Ok, first of all, I can’t take anybody who, in 2014, still types M$ with the dollar sign seriously. Just curious, Apple has a much higher market cap, do you spell it Appl$?
Secondly, Microsoft’s current user base is north of a billion people. A lot of them are extremely crotchety people who hate to learn new things and abbreviate their company “M$” and would hate them no matter what they do. You try making that crowd all happy simultaneously.
For those of us who are ok learning new things, there’s nothing at all wrong with Windows 8.1. Does it have warts? Yeah, a couple. Much fewer than 8.0 did, though, and not enough to seal yourself in a time capsule and pretend it’s 2002 for the next 30 years.
I just want to second this. As much as I like some of Apple’s products (I’m typing this out on a MBP) they hardly ever pass up an opportunity to separate my wallet and money. MS is no better or worse than most other companies.
Glad to help. Now that I’ve gotten rid of the unnecessary tiles and have set it to start with the desktop, W8.1 is much more to my liking.
One thing’s still getting in my way, though: When I move the cursor to the upper right-hand corner of the screen to click on the “X” to close a window, I’m almost always blocked by the emerging vertical menu and have to reposition the cursor and try again. I imagine there’s a way to deactivate that upper right-hand corner and the real problem is that I haven’t taken the time to look carefully enough for a solution.
My brother is using Win 8 on a touch screen games machine. My wife is using IOS on a touch screen games machine and a touch screen video streaming machine. The kids are using touch screen android devices.
I don’t use my computer for those things. My job is actually 4 very different jobs I use my computer for, and I also have the cover off of my computer every week. I have scores of different programs I use, and hundreds I use very rarely. I need access to a lot of different things, and a system designed to hide unwanted details is not helpful for me.
So, no problems with Win 8.1, but it just isn’t very suitable for me, or for a lot of the tech people who saw it first. And of course, being a tech person, I turned off the confirmations 10 or 15 years ago.
And I can also tell you that MS has been telling people not to put uninstallers in the menus for at least 10 years: either you’ve been using old programs, or you’ve been using programs from people who don’t really like MS.
no–the real problem is that Microsoft has brainwashed you. You think it’s your fault that their product doesn’t work.
There is logic in adding new functions to software–but there is zero reason to remove simple things that the public already knows how to use.Such as the red X to close a window.
This has been standard ever since you bought your first computer with a dialup modem to AOL in 1995, and the public overwhelmingly says that they still want it. In most industries, companies use focus groups and market research to test their products before shipping. Microsoft doesnt even care–they just ship it out, and wait till the public boycotts it (8.0 was a failure, and was blamed for causing a 14% drop in sales of new computers). Then they bring out 8.1, and you still blame yourself.
If Microsoft’s strategy was ‘look at our new product - it’s exactly the same!’, there would be no Microsoft.
jerez - I believe the configuration for the hot corner that’s bothering you is accessed like this (writing this from memory, so may not be exact):
[ul]
[li]right click the task bar[/li][li]click properties[/li][li]in the ‘Taskbar/navigation properties’ window, there should be a checkbox labelled something like ‘show the charms menu when I move my mouse to the top right corner’ - uncheck it[/li][/ul]
I don’t think any of those statements apply to me, but you might want to ask this question, as posed by Rico Rodríguez in his portrayal of Manny Delgado: “Who are you really mad at, Larry?”
This was my experience of the start menu, too. The top dozen applications I used got pinned to the taskbar, the next couple of dozen got shortcuts on the desktop, and I only went to the start menu for the obscure ones because it was so very awkward navigating that tiny nested menu.
The start screen, as I use it now, is just a start menu that isn’t afraid of occupying some screen real estate and letting me customize it to better meet my needs.
I enjoy learning new things. I’ll even pay money for a book which would teach them to me. The problem is that when I go looking for a “Intro to Windows XP” or “Intro to Windows 8” or whatever, they are all designed for total novices who know nothing about computers. What I’d absolutely love is something titled “Windows 8 for People Who Already Know Windows XP Very Well”. Any suggestions?
It is true that in many cases, I can go to the Internet and search Google for the solution to my problem. But that takes time, and the quality of the answers varies widely. I’d love a single reference work that would cover even 50% of my questions.
I have no personal knowledge of these facts. But it is my opinion that if they do in fact conduct market research, the quality of that research is not as good as the quality of the research that led to New Coke.
Well, it’s hard to believe that intelligent people can do stupid things.
I’m sure somebody, somewhere, in the Microsoft headquarters asked for some market research to be done.Then he published a contract, and accepted bids from market research companies. But I’m guessing that when he signed the contract with the research company, he also told the researcher what answers he expected to get…and sure enough, he got 'em.
Microsoft almost admits it, too:
When they released 8.1,they did us a favor, and explained why:" We listened to your feedback and are delivering many of the improvements you asked for."
Note that they only started listening AFTER they realized that 8.0 failed to give people what they wanted…
The whole fiasco could have been avoided just by telling their market researchers to hold a few hands-on focus groups with real people, and not with experienced computer geeks. Just take a laptop with windows 8 beta version to a church, and ask the sunday school teachers to try it out.Then listen to their complaints.
(on edit: I just realized this thread is in GQ . sorry!)
I wonder what the overlap is between “people who think Microsoft rammed something they don’t want down their throats” and “people who think we should do away with the penny?”
Other than a problem that lies more with vBulletin than 8.1.1, I really like the new OS.
As it happens, I’m a Sunday school teacher myself. (Although I am also a computer geek).
I recently bought Windows 8 laptops for my mother (who previously only used XP for 3 years), my wife (who hasn’t used a computer before) and my two nieces (who previously used Windows 7. Results:
Mum: Absolutely loves it. Can’t understand why XP was so unfriendly.
Wife: Struggles with it (but honestly, is not likely to fare better with any other computing platform)
Nieces: hated it for exactly a day, then adapted - now it’s normal for them.
Me: Hated it for half a day, then discovered its strengths and now like it at least as much as Win7 (more in some ways)
Most of the people I hear complaining about Win8 haven’t used it.
