Recommended Posts

OP: Understand people resist change blah blah. +1

Win 9 will be soooo diff from 7 its not funny. 7 is great and functional but aestehtics and ui evolve with time. get over it people.

  • Like 2

OP: Understand people resist change blah blah. +1

Exactly. Most people tend to show a lot of inertia to change. I clearly remember the launch of iPhone, and people's fascination with button keyboards. They were so against it, and now it's the Blackberry which is in serious trouble.

Can't say I'm a fan of the metro look so, for me, there's plenty as is. Over the years as technology has improved so have the visual. Then metro comes along and it's like going back to Windows 3.0 HD (and yes I have used it, even used Windows 1.0). I'll use it but don't think I'll ever like it (the look).

The problem people have with Metro is the whole tile desktop with fullscreen apps they're trying to shove on everyone by default. Get rid of that and stop trying to reinvent the wheel.

Keep the traditional desktop with enhancements and then make all the apps have a zune app look and I don't think anyone would be complaining.

The problem people have with Metro is the whole tile desktop with fullscreen apps they're trying to shove on everyone by default. Get rid of that and stop trying to reinvent the wheel.

Keep the traditional desktop with enhancements and then make all the apps have a zune app look and I don't think anyone would be complaining.

And then they couldn't use it on tablets since the traditional desktop sucks on any touch device. If you want to use the desktop then use it, the start screen is there to do what it's name says, start apps.

And then they couldn't use it on tablets since the traditional desktop sucks on any touch device. If you want to use the desktop then use it, the start screen is there to do what it's name says, start apps.

Which is why tablets should have their own 100% Touch based OS. Windows 8 on a tablet is just like Windows Mobile 6.5. In the case of Windows Mobile 6.5 They took a stylus built UI / OS which was 5.0 and added a layer of touch on the top. Which was great until you leave the touch GUI and then they were left with a UI meant for a stylus.

Now they are taking a Windows 7 which was made for a mouse and keyboard and slapping a Touched base UI on top. Now the same thing will happen with Windows 8 on a tablet. If the user stays in metro everything should be fine, but once they leave Metro they will be in the part of the OS which is not touch friendly.

Which is why tablets should have their own 100% Touch based OS. Windows 8 on a tablet is just like Windows Mobile 6.5. In the case of Windows Mobile 6.5 They took a stylus built UI / OS which was 5.0 and added a layer of touch on the top. Which was great until you leave the touch GUI and then they were left with a UI meant for a stylus.

Now they are taking a Windows 7 which was made for a mouse and keyboard and slapping a Touched base UI on top. Now the same thing will happen with Windows 8 on a tablet. If the user stays in metro everything should be fine, but once they leave Metro they will be in the part of the OS which is not touch friendly.

First off tablet users, specially ARM ones will only use the desktop if they're going to run office 15 and if for some reason they want to run explorer and do some file management which should be slim to never. We already know the desktop will be locked down for anything else so that concern you have isn't really a issue.

Besides, this has been said before, the start screen isn't a touch layer on top of the desktop, it's part of the shell, hell if anything the desktop is urning on the new shell in this case instead of the other way around. I also see no reason why the start screen with the right tweaks over the WDP version can't work just as well with a KB+mouse.

Whatever the case computing is going more mobile, touch is going to take over more and more except for niche usage cases and the traditional "desktop" UI is going to change. Win8 is taking the first step but after this, in Win9 i'm sure, the next step, the rest of the desktop itself, will follow.

First off tablet users, specially ARM ones will only use the desktop if they're going to run office 15 and if for some reason they want to run explorer and do some file management which should be slim to never. We already know the desktop will be locked down for anything else so that concern you have isn't really a issue.

Besides, this has been said before, the start screen isn't a touch layer on top of the desktop, it's part of the shell, hell if anything the desktop is urning on the new shell in this case instead of the other way around. I also see no reason why the start screen with the right tweaks over the WDP version can't work just as well with a KB+mouse.

Whatever the case computing is going more mobile, touch is going to take over more and more except for niche usage cases and the traditional "desktop" UI is going to change. Win8 is taking the first step but after this, in Win9 i'm sure, the next step, the rest of the desktop itself, will follow.

