Read more.Quote:
Besides putting the Start menu back in.
Printable View
Read more.Quote:
Besides putting the Start menu back in.
Ensure something is either completely in Metro or completely in Desktop Control panel. At the moment its jaring and confusing. Inexcusably so.
There is one operating system with two user interfaces. Windows8 is an attempt at merging the two but it doesn't achieve this, and the feeling of being forced to use the MetroUI is insulting.
As a touch screen interface the MetroUI works very well for people who consume media, or interact with social apps. As a productivity device the MetroUI has no place and is in the way.
Microsoft's goal is likely to do away with the mouse and keyboard, and I see kinect and voice controls as their end goal. The problem is that visual or audio control is not accurate or fast enough, so the keyboard and mouse is not going to go away anytime soon.
If the Metro store can catch up with the apple and google equivalents then and only them will microsoft have a comsumer product worth bothering with.
All in all the MetroUI is designed to be put in the living room on a large screen TV, or a tablet. It is not a workstation interface and is in essence an app in itself like Windows Media Center.
I believe that Microsoft have got their analysis wrong and have done no innervation other than to try to copy what is already out there. The ball has been dropped.
How would you change Windows 8?
I would like the desktop background to be able to have active tiles, and be called something like widgets.
I would like the option to choose where to boot up to.
I would like the start button back as the search is more efficient.
I would like the option of rounded windows.
I would like the option to apply transparency levels to the inactive windows.
I would like windows to remember the size and position that I left them in.
Choice to have permanent change between desktop/metro. Its unreasonable to have a desktop being a programme.
Tried Autosizer? That app is a God-send.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scainer
+1 to all of the 'separate out the desktop for th modern UI' comments. When I'm using the desktop, unless I specifically go to metro, leave me in the desktop and do stuff in a new window please.
I use ShellFolderFix and Start8 to get around most of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by JingeeTried Autosizer? That app is a God-send.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scainer
My main annoyance now is that I like to run multiple windows and the loss of transparency is a backwards step due to the anti-customisation. I had an iPhone and jailbreak it within a month just to open it up. I moved to Android and have not felt the need to root as it has options.
- Having sidebar gadgets back.
- Not having to use 3rd party apps to restore usability, including start menu and bypassing Modern UI
- Window transparency options.
- All configurations available through Classic Desktop control panel.
- Option to set fixed window positioning.
Make the apps user experience less confusing. I can tell you that there's nothing worse than having "hidden panels" that have no indication on how they're activated. Example, the mail app has both the corner-hotspot panel for settings, and then right-click for sync and such. Neither of these are evident on screen and it makes for a very confusing situation initially. 2 buttons with arrows in appropriate areas would very much solve this problem. Hell, even 1 that opened a menu with the various options would suffice.
As a developer, i know the UX of software is one of the most important aspects. The UX is backed up by a clean UI that provides clear details and direction, and follows a somewhat uniform theme. If you forego making your design easy to understand, then your application and underlying code is worthless. Your whole application is worthless if no one can figure out how to use it of their own accord right from the start. Of course, that shouldn't imply they know how to use every feature right off the bat, but the basics should be easy to get to grips with.
I'd also absolutely not force anyone to use applications in fullscreen. It's a bad design overall. I don't even game in fullscreen as i prefer to multitask. I only watch movies in fullscreen and that's on the simple basis of me not actually being at the keyboard doing anything else and thus not needing to multitask. To make everyday applications like mail forced into fullscreen is just a bad design choice, at least on an OS that's both Mobile/Tablet and Desktop.
2 versions, 1 for tablets with the whole touch interface and a version for desktops where you can have it as it always has been.................I didn't say putting something back in there!!!!
I like Windows 8 and yes the Start Button at top of the list and Windows Desktop for PC's and Metro for touchy touchy stuff, I have now installed Start8 and that is a great little program.
Stop treating the desktop as a second class citizen, so that means just give the user to choice to give either traditional desktop (with a restored full Windows 7-type start menu), or metro dominance on their own whim.
I would put it back on the drawing board and redesign the Software from scratch and reduce the size of installation.......
Optimize it for Ram and GFX cards as well as gaming
2 seperate systems one for business and one for gamers....
I'd effectively have replaced the desktop with Modern UI. The best of both worlds, which would have benefited the desktop user as well as the touch user, and finally a true meaning to the old 'active desktop'.
Microsoft had the perfect opportunity to completely overhaul the ageing GUI, yet we've ended up with this mishmash.
