Windows 8 without touch, I still like it

[phunkymunky]

So after having used it for a while on a desktop with modern UI, I have to say I dig it...

I don't find it illogical at all, and I don't find having to tap the start button or bringing up the charms sidebar a pain to flick back to modern. I love the search on the start screen, love the contextual search too! I can only wish that WP8 has the same search functionality!! The contextual search on the start screen works well with the mouse, and personally I like that I get categorised search relevant to what I want, be it apps/email/store or whatever. Most developers have updated their apps to cater for the scroll wheel, or two finger scroll on the folio, which makes it easy to pan through the pages. Snapping apps to the sides is neat, especially Xbox music, bing, Wikipedia app and a few others. I'm writing this in modern IE in main view and Xbox music is snapped to the left. would be nice if you could have two widths, one slim and the other what we have now.

The flick back to desktop mode is not as jarring as it seems, you're thrown to desktop mode so you have backwards compatibility... It doesn't feel like a broken experience at all, the start button has simply been replaced, but you've been given a complete window into everything on the pc with the added bonus of having the live tiles. Info at a glance is pretty cool...

I've upgraded both of my PC's and my Folio-13, on which the track pad works remarkably well.

Gaming Rig: This thing flies! Everything is buttery smooth!!!

i7 2600k

GTX670

24GB RAM

Intel 510 120GB SSD

Media Centre: if you're a WMC user, windows 8 was made for it!

i5 3470

16GB RAM

Samsung 830 64GB SSD

Connected to a Samsung 51" 1080p plasma via a Samsung surround unit and HDMI

BT-130 Keyboard - tiny thing!

Windows 8, and with the added WMC, is a media consumers treat! Having MC there gives you an almost identical UI to modern to access your content and record/watch live TV. But the modern UI plus the apps give you unified UI and access to catch-up apps and Netflix/hulu for streaming media too. That almost unified interface is not at all difficult to browse through on that tiny keyboard, it simply works!

Initially I didn't like Xbox music, but have learnt to use search a lot more to find my content. Searching makes it a little easier, but I wish they'd have made it function more like the Zune client than how it is currently. I don't see any reason why the UI in Zune client can't be translated to modern... it could even be refined in modern!

Overall I find myself using the mouse less and less and I'm moving back to the keyboard more and more. I need to print out the list of shortcut keys!

I'll admit, it may take a while to get used to, but I've been using it in it's evolutionary stages and now in final release and I like it a lot. I would like to get a Surface for a touch device, but I rarely take my ultrabook out of the house and do more on the phone, so I can't justify it. I'm upgrading the Lumia 800 for a 920 instead.

That's my two cents...

[stockwiz]

I like it. I wish I had the ability to pin anything to the start screen though, like say the 'shutdown' button or any random item I come across.

You have a nice system. Mine is similar, built up a 2600k running it at 4.3 GHZ shortly after launch. Nice thing about our systems, is that you can guestimate how powerful the next generation of consoles will be, and you can guestimate how much faster processor speeds will increase over the next few years (not that much unfortuately, the money seems to be making them efficient and cool now and with no competition from AMD intel has no incentive to be aggressive) .. I predict these 2600K rigs will still be capable of running the latest games 5 years from now. Only have 16GB of ram in mine though. :) A C300 crucial SSD too. Ivy bridge is not any big deal, we shall see what the next generation brings.

I have an I5-2400 for my bedroom system built around the same time, got the processor cheap on ebay, cheap motherboard, using the integrated video on the processor. Cheap and energy efficient, but plenty fast for everything I use it for. Checking ebay, these things still sell used for the price i got mine new for after all this time. Nice.

[Dot Matrix]

I still think MS missed a great opportunity to turn Media Center into a Metro media hub - Combining Music and Video, but alas...

[jakem1]

I still think MS missed a great opportunity to turn Media Center into a Metro media hub - Combining Music and Video, but alas...

