"Windows 8 - blurghhhh!" Topic

Yesterday morning – much excitement in the Arteis household, buying a brand new Toshiba laptop. Cool!!!

Yesterday evening – much disappointment in the Arteis household, finding out that the laptop's Windows 8 operating system is absolute rubbish. Not cool!!!

- I have to battle to do even the smallest thing;
- It is totally unintuitive;
- It can't do my Paradise POP mail;
- It can't play DVDs;
- It has mysterious and inconsistent navigation to various settings;
- I can't easily close windows without a weird swipe with my mouse;
- I have to flick between two separate interfaces;
- I bet it's going to have a seizure when I try to connect my old printer or install my old graphics programmes etc.

Now I have to find workrounds to fix all the above. Or maybe I can return the laptop to the store and swap it for one with Windows 7?

yea the interface and finding where they put things is a pain in the A@@

It's the 'Microsoft alternate OS method'.

Alternate OSs are rubbish.

To quote KyoteBTB, "Dude!"

Good luck finding one with windows 7. I bought a computer for my parents for Christmas and the options were – affordable pc with windows 8 or expensive, gaming-focused pc with windows 7.

I have similar experiences with windows 8. For a purely desktop experience the OS is counter-intuitive and a big departure from the way people are used to interacting with the windows environment. I know it was designed to be similar to the mobile/touch screen version but to me it doesn't work.

Sarcasm on

Welcome to the world of windows 8, great aint it?

Sarcasm off

I had the same issues 2 months ago when I got my new lap top. And boy do I hate windows 8 but I've found some things that helped get things done.

First off, check on some of the many start button programs. There are paid and free ones out there that should help immensely. Classic Shell and Start8 seem to be the most popular but there are others. I know when I finally installed classic shell my new w8 system became so much more useable.

Can't help you on the email, I couldn't set up my main account either on the app so I ditched the app and went back to one of my old outlook replacements.

And while on the app thing, I suggest if you don't really need to use the w8 apps for some reason don't even bother with them. They're a drain on computer resources and I haven't found anything their apps can do I can't do with a browser and some links or regular programs and still have full control of how many and how large the windows are.

For settings, just skip the swipe charms thingy and either make a shortcut to the main settings screen or set that start screen program so it has the link like every windows up till 8.

Check Toshiba for the DVD issue, most of the companies have a download so you can play DVD's on the installed drive if your computer came with a DVD drive of some sort.

I gave up on the mouse gestures thing and wish I could turn them all off. I don't know how many times I've opened the stupid charms bar accidently at the worst times in games or while typing.

Actually, you shouldn't have a problem installing an old printer or programs as long as they aren't DOS, My 8+ year old peripherals and programs from my old desk top installed pretty well with just a couple that I had to go through the compatibility wizard to get working.

W8 is horrible to use if you've been using windows thru multiple previous versions because of that stupid interface and shuffling of things to make it work better on mobile devices like phones and tablets. But it does boot faster, it's less resource consuming, and I've never seen peripherals install as easily. It would be great if they would of just added a setting that let you put it in a more familiar interface mode and let you pick and choose what "new features" work for you, but instead they forced that metro abomination on us and it kills most of the benefits the new OS has under the hood.

It boots much more quickly and is very quick. The rest of it is just appalling. The Microsoft apps stink and seem to freeze all the time. The metro interface just doesn't work on a large monitor size screen. I ignore most of what Microsoft has forced on me and go straight to the desktop.

Installed Win 8 yesterday morning, installed Start 8 less than an hour later, and have already turned off all those silly mouse swipes. Like Pete, I find that none of the apps seem to work, and am wondering why they bothered. I certainly won't be.

W8 is horrible to use if you've been using windows thru multiple previous versions because of that stupid interface and shuffling of things to make it work better on mobile devices like phones and tablets. But it does boot faster, it's less resource consuming, and I've never seen peripherals install as easily. It would be great if they would of just added a setting that let you put it in a more familiar interface mode and let you pick and choose what "new features" work for you, but instead they forced that metro abomination on us and it kills most of the benefits the new OS has under the hood.

