Reviews - Windows 8 - Part Two: Modern UI

[OilSheikh]

Good article.

I am now even more convinced that Windows 8 will be even a bigger failure than Windows Vista and could even kill off Microsoft!

Let's not even talk about Office 2013 .. was the interface created using Paint ?

[OilSheikh]

Wish Windows 8 would have been Windows Longhorn

http://youtu.be/b9ifQvQCO7Y

http://youtu.be/WVvtzkpyRTg

[Malphas]

Good article.

I am now even more convinced that Windows 8 will be even a bigger failure than Windows Vista and could even kill off Microsoft!

Ah, the delusional rantings of Internet fanboys. You realise Vista was a commercial and engineering success right? It sold a massive number of copies - more than XP did in a similar timeframe, and it provided 90% of the basis for Windows 7 and 8 (a fully patched and up to date version of Vista today is only superficially different from Windows 7)?

The PR backlash Vista got was due to it being a major kernel overhaul (exact same problems affected XP when it was released, but no-one remembers because it was around for so long) and the fact Dell, HP, etc. were pre-installing it on underpowered hardware (also Microsoft's fault for trying to appease OEMs by setting overly low requirements for the "Vista Capable" scheme).

As for Windows 8 killing off Microsoft - lololol.

[MilesPebody]

Windows - the whole point up to now has been being able to have lots of applciations running at the same time in...windows! Windows 8 modern UI does not allow this..... for me that makes it vertually useless on a desktop environment. What's the point in a big screen when all you can see are load of buttons (very nice looking ones) that are designed for a small hand held device.

Also scanning through the app store on a big screen made me feel dizzy.

I want to be conviced but really am not.

[cjs150]

I have now installed it.

Installation process is very easy.

UI is totally confusing. Maybe when I have cleaned up the start screen it may help but at moment I would say that W8 on a desktop machine without touch sucks badly

[dangel]

Wish Windows 8 would have been Windows Longhorn

Oh, you mean the project they had to abandon because XP codebase wasn't viable anymore? Or just Vista?

Yeah.. ok.

[valhar2000]

The limitations placed upon WinRT apps really don't look good. I will keep installing versions of Windows 8 in VMs to test it, but I'm not going to buy a license any time soon, until I see how these problems can be solved.

I also wish they would make the UI a little less ugly. It's much better than it used to be, but you still can't choose any combination of colors, and, indeed, you have to use plain colors. That that makes sense in a smartphone, but a desktop machine with a good GPU should be allowed to use bitmaps or procedurally generated textures to decorate the UI.

[cjs150]

Now that I have cleaned up the start screen, W8 on a desktop or in my case as an HTPC is complete disaster.

Start screen has no clock. Switching the machine off is more complicated than w7. The switch between the Metro UI (or whateve MS wish to cal it now) and normal desktop (and you need to do this regularly) is extremely jarring.

The Music app is utterly hopeless. Put a CD into your optical drive and it will start playing but there is no button on screen to eject the CD! I am not interested in streaming music (maybe radio), I just want to access the music I already have. You can install windows media player but that drops you back into the desktop.

And they still have not updated in any significant way File explorer. There were better third file explorer replacements from 3rd parties in XP never mind w8.

As for using it as an HTPC, if like me you store your media on a separate NAS, forget W8. Libraries is a great function in W7, unfortunately some clown at MS decided to take a backwarded step and it is virtually impossible to have your library point to a folder on a NAS because W8 cannot index it.

If you are wanting to use W8 as an HTPC, I would say forget it. Linux + XBMC is already a better and less confusing option, although admittedly lacks native Blu-ray disc playing support and the TV back end is a but immature.

I really wanted to like w8, I will leave it on the machine for a month or two to see if it gets better but it feels as though MS have developed a Tablet/phone OS and then imposed it on a desktop without any thought as to useability, networks or indeed how ordinary people might use it on a desktop.

But it is fast!

[jim]

As for using it as an HTPC, if like me you store your media on a separate NAS, forget W8. Libraries is a great function in W7, unfortunately some clown at MS decided to take a backwarded step and it is virtually impossible to have your library point to a folder on a NAS because W8 cannot index it.

They actually introduced that "feature" on W7.

[cjs150]

They actually introduced that "feature" on W7.

Home is still on a mixture of XP and Vista (which I quite like) which is why I missed that.

Maybe MS expected everyone to go to Windows Home Server?

Either way it is still unbelievably stupid

[dangel]

"Add a non-indexed UNC as a library

1. Create a folder on your hard drive for shares. i.e. c:\share
2. Create another folder in the above share. i.e. c:\share\music
2. Link the Library to this folder.
3. Delete the folder.
4. Use the mklink in an elevated command prompt to make a symbolic link.
Name the link the same as the folder you created above.
i.e - mklink /d c:\share\music \\server\music
5. Done. Now you have non-indexed UNC path as a library."


Might help, but haven't personally tried this.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...1-5cf525b9f8de

[cjs150]

Dangel: I saw this on the microsoft site as well. The nicest thing you can say about this is that it is a horrible cludge. This is the 21C, it should not need anything more than a few clicks of the mouse to achieve the rather obvious.

Do you think anyone other than a geek is going to understand what "use the mklink in an elevated command prompt..." actual means.

In XP it just works, simply. MS has gone backwards and the only possible reason is that they want everyone to use skydrive or similar. That makes total sense on a tablet but not on a desktop.

[dangel]

Dangel: I saw this on the microsoft site as well. The nicest thing you can say about this is that it is a horrible cludge. This is the 21C, it should not need anything more than a few clicks of the mouse to achieve the rather obvious.

Do you think anyone other than a geek is going to understand what "use the mklink in an elevated command prompt..." actual means.

In XP it just works, simply. MS has gone backwards and the only possible reason is that they want everyone to use skydrive or similar. That makes total sense on a tablet but not on a desktop.

I agree it's horrible - was just posting a possible workaround. XP didn't have libraries but yes I understand.

Personally I use cloud storage a lot - skydrive and dropbox but neither are sizable or fast enough for this kind of use (for me).

[jim]

I think if you use Windows Server you can create indexed libraries on the server, which 7 will then accept as a source. I could be totally wrong, but that was my understanding of how things worked when I researched it.

Maybe they see UNC libraries as an enterprise feature (hence requiring a Windows fileserver) rather than something suitable for a home user with a basic NAS.

[HorneyJ]

Many have expressed concern about the new UI, I partially agree with you, but with the purchace of a touch screen these issues would be removed, the price of getting a touch screen is about £100-£200 more than a regular monitor which no-one wants to pay out. You must also remember you over pay for parts just so you can play with max settings and many FPS, I have a HD 5770, which will play every game I've come across but without all the fancy graphics costing £80 where mant people buy GPUs in excess of £200, more than a potential touch screen upgrade. The new UI may take some time to get use to but with the implementation of touch screens will be come much faster and a mouse can still be used where applicable so old apps can still be used. I believe this isn't a step forward rather a new direction which we can all adapt to.

Tlr Get a touch screen and get used to it.

[ladcrooks]

Er... not sure but I'd take a wild guess and tell you that the start screen (and MUI apps) can display lots of personalised info that's self updating (that's the point of live tiles).

dangel - I would be silly to comment anymore on this, as you have taken time to look at w8. So i take my hat off to you. Good day sir. ha! Wow! Just seen the amount of systems you have.