win8 Windows 8 - intuitive or not?

[Defcon]

Or as soon as you install an app and it spews a hundred shortcuts into the the Start Screen. Since there are no folders anymore to organize content, its just one big wall of tiles. Of course they claim 'semantic zoom' is the miracle answer but its one more arcane shortcut that no one will ever actually use.

It's not hard to use at all. Just different. Seriously, once you sit down with it for a bit, it becomes second nature.

This is not my opinion. I've seen it used for months by a number of people (non-techie folk) and they never got used to it and in fact begged to go back to Win 7, even though they all admitted the pc felt faster and booted up faster. There's nothing intuitive about hunting corners and using shortcut keys to accomplish the most basic tasks which are otherwise hidden.

[Dot Matrix]

Or as soon as you install an app and it spews a hundred shortcuts into the the Start Screen. Since there are no folders anymore to organize content, its just one big wall of tiles. Of course they claim 'semantic zoom' is the miracle answer but its one more arcane shortcut that no one will ever actually use.

Huh? In my using of the RP, I never have had that issue. If you're installing an ancient app, then yes it might, but any modern versions of Photoshop and Office won't do that.

[Nothing Here]

metro by itself is just fine. the trouble starts if you are primary desktop mode user

There is only one user designated on this pc. We all use the same login.

[+Warwagon MVC]

So it appears that this is the tutorial everybody's been expecting?

EPIC FAIL! Gee.... lets not show them that there is anything in the the bottom left corner for .....oh I don't know.....THE START BUTTON!!!

[Calum Veteran]

They don't even touch on closing metro apps by grabbing them at the top and dragging down, do they?

Microsoft made it clear they don't want people to close WinRT apps. That's why they didn't include a mechanism to close those apps in the Developer Preview, and it's why they stressed at BUILD 2011 that closing Metro apps was not needed because they use no memory when they're not being used :)

[notuptome2004]

+1

not to mention, trying to find programs in the cluttered start screen is a nightmare. god help you if you have lots of programs installed. you better know the name of every single app you have because, search is the only quick way to launch an app from the start screen - quick being relative

As opposed to looking for the same amount of programs in your start menu ( scroll vertically Maby with Sub menus as well ) and the same amount of programs on the desktop i would say the start screen is far faster because you can scroll quickly hek you can customize and put them in ther own category. it is Rather simple tho you right click empyt space or so click all programs and they are all right ther no hard finding anything i prolly got 60 Apps or more installed games + programs and i have no issues finding anything .

EPIC FAIL! Gee.... lets not show them that there is anything in the the bottom left corner for .....oh I don't know.....THE START BUTTON!!!

That is why it says ( Any Corner )

[guru]

As opposed to looking for the same amount of programs in your start menu ( scroll vertically Maby with Sub menus as well ) and the same amount of programs on the desktop i would say the start screen is far faster because you can scroll quickly hek you can customize and put them in ther own category. it is Rather simple tho you right click empyt space or so click all programs and they are all right ther no hard finding anything i prolly got 60 Apps or more installed games + programs and i have no issues finding anything .

The start menu had things sorted alphabetically and in folders that essentially served as tags. In the new start screen there is no way to tag a particular group of icons say SQL Server. which has about 8 or so programs that use to link to start menu. There is no folder/ tag/ label concept in start screen. That would have made things a lot less cluttered on the start screen.

another thing that makes it harder is the lack of telemetry driven "most often used" section in the new start screen.

and I havent even mentioned Metro and Desktop icon mix on the start screen. which makes things pretty confusing as to whether it'll open the desktop version of the App or the Metro version of the app. is there a simple way to differentiate ? for example , will clicking spotify icon on start screen open a metro app or desktop app ? (assuming spotify comes up with a metro version)

The start screen which is huge change in Win8, is so poorly thought thro, i'm surprised they went ahead to RTM with it without listening to any user feedback,

[notuptome2004]

