help! I hate windows 8!

[lakedude]

I'm struggling to find anything that win 8 does better than win 7 on a normal desktop.

Fellow W8 hater here. Been having plenty of growing pains with W8 but:

The copy dialog is improved, drive pooling is a nice addition, and I like the easy access to the new Task Manager with extra tabs for doing moar stuff (especially Startup stuff).

It ain't all bad...

 

[Dominato3r]

This again.

Also is there a way to open it from the desktop or do I have to go into metro first?

You search the same way from every app, using the search charm. Alternatively you can just start typing the name of your app in the store.

 

[WelshBloke]

You search the same way from every app, using the search charm. Alternatively you can just start typing the name of your app in the store.

Yeah I was just using the winkey and searching from the desktop, which doesn't work.

The search charm is a bit of a pain as I have to mouse over 2 monitors to get to it. I'm happy with the winkey search but using the charms is horribly clunky.

Also the store tries to open in Chrome sometimes which isn't helpful.

 

[InfiniteLurker]

I hit some of the same speed bumps, these videos helped me out:

shorter version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi8NpwiEuzc

longer version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5BSmmSU-UZU

 

[WelshBloke]

I hit some of the same speed bumps, these videos helped me out:

shorter version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi8NpwiEuzc

longer version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5BSmmSU-UZU

They seem good videos (haven't watched all the second one yet). Thing is that I don't really want to learn how to use the metro bit, I want to avoid having to use it. Even when he was using it, and he looked proficient with it, it involved way to much of flinging the mouse here, pulling down there, scrolling through this, for my taste.

 

[Crow550]

This may help too: http://youtu.be/YCkvHpde4cY

& http://youtu.be/rycUk5kEx0k

This has some handy tips too and shows off some of the cool Windows 8 features: http://youtu.be/CfODwWeP9MI

More cool tips: http://www.youtube.com/user/TEKHD/videos?query=Windows+8

 

[lakedude]

So after a couple weeks of learning curve and getting the bugs out I have finally enjoyed my W8 laptop for the last 2 days. Been stable playing FC3.

 

[Crow550]

So after a couple weeks of learning curve and getting the bugs out I have finally enjoyed my W8 laptop for the last 2 days. Been stable playing FC3.

Cool. I have been digging it too. I'm sure Microsoft will add some UI tweaks as time goes on. Well see. I'm sure more 3rd party solutions will be popping up too. I've got the hang of it just wouldn't mind if the Modern UI and apps were more sizable and not just full screen or half window.

However getting past that I do enjoy the sync and new backup. As well the new look of task manager and such. The little speed improvements. I think it outweighs the little UI quirks.

I haven't tried any of the Start Menu replacements yet. I am gonna wait at least two weeks. Maybe....I am pretty use to the new UI.

I actually like the Start Screen. I removed all the fluff apps I never use and pinned the ones I use often. So if I do reboot or whatever I can just click my Browser or chat apps or whatever and bam. Or Win+D if I need to goto the Desktop but usually I have my Browser opened anyways.

Still looking around and discovering new things. I plan to get an SSD within the next couple of Months too. However I surf the web and play mostly Multiplayer games. So I'm not in a big rush since I don't know how much of a boost it will really give me. I have heard Windows 8 handles SSDs really well. I gotta say even with my mechanical Hard drive that it's pretty zippy as is.

Anyways best advice with Windows 8 is learning all the shortcuts. I haven't found anything cool in the Windows Store yet. I'm sure in time they will get some neat stuff. Well see....

 

[WelshBloke]

Fellow W8 hater here. Been having plenty of growing pains with W8 but:

The copy dialog is improved, drive pooling is a nice addition, and I like the easy access to the new Task Manager with extra tabs for doing moar stuff (especially Startup stuff).

It ain't all bad...

Just tried out the drive pool.

It's very slow if you use parity and you seem to lose a lot of storage in mirrored arrays if they aren't identical sizes.

Also you need to destroy the pool in windows if you're going to reinstall. The windows installer didn't let me break the pool just showed it as one big drive that I couldn't install to.

Task manager and copy information are much improved thoug.

 

[lakedude]

Cool. I have been digging it too.

I would't go so far as to say I'm "digging it". I'm digging the new hardware and tolerating the software.

The bad things are still there, I've just found workarounds. It takes me a couple hours to get W7 how I like it. It has taken days of fighting with W8 to make it tolerable.

Anyways best advice with Windows 8 is learning all the shortcuts.

