Windows 8.1 UI fixes showcased

[elvis_presley]

Amazing how many people believe this is an upgrade. Microsoft had to downgrade their OS from windows 7 so they can re-add the features again later and sell them as an upgrade/improvement. .

Click the "desktop" button on the Metro launcher... there's your upgraded Win7. More efficient kernel, better desktop experience, proper multimonitor support... faster, more power efficient. Better driver architecture. Better explorer, great task manager, and tons more that you see as you use it.

But people harp on about the start menu.

Go figure.

 

[kingrob]

Amazing how many people believe this is an upgrade. Microsoft had to downgrade their OS from windows 7 so they can re-add the features again later and sell them as an upgrade/improvement. Like the multitasking improvements? Windows 7 had no problems with multi-tasking. Sounds like they are just making it more like windows 7 but still more limited too leave room for future upgrades?
Or the start button? Whats next a start menu? Most if no all of that start screen customizations have been true of the windows 7 start screen(desktop). Suddenly adding that is a new feature.

I think Microsoft's new philosophy is less is more.

Well, I guess for a tablet that holds true, as it's a stripped down version of Windows 7, to conserve battery life.

 

[Maverick Jester]

However, Powerpoint 2013 Presentation mode is immensely better than previous versions.

Very nice feature.

Haven't given it a bash yet, will have to check it out...

 

[AfricanTech]

Haven't given it a bash yet, will have to check it out...

When hooked up to a projector or additional monitor of course.

 

[Maverick Jester]

When hooked up to a projector or additional monitor of course.

Of course

 

[Mouse]

Click the "desktop" button on the Metro launcher... there's your upgraded Win7. More efficient kernel, better desktop experience, proper multimonitor support... faster, more power efficient. Better driver architecture. Better explorer, great task manager, and tons more that you see as you use it.

But people harp on about the start menu.

Go figure.

<rant>

Click the "desktop" button on the Metro launcher...

what was the point of this, aside from pushing metro on people that otherwise wouldn't care?

More efficient kernel

Agreed

better desktop experience

HELL NO. I know, this is subjective, you can like it, but I don't (apparently a lot of people don't like it, judging by the sales and complaints)
There should have been a choice between Metro or Aero or classic (like win2000 style UI)

proper multimonitor support...

Until you need to find the hot corners on a specific monitor but your mouse moves over to the next monitor

faster, more power efficient.

Agreed

Better driver architecture.

End user perspective: Not fun when you have to go and hunt down a new driver on the internet from a manufacturer that may or may not have bothered to update for Win8. One of the reasons I didn't mind the change from XP to 7 was that most manufacturers were already making Vista compatible drivers that worked on 7. There seem to be too many threads on this not working out as well on Win8, although they do claim the drivers are compatible

Better explorer

Unless you don't like those ribbons

great task manager

Agreed

But people harp on about the start menu.

<harp>
Having things categorized with drill down menus actually helps when you have a lot installed there (office adds at least 4 icons by itself, I have 16 icons just in the office menu thanks to visio etc)
Grouping apps doesn't really help here, you still end up having to scroll left/right. Which brings me to:
Changing things from vertical scrolling to horizontal scrolling is retarded.
It's easier to move up/down with mousewheel (or even when dragging the bar with the mouse)
than to drag left and right - unless you're using touch input, where horizontal or vertical scrolling takes a similar amount of effort (this is an example of how touch input fails on desktop)
</harp>

add in all the usual complaints about them moving shutdown etc into some other sub menu for *****s n giggles; I can't think of a valid reason for moving that, except to prevent accidental shutdowns when touching the wrong icon (yay, more tablet issues on a desktop OS)
</rant>

Some of us are not against change, if it is an improvement. We are just against change for the sake of change.
"Different" does not automatically mean "better".
All of the above could have been avoided if we were given a choice

 

[elvis_presley]

Until you need to find the hot corners on a specific monitor but your mouse moves over to the next monitor