Pretty much my take too.

Went to a demo at a local store (Best Buy). Came
away impressed with the guff and palaver of the staff,
NOT impressed with the s'ware.

My son wanted a Windows 8 laptop for Christmas but after trying it in the shop he hated it. In the end he had one of my old laptops with Zorin Linux installed on it and he absolutely loves it. Simple to use and an easy transition from Windows XP.

Am also thinking of buying a Chrome book at £199.00 GBP they are an ideal web machine for a second laptop.

I was wondering if Windows 8 was worth converting too (after reading this thread I did not want to say upgrading). Looks like I can save my dinero.

Striker 8, you are a saviour! That Classic Shell program has solved so many of my issues with Windows 8, what with adding a start button etc. The whole Windows 8 experience now becomes a lot more sensible.

I'll try your other ides, too.

Thanks so much.

even worse, customer of mine bought one, he has a windows 7 license and media – could we remove win8 from the laptop? could we feck :-(

I hate any os trying to be a mobile os and a desktop os – same reason I won't consider mountain lion – keep them seperate. people who want a computer want a proper os, people who just want to web browse, facebook etc can use a tablet with the silly ugly tile interface. grrrrrrrr.

I hate any os trying to be a mobile os and a desktop os – same reason I won't consider mountain lion – keep them seperate. people who want a computer want a proper os, people who just want to web browse, facebook etc can use a tablet with the silly ugly tile interface. grrrrrrrr.

I have Mountain Lion on my new iMac. I haven't had any problems with it at all, though I was tentative as to what the changes might be. Honestly, so far I haven't noticed anything grossly different in ease of use or utility from my old iMac (Tiger). The "tile" interface only comes into use with the Launchpad or Mission Control features down on the Dock, both of which are rather handy for switching apps, actually. Otherwise, my key apps are in the Dock same as before, and I can open a Finder window and search it, same as before, going through folder trees or what-have-ye, same as before. For me the transition has all been rather seamless. So Apple, at least, got the change right. Can't speak to Windows 8, but then poor transition has been par for the course with Windows ever since they went from XP to the much maligned Vista, hasn't it?

All in all, I personally wouldn't care, but I do rather want to install a version of Windows in a secure partition on this puppy so I can pick up some classic PC games— I hope that doesn't mean I have to get Windows 8… :-P

What's really funny is MS is now claiming it's the computer manufacturers fault w8 isn't selling well and people don't like it.

Arteis, glad I could help.

Even more bad news for Microsoft sales are worst than Vista was.MS blame the OEMs and the OEMs blame MS.

I had to use my old vista laptop the other day to access iTunes to put music on my lads iPod. Took me 25 minutes as iPod wasn't recognised by laptop and iTunes kept crashing.

Same thing takes me less than 2 minutes to do on my Linux laptop with a Sansa clip and that includes switching the laptop on and closing down! Would never go back to Windows.

Hadn't read this thread before – but so far my experience is as per the OP.

Much excitement for new computer – rapidly draining away as Windows 8 gets in the way of doing anything the way I used to be able to.

Windows 7 – click, click, there I am.

Windows 8 – scroll click scroll click back click OH Why can't you be intuitive !!!! And stop telling me what the time is I don't care !!!!

Anyone know how to setup favourites, and how to retrieve them? I've pinned a few things to favourites, but have not a clue on how to get them to appear.

I am soooo screwed. I just cracked the display on my laptop this morning and have been running Windows 7 Home Premium and will have to replace it with something new. I am sooo not feeling the love for Microsoft right now!

VR
James Mattes

My God men am I going to have to covert over to a Mac? I might as well change my sexual preference while I am at it!

This is going to be a pain…

It is bad enough I am running several different versions of Windows on about 8 computers at work and I have to do work on all of them. It takes me a minute or two just to transition between the different systems when working with folks I am helping or doing stuff for on the different workstations. And no there is no network for this program due to some BS VA security concerns so everything is completely different and there is NO baseline. Bad enough I have several different keyboards and modifications for veterans with different physical restrictions to begin with. God I can not wait to transfer back East.

VR
James Mattes