I'm starting to understand why some people don't like Windows 8

[BlueJazz]

...And the answer is : Just Because

I work/live in the Tampa Bay area which includes St. Petersburg. I visit (in their homes) usually 3-5 people per day ...3/4 of which is elderly (65-100).

Strange thing, in the past few months that I've installed 8, only 2...I repeat, TWO elderly people have had trouble understanding the operating system, had trouble finding everything they wanted to do. Everybody else learned all the shortcuts ..some even by themselves or they know how to use Google....they've installed ALL the printers and such and know how to find everything they need or want to do....and generally not had any trouble at all.

SO....One of these is true.
1. I'm a hell of a teacher
2. Old people are very fast leaner's.
3. Some of the people on this Forum are not the nerds they think they are.

I mean, come on, I used to program in Assembly Language and I didn't whine about learning it near as much as some of you do about how to turn windows 8 off.

Oh my God....I have to learn something new...sob...sob...I'm so confused. Give it a fucking break

[Warren Stupidity]

1. People are quick learners. Doesn't make a touch interface on a desktop system a good idea.

The win8 ui is good for phones and tablets and just an annoying pain in the ass for a desktop keyboard mouse system. The stupid reigns over at redmond.

[BlueJazz]

2. Oh..They could have done a much better job. Even better, when 8 starts up it could have asked ...

...the user, something like Tablet or desktop/Laptop.?? ,,and put up the appropriate interface.

[Mnpaul]

3. The real "slow learners"

Are at Microsoft. They still haven't figured out that people want less garbage on their computers not more. If it isn't broken don't fix it.

[BlueJazz]

4. How are the engineers/management going to make sure they keep their job if they don't...

..come up with something new. ?

Seriously, sometimes I wonder who is chasing who?
The software people make programs that suck up resources (Like Video Editors) and the hardware people make it easier to build resource hogging stuff.
Remember Adobe pdf reader when it was 5 or 6 meg? Now it's 300 meg (I think..I use Foxit)

[AgingAmerican]

14. Something new isn't always necessary or desirable

Windows 8 is horribly engineered from an interface design perspective. Microsoft laid an egg with this one. Trying to force a Tab OS on desktop users was a stupid idea. They had it on a box at work when it was in pre release beta. I played with it for five minutes and could tell it would be a dismal failure if they actually released it. Seriously, took five minutes. Don't they do any usability trials and studies? Im sure they did and people did not like it, but they are Microsoft and they know better so they released it anyway.

My daughter recently bought a new laptop with Windows 8. 40 minutes later she asked me to put Linux on it. She said she opened Internet explorer up, which took up the whole screen, and it took her 20 minutes to get it to close. There was no red X to click. No close button. No menu from which to exit. Nothing. She eventually figured it out by googling it. Her first click, 20 minutes to close it.

Computer companies are hating Microsoft because they are not selling many computers now, because MS is forcing Windows 8 on everyone.

Good riddance Balmer.

[BlueJazz]

16. The key to 8 is shortcuts Windows key + d = Desktop Windows key + e = My computer Etc.

I disagree with your assessment but certainly feel no disrespect for your choices.

I even run XP 64 bit for certain things because I'm used to it. (Like ah..."Borrowing" songs off of the web) With XP's wave settings.
Linux is great unless...for the time being, you want to do serious video and audio work.

[Make7]

17. Those keyboard shortcuts examples have been there since Windows95.

Amazing that people have gotten along all these years without even knowing them...
[div style="display:none;"]support.microsoft.com/kb/126449/en-us

[BlueJazz]

18. What you say is oh so true.

[AgingAmerican]

21. Microsoft cannot just assume everyone knows them

then run with it. Like I said, they must have done little to no usability studies.

[Make7]

22. I'm saying that people can use prior versions of Windows without even knowing them.

I'd venture to say many people that have used Windows for years and years don't know most of them and don't need to know them in order to use their computers.

Wasn't the point of the Graphical User Interface to make a computer easy to use without having to know a bunch of keyboard commands?

