for a few regular season games to be played before calling the whole thing off.

MrCrispy said:
The whole point of the releases of Win 8 till now was to let people form an opinion.
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Actually, I thought a big part of the early releases was to let third parties get used to the new way of doing things. They are doing that right now. I don't know this, but I'm guessing they get a lot better with Modern UI as time goes by.

This is somewhat OT, but I noticed you said you were running RTM bits and I'm hoping you'll be kind enough to answer a question. One of my all time favorite time wasters, Minesweeper, disappeared from the prerelease versions of Windows 8. Has Minesweeper made a return in the RTM?
 
shit, i uninstalled all that crap and being using metro as a giant start menu since day one (8pro about ~6 weeks ago)! :D
 
Minesweeper is actually found in the store now. All of the games are no longer preinstalled on the OS, and you need to install them from the store manually. Of course, they are all available for free, but you do need a Microsoft account, which I found a bit annoying.

The point of a pre-release of an OS is usually to find and fix bugs that they cannot find on their own. And also, as said above, to help developers get used to a new way of doing things on a fully functional OS, not a beta OS.
 
Yes, the games are in the Store now. And yes, the builtin apps might be updated but I very much doubt (in fact I'm 100% sure) that the basic functionality will change or they will get major new features.
 
Tsumi said:
Minesweeper is actually found in the store now. All of the games are no longer preinstalled on the OS, and you need to install them from the store manually. Of course, they are all available for free, but you do need a Microsoft account, which I found a bit annoying.
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Thanks for the feedback. Of course the follow up question is, is the Modern UI version any good?

I wonder if the need to use a Microsoft account to download games is a subtle form of copy protection for the OS itself. To the Board at large, is there anyway Microsoft could associate your product key with your Microsoft account?
 
The only one I use is the Weather app, and even then, not really, I just pop into the Start screen to see what the temp says on the weather tile. I tried several other apps (mail, video, calendar, etc.) and found them all very limiting and uninteresting.

Overall, I have very little use for Metro, and I use it so rarely that when I actually do have to use it for something I find that I forgot most of the damn gestures, which just frustrates me even more.
I can always tell when my wife accidentally landed inside Metro, I can hear her swearing from the other room.
 
maw said:
The only one I use is the Weather app, and even then, not really, I just pop into the Start screen to see what the temp says on the weather tile. I tried several other apps (mail, video, calendar, etc.) and found them all very limiting and uninteresting.

Overall, I have very little use for Metro, and I use it so rarely that when I actually do have to use it for something I find that I forgot most of the damn gestures, which just frustrates me even more.
I can always tell when my wife accidentally landed inside Metro, I can hear her swearing from the other room.
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All you have to do is hit Windows+D to get back to the desktop. It's amazing how hard some people are making this.
 
MrCrispy said:
Yes, the games are in the Store now. And yes, the builtin apps might be updated but I very much doubt (in fact I'm 100% sure) that the basic functionality will change or they will get major new features.
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Thanks for the reply!

I'm afraid we'll have to agree to disagree as to whether we've seen everything there is to see with regard to Modern UI apps. I will be very surprised if Microsoft stands pat on its own applications. Even if it does, I'll be very surprised if third parties don't move in to fill the gaps.
 
Eman D. Rahym said:
Thanks for the reply!

I'm afraid we'll have to agree to disagree as to whether we've seen everything there is to see with regard to Modern UI apps. I will be very surprised if Microsoft stands pat on its own applications. Even if it does, I'll be very surprised if third parties don't move in to fill the gaps.
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I have no idea why people are trying to evaluate the apps at this point, the interesting stuff isn't coming until launch and its not like there won't be tons of 3rd party mail and calendar apps. Microsoft has never done much with its first party in the box apps in Windows.
 
I use windows 8 but I don't use the Metro/Modern apps.

Why would I when I have tabs for all the mail, weather, news etc. in just one handy application.

Its called a Web browser.
 
heatlesssun said:
All you have to do is hit Windows+D to get back to the desktop. It's amazing how hard some people are making this.
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The problem isn't getting out of Metro, the problem is using Metro to do something. Like I said, I use Metro so rarely that I can't recall a lot of the gestures or shortcuts when I do have to use it. This makes using it even more frustrating.
 
Eman D. Rahym said:
How does one accidentally land in Metro?
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How does my wife accidentally land inside Metro? Hmmm, let's see...

- Clicking on a video and having it automatically launch in Metro.
- Opening a PDF file and having it automatically launch in Metro.
- Accidentally hitting the Windows key.
- Looking for the calculator by clicking where the Start Menu used to be.
- Trying to close a Window but accidentally activating the Charms bar instead.