.. I'm not sure I'd change anything. Acutally, the one thing I might want to change is some sort of power off button on the taskbar, so that it's slightly quicker to shut down when I'm on the desktop.
Unlike most people (apparently, although this is most people on tech site forums) I quite like the "Metro/Modern" UI, once I'd found out the main controls and stuff (type to search, charms bar access, scroll wheel to move along etc). I reckon that so far it's taken a similar amount of time to work stuff out as it did when I moved to 7 and Vista.
But hey, feel free to disagree as I know that some people just won't like the interface (I know I wasn't exactly sold on it before using it...)
Tell everyone Windows 8 is a hoax and it's actually Windows 7 SP3
Enable Modern UI apps to load on the side-bar by default. Enable web-browser links within Mail app to load on desktop browser. Improve apps to match feature-sets of desktop equivalents (remove any reason one would run both).
Advertise the keyboard shortcuts!
As mentioned a clear desktop or metro choice would be nice.
I will say using classic shell it does have programs and apps as separate things in the start menu so it clearly can work.
Make us count! Make us easy to:
- Have option to create our own OS look (WE create/determine how OUR Windows look like) by drag-drop
- Option to scrap things we don't want; down to those elusive things like SERVICES, etc. without complexities of one service connects to other applications.
- Get rid of those registry, revise your method and start using sandbox approach.
- No more excuse for rebooting after driver install, fail plug&play etc. As a matter of fact, get rid of those drivers! If I want to install something it's the application for using the hardware. Drivers aren't our business, applications are.
- And why do I still need to click on "Eject portable harddisk" and not simply plug it out?
Allow the user to uninstall Metro/Modern UI, not just disable it. It has no place in the corporate world, and live tiles are utterly pointless as they will always be hidden by applications like Excel, Word, Outlook.
Modern UI hinders productivity, which is the exact opposite of what a good OS should do - its should just allow the user to run applications efficiently.
Also the hidden charm menus have no visual pointers to their existence, so many people will only find them accidentally. Anticipate many thousands of hours of wasted technical support on this issue.
Like most give the user the choice between MUI or a more traditional desktop and all that includes.
No start menu, good job MS don't make cars, they would probably think wheels are "old tech" and leave them off!
I'd like the option to make live tiles persistent so they can be seen on a second monitor while in a fullscreen application/program on the main monitor, no use being a live tile if you are out of site. Similarly I'd like to be able to dock the start screen to a monitor of my choosing and prevent it from hiding allowing me to have a second screen dedicated to launching apps and displaying up to date information.
Basically I'd like the desktop to remain my primary place of work but would like to make it more flexible so I can customise it to suit my needs, essentially a better supported version of Rainmeter built into Windows. "Metro"/Modern UI has the ability to do that for desktop systems so I really hope Microsoft provide users with that flexibility in future versions on Windows.
Modern UI frankly looks like my websites (or indeed many others) if I disable background images with tools like 'Pendule'. It looks raw, basic, and under-designed. It is not a design trend, regardless of what their aggressive advertising might suggest, it's what web designers call 'layout testing mode'. It is, at best, a half-baked design and it wouldn't sell to any of my clients, not even the smallest companies among them. This might be OK for a few months while it's 'new and trendy', and there's enough of marketing bombardment brainwashing us into believing it's actually usable, but people will tire of it quickly, noticing it gets confusing searching for the sought-after tile by colour only. It isn't really a 'functional design' either, not clearly displaying what areas of certain tiles do what exactly, and I read many complaints regarding exactly this. I expect Microsoft to eventually introduce alpha channel rendered tile backgrounds that change their particular areas on tile 'hover' events, same as in HTML with CSS. Problem is, you can only design for one single 'border background' colour, baked in these alpha rendered background images, when all the tiles already have their background colour set with no margins between them (just the padding within individual tiles). That would be OK for another few months, then us punters will demand to be able to change the Modern UI background as well, or even display it partially transparent when not active, so we can actually have our own desktop backgrounds, like we did... since Win 95? This is when it becomes interesting, as the only way MS can pull that off is to either render backgrounds programmatically, introducing additional lag to rendering tiles, which is probably unacceptable considering it now renders really well and is quite responsive, or alternatively, MS pulls one out of their hats by finally supporting rendering functions other major browsers did what it seems eons ago. It would be interesting to see which way they decide to go. Fingers crossed for the latter. They might also introduce the possibility to display Modern UI as an active desktop background, with the ability to resize it as we see fit, something they were doing since XP. Pretty much the only thing they'd need to do to support this is to remove the forced handling of executables by the Modern UI front (by setting the opener handle to the desktop instead of Modern UI) when called by other programs, system itself, or a 'null' caller, and display Modern UI back on top when its feature or Modern UI only executable is called (shortcut parameters?). All the rest is already supported in Windows since XP. It's simple enough to implement, it would put all our major concerns to rest, and they could even call it 'Windows 9' and ask us to upgrade to be able to use these 'new' features. I certainly won't be upgrading any sooner than that! Cheers!
so far - 2 threads today have had me chuckling! ha! ha!Quote:
Originally Posted by OilSheikh
Right now I'd have it not keep corrupting files and generally failing on my system. I'm quite annoyed as it's less stable than the RP on the same system. Back to win7 in the meantime.