[AgingAmerican]

23. A good user interface should be obvious

and intuitive.

[AllyCat]

46. Bill Gates is too busy foisting Common Core on our education system to

worry much about how his product performs...sorry, OT but both topics make me nuts. I love XP. It works FINE. Most people I talk to like it because it works just FINE. My mom got Windows 8 on her new computer and it is making her crazy, always trying to get her to select only the sites it wants her to select.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. I have Win8 on two computers now and...

I have two slight quibbles with it but wouldn't go back to 7 or XP.

Once you find that "desktop" tile and that the Windows key finally has a good use, you realize that 8 is speedy, stable, secure, and if anyone would buy a Win tablet or phone, this is a really neatly integrated system.

A few years down the road, desktops will be almost obsolete outside of the office, and maybe even in the office, and laptops will be largely replaced by tablets for personal use. The huge base of Windows users should have little problem migrating to Windows tablets and using their favorite software.

[BlueJazz]

6. Probably true but a part of me wonders if people will give up their 23>28 inch screen.

Even some of the old, old people(90's) I know, seem to like the large led's more and more.

"Ol' my...I can see everything with this 28 inch!"

[TreasonousBastard]

7. I'm not saying tablets are for everyone, and I'm rather partial to my large screens, too...

but I see a lot of tablets out there.

And, btw, neither of my Win8 all-in-ones have touchscreens (that seems to be an extra 4-500 bucks at least).

[RC]

8. Real keyboards and 20 something inch screens will not be replaced by touch screen fondle slabs,

operated by sliding around colored blocks, with applications in walled gardens
Oh, and don't forget the duel screens needed by some applications.

And neither will the power of a quad CPU in a desk top, be replaced by portable gear. Try programing or writing that report on a touch screen.
Sometimes a desktop connected by cat 5 or cat 6 is needed to get the job done. For some people, computer are not toys to wow their friends with. Laptops are not going away either, for the same reason as desktops. Both are just more versatile and powerful than the slabs.

Win 7 and XP will still be around for a long time yet. Yeah, I know, MS will drop support next April for XP, but for a lot of people, XP still gets the job done and then there is the problem of money to upgrade machines to handle the newer operating systems, for both individuals and business.
Both XP machines have applications that will not run on Windows7 or 8. Replacing those applications is out of the question, either because you can't, or because the current version is too expensive.

In the room where I am, there are 2 XP's, A Windows7 laptop and a Linux Mint. None are touch screen. One XP machine is a single core. All work just fine. Oh, and I have Google Fiber. Now, that is what real high speed Internet is supposed to be.

[TreasonousBastard]

9. I'm not talking about the small percentage of user with specific needs..

I'm talking about the millions, perhaps billions, of tweeters and Facebook freaks.

Years ago we had a client who needed original IBM PC's because he had a control program for milling machines that was written in machine code with its own tiny OS and had calls to the IBM bios and specific hardware. I imagine he's found something else by now.

Personally, my all time favorite word processor was Wordstar 2000 for DOS and I still miss one or two features in Multimate that never made it to modern spreadsheets. I have moved on.

My 32-bit XP box still works well, if slowly, but I have nothing mission critical on it so it's a backup in case something else fries. Until it just wears itself out or goes the way of that old CPM box that was taking up space.

[hobbit709]

11. If all you're doing is twittering and facebook, you're not doing any useful computing.

word processing, spreadsheets, photo editing, video editing-try any of those on a touchscreen. and you'll never get a serious gamer on one.

[TreasonousBastard]

12. That may be, but Facebook seems to be what most people are doing...

and I've found when sitting at a meeting and a question comes up, doing a search on a tablet works as well as on the laptop.

Everyone has their own definition of "useful computing."

[hobbit709]

13. Very few meetings accomplish anything useful in my experience.

[TreasonousBastard]

20. Mine, too, but sometimes someone asks an interesting question.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

40. I'm a Unix system administrator and a technical writer.

In my sysadmin role, I use a Win-7 desktop which will typically have four or so windows open at a time. For my writer role, I want a real keyboard and a large screen. A tablet would be completely useless for either role.

