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Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

blogs.windows.com

51–60 of 114 posts

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#51
post #50
post #41

"The problem with Microsoft is that they have no taste." (S. Jobs) The reports of still insisting on Metro for big monitors and computers instead of keeping it only on phones and tablets confirm this. Ugly, ugly, ugly. (And forcing people to get an OS update over the Windows Store is as spammy as it can be.)

Can you clarify what you are saying here? That Metro is ugly? Or that it's only ugly on Big Monitors?

It's a touch-centric paradigm forced onto non-touch devices.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#52
I hope they add a feature to change the Start Screen wallpaper. I have to use Decor8 just for that, but it's worth it in my opinion. The Start Screen looks much better when you use the same wallpaper as your desktop, but blur it a bit.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#54
post #35

Some updates on the way: 1. Start menu 2. Tile size (source: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/380713/windows-blue-8-1-release-... )

Ugh. I don't actually miss the onscreen start button (although I can imagine the discoverability hit to casual computer users). I miss the actual start menu , which was vastly more useful than the gimmicky thing they replaced it with.

I agree. It doesn't have to be an actual button. The menu is important.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#55
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh. I don't actually miss the onscreen start button (although I can imagine the discoverability hit to casual computer users). I miss the actual start menu , which was vastly more useful than the gimmicky thing they replaced it with.

What about it was more useful ? I didn't change any of my habits after upgrading to Win8. It was only a cosmetic change as far as I can tell. I still just hit the start key and start typing to launch things, search for apps and files, or run commands. Meanwhile the new start menu also lets me search any app that registers itself as a search provider (i.e. search through my Kindle books, my Netflix account, etc), whic…

> What about it was more useful?

Universal search: I didn't have to choose "Files" "Apps" "Settings", etc. It just floated whatever answered the query.

Outlook Integration: I could search emails, files in email attachments, and files on disk with one query in 7. As far as I can tell, Outlook 2013 wants nothing to do with the TIFKAM search at all.

Not full screen: I would routinely transcribe something onscreen or drag something out of the search results into a window.

If there was any upside to the weird new menu at all, I could deal with these changes, but as far as I can tell it's pure regression. Windows 8 has lots of tiny technical advances, but the shell changes are just a disaster.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#56
post #3

"We now have more than 70,000 apps in the Windows Store (the online app store for Windows) – apps such as Twitter, ..." Did anyone else chuckle that he felt he had to describe parenthetically what the Windows Store is?

And he didn't mention what percentage of those apps are of any decent quality. They're ruining the experience by pushing quantity over quality.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#57
post #35

Some updates on the way: 1. Start menu 2. Tile size (source: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/380713/windows-blue-8-1-release-... )

Ugh. I don't actually miss the onscreen start button (although I can imagine the discoverability hit to casual computer users). I miss the actual start menu , which was vastly more useful than the gimmicky thing they replaced it with.

I started off really hating windows 8, but it turns out you are supposed to use the 'start screen' like gnome 3.

I.e. you hit meta-key, then start typing - 'fir'. At this point, Firefox is the only thing on the screen. Hit enter.

You do the same to get up settings, e.g. meta-w -> 'net' selects network settings.

You can use the win 7 start menu like this, but the win 8 search is much smarter and faster.

The tiles thing is horrible, but personally, I think the start-search screen makes me slightly more productive. Less grubbing around for settings.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#58
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Service packs typically don't contain new features, though, while this update is expected to.

I haven't used Windows in a few years but I remember XP SP2 included several new features. Security Center was a major one but I know there were a few others too.

I believe the wireless networking support was majorly beefed up for XP SP2.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#59
post #50
post #41

"The problem with Microsoft is that they have no taste." (S. Jobs) The reports of still insisting on Metro for big monitors and computers instead of keeping it only on phones and tablets confirm this. Ugly, ugly, ugly. (And forcing people to get an OS update over the Windows Store is as spammy as it can be.)

Can you clarify what you are saying here? That Metro is ugly? Or that it's only ugly on Big Monitors?

Ugly and nonsensical once you're in front of the big screen holding the mouse in the hand.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#60
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh. I don't actually miss the onscreen start button (although I can imagine the discoverability hit to casual computer users). I miss the actual start menu , which was vastly more useful than the gimmicky thing they replaced it with.

What about it was more useful ? I didn't change any of my habits after upgrading to Win8. It was only a cosmetic change as far as I can tell. I still just hit the start key and start typing to launch things, search for apps and files, or run commands. Meanwhile the new start menu also lets me search any app that registers itself as a search provider (i.e. search through my Kindle books, my Netflix account, etc), whic…

I miss jump lists on pinned start menu items. I never liked pinning things to the taskbar because when you run those apps, the launcher becomes the taskbar item and you lose the launcher. So I always pinned things to the start menu. Now I can't do that and have the jump list.

I also miss Microsoft being the non-walled-garden OS company. There's no way I'm granting them a monopoly on what can and cannot be installed on my general purpose machines. If there's one thing I hope they change - it's this. Let me install Metro apps from whatever source I want.

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