Windows 8 WOW!

[MrCrispy]

I want to mention one of the worst decisions made in computing history - removing gadgets from Windows 8! There were so many useful ones, that did FAR more than a live tile could possibly do, and there was no reason to remove them except to force people to use the Start screen more.

 

[devil22]

If you have a ton of files called 'sleep' how is the OS to know you want the settings version, instead of your files? Some may prefer their files over settings, others vice versa. As far as the empty results, maybe they were thinking users expecting files to show up, would accidently select the settings versions and be annoyed. I think the separate search categories make a lot of sense personally.

There's plenty of 3rd party gadgets for all that stuff. MS said there was a security issue with gadgets, not sure how the start screen factors in since you can just use 3rd party gadgets and the start screen apps don't fully replace them anyway.

 

[MrCrispy]

I'm just saying the changes they made are not necessarily for the better, although they do have their reasons. I haven't found any explanation what the real security hole was with gadgets, seems more like a business decision to me since they stopped supporting the gadgets gallery as well.

Windows 8 does a very poor job of guiding a new user, that's for sure. They should have included a proper tutorial to help users in things like these.

 

[KeithBraud]

If someone is using Windows 2006 or SP2 version of windows then what to do for installation of Windows 8?

 

[conghelach]

Ive had windows 8 for some time now.

Is it great? coming from windows 7 not really.

Sure it has a few new features that are nice but ultimately they pasted a metro interface ontop of an OS.

I find myself never using the metro interface and im always on my desktop still trying to remember where everything went.

I still miss my start menu and wish that wasnt taken away.

I think windows 8 shows some promise but more work needs to be done and less emphasis on changing things just for the ske of changing them.

 

[DeathPrincess]

If you have a ton of files called 'sleep' how is the OS to know you want the settings version, instead of your files? Some may prefer their files over settings, others vice versa. As far as the empty results, maybe they were thinking users expecting files to show up, would accidently select the settings versions and be annoyed. I think the separate search categories make a lot of sense personally.

Maybe like...

Spoiler: this

Everything is labeled as "Control panel" or "files" etc. If things are clearly labeled there is no chance of confusion. Metro was designed by idiots to look a certain semi unified way, screw usability. Settings is only going to be a few entries, so not much point having a separate search category.

 

[odditory]

But I will keep it on my computer because it does load faster than Win 7 did.

Technically, Win8 only 'boots' faster because MS is leveraging hibernation as a trick into making it seem so. Disable hibernation and it boots no faster than Windows 7 because then it has to do an actual initialization instead of just loading a saved kernel session (resume).

I point that out simply because people are dazzled by fast boot in Win8 and assume its because the code is just so much more optimized and tighter and more efficient and that by extension it must be that way throughout the o/s. You can read more about it here if you're curious: http://www.windows7hacker.com/index...ou-shouldnt-disable-hibernation-to-delete-it/

That's also not a criticism or indictment - as an engineer and tech professional I prefer to understand whats going on under the hood rather than chalking it up to magic.

 

[devil22]

Maybe like...

Spoiler: this

Everything is labeled as "Control panel" or "files" etc. If things are clearly labeled there is no chance of confusion. Metro was designed by idiots to look a certain semi unified way, screw usability. Settings is only going to be a few entries, so not much point having a separate search category.

Ah heh, yea honestly I never really use search, I am too organized so I forgot what Win 7 looked like. I can't see that it's that onerous to click a button for different types of results, it makes a certain amount of sense to me, guess that's just me though.

 

[devil22]

Technically, Win8 only 'boots' faster because MS is leveraging hibernation as a trick into making it seem so. Disable hibernation and it boots no faster than Windows 7 because then it has to do an actual initialization instead of just loading a saved kernel session (resume).

I point that out simply because people are dazzled by fast boot in Win8 and assume its because the code is just so much more optimized and tighter and more efficient and that by extension it must be that way throughout the o/s. You can read more about it here if you're curious: http://www.windows7hacker.com/index...ou-shouldnt-disable-hibernation-to-delete-it/

That's also not a criticism or indictment - as an engineer and tech professional I prefer to understand whats going on under the hood rather than chalking it up to magic.

I don't believe that's true, I get better boot times with Win 8 than Win 7 (about 10 vs. 20 seconds) and I disable hibernation in all installs.

 

[DeathPrincess]

Ah heh, yea honestly I never really use search, I am too organized so I forgot what Win 7 looked like. I can't see that it's that onerous to click a button for different types of results, it makes a certain amount of sense to me, guess that's just me though.

But the silly Windows 8 "fans" are constantly going on about "more usable" and "more efficient" and other made up crap. How is more clicks and more steps a better system (with fewer results)? The whole point of a search system is finding stuff you don't know where it is quickly, adding pointless steps is counter intuitive.

I don't believe that's true, I get better boot times with Win 8 than Win 7 (about 10 vs. 20 seconds) and I disable hibernation in all installs.

It saves a "boot state" which is different from hibernate. Basically it's just a hibernate state without anything loaded. When it boots, instead of doing it properly it cheats by just loading the state.

 

[andrewsmc1]

Here we go again..........

 

[devil22]

But the silly Windows 8 "fans" are constantly going on about "more usable" and "more efficient" and other made up crap. How is more clicks and more steps a better system (with fewer results)? The whole point of a search system is finding stuff you don't know where it is quickly, adding pointless steps is counter intuitive.

There's more to these OSes than searching. I go on about efficiency, but as I stated I don't use search, maybe if I used search all day I'd feel different, but I know where everything is on my computer and usually find it easier to just navigate to the folder than look through a bunch of results.

It saves a "boot state" which is different from hibernate. Basically it's just a hibernate state without anything loaded. When it boots, instead of doing it properly it cheats by just loading the state.

Doesn't that get disabled if you run 'powercfg -h off' or set it to high performance in power options? If not, do you know how to disable it, I'll do some tests.

 

[ZodaEX]

If someone is using Windows 2006 or SP2 version of windows then what to do for installation of Windows 8?

It's called Windows Vista

 

[phatbx133]

Wow ? GTFO !

 

[Allisons Dad]

Been using 8 since the early beta's and I like it. The lack of a start button was a minor annoyance, but after a few tweaks I love it. Much faster (as some have already said) than the traditional start button. I'm now running it on both my gaming rig and my laptop and no issues what so ever.