As for when using it, the desktop is fantastic, just the right amount of updated features to feel familiar and to enhance the experience. I'm actually missing the features having had to go back to 7.
The Metro side of things is just too schizophrenic, there are frustrating things like right clicking apps etc doesn't bring up a contextual menu at the cursor, instead it gives options on a base bar (like a metro taskbar), so it's more distance to move to get things done.
I spent less than 5% of my time in the start screen though so it didn't really bother me.
Now just going to wait for SP1 before going back.
Unlike Windows 7, I never bothered trying Windows the RC of Windows 8, because unlike ME2.. sorry, Vista, Windows 7 played nice with me so I am not in a hurry to jump ship. So I haven't got the faintest clue what the new UI is like or why people dislike it. That said, I never bother changing OS when I get a new laptop, thinking that it's a good chance to get used to something new (hopefully more secure), so if the next laptop I get end up with Windows 9, so be it. Still, I may not *need* a new laptop for another two years, and will probably postpone to Windows 9 if there is any sign that it's release is imminent.
Simple option between; Desktop mode, Metro mode or both. Most would choose Desktop I expect.
uninstall it !
Being able to use Metro (Modern UI) apps in the desktop and vice-versa would be great, also having an option so that when you press start it only brings up search akin to a "snapped" app and it would only open the start screen when you hovered over it/click on it, search is the only useful function of the start menu, but the main thing would be a power button in the corner of the start menu. These are all simple things to implement(maybe not metro apps in desktop mode) and it would be easy to make it an option. I prefer the new metro/modern UI to the old, it is far faster to use and looks great, Aero will be missed but it was a necessary sacrifice to make it suitable for tablets.
Hate to ignore the thread main post, but the UI [IS] the problem :/Quote:
QOTW: How would you change Windows 8?
2 November 2012, 16:30
Besides putting the Start menu back in.
I'd be very happy with win8 if they hadn't taken features i use a lot away (gadgets+aero gone, start menu only partially replaceable). Even if said features could be re-enabled via obscure downloads or registry edits it would be fine...
It's the enforced removal whether you like it or not that really grates...
At the moment we have a one step forwards*, two steps back** OS, i'm not willingly going to switch to an OS downgrade...
I'm a MS Technet subscriber, so the win8 upgrade cost is not an issue at all, i've already got win8 keys :/
* = The base OS improvements
** = The UI 'improvements'
You can replace gadgets with Rainmeter; dangel mentioned it to me as an alternative to gadgets and I've been trying to find the perfect skins ever since, so far I've replaced the most used gadgets of mine and added some new ones and have to say it looks so much better. I am more comfortable now knowing that I have a customisable desktop whether Microsoft provide it or not.Quote:
Originally Posted by fail_quail
link the application in metro as well as the ones in the desktop, bring the old start menu back (keeping the metro) have it so you press windows alt then it switches from the two .
right clicking brings the small options near the mouse
better backwards compatibility
Something consistent between Win 8 Pro would be handy, for instance on my laptop on the start screen I can move the mouse to the left or right of the screen and it will move the start screen left or right, however on my desktop with two monitors this doesnt happen and as I have quite a few more programs on the desktop it would be easier to scroll left or right using the same method as on the laptop.
Apps themselves are too lacking in any help as to what to do, half have almost zero options and when you do find the options its not always clear what does what or what impact it will have changing that option.
As others have said the start screen seems to be just slapped on top of the desktop, I am now spending 85% of my time on the desktop with some start screen apps then loading on the desktop or others taking you back to the start screen. Currently the start screen feels like a glorified sidebar just extended over the whole screen
A close button on an app would be handy, if I have finished with mail or even the weather I want it to shut.
Deffo a proper power button, not sure what Microsoft is playing it, its like they want everyone to have their pc's/laptops on all the time, I put mine to sleep when not using it and powered off at night.
