I am getting ready to start using a new laptop at work that will, I am sure, be running Windows 8. I have been using a 12 or 13 year old Dell Inspiron with XP Pro, and I was happy enough with it, but our contract IT guy murdered it
The wireless not working as I described it in that thread was just the tip of the iceberg. The new laptop has arrived, and will likely be issued in the next week or so.
Thanks to all contributors to this thread. It will ease my way into the new OS.
Here’s a great example of the kind of crap I mean.
I just upgraded a co-worker’s pc from Win 8 to Win 8.1. One of the screens in the setup procedure is titled “Sign in to your Microsoft account”. The only options are to either enter the email and password of the Microsoft account, or click on “Create a new account”. I don’t want either of these. I just want to set up the PC.
So I back up a few screens, figuring that somewhere along the line I must’ve accidentally answered yes to “Do you have a Micrsoft account?”. I tried all sorts of things, and just couldn’t get past that screen. Finally, Google found me some other people with the same problem, at this page.
The solution is to click on “Create an account”. Then, at that screen, you have to force yourself to ignore all the nice big print about how to create a new account, and instead, click at the very bottom, where it says, “Use existing account”. I would’ve presumed that this translates to “Use my existing Microsoft account”, which doesn’t exist. It is only because of the link above, that I know the correct translation to be “Use the local user account that was on this pc from before upgrading to Win 8.1”.
I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but Microsoft has too much of a track record. It is clear to me that the want us to set up a Microsoft account, whether I want one or not, and the carefully-hidden ability to use Win 8.1 without it, is probably only to avoid lawsuits.
The solution is to pay attention to what you’re doing. Win8 has options during setup for doing it without a MS account - and they’re not hidden.
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/HowToSignIntoWindows8Or81WithoutAMicrosoftAccountMakeALocalUser.aspx
If by “not hidden” you mean “hidden behind the create a new account option”, sure.
Prominently displayed like this famous example in literature:
From this, we conclude that Microsoft is a Vogon commercial venture. 
nm
The whole setup process is hidden behind the first page of the setup process.
In any case, if you’re using Win8, you really need a Microsoft account - in the same way that you really need a Google account to use Android or an iTunes account to get the best out of an Apple device.
I want to like Windows 8.whatever. Truly. But most of the Metro apps on my two devices (a Lenovo Thinkpad tablet hybrid, and a no-name media box I plugged into the TV and use most of the time) just sit and spin and do nothing. It’s bizarre. I’ve gotten used to all the “features” like swiping from the left side and having it switch from Metro to desktop. Mostly gotten used to. I also, very grudgingly, have gotten used to the lack of being able to organize in the Start Menu. It was also easier in XP than Win7 in ways I don’t feel like explaining, but hey. Overall, I like the increased speed of startup, etc, but DOING anything still feels clunky after 6-odd months of fooling around. I honestly feel like I’m playtesting some futuristic dumb terminal dreamed up in 1992. I can’t organize anything worth a darn (and that’s saying something, given that I finally made sense of having both Adobe Lightroom and Picasa crap on my Win7 machine before it crapped out. I have yet to port either again, yet) and I’m still fumbling when my network goes down. I used to have virtual machines, remote access, user controls, etc. done intuitively. I’m scared to touch anything now. shrug I have a couple expensive toys now I don’t want to futz with. Maybe I’m just getting old…