Microsoft Wants You to Forget Windows 8

I've run Vista on my gaming rig since a few months after it launched. Never ever had an issue.

I never had much of a problem with vista either. I think vista sucking was kind of a line int he sand thing. If you were on the side of the line that included upgrading from a machine that was marginal for XP, and/or you were really tied to your disposable printer bundled with your system or sold as a loss leader at the local office supply store because razors and razor blades rather than something decent that was supported, you had a bad time with vista. If you didn't, you didn't.
 
I tried Windows 8 when it 1st came out and hated it, I found it very difficult to use with a mouse and keyboard. I used it for about a day before switching hard drives and going back to Windows 7. I tried Windows 8.1 and really liked it, much easier to use especially after the update 1. I find it faster, more responsive and the cold boot time is just awesome. I found that I dont miss the start menu, I pinned all my main apps onto the metro start screen or the desktop or taskbar. I do find the 2nd page of the metro screen to be kind of a jumbled mess, but I rarely have to go there. All in all though I really like Windows 8.1 Update 1. I think that "if" Microsoft implements some form of the start menu at some point, and does away with the jumbled mess on the 2nd page of the metro screen, then Windows 8.1 would be a great OS.
 
I don't see a lot of complaints on this, but a few. I'm one of them. I know a lot of people here hate Aero Glass (or even the Luna theme in XP) and like the classic look. I don't. I like the eye candy of Windows 7, and can tell instantly that it's not on, and it bugs me.
I'm with you on this. I miss aero as well when operating in the desktop under 8.1.
 
So many butt hurt over an OS they profess to not even use. I've been using it since beta and I love it. It's faster and more secure than Windows 7. Microsoft isn't trying to forget anything no matter how much ComputerWorld wants them to for page views.
 
So many butt hurt over an OS they profess to not even use. I've been using it since beta and I love it. It's faster and more secure than Windows 7. Microsoft isn't trying to forget anything no matter how much ComputerWorld wants them to for page views.

I think the biggest problem with Win8 was there wasn't a compelling reason to upgrade for a lot of users ... I upgraded to Vista because I was ready to make the jump to 64 bit and I wanted the latest DirectX ... I upgraded to Windows 7 because it was slightly more stable and another DirectX upgrade ...

I have held off on Win8 since there wasn't a compelling gaming reason to upgrade ... it didn't have a new DirectX and there wasn't really a substantial capability that wasn't already covered by Win7 (from a gaming perspective)

MS needs a more compelling Tick-Tock strategy (like Intel) if they want consumers and business to upgrade operating systems more frequently) ... Enterprise tends to skip a generation since it takes them so long to qualify an internal OS for deployment ... if MS is serious about wanting folks to upgrade they need some combination of the following:

  • Provide early release of the OS to Enterprise customers for advance qualification and more rapid post launch deployment
  • Come up with more compelling features they can offer in the OS to inspire upgrades
  • Embrace gaming again with DirectX or other gaming enhancements in each OS generation

If they were to make OS upgrades cheap and easy (like Apple and Google) then they might be able to encourage more upgrades, even with limited features ... but short of that it is features and need that sell an OS (usually)
 
I think the biggest problem with Win8 was there wasn't a compelling reason to upgrade for a lot of users ... I upgraded to Vista because I was ready to make the jump to 64 bit and I wanted the latest DirectX ... I upgraded to Windows 7 because it was slightly more stable and another DirectX upgrade ...

I have held off on Win8 since there wasn't a compelling gaming reason to upgrade ... it didn't have a new DirectX and there wasn't really a substantial capability that wasn't already covered by Win7 (from a gaming perspective)

MS needs a more compelling Tick-Tock strategy (like Intel) if they want consumers and business to upgrade operating systems more frequently) ... Enterprise tends to skip a generation since it takes them so long to qualify an internal OS for deployment ... if MS is serious about wanting folks to upgrade they need some combination of the following:

  • Provide early release of the OS to Enterprise customers for advance qualification and more rapid post launch deployment
  • Come up with more compelling features they can offer in the OS to inspire upgrades
  • Embrace gaming again with DirectX or other gaming enhancements in each OS generation

If they were to make OS upgrades cheap and easy (like Apple and Google) then they might be able to encourage more upgrades, even with limited features ... but short of that it is features and need that sell an OS (usually)

Windows 8 provided plenty of upgrades. Significantly faster boot time, will have a new directx, better multi monitor support, better restoration options, better file management/copy capabilites...you cant say windows 8 didnt provide significant upgrades your just choosing not to see them
 
I didn't upgrade to W8, because I'd have to learn using the computer all over again. From W95 to Windows 7 it was almost completely seamless and self explanatory.

