Last year I rented a car from Avis. They gave me a Nissan. The damn thing didn’t have a key. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to start it. Yeah, I pressed the button where the ignition should be, I held the fob up against it, I tried everything I could think of.
There were no Avis employees in sight and the rental counter was out in the lobby up two floors. I wandered around looking for someone to help me until I got to the exit booth. The nice lady in the booth asked me right away “Is it a Nissan?” Apparently this was a routine question. She explained that you had to put the key fob in your lap, depress the brake pedal, and then press the button in the console.
It’s nothing earth-shattering, but you’d think there could be an instruction card in the car somewhere.
I learned about Windows 8 from a 5 minute video on youtube. Actually, I watched two versions of the same video: one for keyboard users and one for touchscreen users. I tried to find the videos for you, but when I watched them there were just a few and now there seem to be thousands and I don’t remember which one I watched.
It just took ten minutes and I was ready to do whatever I had routinely been doing with my old computer.
And, yes, I wish Microsoft had put out a booklet or a reference card or something. But nobody believes in documenting their products any more.
Windows 8 comes with Windows Defender, which is basically Microsoft Security Essentials bundled up with Windows. MSE’s performance has been a bit lackluster in recent years though, so a 3rd party antivirus is probably a good idea.
But buying one?
AVG, Avast, and Avira (hmm… all A’s) all have scored fairly well recently and have free versions available. I personally use Avast but Avira has scored a bit higher in recent tests that I have seen.
I used Windows 8 briefly ona new computer, I had to return the computer for variosu reasons, not having anything to do with Windows 8.
I noticed that the email ‘app’ did not support POP servers, the one most email provides use, or at least mine does. I had no way to use the mail app to access the email I wanted. I could set up Hotmail accounts in it but not my main account.
Anyone else have this experience with WIn8? Was it changed in 8.1?
I ask be cause someone upthread said they accessed all their email accounts effortlessly.
Look, I am 77 years old, bought my first computer (running IBM-DOS, unnumbered by retronumbered 1.0) 32 years ago, learned used MS-DOS up to 6.x, Win 3.1 (a real dog), Win-95, Win-98 (both usable), NT (vast improvement), XP (loved it), Win-7 (it took a while, but I am used to it) and I am simply not interested in learning a new and different UI. Is that a crime? Damn you Microsoft!
My wife has a computer that is 15 years and is now afraid to replace it. It was upgraded to XP when the hard disk went bad some years ago.
And for much the same reason, we are not interested in Apple.
Apparently it doesn’t natively support POP (and there are justifications for that, right or wrong), but it supports IMAP - which most mail providers should be able to offer as a better alternative to POP3.
Or you can get Hotmail/Outlook.com to collect your POP email for you.
But really, the Windows Mail app is a bit shite anyway - you’re not obliged to use it (I just installed Thunderbird)
Some people also get confused when a new car shuts down at the traffic lights and turning the key does nothing. Or you need to press the clutch to actually turn the car on.
A Buddy of mine was stuck in a VW Passat at some stage he needed to drive home for someone after a night out, it started and all worked fine except he could not drive off, because the handbrake would note release and there was no leaver for a handbrake - they put a button there - no more leavers.
It’s the first time he or I came across this.
So, even in modern cars they like to change things around a bit. The Model T was just an extreme example on how different it was… like Win 1 to Win8. The handbrake leaver to button and Autostop is somewhat more similar to Win7 to Win8.
I switched to Avira for my new Windows 8.1 laptop (from AVG, which I’d used for 10+ years) and I love it. It’s unintrusive, doesn’t consume resources, has a pretty interface, and seems to be more effective than the other freebies.
I like Bitdefender (free) because it’s entirely invisible. Until there’s a problem, I never see it. It’s extremely bare-bones, the only user input is basically an on/off switch, but it seems to get the job done.
If you aren’t sure if your virus-checker is working or not, try to open or download the “EICAR Standard Anti-Virus Test File”. Read about it at Wikipedia here, and then download it from the site here. If your anti-virus is working properly, any attempt to download or open it will be prevented. If your anti-virus is not working properly, then you will be able to download and open it – but don’t worry, because it is harmless.
I’ve tested Windows 8/8.1 but always end up going back to Windows 7. My observation is that MS seems to be focused on developing a consumer-facing UI and apps which is fine. As a professional who spends 8-12 hours a day using a computer, my productivity with Windows 8 took a huge nose dive and it wasn’t all about the learning curve. I don’t need a media player or constant updates from Facebook. I sure as hell don’t want tiles on my server. I need to organize my desktop with the IDE’s and tools that all work together to let me get my job done. I need to ensure that my customers and users can get their job done with a minimum amount of interference from the OS. Up until Win 7, most users didn’t really care about the OS because it stayed in the background and didn’t get in the way. With Win 8, Microsoft has chosen to make the OS a part of the foreground and requires users to fight through the UI rather than taking it for granted.
If you believe tablets are the wave of the future, Win 8/Metro might be the holy grail for you. For those of us who use laptops/desktops as the tools of our trade, no tablet will ever replace that and Metro gets in the way. YMMV.
At a typical day at work as a health insurance claims processor, I have:
Four to six different internal web applications over two windows:
Four mainframe emulator windows
Two Excel spreadsheets
Email / IM
No surprise, the company decided to go with Windows 7 (which Microsoft even suggested). I can just imagine trying to do my job with a touchscreen.
Win7 is probably still a better choice for business anyway, but touch screens aren’t mandatory in Win8. It’s perfectly possible to use keyboard and mouse.
My fiance just bought a new laptop, and it has a touchscreen. I set it up for her, and frankly I don’t really see the point of the touchscreen. If the screen folded back or detached that would be different, but it doesn’t.