Lost in Windows 8

Gamers can also use this forum to chat about any game related subject, news, rumours etc.

Moderator: maddog986

GaryChildress
Posts: 6746
Joined: Sun Jul 17, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: The Divided Nations of Earth

Lost in Windows 8

Post by GaryChildress »

Is it just me or is Windows 8 impossible to figure out if you've spent all your life up to this point using prior versions? This is really frustrating. I used to be "fluent" in Windows until all this BS came out. [:@]
gexmex
Posts: 149
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:56 pm
Location: Nashville, TN

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by gexmex »

Here's my humble opinion, and I realize I'm a minority since I actually like Win 8. I'm weird, I guess :-P It took me a while to get used to, but now I really enjoy it. I use the desktop pretty much exclusively and everything works fine. I'm starting to use the start menu more, but with the ability to boot right to the desktop I find it really easy to use it exactly the same as I did Win 7 with few visual differences. Getting to the control panel, windows explorer, or stuff like that is just as easy as previous windows iterations, if not easier. You just need some time to adjust and an open mind and you're golden [8D]
User avatar
SuluSea
Posts: 2378
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 2:13 pm

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by SuluSea »

ORIGINAL: gexmex

Here's my humble opinion, and I realize I'm a minority since I actually like Win 8. I'm weird, I guess :-P It took me a while to get used to, but now I really enjoy it. I use the desktop pretty much exclusively and everything works fine. I'm starting to use the start menu more, but with the ability to boot right to the desktop I find it really easy to use it exactly the same as I did Win 7 with few visual differences. Getting to the control panel, windows explorer, or stuff like that is just as easy as previous windows iterations, if not easier. You just need some time to adjust and an open mind and you're golden [8D]

Exactly the way I feel with windows 8. It takes time but getting better with it and wouldn't want to go back now. I understand Gary's POV, I was hating life when I first got it.

Hang in there Gary!![:)]
"There’s no such thing as a bitter person who keeps the bitterness to himself.” ~ Erwin Lutzer
User avatar
decaro
Posts: 4004
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2005 12:05 pm
Location: Stratford, Connecticut
Contact:

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by decaro »

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress

Is it just me or is Windows 8 impossible to figure out if you've spent all your life up to this point using prior versions? This is really frustrating. I used to be "fluent" in Windows until all this BS came out. [:@]

Aren't you updated to 8.1 with the desktop screen? That's where I download and access all my Matrix games.
In any case, many of your computer/admin controls all have app(lication)s and can be found if you scroll down from the tile or marquis screen.
Stratford, Connecticut, U.S.A.[center]Image[/center]
[center]"The Angel of Okinawa"[/center]
Home of the Chance-Vought Corsair, F4U
The best fighter-bomber of World War II
User avatar
PipFromSlitherine
Posts: 1468
Joined: Wed Jun 23, 2010 7:11 pm

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by PipFromSlitherine »

There are numerous articles on how to make W8 more like W7, which might help. Google is your friend [:)]

I must confess I have stocked up on W7's. I am not a fan of some of the W8 choices...

Cheers

Pip
follow me on Twitter here
User avatar
VPaulus
Posts: 3661
Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2011 2:02 pm
Location: Portugal

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by VPaulus »

Hi Gary,

I fixed the Windows 8 issue by spending an extra $5 in buying Windows Start 8.
http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/

Life come back to normal after that.

gexmex
Posts: 149
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:56 pm
Location: Nashville, TN

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by gexmex »

As VPaulus says, Start 8 is a great add on, and the 8.1 update makes an enormous difference as well.
User avatar
zakblood
Posts: 22722
Joined: Thu Oct 04, 2012 11:19 am

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by zakblood »

aged now at 46, using dos then every version of windows since, windows 8.1 is the best gaming platform upto yet released, i'd get use to it, as it plays almost everything from old dos to modern...

[&o][&o][&o]
Windows 11 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 22621) (22621.ni_release.220506-1250)
User avatar
wesy
Posts: 224
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2002 10:00 am
Location: Berkeley, CA

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by wesy »

Full disclosure, I work for MSFT, but all opinions are mine and not reflective of my employer.

I've been using Windows since Windows 3.0 (although I used Excel for Windows when it came with the Win 2.x runtime, but i won't count that ;)). I always boot to desktop. If you don't know how to do it in Win 8.1 here's how:

1. Right click on the taskbar and select properties

2. Click the first checkbox under the start screen settings

3. If you don't like the different designs on the "Start Screen" you can use your desktop background by clicking the second checkbox.

4. if the charms are driving you crazy on the desktop uncheck the "When i point to the upper-right corner.." under the Corner Navigation section.

Hope that helps!




Image
Attachments
boot2d.jpg
boot2d.jpg (68.62 KiB) Viewed 236 times
"I ran into Isosceles. He had a great idea for a new triangle!"...Woody Allen
User avatar
parusski
Posts: 4789
Joined: Mon May 08, 2000 8:00 am
Location: Jackson Tn
Contact:

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by parusski »

I hate when a ghost double posts.
"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman
User avatar
parusski
Posts: 4789
Joined: Mon May 08, 2000 8:00 am
Location: Jackson Tn
Contact:

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by parusski »

ORIGINAL: parusski

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress

Is it just me or is Windows 8 impossible to figure out if you've spent all your life up to this point using prior versions? This is really frustrating. I used to be "fluent" in Windows until all this BS came out. [:@]

I worked in the IT field for 26 years and I have trouble with Win 8.1. I actually hate it more than I did Windows 7(and I REALLY hated it). Windows 8 is clumsy and difficult to navigate. And don't get me started about the start button-somebody was stoned when it was decided to leave that out. The Apps view is just sloppy. Yes you can select to view "by most used" but it's just bad. I, and many users I communicate with experience a ridiculous number of explorer crashes and you have to restart it. My USB drives freeze a lot. There are a few fixes for that but we should not have to deal with it.

