Win 8 after 3 months

Well I have been running this box for a while with Win-8.
So far my impressions are that it is a good OS for NEW computer users
who didn't start out with any earlier OS.

It will run most older programs as long as they don't require custom
hardware supporting them.

My ancient HP 970 prints just fine. The scanner works fine. The Logitech
keyboard however is not supported so you lose most of the custom
functions.

If you are someone who like to customize the look and feel of the OS
and play around under the hood then 8 isn't for you. It doesn't like
some alterations. There are ways around some of this but not without
digging in like a tick.

Apps : These range from great to absolute crap. Some are VERY sensitive
to programs you install from the desktop. The full screen only sucks
though. I'd like to see something where you could put up say 4 apps at
once. Plus the ability to have them continue running in the background
would be nice. Who wants a radio app (or whatever) that locks the
machine so you can't do other work. There are many that only operate
while connected to the net in some fashion as well. I will say that the
new adventure version of minesweeper is pretty addicting for a simple game.


Oh and it is a resource HOG, plan on using as much ram as you can stuff
in the machine.

--
Steve W.

On Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:53:58 -0400, "Steve W."
wrote:

Well I have been running this box for a while with Win-8.
So far my impressions are that it is a good OS for NEW computer users
who didn't start out with any earlier OS.

It will run most older programs as long as they don't require custom
hardware supporting them.

My ancient HP 970 prints just fine. The scanner works fine. The Logitech
keyboard however is not supported so you lose most of the custom
functions.

If you are someone who like to customize the look and feel of the OS
and play around under the hood then 8 isn't for you. It doesn't like
some alterations. There are ways around some of this but not without
digging in like a tick.

Apps : These range from great to absolute crap. Some are VERY sensitive
to programs you install from the desktop. The full screen only sucks
though. I'd like to see something where you could put up say 4 apps at
once. Plus the ability to have them continue running in the background
would be nice. Who wants a radio app (or whatever) that locks the
machine so you can't do other work. There are many that only operate
while connected to the net in some fashion as well. I will say that the
new adventure version of minesweeper is pretty addicting for a simple game.


Oh and it is a resource HOG, plan on using as much ram as you can stuff
in the machine.


Thanks Steve. My daughter has win8 on her laptop and she's okay with
it the last time I checked. I just read an article yesterday that
blamed the downfall of pc's on windows 8. I forget the details now
but at the time, I thought it was a bit of a stretch. I guess I
should reread it but I'm still fine with win 7.

On Monday, April 15, 2013 2:53:58 PM UTC-4, Steve W. wrote:
Well I have been running this box for a while with Win-8.

So far my impressions are that it is a good OS for NEW computer users

who didn't start out with any earlier OS.



It will run most older programs as long as they don't require custom

hardware supporting them.



My ancient HP 970 prints just fine. The scanner works fine. The Logitech

keyboard however is not supported so you lose most of the custom

functions.



If you are someone who like to customize the look and feel of the OS

and play around under the hood then 8 isn't for you. It doesn't like

some alterations. There are ways around some of this but not without

digging in like a tick.



Apps : These range from great to absolute crap. Some are VERY sensitive

to programs you install from the desktop. The full screen only sucks

though. I'd like to see something where you could put up say 4 apps at

once. Plus the ability to have them continue running in the background

would be nice. Who wants a radio app (or whatever) that locks the

machine so you can't do other work. There are many that only operate

while connected to the net in some fashion as well. I will say that the

new adventure version of minesweeper is pretty addicting for a simple game.





Oh and it is a resource HOG, plan on using as much ram as you can stuff

in the machine.



--

Steve W.

"it is a good OS for NEW computer users who didn't start out with any earlier OS." That limits the market for Windows 8 to Rip Van Winkle, old fogies who never used a computer before, and kids who have never used a computer before, in short, people who don't have to be RE-trained. Kind of explains the underwhelming success of Windows 8 in a nutshell, doesn't it? ... Ben Myers

Win 8 is junk in my humble opinion.
My software is for 7.
So I send all my programs to the "Desktop" and bypass the
"metro" page completely. It is a joke.

On Tuesday, April 23, 2013 6:34:58 AM UTC-4, wrote:
Win 8 is junk in my humble opinion.

My software is for 7.

So I send all my programs to the "Desktop" and bypass the

"metro" page completely. It is a joke.

I might as well pile on here. Yesterday, I did some troubleshooting for a new client with a mix of Win 7 and Win 8 laptops and an HP OfficeJet wifi printer. I got great joy out of going to the upper right corner of the stupid Metro screen, and putting "CMD" into the Win 8 search. Once the CMD window was open I could see what was really going on with IPCONFIG and PING. DOS meets Windows 8!

People stuck with Windows 8 for any reason (bought in retail store, provided by company-with-rocks-in-head) should visit http://www.classicshell.net/

And FAST!

