I don't care for Windows 8

[ingramator]

Whilst I definitely agree everyone is entitled to their opinions and different view points it can (understandably) appear whiny or repetitive especially when there are 50 million threads with pretty much similar content and sometimes a bit of flame.

For my 10 cents worth. Windows 8 is an upgrade over 7 in every way and it may not come to you immediately but you will eventually understand the direction Microsoft are moving towards and want to embrace the change which is for the better of personal computing. Whilst I definitely do agree Windows 8 and the Modern UI concept have a long way to go they are doing a bloody good job at the moment. Modern UI apps are at this point pretty crap but hey look at the original Win Forms and early Windows GUI concept- it was pretty horrible at the start yet has come so far!

Keep an open mind, stay tuned for new updates and keep coming back to Neowin for the latest!

[MorganX]

You are in luck today, WP app got an update today with playlist support. They still haven't fixed the awful Xbox apps though.

Still terrible. Playlist support is a reach. You can edit playlist already on the phone or save them to your desktop. No facility for moving them from desktop to phone or syncing songs in the playlist. At least there's movement. Clearly MS is facing a drought of programmers I think.

[Darrian]

Not sure if you are trolling or just on another planet altogether.

Windows 8 doesn't boot to desktop by default, it boots to the user-hostile "start screen" or "metro" or whatever name you have for the abomination and there is no start menu on the desktop.

Yeah, so? Is it really that hard to click on the big rectangle that says "Desktop"? Also, what is so hostile about it?

[+Warwagon MVC]

Just restored a Windows 7 image on my couch computer that I made before Installing 8 when it RTM'ed. Much happier.

....

On a different note. I remotely assisted a woman who got a new windows 8 laptop about a month ago. her clock was still set on Pacific time.

[xWhiplash]

I just installed a secondary monitor, and without Start8, I am constantly activating the hot corners and invisible menus.

Do not tell me to use my mouse differently, I will use my mouse however I damn well want. I am sick of statements that if ANYTHING is wrong, it is YOUR fault. MS SHOULD have added a simple few check boxes, that is all there is to it.

Such an annoying UI......

[MorganX]

I just installed a secondary monitor, and without Start8, I am constantly activating the hot corners and invisible menus.

Do not tell me to use my mouse differently, I will use my mouse however I damn well want. I am sick of statements that if ANYTHING is wrong, it is YOUR fault. MS SHOULD have added a simple few check boxes, that is all there is to it.

Such an annoying UI......

Yeah, the included multimonitor support is nice, but I went back to a single monitor due to hot corners. I have start8 but don't want to disable them. I'll go back to dual monitors when I need to. But for day to day, 1 - 27" is fine. Will be glad when WQHD monitors come down in price.

[xWhiplash]

Yeah, the included multimonitor support is nice, but I went back to a single monitor due to hot corners. I have start8 but don't want to disable them. I'll go back to dual monitors when I need to. But for day to day, 1 - 27" is fine. Will be glad when WQHD monitors come down in price.

I agree, I do not want to rely on third party software to do what Microsoft should have done in the first place.

I actually debated on getting one 27" monitor, or use 2x23" monitors at 1080p. I chose to have two monitors for the extra screen space.

[Scorbing]

Windows 8 is not for everybody.

[Motoko.]

I share the same experience with OP

Instead of sticking to Win7 I'm venturing into Linux and learning how to use it

[Darrian]

I just installed a secondary monitor, and without Start8, I am constantly activating the hot corners and invisible menus.

Do not tell me to use my mouse differently, I will use my mouse however I damn well want. I am sick of statements that if ANYTHING is wrong, it is YOUR fault. MS SHOULD have added a simple few check boxes, that is all there is to it.

Such an annoying UI......

Well, I'm not going to tell you to use your mouse differently, but I am going to recommend, if you usually use Start8, that you go to the Desktop options and disable the hot corners. :)

[xWhiplash]

I have used Start8, but I do not like using third party tools on a production computer.

[ingramator]

I share the same experience with OP

Instead of sticking to Win7 I'm venturing into Linux and learning how to use it

Why though? By the way "Linux" is not an OS nor do any Linux kernel based OSes share a common GUI so you will not be able to "learn" Linux so to speak, you may be able to learn GNOME 3 or Unity but with Linux fragmentation is everywhere. Just because you can navigate the GUI of Ubuntu does not in the slightest guarantee you success at navigating Mint 13.

You think Windows 8 is bad and you don't want to or don't have the time to "learn it" but then you say you want to learn about an entirely new OS world which, lets face it, isn't the old user friendly Windows. Have fun my friend.