Well based on windows 8 blogs and all updates doen so far with window s8 sincr the WDP and some of the stuff we seen @ CES running windows 8 they have siad or so that the current build are more optimized for KB/M use far better with them anyways so the tweaks have been done and may still be in the processes of being tweaked more

You can only have one application up at a time with the Windows 8 metro interface. Hence, "Window" since there is only 1 window.

You can have more than one up at a time. You can run them much like how you can in Windows 7, putting them side by side and such. They showed it at the CES demo.

Desktop. Y U NO METRO?

I'm looking forward to seeing if Metro will have a bigger influence in the desktop.

Metro style window border should at least be in Windows 8.

You can have more than one up at a time. You can run them much like how you can in Windows 7, putting them side by side and such. They showed it at the CES demo.

Don't even bother trying to speak common sense to these tro... erm I mean people. They've already made up their closed little minds :)

Update to the original post.

It looks like we would have Metro on the desktop after all. The technical preview of Office 15 has no Aero. So I now believe, that both the tablet and desktop interfaces would have Metro.

Good news! :)

I doubt the look of Office 15 is any indication as to what the design of the Desktop mode in Windows 8 will look like. Microsoft could be just trying to ensure the look of some of their most-used software (Office) is more consistent with the look of what will be the most-used part of Windows 8 (the Metro experience). The Metro experience will likely be used more than the Desktop experience by the average user because, other than Office, they tend to spend most of their time in the browser or media player software. Further, the design of Visual Studio 11 is quite different to that of Office 15, so surely Microsoft would have made that more consistent with Office 15 if that is how the Desktop mode in Windows 8 will look?

I could be wrong and this could well be an indication, but it appears you're now expecting the Desktop mode in Windows 8 to look similar to Office 15, and I don't like the idea of your high hopes being dashed.

Having said all of that, I do hope you're right :D

[. . .]

I honestly don't have a problem with the "Start screen" interface for tablets. It works well. But when you're using a keyboard and mouse, these full-screen apps with giant UI elements and low information density are ridiculous. A cursor and a finger are not the same.

I think you should wait until you've been able to try the Consumer Preview on a desktop or notebook that has a hardware keyboard and mouse (or trackpad). The Consumer Preview is much more refined, and only then will you be able to see just how small the UI elements are and just how well (or badly) the Metro apps work on such a formfactor. Suggesting the UI elements are "giant" is ridiculous; they're not very big at all.

If Windows 8 turns out to be an an EPIC fail, to some Neowin members it will still be an EPIC success!

Of course it will be because people have different opinions. Many customers opting not to use Windows 8 doesn't mean Windows 8 should be deemed bad by everyone. From what I've seen already of Windows 8, I deem it to be an EPIC success already (in terms of features and design of the Metro experience), and I haven't even had chance to use it yet.

I need Metro on my desktop OS like I need a duck in a drawer on my desk.

Metro is why I bought Android when I renewed my cell phone. It may be why I switch from partial Mac at home to completely Mac with Windows 7, not 8. It's ugly. If I want boxes, I'll buy bulk produce and save the cardboard ones.

Microsoft needs a team dedicated to bring Metro fully to the desktop side of things. They have the budget to do this, so I don't see what's holding them back? It's sad to see people designing Metro on desktop better than MS could (at least with what we've seen so far).

Microsoft needs a team dedicated to bring Metro fully to the desktop side of things. They have the budget to do this, so I don't see what's holding them back? It's sad to see people designing Metro on desktop better than MS could (at least with what we've seen so far).

