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Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

blogs.windows.com

61–70 of 114 posts

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#61
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.)

Isn't Mac OS X only updatable via Apple's equivalent App Store now as well? If it's "spammy" for Windows, are you also implying it's spammy of Apple?

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#62
post #47
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Press "Windows" key. Get full screen start menu with improved search function.

Actually, as a user of Windows 8 in Parallels I find activating the start screen to be difficult because the Apple+C keyboard combo maps to Copy rather than to Win+C. And activating the corner of the screen is difficult because the mouse leaves the virtual machine window to go to the host OS. So having a Start button will improve usability for virtual machine users. And it will help the usability for my parents too o…

Is it a tablet? If yes, show her the "swipe with the right thumb from right to left" to open the charms bar. It is pretty natural, because both thumbs should also be in the correct position if she holds the tablet in landscape mode.

With Parallels, I agree. Sorry, it was a reflex for the usual "Win 8 has no start menu" trolling.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#63
post #46
post #9

I found this announcement frustrating to read because it contains little useful content. Almost all of it is about how supposedly awesome Windows 8 is and how well it's doing. The relevant part could have been summed up as: there's a free upgrade coming out sometime later this year called Windows 8.1.

This sums up my experience with MS in general; conversations driven by marketing and nothing else. For many other tech companies it's a much lower marketing:info ratio. Google is fairly good about it, and Mozilla is pretty good, while Apple is just as bad as MS.

I think MS is as bad as Apple. They learned/copied a lot from Apple over the last year when it comes to marketing. Including the highly annoying "No comment".

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#64
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.

What does pressing Ctrl-Esc do in W8?

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#65

Does anybody know whether they are going to fix the INT_MIN / -1 bug in the kernel? This code below (compiled and linked with gdi32) crashes fully patched versions of Windows 7 and 8 (32 bit), I didn't try it with 64bit versions. #include #include int main() { HDC dc = CreateCompatibleDC (NULL); SetLayout (dc, LAYOUT_RTL); ScaleWindowExtEx (dc, INT_MIN, -1, 1, 1, NULL); }

That'll likely be a regular update through Windows Update.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#66
post #59
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They put the same interface on Windows Server 2012. Try using that through Remote Desktop Manager running in windowed mode, it'll drive you crazy.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#67
post #19
post #9

I found this announcement frustrating to read because it contains little useful content. Almost all of it is about how supposedly awesome Windows 8 is and how well it's doing. The relevant part could have been summed up as: there's a free upgrade coming out sometime later this year called Windows 8.1.

> how awesome Windows 8 is and how well it's doing Ironically, if that were the case, it wouldn't need an update.

MS had planned to make the update before Win 8 was released

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#68
post #64
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 does pressing Ctrl-Esc do in W8?

The same thing the Windows key does.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#69
Story seems to be getting flagged and is going down the front page.

Looks like some HN folks with good karma can't stand a Microsoft story that is not super critical and bitching about them. Those stay on the front page for days.

http://i.imgur.com/wFN21wY.png

Even announcements are not spared. Can anyone who flagged this post care to tell us why? I suspect the answer is "lol M$'.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#70
All I want too know is can you now easily make Metro not the default GUI and can the start button menu now appear easily. ALl without hacks and addons and mods by third parties. If they have done that, I'll bite, that alone stopped a laptop sale for a friend who stuck with windows 7 laptop as not even a salesman could demo/handle it. Tried a few shops as well and all and myself and friend just could not handle it, was messy. Now touch screen laptops, whilst much more compfortable with metro, still only suitable if you use it as a tablet with keyboard
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