BTW, some years ago, I visited an office which had an IBM PC-XT (Intel 8088 CPU and a 10 megabyte hard drive, running DOS 3.0) used as a printer server. It did one job, did it quite well, and they had no intention of replacing it as long as it kept running.

[RC]

42. I can easily understand that.

What I do not understand is why some people want to walk around in public, totally oblivious to what is going on around them, because they are plugged into their latest electronic miracle, listening to whatever their idea of music is, holding the source, that is usually, easily small enough to slip into a pocket, but they are instead holding in front of them, sometimes with two hands, staring at the screen, as they walk in public. Talk about your derangement syndrome.
Or worse, they are watching a TV show or movie.

[AgingAmerican]

15. Tab computers are toys

They are pretty much useless for working on. Good luck typing up a 20 page report or writing code on a tab computer. Even writing an email on a tab is a bitch. They will not replace desktops.

[TreasonousBastard]

19. How about a tablet with a real keyboard? You could...

almost call that a laptop. Or a netbook, or something. Anyway, I have 4 desktops, two laptops, three tablets and a smartphone. Each of the ones that are actually being used has its own purpose. I can't run WordPerfect on anything but a Windows PC.

Why are people ignoring my comment that hardly anyone online actually does real work? I could post this with my phone if I wanted to, and a lot of people do.

[steve2470]

10. for me, the most difficult thing to learn was basic navigation: use the corners

Then I learned a few shortcuts. On Win8.1, you can boot directly to desktop old style and never see Metro if you're lucky.

It's like learning Linux. If you're willing to put in the required time, you can learn it. Once I learned how to navigate Win8, it's no problem at all.

[Gore1FL]

24. That isn't my issue with Windows 8

My problems is they actually have a version called "Enterprise" that:

1> Was not designed for an Enterpise Environment.
2> Removes codecs freely available in Win 7 Enterprise.
3> Does not allow for a customized and deployable (or managed by GPO) Start Screen.
4> It takes 10 minutes to login the first time. In my environment, every time is essentially the first time. It only takes this long to load personal apps that are not interfaced with the actual apps I want them to use.
5> Try scrolling through a PC with approximately 100 apps. They were once contained in a multi-level organized compact list. Now they are organized one folder deep with all subfolder shortcuts mixed and alphabetized together.
6> Nothing is more fun than clicking and moving you mouse across the screen to click on another icon 10 times when before it was all done in right mouse click, a turn of the mouse and a left click to do the same thing.

to name a few....


I am a Windows Systems administrator. I used to be a UNIX administrator. I have experience on Mainframes. I have programmed in Assembly.

Windows 8 sucks. It has nothing to do with learning new things. Frankly, your suggestion otherwise is offensive.

[BlueJazz]

25. What does Windows 8 have to do with Windows 8 Enterprise?

I'm a MCSE and a few other worthless certifications in this do-it-yourself-computing world.
I didn't say anything about enterprise or corporate use.
As far as people whining because they have to learn a few shortcuts...I still feel they're lazy....especially if 85 year old ladies don't have a problem with it.
...by the way (has nothing to do with anything) , Citrix sucks also....just pisses off people who have been using a non-dumb-terminal system.
They get used to doing things Fast and suddenly it's molasses time. I don't blame them.
I didn't know that enterprise removes codecs.
Maybe I'll download the Enterprise trial and torture myself.

[Gore1FL]

26. Win 7 enterprise kicks ass.

Win 8 Enterprise is a disaster.

One of my jobs is to deploy 80-100 GB images to 1200 devices twice a year. The software runs from state-of-the-art to "how did you get that to run in Win7x64?" Because of the fluidity lab/classroom environment, each login is the first, unless they manage sit at the same PC twice. Every device runs Faronics Deep Freeze in order to maintain integrity. I have to customize the software and apply the changes to an updated C:\users\default just to give the end-user a workable experience.