And the app store, oh dear what a complete mess of applications that is, it needs search built into the app store, yes I know you can do it the other way but it needs a search function from within the app store itself imo. And the apps for the most part are the most crappy quality I have ever seen, some look like they have been built by a "build you own app" kit, others just don't seem to work as intended and others how no documentation so your left puzzling on either what it exactly does or how to get it to work.
It's annoying that when you are the only user in the PC, you still have to "right click/run has administrator" so things run has admin...
Yep, this is also an annoyance, even dropping UAC to nil doesn't work. I tried taking ownership of as much as possible, still didn't help.Quote:
Originally Posted by NiPPonD3nZ0
You can go into the shortcut properties and in compatibility tab check "Run as administrator" that'll save the right clicking each time.
Make it free or a nominally low price for all Windows 7 owners (£9.99).
Have the back end development separate to the GUI and sell the different front ends, NOT the entire package to prevent people sitting on old OS's.
XP, Vista and 7 can all be recreated using the security model of 8. I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to do that rather than force people into using virtualisation, which doesn;t always work.
Make it so you can decide if you want the Metro UI or Win 7 base design. It would be fine if I could choose, but I can't.
Simple. Go back one step and improve that, rather than messing everything up.
-> http://i.imgur.com/JUeCP.jpg
Windows 8, and Windows 2012 if it's similar, is a terrible mismatch of two different styles of interface. Modern UI from a business point of view is the worst implementation Microsoft has forced into our computing environment and refused to give the option to uninstall it! I use Start8 to correct this monumental fluff and it makes the OS the great experience it should be, especially to a media professional like myself. Touch-screen is a waste of time on a PC once the novelty wears off!
Hehe, nice one :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Bambooz
Maybe I'll have some comments about Windows 8 when I use it. What I would like to see however is allowing desktop apps on Windows RT. The ability to create and run software freely is a major strength of Windows, and even if .NET software (not native) could run on Windows RT that would have given it huge appeal IMO.
I would also get the Game app working properly, I mean I can add friends that are on the xbox and can see them, what there up to and their profile, well basic vague details but can't message them, that was something that even the cumbersome games for windows app could do.
I'd drop the enforced Modern UI, it's a clumsy way to make people change their habits, and smacks of corporate arrogance in much the same way the Ribbon UI change in Office was shoved down everyone's throat (and even now I *still* find the Ribbon UI annoying)
I'd also change the way that Apps work, so that on appropriate hardware, they can be run in Window'd mode, without having to resort to full-screen behaviour. Being able to designate areas of the desktop to run an App in, would be awesome, particularly if you could draw multiple areas, and then switch control between them via Alt+Tab
Just get Microsoft to rename it Windows 6 1/2, afterall it's less than Windows 7. Have MS ever heard the old engineering axiom "IF IT AINT BROKE DON'T FIX IT!"
Do they actually pay the guys who come up with this rubbish, that must have been a looooong coffee break.
I'm OK with it, and I can see that MS has to adapt or die. Commoditisation and touch are the trends and if they don't address these, it's a short ride downhill.
However, why they have left behind the flexibility of allowing the user to set up their W8 machine the way that works for them is a mystery. I don't care about the Start menu per se, but I would like the power off and search functions to be clearly available. I understand that OSX, and Andoid are very customisable, why has MS not followed those examples ?
Oh, and ribbons must be destroyed.
Windows 8 interface was designed by 10 years old whose only experience is a tablet or smartphone. On a desktop (without touch screen) or an HTPC it is utterly useless, confusing and monumentally inferior to W7 or indeed virtually any Linux distribution. As for business use forget it.
Then we have the music and video "apps". These are not apps, they are advertising billboards for various ways in which MS wishes to take more money off you - if you look hard there is a program in their to play music or video. I went back to classic W Media player immediately.
I have an HTPC with W8 on it. The only reason is that Linux does not support Blu-ray play back (and TV back end on XBMC is not mature). When that is fixed I am uninstalling and going over to Linux.
W8 is fine for tablets - on a desktop it is utterly hopeless
And I can see why they forced Metro on us in order to convince devs to make tiles and apps. Perhaps they thought that no-one would use it if they allowed the option of old or new.Quote:
Originally Posted by Phage
I still believe there were much better solutions - as I said earlier, make *full* use of the desktop and completely overhaul the UI.
At the moment it's got a feel of 'us and them' to it.
I do have high hopes for Windows 9, but it's a shame us desktop and laptop users have to adopt to a GUI optimised for touch if we want to share the other benefits.
Windows 9 will force modern ui even more.
