News Windows 8.1 could allow for Start Screen bypass

You can just as easily organize groups on the start screen. I have one for games, and one for Office 2013, and one for media.

It is seamless integration between XBMC, the Netflix app and VLC player, from just a single screen.

 

Yes! I can't wait to have the auto go to desktop mode... like this the first thing I get to do when I boot my system is.... hit.... the... Start Screen button.. oh wait... what?

 

Bad Microsoft!

Force people to change to new UI to help progress UX design forward, and then release a patch to give them basically a Win 7 desktop.

I fear Win8 might end up like Media centre edition, a feature which once made optional will be pushed backwards out of sight and out of mind.

Still using 7 here, mostly because I never jump into something new new, and also I would rather do a whole fresh build from the ground, and I am currently between jobs...

 

You've been able to do this for ages with free unobtrusive software. That's really not much of a valid reason not to upgrade.

On start screen, Right Click>All Apps and I think that shows all of them.

It is fairly annoying yes, but it is easily changed anyway.

I don't know about a pre-installed win 8 but I presume its the same; when its setting up for the first time it goes through all the gestures and asks you to try them out.

 

Yes it is, why install software, change settings, etc, etc. to get 8 to behave like previous OS's when you can just use a previous OS ?
When features are removed from software there should be a valid reason for it, not just for marketing reasons.

 

As soon as you install a desktop alternative program, it automatically takes over the file associations. It's a non-problem.

You are right. You shouldn't have to use third-party software to make your OS run the way you want it. Uninstall right now Google Chrome/Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, third-party Anti-Virus and Malware programs, Paint.Net and Speedfan.

 

How is adding a start screen and metro environment taking away features, if anything installing the software is taking away features.

Honestly if the start screen is stopping you from upgrading, I don't see it at all now but what I do get is a faster, quicker booting OS with many other new features that you don't get in win 7.

Also good point Nexxo

 

Hit the windows key on your keyboard to bring up start screen. Start typing the name of your program. Hit Enter. Done. Same as it was in Windows 7.

 

I wonder what you do when you buy a new car... do you rip out the inside of your old car and replace the internal of the new car with the old one? I mean the cup holder placement is different, and the dials are positioned different, and the radio... oh don't get me started. And where is the cassette player! I want choice dam it!

When I buy a new car, I am so confused... I just can't make it work anymore. Maybe that is why they are bad drivers... they got a new car and don't know how to drive it. It's so confusing. That must be it! A law should be put that all cars should be identical in every single way, including color.. but that also makes me forget how to drive. Oh and cassette players and 8 tracks should be optional at no extra cost. I don't have time to figure this CD thing. It makes me less productive, and makes driving my car so annoying, 'cause my cassettes doesn't fit inside. Like if I have time for this. And who wants CD's It's inferior in EVERY single way... you can't fast forward nicely with CD's. It's digital and it's crap.
And to make a CD mix, I need a computer, and a software, convert my music... AAARRRGGGG!!!!
It was simple with cassettes.

 

Biggest problem windows has is not the new UI but the grossly inflated pricing policy. I purchased windows 8 at £24.99. A great price for an OS. Now microsoft wants £198 for the same OS. MAC OS costs £13.

 

Why, install OSX on your PC then!

Oh, wait...

 

Its sad how people don't understand the complexity of an OS. The interface is about 10% of an OS. It's extremely complicated peace of software. It cost a fortune to maintain, and development is always slow, especially on back end stuff. Microsoft has several thousands of engineers working around the clock on Windows. It's costly.

If anything the Mac OS updates are what are criminally expensive. Why? Because 90% of the work is done... it's just Unix. They just add small features here and there and hand full of security updates.

 

Moreover, OSX only has to work on a very limited range of machines and configurations. Perhaps about a few hundred different combinations, almost all made by Apple itself.

Windows has to work on every PC out there: all the makes, all the models, the entire myriad of combinations of esoteric hardware and software, peripherals, add-ons and add-ins. We are talking hundreds of thousands, if not millions of different set-ups.

 

Trying to compare an OS to a car is totally pointless, especially when your trying to draw comparison to cup holders, dials and the radio. But if you want to go there fine, to draw a comparison with a car. would you buy it if they moved the break accelerator and steering wheel akin to to how the basic functions have changed in 8.
There are reasons we still use dials to read the speed and other information in a car, because they work well at doing there job, conveying information quickly and accurately. if it aint broke don't fix it.

If they changed the seating position or forced you to steer the car by using a touchscreen i bet you would. Buy our new car, sure we changed the seating position, but laying down with a LCD displaying the relevant information you need is so much better.

We are not talking about basic changes of a cassette player, in OS terms a basic change would be like changing a application to support a newer file format, using your comparison how about if they removed the ability to play music in a cars all together ?

But then i forget you don't want people to choose if they want to play music in there car, because music is so old....damn it move with the times people music is so last year.
And not only that but using cars as a comparison is pointless as there isn't one company holding a monopoly on all cars sold.

 

Funny you should mention that. In newer (fancier) cars, they are looking at HUDs instead of conventional dials so you don't have to take your eyes off the road. Heck, in my Honda Civic the speedo is now a big digital LCD readout just below the bottom edge of the windscreen, so I can glance down and my eyes barely have to adjust focus.

Mercedes has been looking at a joystick for car control. It works better, allowing for quicker reactions, but it thinks people would kind of object to that change because it is too different from a steering wheel and pedals. Saab went half-way by removing the clutch pedal from the gear change.

But we digress. Windows 8 is under the hood not much different from Windows 7. The only significant change is the swap from Start Menu to Start Screen, and the inclusion of some Metro apps that you don't even ever have to use. Oh, the calamity! Control Panel has moved!!! sure, I could just pin it to the taskbar with one click but I don't want to have to. Sounds a bit petulant to me.

 

Yes but Windows 8 is not doing that. Its you that blow up to huge proportions for essentially just a color change, and new car internal.. it's still a car, and works the same.

Exactly my point. Small changes you blow it up in huge proportion when they are not.
It's because you have not used it. You look at picture and you judge. Which is wrong. Remember when people called Windows 7 task bar being an exact replica in every way to Mac OS? Where's the resemblance? There is none. People eventually used it and shuts up, because they see how wrong they were.

 

I really don't think W8 is the reason for falling PC sales. It's just the millions of cheap crappy home and office PC's being replaced with tablets, or not upgraded at all because the user has a tablet for most things.

Good to see a straight to desktop option though, if it does exist. It'll save me 0.1 seconds every day!

 

Best comment so far.

You can rearrange the start screen quite a bit.

Very good point. The problem is many of us are used to having shortcuts, links, and even folders on the desktop. If I know where it is there then it feels faster than going through the start menu / start screen.

 

Windows doesn't have to do ****. I'm pretty sure its device manufacturers that have to make their devices work on Windows not the other way around.

pfft! cluttering up the taskbar is for noobs. Right click the bottom left corner for the admin menu This is one of many additions to windows 8 I like.

 

The new car's interior doesn't extend a hand that slaps you in the face every time you need to use a turn signal, which is how using the new start menu feels.