Microsoft needs a team dedicated to remove Metro Start Menu and any other Metro elements. :)

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • I just looked on my computer and there are settings and log files for utilities I have never even turned on!
    • O&O ShutUp10 3.1.1104 by Razvan Serea O&O ShutUp10 offers a simple yet effective way to take control of your Windows privacy. It provides access to almost 50 privacy-related tweaks, most of them hidden or not easily accessible to the average computer users. Using a very simple interface, you decide how Windows 10/11 should respect your privacy by deciding which unwanted functions should be deactivated. Using ShutUp10 you can easily disable Windows Defender, turn off telemetry, disable peer-to-peer updates, turn off Wi-Fi Sense, disable automatic Windows updates, turn off and reset Cortana and more. ShutUp10 allows you to create a System Restore point before you apply any changes, so that you can revert your system at any time if you run into problems. O&O ShutUp10 is entirely free and does not have to be installed – it can be simply run directly and immediately on your PC. And it will not install or download retrospectively unwanted or unnecessary software, like so many other programs do these days! O&O ShutUp10 Free and Premium The latest version brings O&O ShutUp10 Premium, expanding the app’s long-standing privacy controls with automatic enforcement of user-defined settings. Instead of manually rechecking options after every Windows update, users can set their preferred privacy configuration once—or apply recommended settings in a single click—and the tool continuously monitors them in the background. If Windows 10 or 11 re-enables disabled features or introduces new data collection paths, Premium restores the chosen settings automatically without user intervention. The free version remains available and fully functional for manual adjustments, offering the same core privacy controls for Windows. However, the Premium tier is aimed at users who want long-term, hands-off protection, adding automatic reapplication after updates, ongoing monitoring, and optional notifications to ensure privacy settings remain consistent over time. O&O ShutUp10 3.1.1104 changelog: Added “Show Differences” button in the overview panel “Don’t show again” option for the restore point prompt Ctrl+F keyboard shortcut for search/filter functionality Detection and linking of system-wide and user-specific setting associations Automatic search while typing PREM: Option to preserve notification counters and timestamps across application restarts PREM: Reset blocked settings button in the Settings dialog PREM: Informational message when no settings are blocked PREM: Update check can also be triggered from the menu PREM: Notification deduplication and activity log summary feature Improved L005 “Disable Windows Location Service”: Version-specific split (up to Windows 11 23H2) and new variant for Windows 11 24H2+ L001 (Disable Location): Added Night Light warning to the description in all languages Search now detects setting IDs even when ID display is disabled and offers to enable it Detection and removal of Copilot/AI desktop apps in RecallTerminator Optimized High DPI support PREM: Reset button is now only enabled when blocked items exist – setting IDs are shown in the confirmation dialog PREM: Updated tray icons with higher-resolution versions PREM: Activity Log timestamps now use localized date and time formats PREM: Tray icon status now uses OK/Warning indicators and localized tooltips PREM: Recall folder detection switched to service-based detection PREM: Copilot uninstallation now provides UI feedback and improved verification Fixed Description text was not displayed correctly for the last item and disappeared when clicking the scrollbar Crash when clicking a search result heading or the […] button PREM: Installation path is now correctly preserved during upgrades PREM: Tray icon was not reliably removed when exiting the application PREM: Main window was not displayed correctly in single-instance mode PREM: Incorrect display of the & symbol in tray icon tooltips on Windows 10 PREM: Fixed notification flooding after sleep/standby PREM: Dashboard was not refreshed after applying recommended settings during onboarding PREM: Progress bar was not reset after deleting Recall folders PREM: Fixed service startup failures PREM: Fixed incorrect drift detection when Automatic Protection was disabled PREM: Notifications now correctly count all deviating settings when protection is enabled PREM: Registration Wizard was shown after sleep/standby despite a valid license Download: O&O ShutUp10 3.1.1104 | 76.4 MB (Freeware) Download: O&O ShutUp10 32-bit | ARM64 View: O&O ShutUp10 Home Page | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Fascinating...W h i t e P o w e r is now also asterisks out.  
    • In the past few days I have noticed two odd moderation activities. First, when I posted the term 'White Nationist Christian' it was asterisk's out. When I changed it to **** it was allowed! Second, in the Politics is a ###business thread I was allowed to post that the GOP is a party of p e d ophiles but I was censored  when I posted the GOP are a party of p e d ophile protectors. Wtf Neowin. Please explain.
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      Vincian earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • First Post
      Jocimo earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      suprememobiles48 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Windows Guy earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      Prasann earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      547
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      166
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      86
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      66
    5. 5
      neufuse
      65
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!