As for the start button I use Start Menu X and love it.

Microsoft has already given up on Windows 8.


"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman
Alan Sharif
Posts: 1113
Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2001 8:00 am
Location: UK.
Contact:

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by Alan Sharif »

I updated from XP to W8 over a year ago, and I love it. No regrets at all.
A Sharif
User avatar
parusski
Posts: 4789
Joined: Mon May 08, 2000 8:00 am
Location: Jackson Tn
Contact:

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by parusski »

ORIGINAL: Alan Sharif

I updated from XP to W8 over a year ago, and I love it. No regrets at all.

That's good. There has always been people who liked one version over another. Just a matter of opinion.
"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman
eyegore
Posts: 98
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:13 pm
Location: Houston

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by eyegore »

We tolerate the GUI on our smartphones because it's about all you can do on that tiny screen. But to put that GUI on a desktop seems like a special kind of stupid to me.
User avatar
parusski
Posts: 4789
Joined: Mon May 08, 2000 8:00 am
Location: Jackson Tn
Contact:

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by parusski »

ORIGINAL: eyegore

We tolerate the GUI on our smartphones because it's about all you can do on that tiny screen. But to put that GUI on a desktop seems like a special kind of stupid to me.

Stupid, sloppy and unattractive.
"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman
User avatar
CGGrognard
Posts: 596
Joined: Wed Oct 02, 2013 9:31 pm
Location: USA

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by CGGrognard »

I'm coming around to Win 8.1 having for sometime, my system boot directly to the Desktop where I had pinned along the task bar the programs I used most often. But now I'm booting to the start menu after learning of neat little shortcuts like right clicking on the Windows logo in the lower left brings up access to the Control Panel and much more.
It does come down to opinion and ones' desire to give it a try. So to that, each their own, or whatever works for you.
"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." - Sun Tzu
User avatar
MrsWargamer
Posts: 1653
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2014 4:04 pm

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by MrsWargamer »

The young lad that maintains my computer (because I sure can't) told me a good ways back now, that MS had screwed up, and had accidentally offered Win 8 as an upgrade from Win 7 for 16 bucks for a limited time. The screw up was they were not doing the verification correct. It was supposed to be a new machine and using Win 7. They sure fixed that gaffe super fast, but not before I was able to get the 16 dollar perk.

Getting an OS upgrade for 16 bucks was too good to pass on.

My computer genius buddy has since ditched it for going back to Win 7. Generally when a computer genius won't touch something, you don't argue with them.

But I have no specific beef with Windows 8 although the first time I experienced 8.1 I was sure some doofus has broken something that clearly didn't need fixing. It seems ok now though.

I don't use any of the desktop 'cleverness' as I don't think it is all that clever really. My desktop looks like the Win 7 experience. I do think making a touch based interface for a still mainly non touch based PC market wasn't too bright though. They should have just only dumped it on people actually buying new computers that actually have touch screens, and stuck with Win 7 until computers without touch surfaces were essentially a dead item the same way floppy disk drives are basically no longer in use.

I generally prefer to use the most current OS though, as I really hate having to suffer through driver issues and all the assorted nonsense of using a progressively unsupported OS. I used to like XP a lot. But today I won't touch it. I used to like Win 7 a lot, but even it gets annoying installing when it comes to the update part of an install.
Wargame, 05% of the time.
Play with Barbies 05% of the time.
Play with Legos 10% of the time.
Build models 20% of the time
Shopping 60% of the time.
Exlains why I buy em more than I play em.
User avatar
zakblood
Posts: 22722
Joined: Thu Oct 04, 2012 11:19 am

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by zakblood »

it time M/S will move away from the ball and chain of backwards compatibility and move totally away from the 32 bit systems and it's limitations, plus remove all the other backwards stuff thats lets be very honest is holding it back, like memory limits just to name one, but there are a few others...

Physical Address Extension (PAE)

Name and folder length etc

FAT / NTFS limits....

i could go on all day and bore more than myself, i love windows, but once it gets away from its distant past and drops the old DOS aged parts, it will be so much better, welcome windows 9, almost there, but not quite yet either[;)]
Windows 11 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 22621) (22621.ni_release.220506-1250)
gexmex
Posts: 149
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:56 pm
Location: Nashville, TN

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by gexmex »

ORIGINAL: MrsWargamer

The young lad that maintains my computer (because I sure can't) told me a good ways back now, that MS had screwed up, and had accidentally offered Win 8 as an upgrade from Win 7 for 16 bucks for a limited time. The screw up was they were not doing the verification correct. It was supposed to be a new machine and using Win 7. They sure fixed that gaffe super fast, but not before I was able to get the 16 dollar perk.

Getting an OS upgrade for 16 bucks was too good to pass on.


The $16 upgrade was a promo they did upon release for folks interested in getting the newest OS. There was some advertising associated with it so I don't think it was a gaffe. As for the verification thing, I hadn't heard about that. I took advantage of that nice price myself! :)

aaatoysandmore
Posts: 2846
Joined: Wed Sep 11, 2013 1:35 pm

RE: Lost in Windows 8

Post by aaatoysandmore »

Wow, the promo I got was "free". But, it's Windows 8 32 bit and thas going to be a piece of garbage before too long. It was something you had to do "before" Windows 8 came out but it was a full version and I hate it. Loaded it once, tried it and then reformatted and reinstalled Win7. I still have XP on a netbook and Vista 64 or my main and Win7 on my alternate pc. I'm computer rich and OS rich but billfold poor. [:'(]
Post Reply

Return to “General Discussion”