I'm a mouse guy, not a keyboard shortcut guy. I don't want to learn any shortcuts. I want to click and be done with it. The less clicks the better. Adding more clicks to do the same job is a step backwards IMO.

Side notes:

Personally I don't mind the flat 2d look of W8 but it is understandable that some will miss the better looking desktops of the recent past.

The new laptop has an i7-3630QM, GTX-670m, an awesome multi-color LED back-lit keyboard, great sound and a decent anti-glare screen. I'm digging all that. W8, not so much.

That said I wouldn't avoid W8 or spend money to replace it with W7. It is not that bad...

 

[Crow550]

Well you're using Windows 8. So get the hang of the Win key and Win-D, Win-C and Win-X. Makes it a bit easier. I use to be a "Mouse guy" too. However it's time to go past that and use the Keyboard shortcuts.

For Modern aka Metro apps moving the Mouse to the top bar and click and drag to the left or right to dock it to the Desktop.

I have gotten the hang Windows 8. Wasn't that much of a learning curve.

Plus using Ctrl-A for Select all, Ctrl-X for Cutting, Ctrl-C for Copy and Ctrl-V for Paste is so much easier than using the Mouse dude. Plus sometimes you can't use a Mouse for copying some things and this is your only option.

It's time to learn some Keyboard shortcuts. Will make things much snappier.

 

[tulx]

One "pro" tip I could give with Windows 8 is to bind certain hot-key combinations to your additional mouse buttons if you have any. I made mouse macros for "show desktop", "start", "alt-f4", "resize app" and some others (I have Logitech G700) and that really brought out the advantages of the new UI. I don't have to touch the keyboard at all now and can work much faster than win Win7. Plus, the new design is just much more functional and contemporary. I started off somewhat sceptical on Win8 but now I wouldn't ever go back.

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express

 

[Zaap]

However it's time to go past that and use the Keyboard shortcuts.

Sorry, I just don't get this. An OS that's supposedly for touch (the waaaaave of the future) and yet it relies heavily on using a keyboard.

I thought we'd all "gone past that" with the demise of DOS.

According to Ballmer's Microsoft, the future isn't this:

It's this:

 

[Mem]

Sorry, I just don't get this. An OS that's supposedly for touch (the waaaaave of the future) and yet it relies heavily on using a keyboard.

I thought we'd all "gone past that" with the demise of DOS.

According to Ballmer's Microsoft, the future isn't this:

I think it depends on how you use it to be honest,ie touchscreen ,keyboard shortcuts or mouse etc..personally I just use mouse 99% of the time and don't really use any keyboard shortcuts,not needed if you got Win8 setup right.

End of the day we all use our computers etc...slightly different.

 

[DesiPower]

Now that I have to give up control of my hard drive and my system and become OS's bitch, I think I will finally come out of the closet and but a Mac!

 

[Crow550]

Sorry, I just don't get this. An OS that's supposedly for touch (the waaaaave of the future) and yet it relies heavily on using a keyboard.

I thought we'd all "gone past that" with the demise of DOS.

Only if you have a Touch Screen or Touch Pad or those Touch Mice like: http://youtu.be/rycUk5kEx0k?t=4m (4:41 for the Mice) Course Gamers and HTPC users may not have a use for these options. Well for HTPC maybe the Touch Pad.

Otherwise.... Yeah.... With a regular Keyboard and Mouse the shortcuts help a lot.

 

[Ichinisan]

Well you're using Windows 8. So get the hang of the Win key and Win-D, Win-C and Win-X. Makes it a bit easier. I use to be a "Mouse guy" too. However it's time to go past that and use the Keyboard shortcuts.

For Modern aka Metro apps moving the Mouse to the top bar and click and drag to the left or right to dock it to the Desktop.

I have gotten the hang Windows 8. Wasn't that much of a learning curve.

Plus using Ctrl-A for Select all, Ctrl-X for Cutting, Ctrl-C for Copy and Ctrl-V for Paste is so much easier than using the Mouse dude. Plus sometimes you can't use a Mouse for copying some things and this is your only option.

It's time to learn some Keyboard shortcuts. Will make things much snappier.

I'm a keyboard shortcut fiend, and Win+X is new to me! Doesn't do anything in WinXP. Looks like a bunch of useful shortcuts in Win8. However, I access a lot of those with keyboard shortcuts already.