Need more examples?
 
maw said:
The problem isn't getting out of Metro, the problem is using Metro to do something. Like I said, I use Metro so rarely that I can't recall a lot of the gestures or shortcuts when I do have to use it. This makes using it even more frustrating.
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But there's only two global gestures within apps, drag from top down to close and drag from top to left or right to snap on a supported resolution. Right clicking brings up the app bar but right clicking to bring up a context menu on the desktop menu is so common I don't know how an experienced desktop user could forget that. There are the hot corners but that's part of the desktop experience so I don't know how one forgets those even not using Metro apps much.

Granted I'm on Windows 8 desktops and tablets all the time now so it's all second nature to me so it's something I can't forget now.
 
heatlesssun said:
But there's only two global gestures within apps, drag from top down to close and drag from top to left or right to snap on a supported resolution. Right clicking brings up the app bar but right clicking to bring up a context menu on the desktop menu is so common I don't know how an experienced desktop user could forget that. There are the hot corners but that's part of the desktop experience so I don't know how one forgets those even not using Metro apps much.

Granted I'm on Windows 8 desktops and tablets all the time now so it's all second nature to me so it's something I can't forget now.
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Yes, it's easy, once you remember them. It's frustrating when you rarely use Metro and have to struggle to recall this in the middle of your normal workflow. It totally disrupts my workflow when I have to spend those couple minutes dropped out of auto-pilot to get my bearings again.
 
maw said:
- Trying to close a Window but accidentally activating the Charms bar instead.
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The Charms Bar doesn't prevent you from clicking on the close button if you hit the corner, the Charms Bar is still transparent at that point.
 
heatlesssun said:
The Charms Bar doesn't prevent you from clicking on the close button if you hit the corner, the Charms Bar is still transparent at that point.
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Dude, I'm just telling you about how a normal person (my wife) uses Windows 8. I don't know why she often activates the Charms Bar when she attempts to close a Window, but she does, and she finds it frustrating.

I'm also telling you that when she is in Metro, she doesn't know what to do. Yes, I could condescendingly tell her how "easy" it is, "all you have to do is hit Windows + D", or "Just right-click", etc. I really don't think you understand that this means nothing to most people, and they are certainly not going to commit a bunch of obscure keyboard combinations to memory no matter how "easy" you say it is. Trust me, I've tried.
 
heatlesssun said:
All you have to do is hit Windows+D to get back to the desktop. It's amazing how hard some people are making this.
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Cause no one is perfect as you.
Because Metro is so far fucking off the Windows Norm that normal/average joes are frustrated and irritated by this shit. Not everyone spends their lives trying out every piece of software under the sun.

Its like me telling you how to use your desktop with powershell. Please I want you to write me the power shell script to change acl on a file located in the windows system32 directory. Or better yet to change a dcom in the registry.

You guys shouldn't waste the ascii characters on rebuttals on Heatlessun cause according to him Win8 is fucking perfect and everyone will fucking adore it and if you don't know how to use its your fault because your holding it wrong. God he is worse then an apple fanatic.
 
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There are similar shortcuts in other operating systems to get back to the desktop, actually. They usually involve not pressing any shortcuts.
 
I have given up on that front. I consider him a strangely programmed chatbot.
 
maw said:
How does my wife accidentally land inside Metro? Hmmm, let's see...
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Sorry, I'm not trying to be smart, just curious.

maw said:
- Clicking on a video and having it automatically launch in Metro.
- Opening a PDF file and having it automatically launch in Metro.
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Perhaps you could go into the Default Programs Control Panel on her machine and set things so clicking on files opens the programs she wants?
maw said:
- Accidentally hitting the Windows key.
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Don't know what to say about this one as even my typing is not that bad. I guess you could point out that the Windows Key is a toggle and hitting it a second time will bring her back to where she was before
maw said:
- Looking for the calculator by clicking where the Start Menu used to be.
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I'm confused. Isn't the Start Screen where you would want to go to find seldom used apps?
maw said:
- Trying to close a Window but accidentally activating the Charms bar instead.
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Does your wife run her desktop programs full screen? If so she sounds like someone who would prefer Modern UI once she got the hang of it.

maw said:
Need more examples?
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No, but I'd be glad to try to help you trouble shoot issues you or your wife are having with Windows 8.
 