When I first saw W8, I couldn't find how to do the most basic tasks possible to imagine.
 
Windows 8 provided plenty of upgrades. Significantly faster boot time, will have a new directx, better multi monitor support, better restoration options, better file management/copy capabilites...you cant say windows 8 didnt provide significant upgrades your just choosing not to see them

I said upgrades for "gaming" and Win8 was weak in this respect at launch ... there are two main power users for PCs in the consumer space ... the productivity crowd and the gaming crowd ... Win8 didn't seem to cater to either of these crowds (although previous releases had been much more focused on both audiences) ... MS has finally thrown both of those groups a bone to entice them back in but they initially threw both groups essentially under the bus to cater to a consumer market that probably belonged to Apple or Google or wasn't interested in an upgrade

I think MS has learned their lesson and Windows 9 will be focused on their three main audiences ... Enterprise, Gamers, and Productivity/Power Users ... regular consumers are sheep and will either follow us or stay entrenched in their existing solutions (regardless of what MS does)
 
I said upgrades for "gaming" and Win8 was weak in this respect at launch ... there are two main power users for PCs in the consumer space ... the productivity crowd and the gaming crowd ... Win8 didn't seem to cater to either of these crowds (although previous releases had been much more focused on both audiences) ... MS has finally thrown both of those groups a bone to entice them back in but they initially threw both groups essentially under the bus to cater to a consumer market that probably belonged to Apple or Google or wasn't interested in an upgrade

I think MS has learned their lesson and Windows 9 will be focused on their three main audiences ... Enterprise, Gamers, and Productivity/Power Users ... regular consumers are sheep and will either follow us or stay entrenched in their existing solutions (regardless of what MS does)

right...one of the reasons you said you upgrades tpo 7 was for the new directx...and as i said, windows 8 has a new directx version.

Productivity wise win 8 absolutely provides upgrades. Faster boot times is huge when corporate computers take 3 times as long as others due to firewalls and antivirus software that is always running, booting 30 seconds in win 8 vs a full 5 minutes on my work laptop with win 7 and the same security.

Better multimonitor support, better automated backup and restore options are all relavent for productivity. AS i said, your choosing not to see the improvements
 
right...one of the reasons you said you upgrades tpo 7 was for the new directx...and as i said, windows 8 has a new directx version.

Productivity wise win 8 absolutely provides upgrades. Faster boot times is huge when corporate computers take 3 times as long as others due to firewalls and antivirus software that is always running, booting 30 seconds in win 8 vs a full 5 minutes on my work laptop with win 7 and the same security.

Better multimonitor support, better automated backup and restore options are all relavent for productivity. AS i said, your choosing not to see the improvements

5 minutes to boot windows 7? What are you running it on, a briefcase typewriter? Someone needs to talk to their IT department.
 
5 minutes to boot windows 7? What are you running it on, a briefcase typewriter? Someone needs to talk to their IT department.

Corperate security/firewalls are non-negotiable and include pre-windows boot security that requires a login and then a seperate log in/password after windows boots. Not uncommon
 
right...one of the reasons you said you upgrades tpo 7 was for the new directx...and as i said, windows 8 has a new directx version.

Productivity wise win 8 absolutely provides upgrades. Faster boot times is huge when corporate computers take 3 times as long as others due to firewalls and antivirus software that is always running, booting 30 seconds in win 8 vs a full 5 minutes on my work laptop with win 7 and the same security.

Better multimonitor support, better automated backup and restore options are all relavent for productivity. AS i said, your choosing not to see the improvements

Or they are not significant enough to justify an upgrade this close to Windows 9 ... they didn't have DirectX and all the other features at launch ... DirectX 12 is an adjustment they are making after they learned their lesson about ignoring DirectX ... if they would announce a delay of Windows 9 for at least 2 years then I would probably upgrade to 8 ... but since I suspect 9 will launch next year I am holding off ... I don't always feel a burning desire to be an early adopter for an OS unless I need to and would wait until after the first service pack to upgrade .. Windows 8.1 pretty much fits that bill but they are also pulling in the release cycles of the OSs again ... I actually liked having XP be stable for so long ... I am not actually a big fan of the Apple approach of upgrading OS every 2-3 years ... it is expensive for Enterprise and it doesn't give enough time to stabilize the release for the mass consumer market ... I would actually prefer a 5-6 year cycle ... if MS continues to do major releases every 3 years I am likely to skip generations unless they release a game that only has features that run in the newest OS ... gaming for me is the primary driver of OS upgrades

