How has Windows 8 Improved your workflow/computing

By Wyn6
in The Fast Ring (Insider Previews)

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migo

Posted
Posted

Process Explorer, Virtual CloneDrive, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Mesh, Firefox, Adobe Reader...

You could say I have "Metro applications" that replace them, but for some reason, I don't see Metro applications the same was as desktop applications, but just as simple extensions of the OS. Must be the Start screen that gives me that impression, but yea, I don't see them as applications. Call me weird. :D

Good point on the first two. The rest, they're still preview apps and missing some features I need (imap), but by the time it hits final I'm sure that'll be fine.

Neowinian

jakelou

Posted
Posted

First few hours after installing, I was frustrated from how unconventional the whole flow was. Now, I honestly don't mind the interface at all. Windows 8 will shine when OEMs start combining tablets with PCs. Travelling all day with a tablet, and having the ability to throw it onto my desk, turning into functional desktop computer (provided I have a screen, keyboard, and mouse) really sounds awesome.

The new wave of Windows Live apps (Mail, Messaging, etc.) is actually looking really neat. I'm a big fan of consolidating social networks.

My only gripe about Windows 8 is the notification system. It's utter crap - Microsoft needs to introduce an notification drawer like the new OSX. It's also prevalent that on first bootup, MS needs to have an intuitive tutorial that teaches Windows 8 to consumers. I can just imagine the backslash and the wasted customer support hours if this isn't done.

Microsoft is onto something here, they just have to execute it carefully.

Grand Master

Ci7

Posted
Posted (edited)

it is hard to pass judgement now

W8 still has some rough edges

i find myself using desktop 99% of time through

i like the fact that windows integrate ton of stuffs , spreeing me the trouble

like an integrated iso image reader, integrated VT environment(Hyper-V) ...etc

less reliance on 3rd party utility the better, for system stability + integrity

*wall of text*

my eyes are bleeding :(

Edited by Ci7
Enthusiast

fenderMarky

Posted
Posted

I've installed the new Visual Studio (professional version wich has tons of services) and the startup is always of 15 seconds (2007 notebook) and the system is still fast.

Children can't see these improvements since they only play or download with p2p softwares...

Proficient

soumyasch

Posted
Posted

The start screen, for starters, is a deal breaker for me. I hate going through lists, and this thing presents a huge list spread all across the screen. I use the taskbar to pin the most used apps. Others that I don't use regularly but frequently enough, was satisfied by the MFU list in the start menu. Both were small enough (and tucked to a side of the screen) that they could be easily ignored. I never go to the programs menu, and instead rely on the start menu search very frequently - for documents, control panel settings as well as for apps (Jump lists are kind of meh for me, I prefer typing a couple of letters and get the document off the search results).

The start screen on the other hand throws a big list of programs in my face. Going through a list of programs is something I don't do. Being forced to see it is irritating. All those colorful tiles telling me all kinds of information is too much information; its distracting; its irritating. Don't like it. For at a glance information, desktop gadgets (as an UI paradigm, not the underlying technology) was a perfectly good solution - those who wanted the info could have it, those who didn't could turn it off as easily. I have no use for the new things in the start menu. The only thing I care about is search, but since I only am interested in the top three of four results, having an entire screen is counter-productive. Just give me back the search bar in a side of the screen. Heck, get it into the charms bar. While you are at it, put an MFU list in there too. And everything will be fine again. (True the search is better in 8, but the presentation is not, IMO).

Also having different hot corners to trigger start screen, charms bar, task switcher is not intuitive. Previously, everything was accessible from one place. Now there are so many locations, and why what is placed where is nowhere near obvious. Granted it won't matter when learnt, but the thing is the new way of doing things does not add anything to what is being gained. So why go through the pain of change with nothing to gain?

As for the rest of the metro/desktop UI, that you have to juggle between them is my pet peeve. You can't stick to either one and hope to get your work done. And the two are not complementary but totally different. Nothing is fully featured. Take for example, the network connections UI, which is metro. Connecting to a wireless network - you can do in metro, but want to see some stats, you have to go to the desktop UI. You always have to juggle with two different workflow styles.