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maw said:
Dude, I'm just telling you about how a normal person (my wife) uses Windows 8. I don't know why she often activates the Charms Bar when she attempts to close a Window, but she does, and she finds it frustrating.
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I was just trying to describe how things work. If one thinks for instance that you can't click the close button when the Charms Bar hint displays (it's actually a hint when it's transparent) and then thinks that have to more carefully target the mouse then of course I can understand why that's frustrating. But what frustrating about the hint displaying if it doesn't affect anything?

maw said:
I'm also telling you that when she is in Metro, she doesn't know what to do. Yes, I could condescendingly tell her how "easy" it is, "all you have to do is hit Windows + D", or "Just right-click", etc. I really don't think you understand that this means nothing to most people, and they are certainly not going to commit a bunch of obscure keyboard combinations to memory no matter how "easy" you say it is. Trust me, I've tried.
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I've setup my wife and sister-in-law, spent a few minutes explaining the hot corners and a couple of keyboard commands. They've not really had any problems because they aren't trying to make Windows 8 Windows 7, they are simply using Windows 8 and not trying to make it something else. If one can't or won't adapt to Windows 8 then why use it? I've never told anyone that they should use something they don't like, but at least try to learn what is there because if you don't then sure, it'll be frustrating.
 
heatlesssun said:
All you have to do is hit Windows+D to get back to the desktop. It's amazing how hard some people are making this.
Click to expand...

99% of users don't use (or want to use shortcut keys). You know this. People STILL don't know basics like Alt+Tab or Atl+F4. An OS which depends on keyboard shortcuts and bizzare mouse gestures is fundamentally broken.
 
maw said:
Dude, I'm just telling you about how a normal person (my wife) uses Windows 8. I don't know why she often activates the Charms Bar when she attempts to close a Window, but she does, and she finds it frustrating.

I'm also telling you that when she is in Metro, she doesn't know what to do. Yes, I could condescendingly tell her how "easy" it is, "all you have to do is hit Windows + D", or "Just right-click", etc. I really don't think you understand that this means nothing to most people, and they are certainly not going to commit a bunch of obscure keyboard combinations to memory no matter how "easy" you say it is. Trust me, I've tried.
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I've had the exact same experience with non-techie friends who've used Win 8. There's no point explaining to heatlesssun, he looks at everything through his 'power user' filter which makes stuff easy, when to most normal people Win 8 is a confusing nightmare.

heatlesssun said:
They've not really had any problems because they aren't trying to make Windows 8 Windows 7, they are simply using Windows 8 and not trying to make it something else. If one can't or won't adapt to Windows 8 then why use it? I've never told anyone that they should use something they don't like, but at least try to learn what is there because if you don't then sure, it'll be frustrating.
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No one is trying to make it Win 7. Using it as intended on a touch device is a usability nightmare for most folk, I don't see why you keep trying to dispute that, when the overwhelming majority of people feel that way. No UI decision in MS's history has received this level of vitriol, and there's a reason for that.
 
MrCrispy said:
99% of users don't use (or want to use shortcut keys). You know this. People STILL don't know basics like Alt+Tab or Atl+F4. An OS which depends on keyboard shortcuts and bizzare mouse gestures is fundamentally broken.
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If you think Windows 8 is fundamentally broken, then why are you running it? :D

I think you're overstating the case a little bit. Windows 8 doesn't DEPEND on keyboard shortcuts, but they are there to make life easier if you're willing to learn and use them. I can get around just fine in Windows without them.

Further, how exactly is moving the mouse cursor to a corner and then up or down the vertical edge of the screen a "bizarre" gesture? It seems pretty natural to me. Not to mentions simple. It's not like the typical user has a super abundance of corners and vertical edges, either. The typical user will have four corners and two edges to "learn." Surely everyone who can use a PC can master that?
 
Wrench00 said:
You guys shouldn't waste the ascii characters on rebuttals on Heatlessun cause according to him Win8 is fucking perfect and everyone will fucking adore it and if you don't know how to use its your fault because your holding it wrong. God he is worse then an apple fanatic.
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I've never said that Windows 8 is perfect, I don't think anyone around here who likes Windows 8 has ever said that. But Windows 8 is NOT Windows 7 and it does not work the same. If one doesn't like it or can't adapt to it then don't use it. But it serves NO purpose to endlessly complain about it if one doesn't want to adapt to it and isn't even trying to ever understand basic things.

All I was doing was pointing out options and the fact that the Charms Bar doesn't prevent the close button from being clicked when the transparent hint appears. That's more useful than endless bitching.
 
MrCrispy said:
99% of users don't use (or want to use shortcut keys). You know this. People STILL don't know basics like Alt+Tab or Atl+F4. An OS which depends on keyboard shortcuts and bizzare mouse gestures is fundamentally broken.
Click to expand...

No more bizarre than moving the mouse to the edge of the screen to bring up an auto hidden task bar that's been an option in Windows since XP. And it's not like one has to use keyboard short cuts but for people that love to talk about efficiency it's interesting that they often eschew keyboard short cuts.
 
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