As to multi-monitor, I love it for productivity but I am not sold on it for gaming yet ... I would prefer they push for 4K gaming sooner as I would like one big high resolution monitor rather than two lower ones ... and unless there is a big jump in video card technology, the cards planned for the next release cycle don't appear as if they will be totally up to running multiple monitors at 4K 60-120 Hz resolution ... however, if DirectX 12 is quickly embraced by game developers I will happily upgrade to 9 (or if they delay 9 I would upgrade to 8)

One other consideration was their elimination of the Ultimate Editions ... I have been running the Ultimate editions of both Vista and 7 and didn't want to have to endure the risk of a downgrade until necessary ... because I have hundreds of games in my library I try to avoid anything that requires a fresh install of the OS to avoid having to reinstall all my games ... next year I plan to upgrade my aging E8400 system to one of the newer Intel processors so I will upgrade my OS at that time for sure :cool:
 
Corperate security/firewalls are non-negotiable and include pre-windows boot security that requires a login and then a seperate log in/password after windows boots. Not uncommon
Well since it's pre-windows I would assume that it's not magically longer pre-boot on one OS vs another. If it is, I'd call your IT department.

Assuming it's not, that's still a 4 minute difference. I'd call your IT department.

What kind of uberfootprint AV/Firewall are you guys using that it would possibly add 4 minutes to your start time to begin with? Sounds like Norton's Ultraslowdown Suite from back in 2005...
 
Windows 8 provided plenty of upgrades. Significantly faster boot time, will have a new directx, better multi monitor support, better restoration options, better file management/copy capabilites...you cant say windows 8 didnt provide significant upgrades your just choosing not to see them

If only Microsoft had given some built-in options for the GUI out of the box, this OS would have honestly been a homerun.
Windows 8 is not Vista, not even by a long stretch.

Vista's back-end was terrible, perhaps not for home-users, but in enterprise, it was a nightmare; this doesn't count the driver fiasco, which wasn't really Microsoft's fault.
The sad thing about Windows 8 is that is actually is a better OS than Windows 7, but Microsoft forced too many things too soon in the GUI upon both home and enterprise users.

Hopefully Windows 9 will have fixes to all of this.
 
If only Microsoft had given some built-in options for the GUI out of the box, this OS would have honestly been a homerun.

Sure, more options and configurability of the UI to make it more like a traditional Windows desktop would have made Windows 8 better reviewed and liked, but it's still hard to see how the UI alone would have overcome market conditions to have made Windows 8 a market share homerun.

In 2009 we didn't have tablets and smartphones weren't nearly as smart as they are now. The long gad between XP and 7 built up a demand for new PCs and upgrades and a lot of corporate effort went into XP to 7 migrations. Few who had long migration plans in place were going to jump to 8. A good deal of Windows 8's lack of traction in the market had absolutely nothing to do with 8 itself. Indeed even if 9 is well received it's hard to see it doing better than 7 because of the same issues 8 faced. Of course depending on the pricing of 9, advancements in touch and tablets, 9 could do well. But as people have stayed on XP to the dying end, it's difficult to see desktops on 7 being upgraded on a large scale.
 
Well, 99% of the complaints I've seen, and have had in the past, were from the GUI and lack of built-in options.
Functionality like that of Classic Shell should have been built-in in my opinion.

I've heard few to no complaints about the new features and the back-end, as those have actually been really well received.
The major complaints have come from desktop and laptop users with no touch-screen, hence the name-calling of Windows 8, tablet/smartphone OS; again, this goes back to the GUI.

I believe Microsoft can easily fix this with Windows 9 if they really want to.
 
With the new focus towards everything cloud(tm) I have very little faith in any future version of Windows from this point on.

Glad I switched to Linux while I was ahead. They're already talking about ending windows 7 support so soon 8 will be the only supported option. Is it even still possible to buy 7?
 
Windows 8 is great stuff start Menu? Hell More apps are displayed on the full screen then will be with a Start Menu plus it looks better.

The critics are assholes period who wet their bed on Saturday.
 
With the new focus towards everything cloud(tm) I have very little faith in any future version of Windows from this point on.

Glad I switched to Linux while I was ahead. They're already talking about ending windows 7 support so soon 8 will be the only supported option. Is it even still possible to buy 7?

Windows 7 extended support is until 2020

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/lifecycle
 
I never had much of a problem with vista either. I think vista sucking was kind of a line int he sand thing. If you were on the side of the line that included upgrading from a machine that was marginal for XP, and/or you were really tied to your disposable printer bundled with your system or sold as a loss leader at the local office supply store because razors and razor blades rather than something decent that was supported, you had a bad time with vista. If you didn't, you didn't.

same here still running the same Vista install since 2009.

Vista got the bad review because so many people had just horribly old machines with old hardware.
 
How can Microsoft forget about Windows 8.1 when they promise extended support for it into the year 2023?
 