The start menu had things sorted alphabetically and in folders that essentially served as tags. In the new start screen there is no way to tag a particular group of icons say SQL Server. which has about 8 or so programs that use to link to start menu. There is no folder/ tag/ label concept in start screen. That would have made things a lot less cluttered on the start screen.

another thing that makes it harder is the lack of telemetry driven "most often used" section in the new start screen.

and I havent even mentioned Metro and Desktop icon mix on the start screen. which makes things pretty confusing as to whether it'll open the desktop version of the App or the Metro version of the app. is there a simple way to differentiate ? for example , will clicking spotify icon on start screen open a metro app or desktop app ? (assuming spotify comes up with a metro version)

The start screen which is huge change in Win8, is so poorly thought thro, i'm surprised they went ahead to RTM with it without listening to any user feedback,

yes you can Tag them you can Tag and sort them out simple and easy.

[Anthonyd]

EPIC FAIL! Gee.... lets not show them that there is anything in the the bottom left corner for .....oh I don't know.....THE START BUTTON!!!

Crying at epic fail, yet you aren't aware that the start button has moved to the charmbar?

[Julius Caro]

even for me certain things were weird. obviously finding the start screen again was easy. but for certain things like:

1) how to display the app menu on metro apps (this took me a LONG time)

2) i wasnt aware the bottom-right corner on the desktop still behaved the same way as in windows 7. there's no visual cue.

3) finding the proper control panel was hard too. and the proper PC properties screen in which I needed to change the environment variables

other than that. you can get used to it

[hagjohn]

If I'm remembering right, every recent version of windows has a video tutorial. I'm sure Windows 8 will be the same.

[+devHead Subscriber²]

EPIC FAIL! Gee.... lets not show them that there is anything in the the bottom left corner for .....oh I don't know.....THE START BUTTON!!!

I know! It's like, well, there's 14 new ways of navigating you need to learn about, but let's just show you one over and over and over again.

[rhianntp]

its intuitive if you are a 20 something metrosexual hipster...if not..then afraid not :-)

[guru]

yes you can Tag them you can Tag and sort them out simple and easy.

Thanks for that. couldn't figure out the way to do it. turns out 'all apps' is where the options are present. wish there was a tip somewhere in 'All Apps' about this.

[grayscale]

Thanks for that. couldn't figure out way to do it. turns out all apps a where the options are preset. wish there was a tip somewhere in All apps about this.

This I think is why the tutorial is an epic fail. I like the new start screen and I find it faster to find programs using it but since they did not include it in the tutorial, other users tend to think that they removed the ability to group applications.

Also, moving start screen shortcuts is a pain in the butt because there is no option for moving multiple shortcuts at the same time XD

[+Warwagon MVC]

Crying at epic fail, yet you aren't aware that the start button has moved to the charmbar?

True. It's on the charms bar as well as in the bottom left. So Let's see

Windows 95 - Windows 7 = Go to the bottom left click start

Windows 8 = Go to the bottom left show the hidden start menu button at which time you are already on it (the methoid they don't show users) left click

Windows 8 Charms bar method = Go to the top right or bottom right, activate the charms bar then move your mouse up or down depending on which corner you activated the charms bar in and and click start button.

So yes, charms bar method is more steps.

[Dot Matrix]

its intuitive if you are a 20 something metrosexual hipster...if not..then afraid not :-)

Age has nothing to do with it. If you're older and still able to adapt to today's OS changes, than Windows 8 will be a breeze for you, but if you're like my Windows college professor, and denouncing everything that isn't DOS related, than there is no helping you.

True. It's on the charms bar as well as in the bottom left. So Let's see

Windows 95 - Windows 7 = Go to the bottom left click start

Windows 8 = Go to the bottom left show the hidden start menu button at which time you are already on it (the methoid they don't show users) left click

Windows 8 Charms bar method = Go to the top right or bottom right, activate the charms bar then move your mouse up or down depending on which corner you activated the charms bar in and and click start button.

So yes, charms bar method is more steps.

