News - Windows 8 promotional pricing will end on 1st February

[babylon100]

So on Win8 shutdown is swipe, click, click.
On WinXP it is click, click, click.

Is there really any difference here?

Thing is, When I first used XP I went, Click,Click,Click.
When I first used 8 I went, Google, Swipe, Click, Click.

If you have to Google "Where is the Windows 8 shutdown button", You know something has gone wrong somewhere.

[Willzzz]

So 15 seconds over the entire time you use Win8, dreadful.

[MrJim]

Thing is, When I first used XP I went, Click,Click,Click.
When I first used 8 I went, Google, Swipe, Click, Click.

If you have to Google "Where is the Windows 8 shutdown button", You know something has gone wrong somewhere.

I'm no fan of Windows 8 myself, but historically, Windows has never been exactly intuitive. I mean, take clicking on the 'Start' button in order to shutdown, for example. I dare say that had a few people resorting to Google when it came out!

[KeyboardDemon]

Every Windows 8 thread on here seems to attract a lot of complaints about the OS, which is fair enough, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and given that we are drawing closer to the cut off date for the special offer pricing on upgrades it seems that now is the time to decide to either jump in or avoid it, I will be taking the plunge and going for it, I'm certain I'll find things that I don't like with it, but equally many that I prefer over previous versions, performance being top of the list for me.

There are plenty of things that I've not liked in the past and have come to appreciate and even started recommending, such as Gigabyte motherboards, using the Power Button to shut down my PC instead of the start menu to select shutdown from the menu and I think Windows 8 will be another thing that I will like once I start using it, in fact I've already been using it on my nephew's PC and I do like it already, and just like with Windows 7 and every version of Windows I've used before it, I have had to look up things when I didn't know how to do them, but that doesn't make it a fail, at least not in my opinion. If you are one of those people that are unsure but open minded enough to consider taking another look at the OS, take a look at some of the Windows 8 tutorials posted on Youtube and see if it really is as bad as you think, you might be surprised.

I think Windows 8 will is like Marmite, and there are people I know who say they don't like Marmite having never tried it before.

[TheAnimus]

I like windows 8 and I'm a developer, so I'm sort of a 'power user' thou I avoid admin tasks like the plauge (they only exist due to lazy devs, yes, all you admin's jobs only exist because we're lazy, say thank you.)

It's passed the "mother" test of being on her laptop problem free for what must be 6 months now.

I like how, on my twin 30" tfts I can have a chat bar on the side which is effectively a shell bar, a feature ICQ had but everyone dropped about 14 years ago. I like how you can split metro apps neatly when alt+tab'ing.

But there are quite a few things I find jaring, any setting for instance I never know where it will live. The start menu is bollocks if you don't know the name of the program. Where as the old one was higherachical, which yes, did hide programs from teh n00b5, ment that I don't have to remember the exact name of some tool I only need once in a blue moon. I simply go to visual studio tools folder. Now doing that is an utter ballache.

So I can't help but feel windows 8 is a nearly not quite. I don't think 8.5/9 will be long after, which will no doubt bring improvements to the MUI API that might let it interact without such cloudy nonsense, as an example, make a photoview which is launched by a photo in a folder, but can view all those other photos in same folder/children. These aren't hard problems, but they do require code monkey time.

The point is, at the price it is right now, its hard *not* to say Windows 8 is a good deal.

[shaithis]

Apart from the power button doesn't shut it down - it puts it into standby. So when I said "shut the machine down", you know, I actually want to shut the machine down?

Windows key - Type: Change what the power button does

You can decide if it shuts down or sleeps.

As for the PC not being in reach......pardon the pun but for me to believe that more then a tiny percentage of people have their PC out of reach while they are using it, is a bit of a stretch

[Saracen]

....

How many people are using AT instead of ATX systems? like no-one. ....

Erm ..... AHEM!!!

/raises hand.


Go on, admit it, you knew I was going to say that, didn't you?

But seriously, I am. Not all my machines are, obviously, but several are. I only junked an old 386 about 6 months back, and a 286 not long before that, which had an NEC Multisync monitor on it that I bought, if memory serves, in about 1985.

And for anyone that thinks that's daft, I refer you to my comments above about a good tool that's still doing it's job.

[TheAnimus]

But how many people are on an AT machine, wanting to run Windows 8 or even 7?

[shaithis]

Erm ..... AHEM!!!

/raises hand.

There's always one.....and it's usually you

[Saracen]

There's always one.....and it's usually you

I do try .... and yes, I know I'm leading with my chin, there.

I know I'm not typical, but .... if you had 8 machines, for example, all of which were perfectly adequate for what you use them for, would you replace them without a VERY compelling reason?

I mean, they owe me nothing, they were fully depreciated years ago. And they work. Why mess with that?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

However,£25 is a great price for Windows especially considering you will supported for quite a few years with updates and for a new build saves you £40 to £50 over getting Windows 7. Linux is free too,but for gamers,Windows is still the OS of choice.

Moreover,if you hate the Start Screen,install Classic Shell for free,and it boots you direct to the desktop and gives you a Windows 7 style Start Menu.

[Saracen]

But how many people are on an AT machine, wanting to run Windows 8 or even 7?

Even I'm not going there. I actively don't want to. I'm happy not fixing something that ain't broke.

[KeyboardDemon]

As for the PC not being in reach......pardon the pun but for me to believe that more then a tiny percentage of people have their PC out of reach while they are using it, is a bit of a stretch

I had this conversation with my brother, he said to me that a friend had upgraded to Windows 8 and didn't like the way he had to shut down his PC as the menu system was not straightforward, I suggested using the power button and he said it was too far to reach. Really? I mean, Really? If the power button is too far to reach, how did his friend start up the PC in the first place?

[TheAnimus]

Even I'm not going there.

I did as a thought experiment, and I think it might be a 'no'.

Whilst you don't need ATX, you do need PAE, NX, SSE2.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/w...is-pae-nx-sse2

Now, I might be mistaken but I thought Intel said pretty heavily that you need not only ATX but the whole PC97 spec for that.

Which was 4 years old already from the time of the P4.

So the thing is, whilst someone might want to upgrade that old rig. They can't.

(Or I dunno maybe the betamax factory had re-tooled and was making AT Pentium 4 motherboards.....)

[KeyboardDemon]

Right, just bought my key (£24.99, I wasn't eligible for the £14.99 option) and I am about 2 minutes away from completing the download in order to burn a DVD and start my upgrade.

[TheAnimus]

Don't burn that DVD, think of the trees!

Pop it on a USB stick instead, much faster to install that way.