How can Microsoft forget about Windows 8.1 when they promise extended support for it into the year 2023?

From a marketing view, they'll push Windows 9 and advertise the heck out of it probably. Even vista is supported to 2017.
 
Windows 8 is great stuff start Menu? Hell More apps are displayed on the full screen then will be with a Start Menu plus it looks better.

Looks better? In my opinion absolutely nothing about windows 8.X looks better than Windows 7 or any other os I have used in the last decade. I assumed that they fired every person involved in themes and visual appeal and replaced them with chimps randomly pressing buttons.
 
With the new focus towards everything cloud(tm) I have very little faith in any future version of Windows from this point on.

Glad I switched to Linux while I was ahead. They're already talking about ending windows 7 support so soon 8 will be the only supported option. Is it even still possible to buy 7?

Windows 7 support will still last for quite a while longer, and yes, 7 is still available from newegg.
To be honest, everything is moving toward the cloud as a general model, and it would not shock me if mainstream variants of Linux such as Ubuntu did the same.
 
The name Windows 8 has been tarnished just like Vista.

No matter how much they fix it, people will still never give it a second chance.

I am convinced that most of the complainers have never used it, this was most definitely the case with Vista as well.

Been using Windows 8 since the day it came out. I think 8.1 was a huge upgrade and addressed the issues that most people complained about. But low and behold, they are still complaining.
 
The name Windows 8 has been tarnished just like Vista.

No matter how much they fix it, people will still never give it a second chance.

I am convinced that most of the complainers have never used it, this was most definitely the case with Vista as well.

Been using Windows 8 since the day it came out. I think 8.1 was a huge upgrade and addressed the issues that most people complained about. But low and behold, they are still complaining.

Agreed. The Windows 8 Developer Preview came out nearly three years ago so it's time to move on regardless.
 
I had a good time with 8/8.1, I recently got startisback and it almost seems a waste as I never saw the start page to begin with.
 
It worked for Windows 7... Put out something crappy, get people pissed off, release something better - everyone praises it. I think they'll keep repeating this recipe.
 
I have a job I love and I am using Windows 8.1 Pro on a custom build. MAN, it's freaking GREAT!
 
With the new focus towards everything cloud(tm) I have very little faith in any future version of Windows from this point on.

Glad I switched to Linux while I was ahead. They're already talking about ending windows 7 support so soon 8 will be the only supported option. Is it even still possible to buy 7?

OEM versions of 7 are still on sale until this October I believe.

I must say I do enjoy the Win8 white knights. They're almost as bad as the average Mac fanatics but oh so entertaining.

Oh and yes if win8 hadn't gone wacky with the UI (or actually given you an option) you'd have more people using it despite the bad economy. Also, saying that win8 "will" have a new directx is not an upgrade. Its been almost two years and there is no new direct x out till next year I bet. Lets be honest, a new direct x version usually means jack squat for 1 year minimum after release. It was probably close to two years after I bought a 5850 card where I was using dx11 regularly in games.
 
I just started using Windows 8, this week. What I don't understand is why MS doesn't give Windows users more options/flexibility on how to manage...windows.

Granted, I'm still new to the OS but it seems we now have full screen apps or the old windows that can stack/cascade/be set side by side. Why can't they get more creative and give us more options. I still feel like I need to install third party software to keep a window "on top." If these options are available, they need to be more obvious for the average non-power user.

This is windows, I want to be able to manage windows more effectively/efficiently.

Other than that, the OS seems fine. This is more of a rant about Windows rather than Windows 8.
 
Granted, I'm still new to the OS but it seems we now have full screen apps or the old windows that can stack/cascade/be set side by side. Why can't they get more creative and give us more options. I still feel like I need to install third party software to keep a window "on top." If these options are available, they need to be more obvious for the average non-power user.

8.1 added the ability to modern apps to run side by side with other modern apps and desktop apps. Modern apps with dragged at the top will snap just like a desktop app does in Windows 7/8. Depending on the resolution up to four modern apps or three modern apps plus the desktop and be snapped like this horizontally. No free floating windows for modern apps, that's supposed to be coming in 9, but the side by side snapping is actually useful and a common multitasking scenario.
 
8.1 added the ability to modern apps to run side by side with other modern apps and desktop apps. Modern apps with dragged at the top will snap just like a desktop app does in Windows 7/8. Depending on the resolution up to four modern apps or three modern apps plus the desktop and be snapped like this horizontally. No free floating windows for modern apps, that's supposed to be coming in 9, but the side by side snapping is actually useful and a common multitasking scenario.


I'll have to look into this because it wasn't obvious to me how to "snap" an app. It was just full screen. I'm kind of a "pointing" user. I like to be able to do everything with the mouse rather than keyboard.
 
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