Agreed. It's a real shame that it wasn't developed further and integrated into the Metro interface.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

I still think MS missed a great opportunity to turn Media Center into a Metro media hub - Combining Music and Video, but alas...

agreed

I still wish they would have at least given it a face-lift so it didn't look so out of place though

[threetonesun]

I like it. I wish I had the ability to pin anything to the start screen though, like say the 'shutdown' button or any random item I come across.

You sort of can, with some applications that are out there. Shutdown button, no, but random folders / applications / links, sure.

[Growled Member]

I like Windows 8 and I like the start screen but I don't really care for the Metro apps. They are very lacking for my tastes. I use the desktop more because that is where my main apps are.

[ViperAFK]

I like it too, however it could definitely be better.

Things I like about windows 8 over windows 7:

Faster boot

Refined explorer, file copy, and task manager UI's.

Refined classic desktop theme (native win32 apps look MUCH better without that atrocious purple toolbar)

Improved windows defender

Start screen: After using win8 for a while, I actually do prefer the start screen over the start menu. However I find the metro apps absolutely pointless on the desktop.

What I don't like:

The metro apps. Some of them lack some pretty basic functionality. Half of them are useless (or don't work at all) if you don't have a microsoft account. Almost every bit of functionality is hidden behind the right click menu. They are clearly designed for tablets, and there's nothing wrong with that, *but* if you install windows on a desktop metro apps are the default for opening music/pictures etc.. so I had to go through and change that.

Hot corners/charm bar can be annoying on a desktop, particularly with multi monitor. luckily you can mostly avoid having to use them using keyboard shortcuts.

Shutdown is *not* a "setting" microsoft :p

[Asrokhel]

OP, take a look at the following article I posted, if you haven't already, and if you go to the link at the bottom of the article, there's a video of it in action:

http://www.neowin.ne...-input-to-win8/

[Growled Member]

Shutdown is *not* a "setting" microsoft :p

I agree with your entire post but I agree with this 1000%.

[Jose_49]

Having MC there gives you an almost identical UI to modern to access your content and record/watch live TV.

...

I don't get it... Windows Media Center hasn't changed its UI for over 3 years...

[phunkymunky]

...

I don't get it... Windows Media Center hasn't changed its UI for over 3 years...

no, but it's modern (or metro as it was) in it's infancy...modern ui is basically this on steroids.

[statm1]

Didn't they dissolve the Media Center team after they made Win7 MC compatible with Win8? They have no interest in putting any effort into MC anymore..

[phunkymunky]

Didn't they dissolve the Media Center team after they made Win7 MC compatible with Win8? They have no interest in putting any effort into MC anymore..

very likely, they also removed driver certification for BDA tuner cards too...

[Aletheia]

Me too. I also like Windows 8 a lot and I do not have a touch screen. Once you get used to it (it took me 2 full days to get over some of the frustration), it is a great OS even with a mouse. W7 seems now bit limited in what I can do...

[contextfree]

Shutdown is *not* a "setting" microsoft :p

Yes it is :) Seriously, the Settings charm seems to really mean something like "functions that are about the app / system itself, rather than what you do with it". That's why stuff like Feedback (a "meta" function about the app, not the first-order purpose of the app), Rate and review (ditto) and even Help (about how you use it, not something you use it for) as well as preferences/options itself go there (on the app level) and why power controls (something that's about your computer, not something you do with your computer) is there too. It's a fairly clear concept IMO but something that's difficult to put in a word / icon so they probably just figured Settings was as good as any for it.

[Dashel]

Then what is Devices?

I finally got my hands on one of the Acer touch ultrabooks and been having fun with it so far. For some things, touch can be quite nice. One thing I did notice is that they don't come with any sort of haptic feedback.

Can anyone with a Surface report on how the haptic is on it? (I've noticed there is quite a range even within the WP7 ecosystem and not sure how that plays out on larger devices).