Plus a lot of dialogs don't make much sense. For example, when a downloaded file is blocked by smartscreen, the only options presented when trying to run it are "Delete" and "More info" (or something like that). The first time I saw it, I spent minutes trying to find a way to run it anyway and finding it hidden behind "More info". Since when is running an app I downloaded to run "More info"? At least it should have been named "More actions" or similar. And that metro style dialog where it streches across an entire screen is an even worse kind of modal dialog.

Many of the features in Windows 8 - reduced resource consumption, speed, fast boot times, storage spaces, new task manager etc etc - doesn't seem worth the giving up your comforts to change your way to fit your OS' workflow, rather that configuring your system to work the way you want. May be my gripes result from the immaturity of the metro platform, may be subsequently it will be fixed, may be I will come to like it later, but as it is now, it does not provide me enough of a gain to take the effort of accepting it.

Grand Master

BeerFan

Posted
Posted

It's not geared towards getting work done. It's geared towards looking pretty on your home tablet device. If anything, it has hurt my workflow; not helped it.

I had it installed as the only OS on my work laptop (with touchscreen) for two weeks. Even after daily use, I still found it to be cumbersome and unintuitive. So, i installed win7 alongside it and now have a dual boot setup.

Grand Master

neufuse Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

I've installed the new Visual Studio (professional version wich has tons of services) and the startup is always of 15 seconds (2007 notebook) and the system is still fast.

Children can't see these improvements since they only play or download with p2p softwares...

want to take that VS startup time even lower? turn off the splash screen... the /nosplash flag makes VS load faster on first load... for some reason they always pit a load delay for the splash screen in VS

Grand Master

BajiRav

Posted
Posted

Improvemetns?

  • Live tiles on start screen (although currently only stocks and weather are actually useful)
  • Faster boot (for rare occasions when I actually reboot :p)
  • The current app selection (3rd party) gives a good taste of things to come, all news apps are pretty nice for example.
  • App switching is now ridiculously fast
  • IE10, again really fast (although dislike the tab management in metro, hope they make them iPad-safari like i.e. text-always visible).
  • File picker contract is awesome!

Grand Master

BajiRav

Posted
Posted

Nope. Don't care about Windows 8 at this point.

and how does your contribution relate to the topic at hand? Don't you have enough other Windows 8 threads for your usual ant-Microsoft trolling?

  • johnporter29 and Stoffel
  • Like 2
Grand Master

firey

Posted
Posted

It has contributed a lot. I won't go into intense detail, but I'll gladly share the jist of it.

Way back, when Windows 8 was first announced I was super excited. I was so happy with Windows 7 I followed the Windows 8 development quite a bit, constantly watching for leaks and the sort. Then the dev preview came out and it sort of improved my workflow, (it was very much improved in the Consumer preview). During the dev preview I had a lot of questions about the productivity, and still to an extent followed it. This continued to cut into the amount of time I spent working and doing things. When the hack came out for disabling Metro/Tiles I was stoked, and my work flow decreased even more as I was watching for more hacks and hopes that MS would enable this by default.

Then along comes the Consumer Preview. It was with that beauty that I really saw what Windows 8 was about. I became basically not interested at all, no longer reading about the Store, caring about hacks, or wanting to read user opinions on it. Because of this, I started spending a lot more time actually working and getting things done. So for that, I can thank Windows 8, and the lack of a good interface, and feel for increasing my workflow and speed. Oh, and after using Windows 8 and feeling how slow it was to do anything (I don't mean app speed, I mean multi-task speed), I felt on fire with XP and 7.

So in conclusion.. that is how Windows 8 improved my Workflow and Computing.

Rising Star

kInG aLeXo

Posted
Posted

I beleive they should have done it the Apple way by introducing multiple desktops in a really professional and "cool" way, claiming that would change the way people interact with their desktops.

I tried it for few hours on a friend's machine and it was a disaster, even tho he had a touch screen.

Its only a matter of time before Windows 7 becomes outdated and I finally make the switch I delayed so long to Linux or Mac.

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