I usually prefer the most universal shortcuts so I can use them freely as I switch between systems with different versions of Widnows

Programs and Features
[Win]+[R], appwiz.cpl, [Enter]

Power Options
[Win]+[R], powercfg.cpl, [Enter]

Event Viewer
[Win]+[R], eventvwr, [Enter]

System
[Win]+[Pause/Break]
[Win]+[R], sysdm.cpl, [Enter]

Device Manager
[Win]+[R], devmgmt.msc, [Enter]

Disk Management
[Win]+[R], diskmgmt.msc, [Enter]

Computer Management
[Win]+[R], compmgmt.msc, [Enter]

Command Prompt
[Win]+[R], cmd, [Enter]

Task Manager
[Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del]
[Ctrl]+[Shift]+[Esc]
Right-click taskbar and click "Task Manager"
[Win]+[R], taskmgr, [Enter]

Control Panel
[Win]+[R], control, [Enter]

File Explorer
[Win]+[E]
[Win]+[R], explorer, [Enter]

Search
[Win]+[F]
[F3]

Run
[Win]+[R]

Desktop
[Win]+[D]

Start
[Win]
[Ctrl]+[Esc]

 

[Griffinhart]

I've never "Hated" Windows 8, but I really don't like the whole metro UI on a desktop machine. I still much prefer a start menu over a start screen and I actually like using desktop gadgets because they are useful to me.

Fortunately there are start screen alternatives out there and 8gadget. Now I never have to touch Metro unless I want to and I have the full functionality I had in Win7 with all the nice new features in Win8.

I only have one or two more lingering problems with Windows 8. There is a joystick problem with Win8 and Planetside 2 I am still waiting for SOE to fix. and I wish windows still had a shadow effect since it makes it easier to tell where inactive windows stop and start.

 

[beginner99]

Had my first experience with Win 8 and I can say it is even worse than expected. Had to setup Wifi for my Moms new laptop.

i was like WTF? the whole time. Finding the control panel is exactly that, a long search with tons of stones thrown in your way. Without knowing tons of keyboard shortcuts this is just a mess and having to learn keyboard shortcuts is per definition a mess. i don't see the different to learning CLI commands...it's exactly the same...outdated. Does not belong into a modern UI. What a misnomer - Modern UI and Windows, even so you can only have 1 Window...

My parents have an outdated Wifi so still use WEP. No the WTF is that there is an option in Win 8 called WEP, but you can't set encryption to shared key. After a while of trial and error hit google and well WEP with shared key is no more on Win 8. But you can still choose it from the drop-down else that would have been obvious.

I installed Classic shell and my mom was very, very pleased. So yeah it's worse than I expected. Everything takes longer to do than in XP up to 7. You have to move the mouse cursor a lot more, modern UI is unusable with a touchpad and only marginally better with a mouse.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH. Now I'm really thinking to get another Win 7 license for my next build (have OEM version).

 

[Ichinisan]

Had my first experience with Win 8 and I can say it is even worse than expected. Had to setup Wifi for my Moms new laptop.

i was like WTF? the whole time. Finding the control panel is exactly that, a long search with tons of stones thrown in your way. Without knowing tons of keyboard shortcuts this is just a mess and having to learn keyboard shortcuts is per definition a mess. i don't see the different to learning CLI commands...it's exactly the same...outdated. Does not belong into a modern UI. What a misnomer - Modern UI and Windows, even so you can only have 1 Window...

My parents have an outdated Wifi so still use WEP. No the WTF is that there is an option in Win 8 called WEP, but you can't set encryption to shared key. After a while of trial and error hit google and well WEP with shared key is no more on Win 8. But you can still choose it from the drop-down else that would have been obvious.

I installed Classic shell and my mom was very, very pleased. So yeah it's worse than I expected. Everything takes longer to do than in XP up to 7. You have to move the mouse cursor a lot more, modern UI is unusable with a touchpad and only marginally better with a mouse.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH. Now I'm really thinking to get another Win 7 license for my next build (have OEM version).

There's absolutely no excuse for using WEP. It's needlessly complex and completely insecure (I'm sure you know this).

Most wireless routers that did not support WPA would support it with an update. If their router is one of the VERY FEW that can't be updated to support WPA, then replace that worthless junk! I can't tell you how many times I've gotten awesome routers for < $10 from the thrift store.

 

[VirtualLarry]

There's absolutely no excuse for using WEP. It's needlessly complex and completely insecure (I'm sure you know this).

