News - Code in leaked Windows 8.1 reveals boot to desktop option

[TheAnimus]

Agree entirely with that.

If MS want to start the migration of users to Metro, fine. But give me the option to keep working the way I currently do, and want to. Let me switch in my own good time, at the rate I want to, and if I want to, but don't try to ram it down my throat, because it'll give me a bad case of indigestion.

Then, dare I ask, why move to windows 8?

Which new APIs did your apps need to benefit from?

I really don't get all this online forum hate against 8, it works great with a touch laptop, great with a low power ultrabook (metro appears much more friendly on battery life on my 4 year old VAIO P series insainlysmall-don't-know-what-to-call-it-able.

You're not forced to move to it, windows 7 still has the top level of support and will do for a few more years.

[Saracen]

Then, dare I ask, why move to windows 8?

Which new APIs did your apps need to benefit from?

I really don't get all this online forum hate against 8, it works great with a touch laptop, great with a low power ultrabook (metro appears much more friendly on battery life on my 4 year old VAIO P series insainlysmall-don't-know-what-to-call-it-able.

You're not forced to move to it, windows 7 still has the top level of support and will do for a few more years.

First, you make the assumption that I'm "moving to" Win 8 from Win 7. I'm not. The machines with Win 8 are, in one case, a replacement for a very old machine which is not only pre-Win7, but pre-Vista .... and pre-XP for that matter.

Second, because for the other machine, I need to be able to test under Win8.

Third, it's cheaper, or at least, was, when I bought the licences.

Fourth, reduced boot and shutdown times are nice.

But it doesn't matter why, does it? We know we can get Win8 machines working, for all practical purposes, in terms of UI, like Win 7 because there is a plethora of third-party tools that, with varying degrees of success and polish, let us do so.

So, why would MS not simply let users decide if, and when, and at what point, they want to use Metro? But instead, they tried to dictate their own agenda, which is to force the pace of the take up of Metro (etc) whether users wanted it or not.

But here's the killer reason why I "upgraded" that first machine to Win 8 .... because I bought a new machine and the system I wanted wasn't flaming well available with Win 7 on it! In the spirit of Henry Ford's "any colour you like as long as it's black", I could have any OS I wanted, as long as it's Win8.

I fail to see the benefit, having been forced into an OEM licence for Win 8 when buying the machine, of then paying AGAIN for a Win 7 licence to replace it.

[crossy]

So, why would MS not simply let users decide if, and when, and at what point, they want to use Metro? But instead, they tried to dictate their own agenda, which is to force the pace of the take up of Metro (etc) whether users wanted it or not.

This made me smile, since it's pretty much the same argument that was mooted when Microsoft decided to ditch the previous UI for Office 2007's one - a UI which I still hate.

As noted above MUI does work very well with touch devices (or touch simulators like Leap Motion) but I'll suggest that Microsoft made their usual faux-pas of assuming that everyone was going to rush out and buy new hardware to support their "wonderful" new software. Oh, and it also works exceedingly well on Xbox (to the limits imposed by Kinect) and especially on phones - I'd say that it's actually a better interface than either Android's or iOS'.

Here's betting that in two or three years time we'll be wondering what all the fuss was about! But if Microsoft want to try and meet us half way then that's fine with me.

[mikerr]

I hope this is true it will make my job easier. I tend to put clients in front of the Metro interface for five minutes to see the reactions. I've not had a single positive one yet. So far I have been just installing Start8 to fix the major issues of the metro interface.

Or you could use the free classic shell instead (and easy install from good old ninite.com too)

[Andeh13]

aaaah! I found my way here from Reddit. I have officially reached the end of the internet and looped back to the beginning! /worse endgame ever.

[Saracen]

This made me smile, since it's pretty much the same argument that was mooted when Microsoft decided to ditch the previous UI for Office 2007's one - a UI which I still hate.

As noted above MUI does work very well with touch devices (or touch simulators like Leap Motion) but I'll suggest that Microsoft made their usual faux-pas of assuming that everyone was going to rush out and buy new hardware to support their "wonderful" new software. Oh, and it also works exceedingly well on Xbox (to the limits imposed by Kinect) and especially on phones - I'd say that it's actually a better interface than either Android's or iOS'.

Here's betting that in two or three years time we'll be wondering what all the fuss was about! But if Microsoft want to try and meet us half way then that's fine with me.

Oh, the same logic applies to forcing the Office UI update too, especially given the availability of Classic shell tools.

Ironically, perhaps, I do quite like the Office UI. I have several machines with Office on, including very old ones with Office 98, and others up to (IIRC) 2010. I was very sceptical about the redesign, but took to it pretty quickly.

But my view is, as with MUI, it should be for the user to choose when, and indeed if, to migrate.

Partly, it's because I see a PC as a tool to do a job. For home users, that may not be the case, but for businesses, it certainly is. So, let's assume a typical accounts or credit control office in a small company, say, half a dozen staff. If the UI changes, it IS going to take time for staff to get used to things, especially among the less PC literate members, and while they do it, productivity drops. If I'm managing that office, all I really care about is whether invoicing is done on time, bills are paid correctly, statements sent, payroll run, overdue amounts chased, whether aged debtor figures are acceptable or not, and going up or down, whether management accounts are ready on time when the FD or MD expects them, and so on.

Do I care what spec the PC is or what the UI is? Do I hell. It's a tool to enable a job to be done, not an objective in it's own right. So, if my staff productivity is going to drop, it needs to be for a very good reason.

And that's a very small part of the implications of retraining, when MS decide to do something like change the Office UI or MUI.