I suppose this is now the place for Tech Talk Type Threads as well as Self Service Science Slanted Strings.
Anyone else here tried Windows 8?
Anyone else find its charms less than charming?
Seems to me it’s a huge step backwards just so they can have a common user interface for devices that really need different user interfaces.
I quite like it now, was unimpressed with the rc version I trialed. Better with a touch screen.
My son has tried it, and he thinks it stinks.
Seems that Microsoft have a sort of pattern with their OSs -good one, dud, good one, dud, good one, dud…More or less.
Yes, I think it would be OK with a touch screen.
With a mouse it’s just annoying though, and even worse with a track-pad.
captain_spalding said:
My son has tried it, and he thinks it stinks.Seems that Microsoft have a sort of pattern with their OSs -good one, dud, good one, dud, good one, dud…More or less.
Apart from the opening splash screen and some minor changes to the start bar, it seems very similar to Win 7 – what did he think of Win 7?
poikilotherm said:
captain_spalding said:– what did he think of Win 7?
My son has tried it, and he thinks it stinks.Seems that Microsoft have a sort of pattern with their OSs -good one, dud, good one, dud, good one, dud…More or less.
Fairly good. Can’t recall what specifics he didn’t like about 8. i’m still using XP.
poikilotherm said:
captain_spalding said:
My son has tried it, and he thinks it stinks.Seems that Microsoft have a sort of pattern with their OSs -good one, dud, good one, dud, good one, dud…More or less.
Apart from the opening splash screen and some minor changes to the start bar, it seems very similar to Win 7 – what did he think of Win 7?
I think it’s very different from 7, which was hardly changed from Vista.
You can get a “desktop” view if you want, but if you want to do anything other than just start a program I find it much harder to find anything now.
The Rev Dodgson said:
poikilotherm said:
captain_spalding said:
My son has tried it, and he thinks it stinks.Seems that Microsoft have a sort of pattern with their OSs -good one, dud, good one, dud, good one, dud…More or less.
Apart from the opening splash screen and some minor changes to the start bar, it seems very similar to Win 7 – what did he think of Win 7?
I think it’s very different from 7, which was hardly changed from Vista.
You can get a “desktop” view if you want, but if you want to do anything other than just start a program I find it much harder to find anything now.
right side, search – app, system, etc, type. easy. or add the program to the splash screen.
I find it loads quicker than win 7, and the GUI is a little different. What is it that makes it ‘very different’ from win 7?
poikilotherm said:
What is it that makes it ‘very different’ from win 7?
The pad-style interface designed for devices with a touch screen.
The searching works alright if you know the correct name of what you are searching for, but what’s wrong with menus which lead you to where you want, even if you don’t remember exactly what they call it?
Also the MS practice of hiding stuff they think we don’t need to know about seems to have been taken to new extremes.
Ive not upgraded from 7 and have no burning desire to.
Dropbear said:
Ive not upgraded from 7 and have no burning desire to.
II’m a bit iffy about it…
Don’t like the way it insists on on integrating everything. ?.Dropbear said:
Ive not upgraded from 7 and have no burning desire to.
I’m only using it on a borrowed machine, and it’s put me off the idea of upgrading my computer.
I’ll probably get used to it, and mostly I only use the Windows interface to start up Total Commander anyway, but I did find anything requiring changing settings, accessing user accounts etc, a pain.
Just remembered something else really annoying; it seems to have a number of buit in “apps” such as a pdf reader, that are menu-free and lacking the usual Windows minimise, re-size, quit icons in the top right-hand corner.
>>Just remembered something else really annoying; it seems to have a number of buit in “apps” such as a pdf reader, that are menu-free and lacking the usual Windows minimise, re-size, quit icons in the top right-hand corner.
I think you can get those menus to appear if you hover the mouse down below, but I don’t have W8 though.
It’s terrible out of the box.
You need to have a good play with it.
One of the first things we did was install StartmenuX – It was up on Giveaway of the day at the same time as we were setting it up. It gives you a start menu back. There’s a number of free programs out there that do that.
You can turn the awful tile screen off and just boot to a normal desktop.
With a few tweaks here and there, it looks and feels almost the same as Windows 7.
It’s very quick to boot and probably the easiest machine I’ve ever added to our home network.
Teleost said:
It’s terrible out of the box.You need to have a good play with it.
One of the first things we did was install StartmenuX – It was up on Giveaway of the day at the same time as we were setting it up. It gives you a start menu back. There’s a number of free programs out there that do that.
You can turn the awful tile screen off and just boot to a normal desktop.
With a few tweaks here and there, it looks and feels almost the same as Windows 7.
It’s very quick to boot and probably the easiest machine I’ve ever added to our home network.
That’s good to know.
Regarding the pdf reader, it does seem to be really rudimentary. I found a menu, but it doesn’t even seem to have a “go to page” function.
But presumably it’s just a matter of making a proper pdf reader the default application, so not a huge problem.
Yep, the default pdf reader is rubbish.
Give Foxit a go.
i use foxit and find it does the job. and is small compared to adobe.
Teleost said:
Yep, the default pdf reader is rubbish.Give Foxit a go.
Is it better than the Adobe reader?
Wot he said :)
> Seems that Microsoft have a sort of pattern with their OSs -good one, dud, good one, dud, good one, dud…More or less.
Thanks, I’ve noticed this, and upgraded to only every second Microsoft operating system. I went from windows 3.11, to windows 95, to windows 2000 to windows XP, to windows 7. Skipped windows 3.5, windows 98, windows Me, windows Vista.
mollwollfumble said:
> Seems that Microsoft have a sort of pattern with their OSs -good one, dud, good one, dud, good one, dud…More or less.Thanks, I’ve noticed this, and upgraded to only every second Microsoft operating system. I went from windows 3.11, to windows 95, to windows 2000 to windows XP, to windows 7. Skipped windows 3.5, windows 98, windows Me, windows Vista.
You skipped MSDOS too?
You didn’t need Windows when you had MSDOS and X-TREE GOLD.
On a semi-related note, I’ve just been messing around trying to install some dll files on the machine with 64 bit Windows 8, and 64 bit Office.
After a lot of messing around I have discovered that on a 64 bit system (Windows 7 or 8, or presumably earlier 64 bit Windows, if they exist):
- If the dll is compiled as a 32 bit routine it goes in SysWOW64
- If it is compiled as 64 bit it goes in System32
You then need to register it, using regasm if it is a .NET program, or regsvr32 if it is not dot net.
Obvious really, quite understandable that Microsoft don’t have all this information easily accessible, and rely on random blogs and forums to disseminate it for them.
heh
regasm
> You skipped MSDOS too?
Yes. I went straight from Unix to Windows 3.
How are you finding Windows 3, Moll?
mollwollfumble said:
> You skipped MSDOS too?Yes. I went straight from Unix to Windows 3.
Um, windows 3 required MSDOS to work…didn’t it?