Yep still sucks.
Actually IMO windows is just getting worse and worse over the years. I reinstalled 8.1 the other day and I had to:
- install network drivers (always fun)
- install sound drivers
- install a start menu
- setup the taskbar to not do that retarded combining stuff together
- setup the notification area not to hide stuff from me
- tell windows smartscreen to sod off
- change control panel to small icons instead of that crap it looks like by default
- oh and restart about a million fooking times to update the thing
All this before ive even installed a single program! I tried linux mint, it picks up everything from the word go, has an office suite, has all the stuff I would usually need to install myself, UI isnt crap/annoying by default, hardly ever restarts.
If only league of legends and company of heros ran on linux id jump ship :\
And how is any of that unique to Windows 8? The Windows driver model (wherein drivers are separate modules loaded by the kernel, not built into the kernel) allows for a much more diverse device ecosystem, allows for a wider range of supported hardware, and allows for easier installation of devices and drivers (need to recompile the kernel? have fun!)
And what about all the annoyances in setting up Linux? I was installing Mint on a new computer the other day. Printer installation hanged for no apparent reason and had to be killed. Lots of password prompts for what seemed like every bloody thing--I was this close to temporarily changing my password to a 1-character thing because I was so annoyed--at least with Windows UAC, you don't need a password if your user has admin privs.
Taskbar combination started over a decade ago in XP. Notification hiding started over a decade ago in XP. Control panel has been using those big category icons since... you got it, XP. And, really, it's literally two clicks to switch the CP to the classic pre-XP style, and once switched over, it will remain switched over indefinitely. So it's two clicks for the entire life of this OS installation.
You're asked about Smart Screen during the initial setup (and is answering one question really so bad, especially since SmartScreen is probably a good idea for vast majority of users?) Look, the default setting for Windows has to cater to the average Joe because the average Joe isn't likely to change the defaults or even understand the options being offered. Power users can change all the settings around to their delight, which they probably will anyway because every one of us has our own idea of what the ideal settings are.
In Windows 7 and earlier, if you wanted to change the icon spacing
The metrics configuration has been slowly pared down ever since XP. With the loss of Classic Mode in 7, we also lost the settings to change the classic mode UI colors (even though some legacy interfaces still used them). So even in 7, I had to edit the registry to make certain changes (specifically, change the beveling light color, which Microsoft messed up in 2000 and has remained messed-up since--it's one of my personal peeves). Frankly, these old metric settings are things that 99.9% of people don't need or want to change. And it's also a setting that you change once and leave it alone forever. (And you can turn it into a reg file to deploy that setting quickly the next time you set up the OS.)
Which brings me to another point. These complaints are all about the initial setup. Getting settled into the OS. And I'll admit when I first tried Windows 8, I hated it for many of these same reasons--so many things that annoyed me out of the box, like file associations defaulting to Metro apps (thankfully they changed that in U1). But these are all one-time issues. A few extra minutes the first time you use a new OS installation. These complaints are like the complaints made against UAC when Vista first launched--you'll likely see lots of UAC prompts when you first set up the computer, but once everything is settled, they should become rare.
But the benefits of the OS are usually the kind that you experience again and again.
* Switching between thumbnail and detail view. 1-click in Windows 8. Two clicks and extra mouse maneuvers in Windows 7.
* Switching on and off hidden files. 2 clicks in Windows 8. Lots of clicks, along with menu digging and dialog navigation in Windows 7.
* Turning off the WiFi in Windows 8 if your computer doesn't have a physical switch: 2 clicks. You have to dig out that Mobility Center crap in 7.
* Opening elevated command prompt: just 2 clicks in 8.
* And more!
Seriously, if given a choice between saving a few clicks the first time I use the OS or saving a few clicks each and every day for the life of the OS, I think the choice is a pretty clear one, don't you?