It's inevitable. They are trying to move to a common system across the board.......once all windows phones are shipping with RT and the new XBox is out (also running RT), it will be full steam ahead to try and remove any remaining components of the old interface from Windows.
The future looks gloomy. Perhaps valve have better foresight than I first thought........
Windows is going full screen, leaving "windows" behind ;)
I read somewere that Windows should be renamed to Tiles... Maybe it will be in the future... If they stick to the ideia that "Store" is the future, it will die has a PC platform OS as soon has people can type FORMAT C:
+1, I hate it.Quote:
Originally Posted by mikerr
Lack of Start button
I hate ribbons (especially in Office)
A nice clock on the start page would be nice - the old windows gadgets which included a nice round "analog" clock would be perfect.
A simple way to have the movie/music libraries point to my files on NAS.
Not having to go to one side of the screen for one thing then all the way over to the other side for something else.
DVD playback as a minimum, Blu ray play back would be better.
MS apps that just do what is required rather than trying to sell us something
BBC iplayer app
Come to think of it... just scrap W8 for the desktop, W7 is fine
Allow anyone to publish or sell 'modern' apps.
Allow login as: Traditional Desktop, Touch Desktop, Tablet, TV or Server 'UI Modes' each tailored to their specific tasks rather than a one size fits none approach.
Just right click the libraries and add the nas folder...Quote:
Originally Posted by cjs150
The plus pack is available for W8 Pro users for free until January.Quote:
DVD playback as a minimum, Blu ray play back would be better.
What amazes me are the amount of un-informed views on here, and it pisses me off, because as mentioned before it clouds the real issues.
It's akin to anyone who says "we should look at immigration levels as local services are often swamped by having such unchecked influx" been thrown in to the barrell of the racists, because the racists are busy shouting.
I like windows 8, I can happily use it on my desktop, but it has a lot of issues which frankly should have been fixed.
It is not however simply windows 7 with Metro slapped on top, heck the changes to the boot process alone should be reason enough for an upgrade:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11...rity_analysis/
Neither music nor movie apps will link to a NAS (strangely windows media player will) as a library you get a strange error message there is a work around but it is a fudge. The simple click to add function may work if, but only if, your w8 computer sets up a home group and other computers and NAS join afterwards. That is the official MS line.Quote:
Originally Posted by mikerr
please correct me if I am wrong but whilst the plus pack features DVD playback, it does not feature Blu ray playback. If you want blu ray playback you need to buy dedicated software It is free but only for W8 Pro users, so even more expense if on standard w8.
There are lots of bits of w8 I like - the boot process is so much better although I would like to get rid of the lock screen and go straight to log in (no doubt there is a way to do this) but for me and using it as an HTPC or on desktop PC it is a failure so far. Maybe I will grow to like it with time
BluRay playback, no difference between retail and VLK, option to add "classic" start menu, Windows Backup put back in.
This operating system has two UIs, one made for tablets and touch screen, it's very fluid and great with a touch screen, the other a desktop UI, works quite well but is different from what we're used to, both great systems, the performance is good and is a few tweaks from perfect, a service pack from top speed. Both UIs are working in tandem, but the issue is they're counter productive a UI limbo as such, if they were more intertwined and switching was fast and fluid it would work very slick and push people towards using the newer metro UI, or if they truly separated the UIs as many have suggested, desktop users could stick with what they know and tablets use what they want, I think that's pointless though, you may as well have 2 OS because if your running two UIs and ones not being used it's taking up space on your hard drive and knowing Microsoft, sapping performance, they need to bring them together, not have the running awkwardly onside, they should take inspiration from the multiple desktops in Ubuntu 10.04, that was a fluid multitasking system.
shaithis: I have checked including on MS own W8 blog.
w8 does not include either Blu ray or DVD disc play back. If you down load the WMC add on pack it will add DVD disc playback but only to WMC not to either WMP or to the new Movie app (which is horrible in any case).
MS have therefore decided that W8 is unsuited to the HTPC market - that is their choice. It is also unsuitable to a desktop if you use DVD or Blu ray disc playback for any reason (so there goes the media creation market as well).
In one scenario the reason makes total sense. If you assume the desktop PC will be totally replaced by tablets or ultra portables then there is little reason to support optical drives. The problem is that is an assumption about what will happen over the next few years not what the reality is now, it still does not address the HTPC market at all but that can be served by Linux and XBMC in the future (I assume that is what MS wants)
Hahaha Yes!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by RichMc
Have 2 seperate systems - one for tablet called windows 8 - and one for desktops called windows 7