As we've established, you shouldn't be needing the hot corners, as you want to stay in the desktop - we can agree on this one

End user perspective: Not fun when you have to go and hunt down a new driver on the internet from a manufacturer that may or may not have bothered to update for Win8. One of the reasons I didn't mind the change from XP to 7 was that most manufacturers were already making Vista compatible drivers that worked on 7. There seem to be too many threads on this not working out as well on Win8, although they do claim the drivers are compatible

I've yet to come across a driver that's not compatible, it has been backward compatible in my many months and maaaany devices experience. But the new WDDM1.1 display drivers are great - I've gone well over a month uptime, through 2 or 3 GPU driver updates without a reboot (windows updates are also vastly improved, it doesn't require near as many restarts, and doesn't harass you if you don't want to reboot)

Unless you don't like those ribbons

Granted. But I don't really ever go into the menus after I've set the options - the file copy dialogue is awesome, even recovers gracefully if you lose connectivity, it's more responsive, better default options (no prompt when deleting to recycle bin) - I was talking more about fundamental technical changes. Then again, I really like ribbons. Big screens give you enough real estate to make them not be a burden.

Having things categorized with drill down menus actually helps when you have a lot installed there (office adds at least 4 icons by itself, I have 16 icons just in the office menu thanks to visio etc)

I have tons and tons of stuff installed, but for years now, I've done the winkey-<start typing> to find what I want, it's orders of magnitude more efficient than drilling down menus.

add in all the usual complaints about them moving shutdown etc into some other sub menu for *****s n giggles;

That's a legitimate gripe, but again - I just press my power button (into standby, I pretty much never reboot now that Win8 has fixed standby mode AT LAST to be rock solid... it really was awfully broken even in Win7, mainly due to drivers). Have for ages, it was far easier than the menu-based shutdown in either Vista, Win7 or Win8.

All of the above could have been avoided if we were given a choice

I half agree on the choice - on one hand, I don't like having to change my habits either, but on the other hand, Microsoft is often criticised for keeping legacy things in their OS, which is how it bloated out to Vista - Sinofsky started the great purge on the way to Win7 and continued it here. It's a trade-off. As far as I know, Windows is currently the only OS whose hardware requirements are getting less with each new version. That's a good thing, but it can't come without sacrifice.

 

[Maverick Jester]

Changing things from vertical scrolling to horizontal scrolling is retarded.
It's easier to move up/down with mousewheel (or even when dragging the bar with the mouse)
than to drag left and right - unless you're using touch input, where horizontal or vertical scrolling takes a similar amount of effort (this is an example of how touch input fails on desktop)

add in all the usual complaints about them moving shutdown etc into some other sub menu for *****s n giggles; I can't think of a valid reason for moving that, except to prevent accidental shutdowns when touching the wrong icon (yay, more tablet issues on a desktop OS)

These two are legitimate. Forcing a tablet-optimised scrolling method onto the PC was not a smart move, especially as most PC users are not familiar with trackpad gestures. Something I love about OSX. And the trackpads that do exist specifically for Windows 8, have very rudimentary gesture features.

And moving the shutdown menu- it peeved me no end, because it made zero sense to change that. And if memory serves, you can't even use the unified search to find it. Stupid decision.

 

[biometrics]

Fair enough. That's a bit of a bizarre reason, but I guess it's a reason .. You have to feed your OCD

My desktop is also clean unless I'm working with something.

Absolutely hate cluttered messy desktops.

 

[alloytoo]

When do you actually see it? You hit 1 button on bootup, and you're on your desktop all day. Should be launching 99% of your apps from pinned apps, and the rare occasion you need to launch a less used app, it's like 3 seconds in the metro launcher. It still boggles my mind how that can ruin a VASTLY superior desktop OS than Win7 for people.

I'm not looking to pick a fight, I'm genuinely interested in why the metro launcher bothers me so little, but inspires so much hate in others.

The Metro launcher is ugly and unneccessary.