Another job is to provide a standard desktop image for employees. I really don't want Mail on the start screen that isn't outlook configured for their exchange account. I don't want a calender that isn't their outlook calendar. I don't want a contact list that isn't their outlook contact list. God knows I don't want whatever pictures they've downloaded sipping accross their work computer. I want the Internet Explorer on the Start screen to be configured like the one on the desktop (of Firefox, or Chrome.)

The Codecs really annoy me. In Vista Enterprise and XP, PC's typically came with some sort of DVD player that covered most needed codecs. It was built into Win 7 Enterprise.

Under-the-hood I like Win 8. I don't see a useful purpose for the new UI.

Now, if they'd make a useful CLI for sound controls in Win 8.2 I might be a little more forgiving.

[BlueJazz]

27. Geez...sounds like you have a lot of unusual devices to configure in your work.

I understand not letting the employees screens/systems get "personal".
Years ago, when I first started with Kodak (Minnesota), I let the employees "have things their way"...and tried to accommodate their whims.
Bad...Bad idea. Ugg...Tarzan learn fast!
time for bed.



Quick question...Why did 7 and 8 throw out the "Wave" and/or "system sounds" ..like on XP ? I'll get answer tomorrow ...tired.

[Gore1FL]

28. I am not sure I understand what you are asking.

.wav based system sounds are available in 7. I don't have an 8 machine imaged at the moment, but it should be configurabel in control panel (I used the small icons view) and then Sound. the third tab should be "sounds"

I've got both ends. We let the employees run wild (with admins rights) on their own desktops/laptops. On the shared devices, they are open enough so everything works (I had to shim Oracle and parts of visual studio, to get by UAC without turning it completely off. ) Those are locked down with Deep Freeze, so the only person making changes is me.

I found a new feature with Deep Freeze. If you allow it to store updates in a way that it doesn't erase on reboot, it overwrites a domain-enforced WSUS policy.

When I was a kid, I changed my major from Comp Sci to undecided (and eventually Speech/Theatre) because I didn't want a job in technology. So, here I am: writing scripts, staging things, and monitoring performance.

[BlueJazz]

29. Well...in XP, if you are running a sound editor (Soundforge, Audition), you can also...

record anything that you hear ..such as youtube or ITunes, Etc. by using the "Wave" volume slider control.

In 7 and 8, the Wave slider is gone.
I thought ??...it might be because the "Pay for songs" people pressured Microsoft to cut it out ??

Just wondering. Of course, you still can record that way in 7 or 8 but it's not as easy...and depends on your sound card.

[wandy]

30. It's not so much Win 7 removes 'what you hear'...................

From what I've seen it's a matter of the drivers. That being a concession to our wonderful copyrippoff laws.
I had this go round in the dark days of vista. The original (CD) drivers for the sound card supported 'what you hear', the new 'improved' driver did not.
Some newer sound cards do not support 'what you hear' even under XP.

I suspect it's more a matter of preventing you from recording things such as youtube or Itunes.

Then and again, where theirs a will theirs a way. Some sound cards will allow a loop back. Simply a cable from out to in.
In the case where the MB has audio AND you have an independent sound card WIN can set output device to one and recording device to the other. Cable required. You're mileage may vary.

[BlueJazz]

31. Thank you for the info. You can also get Virtual cable software stuff.

http://windows7themes.net/how-to-record-what-you-hear-in-windows-7.html

[wandy]

32. Thanks, I'll give that a try..........

Never hurts to have one more way do do things.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

41. On my first XP system, I used Windows Media Player

To listen to music I had downloaded either from the Internet or from a CD. One thing I particularly liked about it was that I could easily make a playlist on the fly for that particular session with a bit of drag and drop, and it would go away when I closed Media Player. Then they did a "upgrade" in which this was done away with.

I now use Real Player.

