Windows 8 SP1: What We Hope To See

[Dot Matrix]

how about this was never a morm on windows pc, how about people that don't have smartphones, people that never had to go though this BS. requring that you have a microsoft account just to check your email is silly.

a lot of people don't want one, a lot of people simply don't need their information all over the web, numerious useless acounts.

plus a lot of non-tech savy people, will have their info send to their address (ISP), but might not know how to retrieve that information, since stupid metro mail app won't let them into their acount

How about, blah, blah, blah... whatever. This is the new norm. Having a Live ID helps users out. It doesn't matter that your PC isn't a phone. It's still a device, and a device that functions like all others. Your comments are getting sillier and sillier by the moment. Welcome to 2012. It isn't 1995 anymore.

[theyarecomingforyou]

merging metro and desktop simply doesn't work, and windows 8 is just a big mess. metro apps lack function, functionality, usability, multi-tasking and style.

Actually, I don't think that's true. All that is needed is for Metro apps to be able to run in a window that can be resized freely (maintaining the aspect ratio to avoid issues). That way you could migrate all Control Panel functionality into PC Settings and have that be the new hub for system settings. It would also mean x86-64 and Metro apps could share the same taskbar and the Charm bar could be moved off to top-left so that it doesn't clash with Aero Peek. It would also mean that Metro apps would be better for multi-tasking. Doing that would allow Microsoft to provide a truly unified interface, instead of the horrible mismatch they have at the moment.

You're right that Metro apps lack functionality but Microsoft could add a 'power' mode that allows Metro apps to run in the background without resource restrictions. They still won't have as much functionality as desktop apps but it would make them a lot more usable.

[Shane Nokes]

Accounts does NOT show up in the mail charms menu until you've logged in with a windows live account.

Microsoft Account.

Also you can make pretty much any existing email address into a Microsoft Account.

It doesn't require that it be a live.com/msn.com/hotmail.com/outlook.com/etc address.

It requires the MA in order to enable the various purchasing features and such for apps so that it can build an order history in case you need to reinstall.

Similar to how an iPad requires that you have an account with Apple to use features on an iPhone, iPod, iPad, etc.

[The Rev]

If Microsoft's trends remain the same, SP1 will NOT bring feature changes, like bringing back the old start menu, or even changing its behavior... You're all dreaming if you think that's coming in SP1.... I think even though people hate it, MS will stick with it, because... *shrugs* that's just what they do. Stick with what doesn't work, even in the face of a huge population of their users in uproar. People didn't like Aero when Vista first came out.... They kept it into Win7... Chances are, this new start menu will stay around until they dream up a better creation of the start menu that doesn't involve going back to the OLD start menu.

[Shane Nokes]

The problem is that these concepts do work. What people do not like is change itself...

People fear things that are new or different a lot of times, and it takes dragging them kicking and screaming until they accept it before they realize that they like it.

Do you recall the Mojave project from Microsoft? They managed to gather a ton of people who were opposed to Vista and then told them they were testing something new called 'Mojave' and the feedback was almost universally positive.

It was just Windows Vista, but because they called it something else people loved it. 'Mob Psychology' can be a very interesting thing to explore and understand. ;)