Microsoft to rework Windows 8

Of course Win8 is a loopy lumpen thing - instead of one soul-of-the-machine, it's two. Quite bizarre, actually.

But it's not a total disaster. The Desktop is all I need it to be, and certainly don't miss the Start orb. If it's an option in Blue, I'll leave it unticked. It took a while, but I actually prefer the Win8 Desktop to Win7.

I bought a Surface RT for my mom, and of course played with it for a few weeks before handing it over. Metro is something else entirely on a touch-capable device. But on my desktops & laptop it's quite pointless. Which is why I've splurged $5 for ModernMix from Stardock, which allows Metro apps in a window on Desktop. I wonder if Blue will allow the same. The reason is I have one or two Metro apps, such as Sky Wallet pw manager's desktop companion for WP8, and PC Monitor's Metro client for monitoring all the PCs (also on WP, Android, iPhone, iPad, etc). I'm a real power desktop user, and now have a quad monitor set-up, so windowing apps are essential.

Despite the bifurcated, bipolar, binomial personalities in Win8, I still prefer its Desktop to Win7, and can't ever see myself going back.

And I understand that, cray-zee as it is to have these two UIs in Win8, every other choice Microsoft faced was even worse. I just wish they'd get their act together and make WP Metro and WinRT/Metro fully interchangeable, with full app compatibility across the platforms. That has to be the way to go, surely?
 
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ThinkCentre said:
There is more to Windows 8 debacle than just the start button that is gone. You struggle to get the Control Panel and other ikons that just not there anymore. How do you shut the PC down? If you were not told how to get around Windows 8 if you are used to Windows 7, you would not know!
Click to expand...

If you cant count to ten, don't join the math club ;)
 
At first I thought Win 8 was stupid; after a few months I've come to like the desktop UI. However, I never use the Metro UI; I could do without it.
 
senyetse said:
At first I thought Win 8 was stupid; after a few months I've come to like the desktop UI. However, I never use the Metro UI; I could do without it.
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Then you will love Windows 7!!

It's the Windows 8 desktop UI + the stunning Aero GUI, without the Metro UI.

:p
 
I honestly prefer Windows 8 to Windows 7.

I often find myself trying to do stuff at work on my Windows 7 machine that only work in Windows 8.
 
ToxicBunny said:
I honestly prefer Windows 8 to Windows 7.

I often find myself trying to do stuff at work on my Windows 7 machine that only work in Windows 8.
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Stuff, or GUI actions?

Cause honestly bar the Modern UI applications they the same so I do not see how you can not do "stuff" on Windows 7.
 
Win7 or Win8? MSFT doesn't much mind which you choose. What's important to them 3 and 5 and 10 years out is to get the Metro UI out there to drive "Win for Devices" app development. They're not "ignoring" or "forsaking" or "shafting" PC/Desktop users whatsoever - both Win7 (a great OS) and Win8 (everything Win7 is plus more) do a pretty good job. Things like Start Orb, boot-to-Desktop, are small implementation tweaks, and nothing to do with architectures.

Behind the scenes, Microsoft is facing very serious and high-risk philosophical, architectural and strategy issues that are invisible to most users: the architectural platforms that will drive the business in 10 and 20 years. They've been here before: DOS to OS/2, in the latter 80s. The real strategy problem is that always following user demands can paint you into a corner in the longer term by trapping you in architectures that show their limitations 20 years later. When the market rejected OS/2 (for various complex reasons not immediately relevant here), Microsoft took the OS/2 kernel/core and grafted in the Win32 API set and GUI (which it knew was problematic), and called it Windows NT. It's what the market wanted (not Microsoft's strategy, which was OS/2), because the market 'demanded' it, and they listened. Win7 is the latest "baroque" version. But Win32 was problematic in 1988, and it's even more problematic today. So how to transition to the future without destroying the installed base (as OS/2 did)? Win8's bifurcated UI is the visible edge of that transition. It's the interim/transitional step, not the end-vision. I can live with that, because the legacy Windows side (Desktop) is pretty good and in some small instances even better than Win7. Plus I get the devices side thrown in for free - not good for today, perhaps. But could be a big deal in the future.
 
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Start Menu Reviver brings a free, touch-friendly Menu to Windows 8

http://www.neowin.net/news/start-menu-reviver-brings-a-free-touch-friendly-menu-to-windows-8

Still craving for a Start Menu in Windows 8, and not satisfied by products such as Start8? Perhaps ReviverSoft's Start Menu Reviver will tickle your fancy, as it brings a touch-friendly Start Menu to both Windows 7 and Windows 8 for absolutely no cost, which ReviverSoft claims "enhances" the standard functions of the Start Menu.