Source: Use pretty much every modern OS under the sun.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

I have used Start8, but I do not like using third party tools on a production computer.

saying you don't like using 3rd party tools on a production computer is a terrible excuse to be honest

if you think about it photoshop is technically a 3rd party tool. so you shouldn't be using that on a production computer either right?

just because something is 3rd party doesn't mean it's bad. seriously, you could look as hard as you want, i doubt you'd find anything that start8 breaks or hinders. it works exactly as intended

the 3rd party excuse just doesn't cut it in my eyes

[Kelxin]

I just don't use OS modifiers on production machines. Third party apps, sure, but when it comes to something that can be completely destroyed by a single update from Microsoft, I don't put myself or any of my clients at that level of risk.

[Preppy Veteran]

A couple minor FWIWs...

So I just tried a Surface Pro today at Best Buy. I'm in the same boat and really didn't like it. As an aside, I literally couldn't close metro apps at the store because the default mouse sensitivity was nowhere near high enough to drag from the top of the screen to the bottom. Scrolling the start page with the trackpad had issues as well. It's certainly seemed good as a touch interface, but Win7 will be what I stick with for a long time.

A: You can also use ALT+F4 to close.

B: As regards scrolling, you can also use the arrow keys and/or a mouse wheel if you have one.

I've had Windows 8 bluescreen on me while checking for Windows updates.

Explorer.exe crashes, this one might be related to Start8

On both accounts, PM me a crash dump or your Windows Problem Reporting bucket number (Settings:View All Problem Reports:<that crash>, "Bucket Id" in the "Extra information about the problem" and I'll take a gander.

- Sideways scrolling is off-putting with a mouse

- Viewing all installed programs involves opening the start screen, right clicking on an empty area and having to click All Apps. Why no just have an All Apps button in the wasted space next to the User button.

A: You can also use the mouse wheel or the arrow keys.

B: Or just start typing the name of what you're looking for.

I just installed a secondary monitor, and without Start8, I am constantly activating the hot corners and invisible menus.

Well, I'm not going to tell you to use your mouse differently, but I am going to recommend, if you usually use Start8, that you go to the Desktop options and disable the hot corners. :)

You don't need to install Start8 to do that, it's a deliberate registry hook put in that you can directly set:

* http://www.c-sharpco...s-in-windows-8/

"I would imagine" that that's not exposed directly because it's extremely a power user modification and not one you want grandma stumbling into. The rumor was that at some point there was going to be a small write-up of those two registry values, but I haven't seen anything as of yet.

I can't speak to the left edge hot corners, but the right edge hot corner deliberately only goes into a "hint" mode when you mouse into its hot region: if you click it goes away, if you move out of its activation region it goes away, and it only moves to visible mode if you mouse down onto where the Charm hints are. Otherwise of course interacting with scroll bars would be nigh impossible.

<3

[+virtorio MVC]

A: You can also use the mouse wheel or the arrow keys.

B: Or just start typing the name of what you're looking for.

Scrolling up and down to movie the screen left or right is not intuitive.

And yes, you can just perform a search, but that's not an excuse for bad UI design.

[Dot Matrix]

Scrolling up and down to movie the screen left or right is not intuitive.

And yes, you can just perform a search, but that's not an excuse for bad UI design.

Bad UI design? There's nothing saying a UI can't be left to right in design.

[+virtorio MVC]

Bad UI design? There's nothing saying a UI can't be left to right in design.

I could arge that quite easily, but that aside, that comment was in reply to the procedure for opening the All Apps view.

[TheLegendOfMart]

Bad UI design? There's nothing saying a UI can't be left to right in design.

But using a mouse wheel that is up and down in design to move something left and right isn't very intuitive.

[Dot Matrix]

But using a mouse wheel that is up and down in design to move something left and right isn't very intuitive.

Scrolling is scrolling is scrolling. Natural instinct is to flick the wheel to scroll, Windows 8 doesn't change that.

[f0rk_b0mb]

Scrolling is scrolling is scrolling. Natural instinct is to flick the wheel to scroll, Windows 8 doesn't change that.

Everybody is trying to explain to you that an up/down scroll wheel should not scroll on screen as left/right. It's not natural if it does the exact oposite of what you expect. Oh and by the way, I found this for you: http://www.theawl.com/2013/02/how-minority-report-trapped-us-in-a-world-of-bad-interfaces .

[mkol]

fonts redering in Windows 8 is the biggest negative for me.

[TheLegendOfMart]

Scrolling is scrolling is scrolling. Natural instinct is to flick the wheel to scroll, Windows 8 doesn't change that.

Yeah but when you flick the wheel you expect it to scroll in the direction it is flicked, not side to side. Keep making those excuses.

[Matrix XII]

I've Windows 8 for some time and I don't like it.

I'll stick with Windows 7 and OS X.

[spaceelf]

Yeah but when you flick the wheel you expect it to scroll in the direction it is flicked, not side to side. Keep making those excuses.

Windows 8 has a lot of instances of learned behavior. Start button? Exactly the same place, just hidden. Scroll? Same way it was before, just in a different direction.

I personally think it makes a hell of a lot more sense on wider screens than scrolling down ever did.