Windows Windows 8 Marmite thread... Because you either love it or hate it

And you were worried.

 

I never had any issues using a mouse to open/close start screen apps, it not really a fix, it's a 'users are idiots we need to help them' move.

 

Greetings!

Before they move elsewhere to more user-friendly interfaces (W7, Apple ...).

 

It's not that Win8.x UI changes aren't user friendly, but simply different and people are not used to them... it's the failing that MS didn't bother to include any tutorial to explain anything about it. I believe there is such an app in the store that has interactive lessons on the UI changes... why it wasn't included and set to auto launch by default is beyond me. I think that would have done a lot for many people that needed the guidance. Instead those people simply become frustrated that it doesn't work the same as Windows 95 - Windows 7 and just more or less rage quit the OS.

 

Greetings!

Different way of doing the same things without offering nothing new as a reward. Its just different.

 

There are rewards? Man I definitely didn't get mine after the start menu change when i went from 98 -> XP. Was it cheesecake? I'll cry if it was cheesecake

 

So does this mean there will be an update 2 before Windows 9 ?

 

Greetings!

Rewards as something new.

Seems so.

 

So different is not new?

 

There are live tiles. They are something new. And the added ability to be useable on a tablet touchscreen without it be absurdly hard

 

Greetings!

They are. But do you stay staring at your StartScreen waiting for the tiles to change? Or are you using some programa\apps? Notifications are nothing new.

If you are on a touchscreen enabled device. Most arent and wont be for a long while.

 

So you are saying that Windows 8 offers something new, just not something new that you value.

 

Do you stare at systray waiting for notifications? Live tiles aren't "notifications", that'd be the notifications. But yes they do notify you of some change that you may have ignored/missed when the notification came through. If most people want to see if they have email, and they missed any notification they might have, they'd have to start menu -> run email program. If i want to check if I have email, start screen and i'm done.

While I agree that desktops probably won't go all touch crazy for a while with maybe the exception of AIO, what about tablets? Lots of people have tablets. Should MS have a pointlessly small start menu while trying to grow a windows tablet market? Because that would help their market share. Or should they implement a fullscreen start menu with shortcuts which are usable on a touchscreen? So if someone makes a W8 tablet it's, you know, usable.

I suppose they could do a Win tablet with a start menu, and just add a stylus. Then it'd be usable and apparently fashionable too.

 

Something that has bugging me for some time with Windows 8 and the whole live tiles, modern UI touch friendliness, didn't Microsoft have the opportunity to merge touch with the desktop a long time ago ?

Windows 95/IE4 had active desktop with the ability to add HTML content to the desktop, so in theory the desktop could have been used to display live tiles, much in the same way as the start screen does now.
Active desktop got replaced with gadgets, that once again could have been used to create a more touch friendly experience similar to the start screens live tiles.

Then with Windows 8 instead of incorporating the live tiles, touch friendliness, and other benefits of the start screen with/on the desktop they decided to split the UI into two separate spaces.
Even now they seem to be missing a trick, wouldn't it make more sense to have everything that is the start screen on the desktop instead of bunched up into the start menu ? along with multiple desktops that can be swiped or switched to.

 

That's a bit like asking why the Victorians didn't think of petrol engines. Keep in mind that in the days of Windows 98, the internet was still mostly dial-up, so any live tiles would have looked very dead indeed unless you wished to permanently tie up your phone line.

Gadgets happened in a time when there was no such thing as a touch screen.

Putting live tiles on the desktop is great --until they get covered by the windows of open programs. A sort of slide-in-from-the-screen-edges setup might work, but that is not so different from the Start Screen or indeed the Windows 9 Start Menu.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But creating a good, functional GUI is actually really, really hard.

 

I only used active desktop and gadgets as examples of how the idea of running live tiles on the desktop could have worked, or as a proof of concept. I realise the technology wasn't around in them days to make them 'live' but the technology of incorporating an interface that was touch friendly directly onto the desktop was kind of there, or could have been with some refinement.

The problem of a programs window hiding live tiles isn't exclusive the desktop, that happens when a program is run on the start screen.

And while its easy to fall back on the old saying of "Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But creating a good, functional GUI is actually really, really hard." that doesn't help to identify possible ways to make improvements.

 

Nope, but it makes for more modest critique.

 

What you see as critique, i see as identifying opportunities for improvement.

 

Clicking the bottom right rather than the bottom left minimises/restores all windows.
If the tiles were on the desktop the min/restore all (show desktop) button would do a similar job to the start screen button/corner but reduce the disconnect between Metro and desktop UIs. The tiles would replace the the dated but often functionally similar desktop icons as well as live and touch functions.

I really like Metro, but the one mod I use shows the taskbar on the bottom of the start screen so I can see what is open/running on the desktop at a glance. It's effectively achieving a similar thing to having tiles on the desktop instead.

In touch/tablet mode you could simply hide the desktop taskbar and still have the right hand side charms bar for Metro multitasking.

My experience is that a lot of the time it's the (actual or perceived) disconnect between desktop they are used to and Metro that puts people off. Merging the start screen and the desktop depending on use would go some way to solving this imo while being functionally similar to the way it is now.

 

Critique looks back. Improvement looks forward.