The Modern-UI styled application primarily features tiles as the main way to access your favorite applications, which you should be familiar with from the Windows 8 Start Screen or Windows Phone. In a similar fashion to the Start Screen, albeit in a smaller package, you can pin your favorite tiles to this Start Menu for easy access, or simply use one of the numerous search or discovery tools to find other apps installed on your PC.

The Menu works to launch both traditional desktop applications and Modern apps, and even web pages via handy link tiles that you can set up. The app is also fully customizable through a number of themes, which you can set to match your Windows color choice if you so choose.

If this sounds like the app you're after, head over to ReviverSoft's webpage to download Start Menu Reviver, and as it's completely free you can easily try it and uninstall it if you decide it's not quite your thing. Also, you can check out the demo trailer for the software below.
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[video=youtube;6G7pr-vpDWE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G7pr-vpDWE&feature=player_embedded[/video]

Picture_startmenureviver.jpg
 
Setting up a new laptop for family, and my bile is rising. What irrrritates me more than UI changes is that MSFT still stupidly persists in doing Windows "Home" and "Pro" versions (or whatever Marketing decides to call them). There should be one code base, one desktop client, one target with all the stuff in it. The actual installation can be selective, but ship everything, accessible through Programs/Windows Features On/Off. Wish they'd catch a wake-up. Devs need a single target platform and the confidence that what they do will work on ALL the machines.

(Yeah, yeah, I know the reasons, esp the revenue ones. I've had the arguments so many times inside MSFT, including with billg and steveb many winters ago. I think it's counterproductive and bad for the franchise in the long term. I clearly didn't own enough stock.)
 
Arthur said:
Because not a single app existed for Windows on devices (aka Metro), MSFT had to kickstart Metro app development. And the only realistic way of doing that was to "force" it into the new version. It was deeply discussed and argued inside before Win8 release, and a very risk decision, but the alternative was even riskier.
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Source? I mean I get that its entirely plausible and even likely, but ultimately I just see speculation phrased as a fact.
 
This is why I bought a win 8 key for 300 bucks and parked a screenshot of the key on my desktop (from aborted win 8 installer). 300 bucks for the next windows version...definitely - especially when the "fatal" flaw is largely cosmetic.
 
Arthur said:
Win7 or Win8? MSFT doesn't much mind which you choose. What's important to them 3 and 5 and 10 years out is to get the Metro UI out there to drive "Win for Devices" app development. They're not "ignoring" or "forsaking" or "shafting" PC/Desktop users whatsoever - both Win7 (a great OS) and Win8 (everything Win7 is plus more) do a pretty good job. Things like Start Orb, boot-to-Desktop, are small implementation tweaks, and nothing to do with architectures.

Behind the scenes, Microsoft is facing very serious and high-risk philosophical, architectural and strategy issues that are invisible to most users: the architectural platforms that will drive the business in 10 and 20 years. They've been here before: DOS to OS/2, in the latter 80s. The real strategy problem is that always following user demands can paint you into a corner in the longer term by trapping you in architectures that show their limitations 20 years later. When the market rejected OS/2 (for various complex reasons not immediately relevant here), Microsoft took the OS/2 kernel/core and grafted in the Win32 API set and GUI (which it knew was problematic), and called it Windows NT. It's what the market wanted (not Microsoft's strategy, which was OS/2), because the market 'demanded' it, and they listened. Win7 is the latest "baroque" version. But Win32 was problematic in 1988, and it's even more problematic today. So how to transition to the future without destroying the installed base (as OS/2 did)? Win8's bifurcated UI is the visible edge of that transition. It's the interim/transitional step, not the end-vision. I can live with that, because the legacy Windows side (Desktop) is pretty good and in some small instances even better than Win7. Plus I get the devices side thrown in for free - not good for today, perhaps. But could be a big deal in the future.
Click to expand...

Wtf? OS/2 in the 80's?! Win32 in the 80's?! Add ten years ...
 
Here is my Windows 8 desktop, minus the Metro UI. :D

mydesktop_zps10cd4889.jpg
 
biometrics said:
Wtf? OS/2 in the 80's?! Win32 in the 80's?! Add ten years ...
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You sound skeptical.

OS/2 was formally and jointly announced by IBM and Microsoft on 4 April 1987. Development was kicked off in late 1985 - I was directly involved from mid-1986, in Boca and Austin, where the Extended Edition was being developed.

The market got its first outline of OS/2 in billg's keynote at Fall Comdex in late '85.

OS/2 1.0 finally shipped for the 286, without the Presentation Manager GUI, to the first customers in October 1987, and to the general market in early December '87.
 
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