If you're on a desktop, yes. But if you're using a mouse, natural instinct is going to tell you to throw your mouse into the corner, where - what's that? - A wild start button has appeared! Or, you could also hit the Windows key on the keyboard.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Age has nothing to do with it. If you're older and still able to adapt to today's OS changes, than Windows 8 will be a breeze for you, but if you're like my Windows college professor, and denouncing everything that isn't DOS related, than there is no helping you.

If you're on a desktop, yes. But if you're using a mouse, natural instinct is going to tell you to throw your mouse into the corner, where - what's that? - A wild start button has appeared! Or, you could also hit the Windows key on the keyboard.

Video's have dis proven that, when users use windows 8 for the first time. As someone who commonly walks users through stuff over the phone, most have a hard time finding the start button (older folks) which is actually visible and has been for most of their computing life. Also old people if you have noticed tend to jerk the mouse forward as the left click. I don't know why they do this but they do. Which use to work well, but with the very small pixel leway windows 8 gives a person, they end up opening up internet explorer instead.

[ViperAFK]

Video's have dis proven that, when users use windows 8 for the first time. As someone who commonly walks users through stuff over the phone, most have a hard time finding the start button (older folks) which is actually visible and has been for most of their computing life. Also old people if you have noticed tend to jerk the mouse forward as the left click. I don't know why they do this but they do. Which use to work well, but with the very small pixel leway windows 8 gives a person, they end up opening up internet explorer instead.

yeah, I do tech support as well and deal with this all the time. I have a feeling win8 will be more frustrating to walk people through over the phone for sure.

[+Warwagon MVC]

yeah, I do tech support as well and deal with this all the time. I have a feeling win8 will be more annoying to support.

More, is putting it VERY lightly!

[0sit0]

mwahahaha funny video. The least they could've done was leave the damn start button pointing to the start screen. Oh Microsoft :(

[Dot Matrix]

Video's have dis proven that, when users use windows 8 for the first time. As someone who commonly walks users through stuff over the phone, most have a hard time finding the start button (older folks) which is actually visible and has been for most of their computing life. Also old people if you have noticed tend to jerk the mouse forward as the left click. I don't know why they do this but they do. Which use to work well, but with the very small pixel leway windows 8 gives a person, they end up opening up internet explorer instead.

Sorry, but I don't play into those videos. Not when they come off as snarky, Apple fan boys.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Sorry, but I don't play into those videos. Not when they come off as snarky, Apple fan boys.

On another note, thanks for changing your avatar, I can now take your pro comments about windows 8 semi seriously now :D

But to respond to your post

Sorry, but I don't play into those videos. Not when they come off as snarky, Apple fan boys.

So if someone has a hard time using windows 8 they must be apple fanboys!?

[Wyn6]

This is not my opinion. I've seen it used for months by a number of people (non-techie folk) and they never got used to it and in fact begged to go back to Win 7, even though they all admitted the pc felt faster and booted up faster. There's nothing intuitive about hunting corners and using shortcut keys to accomplish the most basic tasks which are otherwise hidden.

This is not my opinion. I've seen it used for months by a number of people (non-techie folk) and they got used to it almost immediately. They never once inquired about Windows 7 while admitting the PC felt faster and booted up faster. I have had one tech question from a single person since installing it on 4 machines as early as the CP. My friend wanted to know how to do the Snap view. I instructed him over the phone. It took all of 15-20 seconds.

In conclusion... my friends are smarter than your friends. Nyah! Nyah! I'm kidding. But, seriously I've had the opposite experience from you. I guess Arnold and Willis Drummond for different folks, eh?

But, yes... this video is VERY basic. Which is why I hope there'll be more to it upon GA. Any corner is good enough to get you started. It would be helpful to show the mouse moving to all four corners and swiping from left to right as well. There are certainly a few more things that need to be shown.

[Anthonyd]

So yes, charms bar method is more steps.

And? The tutorial is for newbs that don't care if it takes more space or not.

People who complains about the fact that it takes more steps can easily figure out that you can still click on the lower left corner.