Most wireless routers that did not support WPA would support it with an update. If their router is one of the VERY FEW that can't be updated to support WPA, then replace that worthless junk! I can't tell you how many times I've gotten awesome routers for < $10 from the thrift store.

Still, there's plenty of stuff out there that still uses it, and there's no excuse for Windows 8 to not support it fully. I live in an apt complex, that had FIOS come through, and virtually all of the FIOS deployments have routers that came shipped with WEP enabled by default.

People are going to be pissed if their shiny new Windows 8 laptop doesn't work with their FIOS wireless.

Edit: Do you think that the average internet user, and not a tech geek, would even know about WPA and WPA2, and WEP, and know the differences between them? All they know is that there is this "password" listed on the wireless router, that Windows asks for, and they type in to get internet access on their PC.

 

[beginner99]

There's absolutely no excuse for using WEP. It's needlessly complex and completely insecure (I'm sure you know this).

Most wireless routers that did not support WPA would support it with an update. If their router is one of the VERY FEW that can't be updated to support WPA, then replace that worthless junk! I can't tell you how many times I've gotten awesome routers for < $10 from the thrift store.

It's not the router but the cards in one of the computers. And yeah I know WEP is insecure and so on. The true WTF is that is listed in a drop down under "encrpytion method" but you can not choose "shared key" only open access. So at first sight one assumes it's actually still in there.

 

[Maximilian]

Sorry, I just don't get this. An OS that's supposedly for touch (the waaaaave of the future) and yet it relies heavily on using a keyboard.

I thought we'd all "gone past that" with the demise of DOS.

According to Ballmer's Microsoft, the future isn't this:

It's this:

+1 to that!

You know there's no shutdown/restart button when you remote desktop into a windows 8 system! I was astounded to find this, it was hidden in a stupid menu in windows 7 but its not there at all in windows 8. If various people on google are to be believed then the solution to this is doing various backwards ass things to shut down their remote system Make your own shutdown shortcut/go to run and type "shutdown /s" /make a macro/make a script/use linux instead/simply don't shut it down/*insert other roundabout way of doing things here* Turns out what you are supposed to do is hit alt+f4, then the menu appears to shutdown or restart the remote pc.

How am i supposed to know this? Obviously the umpteen people on google never figured this either. When did the idea of convenience become obsolete??

Yeah its one button, yeah its a niche situation and yeah the problem was solved in the end but this whole design philosophy of hiding crap and making it more difficult resonates throughout windows 8, that's the real issue.

 

[pmv]

+1 to that!

How am i supposed to know this? Obviously the umpteen people on google never figured this either. When did the idea of convenience become obsolete??

Yeah its one button, yeah its a niche situation and yeah the problem was solved in the end but this whole design philosophy of hiding crap and making it more difficult resonates throughout windows 8, that's the real issue.

Anyone have any idea what MS's reasoning behind this is? It appears to be an underlying philosophy behind Win8.

In my experience interfaces usually are either extremely powerful and versatile but come with a huge thick manual that you have to wade through to find out how to do stuff (unix, obviously, or VMS or MVS back in the olden days) or its designed to make everything as intuitive, "self-explanatory" and accessible as possible (Macs, probably most of all, but also previous versions of Windows).

But Win8 seems to have taken a third route - hiding things all over the place for obscure reasons, but not giving you any comprehensive manual to read through to learn about it. Its as if you are supposed to 'discover' how to do things, gradually over time, like its some sort of sandbox game.

 

[Drsignguy]

Sorry, I just don't get this. An OS that's supposedly for touch (the waaaaave of the future) and yet it relies heavily on using a keyboard.

Not really. Win8 really works well with the touch screen and The only time I use the Keypad is in the obvious areas, ie explorer, searching etc. I have the surface pro and the UI is pretty smooth and yes, it took a bit of getting use to but I seem to really like it now. I also put Win8 on my desktop and sure, you do use the keyboard more but that's a given because my monitor in not a touch screen. It just takes time to get used to it. We all been using somewhat the same style/type of UI since windows 95 came out. Now that Win8 came out its so different but still the same. Yup there is an oxymoron in there somewhere.

But Win8 seems to have taken a third route - hiding things all over the place for obscure reasons, but not giving you any comprehensive manual to read through to learn about it. Its as if you are supposed to 'discover' how to do things, gradually over time, like its some sort of sandbox game.

I have to agree to some extent. Now that there is the great world wide web, there is always someone out there that has gone into the abyss to discover what we are looking for in the first place and they post it on youtube. Why should MS print a guide when its free on the web.