Windows 8 Release Preview Discussion

[+Warwagon MVC]

Ok, Ok, that is useful. But what about all the crap hidden on the right click of the disappearing reappearing start button. Regular people aren't smart enough to figure that stuff out. They are barely smart enough to know the difference between right and left.

[xendrome]

I just want to point something out.. I typically do not have to use my keyboard to navigate Windows 7 at all, unless I want to.. I could use Winkey+E, but sometimes I just click the Windows button, then Computer.

The thing is... in my opinion, a lot of processes are being lengthened when it comes to using the mouse. And then people reply back on here, "Well just press blah blah keycombo". Well I shouldn't be forced to use the keyboard and mouse, when I was able to do the exact same function with 2 mouse clicks prior. Some people use these systems on large format displays, or HTPC setups, etc, and having to use the keyboard is much more work.

I don't think it's acceptable for things to regress... you can call me lazy, once you tell me a good reason why something was removed and I have to use the mouse and keyboard to accomplish something I could do with 2 clicks before.

[BajiRav]

I just want to point something out.. I typically do not have to use my keyboard to navigate Windows 7 at all, unless I want to.. I could use Winkey+E, but sometimes I just click the Windows button, then Computer.

The thing is... in my opinion, a lot of processes are being lengthened when it comes to using the mouse. And then people reply back on here, "Well just press blah blah keycombo". Well I shouldn't be forced to use the keyboard and mouse, when I was able to do the exact same function with 2 mouse clicks prior. Some people use these systems on large format displays, or HTPC setups, etc, and having to use the keyboard is much more work.

I don't think it's acceptable for things to regress... you can call me lazy, once you tell me a good reason why something was removed and I have to use the mouse and keyboard to accomplish something I could do with 2 clicks before.

You can still open the "computer" window in two clicks except it is a combo of right + left click.

1. Right click in lower left corner

2. Left click on Explorer

Ok, Ok, that is useful. But what about all the crap hidden on the right click of the disappearing reappearing start button. Regular people aren't smart enough to figure that stuff out. They are barely smart enough to know the difference between right and left.

Not sure how many regular people need anything in this menu. It is all for "power users".

[Stoffel]

Does it really matter that much if you go to the Libraries or to Computer when you click the windows explorer icon on the task bar?

Still 2 clicks, icon on the taskbar and then computer

Whats the problem?

[George P Global Moderator]

The right click menu is in fact called the "power users" menu iirc by MS. It should be great once someone makes a nice tool that lets you inject any shortcut you want into it but for now the default choices are pretty much what most people need.

Besides, in Win7 when you open the start menu and click computer you're still just opening Windows Explorer. By default isn't Windows Explorer pinned to the taskbar right after IE10? I think lots of people just click on the pinned WE icon than go through the start menu but who knows. Other than MS that is.

[Andrea Borman]

I would say the one of the single things in Windows 8 that annoys me is there is no Icon which takes you to "Computer". Sure you have the explorer icon on the bottom, but then you have to click on computer from there. I could make my own, but I hate the fact they don't have one.

Ok, so I see if I right click the disappearing re appearing start button and choose "explorer" that seems to work. Seeing how it takes me right to "Computer" Why don't they just call it computer? All regular people know it as "Computer" not explorer.

The solution to that is simple. Even on Windows XP,the My Computer and other icons are not on the desktop by default. But you can add them to the desktop as follows-

On all versions of Windows including Windows 8 right click with your mouse and select"personalize."

Then you will see the option to add icons to the desktop as you can see in my picture on Windows 8. From there just tick the icons you want to show on your desktop,My computer,My Network and other icons,click apply,then OK. Now the my Computer and other icons you selected will show on the desktop,like in my second picture. As you can see i have the My Computer and My Network icons on my desktop. Andrea Borman.

[theyarecomingforyou]

I just want to point something out.. I typically do not have to use my keyboard to navigate Windows 7 at all, unless I want to.. I could use Winkey+E, but sometimes I just click the Windows button, then Computer.

The thing is... in my opinion, a lot of processes are being lengthened when it comes to using the mouse. And then people reply back on here, "Well just press blah blah keycombo". Well I shouldn't be forced to use the keyboard and mouse, when I was able to do the exact same function with 2 mouse clicks prior. Some people use these systems on large format displays, or HTPC setups, etc, and having to use the keyboard is much more work.

This is my position as well. I'm well aware that keyboard shortcuts can be much quicker and I do often use them but there are times when the mouse is more convenient - for instance, if I'm drinking a cup of tea and more generally because I nearly always have a hand resting on my mouse but not on the keyboard. The most infuriating change is to shutting down and restarting your computer - the obvious choice would have been to move it to the Start screen (maybe the user tile or a dedicated buttons) but instead it's hidden in the charms bar under 'Settings'.

Does it really matter that much if you go to the Libraries or to Computer when you click the windows explorer icon on the task bar?

