I just bought a new laptop with it pre installed and I think it's all great apart from the start menu and the thing that comes out the side. I think the start menu just makes everything harder to use I now have to navigate between the desktop, desktop windows, the metro start menu and the document viewers that you can only access though the metro thing. Now when doing my PCB layouts and move the mouse in a certain way (I can't work out which way yet!) the thing from the right hand side comes out! What's that all about!? Also My computer and control panel is a mission to get yo until you have made short cuts. Using a laptop makes it even harder. It's been a bit of a shock from a mac too. I pull a mac out of the box and everything works first time beautifully but this Samsung I have had to install multitouch gesture software and spend about a couple of hours configuring everything to make it how I want! If anyone knows an easy way to get rid of the metro thing and whatever the thing that comes out from the right please let me know! I used regedit to change a value in the beta version but that value isn't there to change on the release. Thanks Boscoe
The charm bar (the right hand bar) will appear whenever your mouse hits the top or bottom right corners of the screen, or as longweight says whenever you swipe left from the right edge of your laptops touchpad, this can probably be disabled in your touchpads control software. You can get quick access to Control Panel and My Computer by right clicking on the bottom left of the screen, where the start screen hot corner is. (For My Computer click File Explorer)
If you want a start button back for what ever odd reason then install this http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/ as for having to install manufacture software - yes - Microsoft can't bundle EVERY OEM specific driver with Windows 8. Apple can as Apple control the entire chain from hardware to OS.
The problem lies when you want to view a picture and it keeps jumping to metro, and then you want to close that picture and there is no X button... among other things.
Go into "Default Programs" set Windows Picture Viewer as the default for all its supported file types.
As much as I dislike some apps not being Metro supported yet, Windows 8 is absolutely brilliant. The plethora of shortcuts make it worth it for a start, and I love the new UI.
It should pop up the first time you use it and give the option to switch to the desktop viewer instead as the default. W8 could use a "Desktop or Tablet?" setting on install, so that it sets the right default programs.
Or, it takes a lot of investment to learn a new way, and it interferes with your workflow. Some just don't like it (I prefer a CLI for instance), and some, as you say, are just too lazy to learn a new system.
You don't need to install another one. For example: right-click on a jpg, select "Open with," then select "Choose default program." From there you can designate the default program to open any jpg in the future. I have mine set to Windows Photo Viewer rather than the photo app.
I've been using Windows 8 from launch, and installed Start8 yesterday. I simply can't get Metro to fit in to my workflow using a mouse - it's designed for touch, and my PC doesn't have a multitouch trackpad or screen.