[Gov101]

33. Making customers cripplingly frustrated is not a good business strategy for Microsoft.

Even with hotkeys navigation is not simple. A desktop user should not have to use hotkeys not navigate their computer with moderate efficiency. And some things are just not intuitive.

Some basic tasks are too just too many steps. I have to go through several non-obvious steps to get to the "All Apps" screen, unless there is some secret shortcut I'm unaware of.

Try going to their apps store and finding a search bar. Nope, they don't want it to be that easy. Turns out you gotta search for crap on your computer to find it on their apps site. Extra steps I didn't need to take. Every time I need to do some new basic function like this, I end up having to go to google to search for instructions on how to do it.

[uriel1972]

34. Not wanting to be a smartass or anything...

But isn't it the point that people don't like it more important than why they don't like it. I'm thinking simply in terms of consumer satisfaction.

The like it or lump it philosophy doesn't sit well with me, when many simple changes could have made adjusting to it simpler. I've had people stymied by changing from xp to 7, so changing from xp to 8 may well be a great pain for a significant proportion of customers.

If you want to sell things isn't satisfying the customer important? I mean innovation, sure, I'm all for that and I use 8 quite well. However for the portion of people who have trouble with technology generally and there are quite a few, a bridging system, such as the option to keep the start menu would be a great boon.

[BlueJazz]

35. I understand what you mean. The version 8.1 is more user friendly.

My only real gripe was not about the difference in systems (XP, 7, 8) but all the whining about it.
Like "I hate it ! How do I turn it off"

I mean, I remember the first time I sat down with Windows 95. I had a lot of the other types, a TI, Atari, commodore....but when first using 95, I didn't say it sucked and have a fit about it. I learned it

(Ok..OK...it did suck but that's beside the point...fucking thing would crash every hour!)

[cilla4progress]

36. My complaint is the constant updates

that inevitably hangup at 96% of download! Ridonkulous. Last MS product I ever purchase!

[pitbullgirl1965]

37. Windows 8 = New Coke

I HATE Win 8. I'm trying to download Win 7 for free. Right now I'm looking up the drivers. GAH.

[BlueJazz]

38. It's the law though. Being a Microsoft Engineer, I'm supposed to call the BC's ..

...(Microsoft Cops) but I'm in a good mood.
Seriously though, I understand...Win 8 does take a little getting used to. I like the OP because it speeds up things...as far as programs etc.

[pitbullgirl1965]

39. I've decided it's better to buy it

It's not worth possibly ruining my computer. And you might change your mind!
I'm too lazy to learn Windows 8 tbh. And I do like Win 7

An engineer eh? That's impressive! (I'm not being sarcastic. that is impressive.)

[Fumesucker]

43. I worked on my first Win8 computer the other day

I was in the thrift store, the manager knows I'm more computer savvy than he is and his new Win8 computer wouldn't print so he asked me to look at it.

Eventually I determined it was in need of a reboot because of some corrupted files and spent ten minutes looking at everything I could think of to find a way to do that, eventually I found a reboot button in an error message and the computer turned out fine.

But I never did find the "normal" way to trigger a reboot or turn off the computer.

[BlueJazz]

44. Window button + C

setttings, power

[mockmonkey]

45. Thanks for that shortcut

I just got a new laptop with 8 and I don't have a mouse yet so I'm using the touch pad which is really irritating.

I've course my first day using the computer I start to get warnings that the Hard drive might fail. It's a Dell and I was having issues with Dell Support when I tried to test it there, something to do with Dell Direct. Anyways, for some reason on a different day I got the Dell Support test to actually work and the Hard drive failed the Smart tests and they sent me a new Hard drive.

I installed the new Hard Drive tonight. It went pretty good I think. Now everything seems to be fine.

I'm used to using Desktops so this will be a little weird at first.

[PrestonLocke]

47. The new "metro" ui is one of the reasons I switched permanently to linux.

I've got no problem with learning something new. I'm forced to learn new programming languages, sublangugages and apis all the time.

I do however, have a problem wasting my time learning crap, which is what the new metro UI for windows 8 is.