Libraries shouldn't be a dedicated location but should appear within Computer as a collapsible group. It was an unnecessary change and one that I still find annoying. In fact that was the way the Documents used to appear in XP. And Storage Spaces should appear in the ribbon as an option, as current it is a buried feature (and one I feel is one of the best features Windows 8 offers). Obviously it's not a deal-breaker for an operating system but defaulting to Libraries is not the best implementation and is unnecessarily long-winded. Microsoft tried to remove the reliance upon individual drives but unfortunately the implementation of Libraries was very crude and should be dropped in favour of Storage Spaces.

[Detection]

The solution to that is simple. Even on Windows XP,the My Computer and other icons are not on the desktop by default. But you can add them to the desktop as follows-

On all versions of Windows including Windows 8 right click with your mouse and select"personalize."

Then you will see the option to add icons to the desktop as you can see in my picture on Windows 8. From there just tick the icons you want to show on your desktop,My computer,My Network and other icons,click apply,then OK. Now the my Computer and other icons you selected will show on the desktop,like in my second picture. As you can see i have the My Computer and My Network icons on my desktop. Andrea Borman.

If ticking those boxes to enable My Computer etc on the desktop work, why do you have shortcuts to them on your desktop instead ?

And since when did any OS past Vista call it "My Computer" ? It has just been "Computer" for nearly 3 OS's

Are you messing around with some lame XP theme that makes it look like Windows 8 ?

[Guest]

If ticking those boxes to enable My Computer etc on the desktop work, why do you have shortcuts to them on your desktop instead ?

And since when did any OS past Vista call it "My Computer" ? It has just been "Computer" for nearly 3 OS's

Are you messing around with some lame XP theme that makes it look like Windows 8 ?

She's not trying to deceive anyone, I just tested this and the option is still there and works, in the RP at least.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

nevermind

[Detection]

She's not trying to deceive anyone, I just tested this and the option is still there and works, in the RP at least.

I'm not running Windows 8 atm, can you confirm that "Computer" is now called "My Computer" again ? I have my doubts they have backtracked to the XP naming scheme

[Detection]

it's still called "My Computer" in that window for some reason, it was never changed there

My Win 7 doesn't say "My" it just says "Computer"

[Dashel]

Not sure how many regular people need anything in this menu. It is all for "power users".

If its for power users, then why can't we customize it? That would save a lot of my gripes with Metro Start. Plus, we lose the ability to right click for a contextual menu so the menu itself has to be longer than it needs to be.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

My Win 7 doesn't say "My" it just says "Computer"

yeah i realized right after i made the post, my guess is it's something that classic shell changes

[Detection]

yeah i realized right after i made the post, my guess is it's something that classic shell changes

Are you running Classic Shell too with the same effect ?

Strange that it would change things that deep, I thought CS was just an app running over the top of 8 ?

[Brandon H Supervisor]

Are you running Classic Shell too with the same effect ?

Strange that it would change things that deep, I thought CS was just an app running over the top of 8 ?

nope, not running classic shell here and it's just Computer

and i'm not surprised in the slightest, it's an app made to make your computer feel more like XP

[Detection]

hmm, I'm not convinced, along with the shortcut on the desktop to "XP Sound Recorder" I think its XP

The whole look of it is wrong, doesn't look very Windows 8 like and it seems to have a very low resolution for Windows 8 to even run in, icons look wrong, font looks wrong

Looks like a hacked attempt at a win 8 theme for xp

[Excelsis]

She obviously renamed it.

[George P Global Moderator]

If its for power users, then why can't we customize it? That would save a lot of my gripes with Metro Start. Plus, we loose the ability to right click for a contextual menu so the menu itself has to be longer than it needs to be.

It can't be customized right now because it's locked. The links/shortcuts placed in there come with some custom hash on them that the OS checks, any links you put in that don't have it or don't match it get ignored. This is done so that nothing can just go in there and change your links and that they also don't want you just making it another start menu on your own to.

I figure someone will write a tool to let you add links to it in time, just have to wait.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

hmm, I'm not convinced, along with the shortcut on the desktop to "XP Sound Recorder" I think its XP

The whole look of it is wrong, doesn't look very Windows 8 like and it seems to have a very low resolution for Windows 8 to even run in

no, Andre's confirmed that she copies many programs over from older versions of Windows. she has a copy of every version of Windows Movie Maker installed for christ sake 0_o

and she's running it on a netbook hense the low resolution

[Detection]

no, Andre's confirmed that she copies many programs over from older versions of Windows. she has a copy of every version of Windows Movie Maker installed for christ sake 0_o

and she's running it on a netbook hense the low resolution

lol, fair enough.. but doesn't win 8 have a minimum rez higher than that looks ?

[Lee G. Veteran]

My Win 7 doesn't say "My" it just says "Computer"

Computer can be renamed.

[Detection]

Computer can be renamed.

In that desktop icons window ?

[Brandon H Supervisor]

lol, fair enough.. but doesn't win 8 have a minimum rez higher than that looks ?

only for running metro apps, which she can't do at that resolution

[Detection]

only for running metro apps, which she can't do at that resolution

I mean to even install it, MS are forcing Metro on us I wouldn't expect them to allow it to be installed on a device Metro can not run on

If it is possible, then there could be a way to fool Metro into thinking the rez is too low and it disable itself without side effects