Gartner Group and the other computer pundits keep saying that PC sales have tanked, but nobody wants to say that Windows 8 is a major cause and call it what it really is. Of course, Gartner does paid "research" for Microsoft, and one must not offend ones clients. Newspapers, TV stations and on-line media get ad money from Microsoft, so one must not offend ones clients. Whatever became of truth in reporting what's up with computers? (That's why I got out of the computer journalism game long ago. Made me puke.) Why, finally, Microsoft released an OS that is worse than Vista... Ben Myers

On Wed, 1 May 2013 12:00:27 -0700 (PDT), Ben Myers
wrote:

On Tuesday, April 23, 2013 6:34:58 AM UTC-4, wrote:
Win 8 is junk in my humble opinion.

My software is for 7.

So I send all my programs to the "Desktop" and bypass the

"metro" page completely. It is a joke.

I might as well pile on here. Yesterday, I did some troubleshooting for a new client with a mix
of Win 7 and Win 8 laptops and an HP OfficeJet wifi printer. I got great joy out of going to the
upper right corner of the stupid Metro screen, and putting "CMD" into the Win 8 search. Once
the CMD window was open I could see what was really going on with IPCONFIG and PING.
DOS meets Windows 8!

People stuck with Windows 8 for any reason (bought in retail store, provided by
company-with-rocks-in-head) should visit http://www.classicshell.net/

And FAST!

Gartner Group and the other computer pundits keep saying that PC sales have tanked, but nobody
wants to say that Windows 8 is a major cause and call it what it really is. Of course, Gartner does paid "research"
for Microsoft, and one must not offend ones clients. Newspapers, TV stations and on-line media get ad money
from Microsoft, so one must not offend ones clients. Whatever became of truth in reporting what's up with
computers? (That's why I got out of the computer journalism game long ago. Made me puke.) Why, finally,
Microsoft released an OS that is worse than Vista... Ben Myers


Two things I recently read is that windows 9 will likely have a start
button. I gather MS has gotten a lot of flack for this in windows 8.
And yesterday I read a story that now the analysts are blaming the
retailers for the failure of windows 8. Reason being... they didn't
explain enough to the consumer to make them appreciate windows 8
....LOL.

Bottom line to me is that windows 8 isn't making the impact MS had
hoped and likely for various reasons. Personally I think it's too
much change and people by nature don't like change to begin with. MS
needs to take baby steps in their changes but I think it's the old
marketing strategy..." get it out the door before the next guy does
it".

RnR wrote:

Two things I recently read is that windows 9 will likely have a start
button. I gather MS has gotten a lot of flack for this in windows 8.
And yesterday I read a story that now the analysts are blaming the
retailers for the failure of windows 8. Reason being... they didn't
explain enough to the consumer to make them appreciate windows 8
...LOL.

Bottom line to me is that windows 8 isn't making the impact MS had
hoped and likely for various reasons. Personally I think it's too
much change and people by nature don't like change to begin with. MS
needs to take baby steps in their changes but I think it's the old
marketing strategy..." get it out the door before the next guy does
it".

MS would have been better off if they had tailored the OS to the actual
product it was used on. It would be easy to use the same OS but have the
metro interface come up on tablets and touch screen machines and switch
to the normal desktop when there is a mouse and no touch screen attached.

99% of the controls present in xp/Win 7 are there you just need to dig
them out.
The other change that is really needed is a way to run apps in the
background and not full screen.
For instance I may want to listen to internet radio and have a nice app
for that, but not being able to run that app while working on anything
else just defeats the reason for owning a high powered machine.

--
Steve W.

Change amounts to bit-rot. Old stuff stops
working, that was working fine.

Hence users using XP.

They don't need a new OS. The old one works fine.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Ron Hardin wrote:

Change amounts to bit-rot. Old stuff stops
working, that was working fine.

Hence users using XP.

They don't need a new OS. The old one works fine.

The same thing happens with linux, by the way.

Graduate students decide to change the C compiler to make it better, and old
programs no longer compile.

Hence users of a year 2000 version. In the era of having your own computer,
you don't need to upgrade just because the idiot class thinks you should.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Jim Higgins wrote:
On Tue, 07 May 2013 08:34:23 -0400, in ,
"Steve W." wrote:

For instance I may want to listen to internet radio and have a nice app
for that, but not being able to run that app while working on anything
else just defeats the reason for owning a high powered machine.


Seriously? So in Win8, if I start say windows Media Player with a
nice long playlist, minimize it and start some other program, WMP
won't keep playing? Is that what you're saying? If not, then what
ARE you saying?

There are smart phone like Metro apps usable in win 8. Most of them
cannot be minimized to run in the background.

For instance the old solitaire game in all the previous versions of
windows doesn't exist in Win 8. Instead you go to the windows store and
download the MS Solitaire app which is under the XBox games system. In
the old solitaire game you could resize the window and play the game
while also doing other things like work...

In Win 8 the solitaire game runs full screen under Metro and there is no
resize or minimize option. If you wanted to use a desktop program while
playing you can't.

There are a LOT of apps that work the same way. They run full screen and
when you try to shuffle them back by opening the tile for the desktop
they shut down.

WMP is a desktop app so it will still work in the background, but most
of the Metro apps don't

--
Steve W.