I don’t imagine Microsoft thought the changes were pointless.
What are the key similarities between computers and water, in your view?
Apparently caused by drivers trying to use improper addresses; this isn’t a windows 8 issue - it’s been around since at least XP.
I’m sure they thought the changes were important from THEIR point of view. Perhaps in the same way textbook publishers do when they rearrange a few page numbers so they can put out new editions.
Obviously many of the changes were useless or outright bad from the POV of consumers, otherwise Windows Classic Shell wouldn’t be so popular. I can tell you it was the very first thing I downloaded when setting up a Windows 8 computer, and I’m apparently not alone.
They don’t do these things in a vacuum - there are beta versions, focus groups etc. Something either went wrong with that process, or the market changed after launch (I think it’s a little of both - many of the people I’ve heard complaining about Win8 haven’t even used it)
Sure - and a lot of people configured Windows XP to look and feel like Windows 98. People don’t like change.
So you’d think there would be a fix, but every community forum I’ve looked at (and I can’t find anything official) ends with “Yeah, installing a new driver update doesn’t seem to change the mini-dump data.” Not a problem I’ve every had on any other machine (XP, ME, Vista, 7, 8) but my 8.1 functionally can’t be used because it BSODs with this several times a day.
But in this case you’re pointing your finger in the wrong direction. If the device doesn’t comply with existing standards and the supplied drivers don’t work, that’s the device manufacturer’s fault, not Microsoft’s.
Lately, it seems like rather than responding to customer wants and needs, Microsoft has been trying to drive that sort of thing themselves. I mean, who really thought that EVERYONE buying an Xbox One had any use for the damn Kinect? Yet they persisted with that stupidity until very, very recently, and who knows how many Xbox One sales they lost in favor of the PS4 due to the extra $100 cost of the Kinect?
Or Windows 8? Operating systems are something that ideally functions in an unobtrusive way and lets people do what they want to do with their various applications. An analogy is that the OS is the office building/physical plant for a company- it’s supposed to handle services for the company, it’s supposed to keep the workers comfortable, and be present, but not particularly noticeable.
Windows 8 is the equivalent of an office building putting in unisex bathrooms on every floor, setting the temp to 80 degrees in the summer/60 in the winter, and constantly playing House music over the PA, because that’s what’s “cool”, without consulting the companies in the building. Nothing really wrong with any of those things, but it would piss people off, and to what end?
No, changing the format of a menu is none of those things. At the absolute worst, it’s like painting the entrance hall a colour you don’t like - and making it extremely easy for anyone who wants to to use the back door, which is painted the old colour.
I don’t know how to answer your questions, because I really like Windows 8, so your analogy makes no sense to me.
People keep telling me how shitty it is, but this does in any way relate to my experience of it.
I’m 47, I work in IT - I should hate it, like so many of my younger colleagues (again, many of whom haven’t actually touched it for more than a minute), but I use it every day and it seems just fine (and in some ways, superior to previous versions of Windows).
I do acknowledge that there are different styles of interaction with OSes - and some peoples’ styles have been more disrupted than others by the changes in Win8, but I am not convinced that accounts for all of the noise I’m hearing. It’s as though it has also become fashionable to hate Win8.
Well, you can’t have Dev teams sitting around doing nothing…
Another completely unsatisfied user of Windows 8. I’m considering having it slicked an Windows 7 installed instead. It would be worth the price, whatever it is.
(Full disclosure: I’m the go-to person in my fam for computer problems. I work in IT. I’ve been using MS products for decades. And this Win 8 stuff sucks donkey balls.)
No, no,no,no. Changing menus is stupid, unnecessary, and and not at all a minor problem (like as your analogy of the color of the paint in your office.)
Microsoft’s tech geeks like to use their computers and mobile devices for playing games.
But real people use computers at their jobs to produce work. Anything that slows you down means you are not being a productive worker.
You produce work by following the familiar procedures you know from experience–and that includes knowing where every command is located in every menu, and using * muscle memory * in your fingers.
Any change is bad.
I operate an engineering graphics application, and make hundreds of mouse clicks every few minutes, thousands of clicks per hour.
Changing a menu is not just a pain in the ass…it costs me time. Lots of time. And time is money.
A change in a menu may mean that I have to spend 15 minutes in the help files–Fifteen minutes is several hundred missed clicks, several hundred commands not entered, dozens of lines not drawn on my screen, dozens of dimensions not calculated.
All because I am still trying to figure out how to do something easy, something that I have done several million times before , over the past 15 years.
Then I have to re-train my fingers to stop clicking the same place where I have become accustomed to clicking several million times over the past 15 years…
Then, I can tell my client on the phone , “Ah–I found how to do do that…Thanks for waiting on hold while I look like an idiot because I couldn’t answer your simple question; Even though yesterday I could have answered it easily, before we switched our computers to the new system. I’m sure you’re be glad to pay me for wasting your time.”
And then I’m supposed to say Thank you to Microsoft ??
My clients are irritated with me, my boss is mad at me, but, hey, those tiles and charms sure look cute! What a great deal!!!
So Windows 8 changed the way your application worked? I doubt that, and if it did I doubt it’s Microsoft’s fault.
Do you actually realise that Windows 8 has a desktop very much like the one in Windows 7, and previous?
I was in the exact same place, and after an agonizing search, I FOUND A SOLUTION!!! I was desperate to find a way to transform a powerful, newly purchased notebook from a friggin brick to a useful workhorse. Contacting ASUS to find W7 drivers was fruitless (as there were none), and I was told it would void my warranty if I tried…I was on my own. The tech admitted that he heard the same stories all the time. Frankly, I felt bad for ASUS; the laptop is absolutely awesome hardware-wise, but was virtually crippled by the OS.
But it can be fixed. HERE’S HOW I RESURRECTED MY LAPTOP.
NOTE: >> If you are not versed in re-partitioning disks and low level hardware changes, you might want to ask someone who knows computers for help. But it is worth the time if you want to keep the system.
- Download and Install VM_WARE PLAYER 6
- Purchase a copy of Windows 7 64 bit
- After installing VM_WARE, give most of the laptop resource to it instead of Windows 8; i.e, both cores, most of the system memory, etc.
Fact is, Windows 7 now runs as fast on my i5 laptop under VM_WARE shell as it does on my desktop which is an i7. The major CAD apps I have that wouldn’t work on the laptop now run perfectly. Finally!! The new laptop is useful for the first time, and I can keep Win8 for what it was designed for: maintaining the notebook warranty, getting email, and browsing the Web. I don’t tweet, so I am missing out on the other 25% of Windows 8’s benefits.
Worked like a charm; now I LOVE this laptop, and used to hate it. It was a drastic step, and took time to tune, but so far, it works flawlessly!!! 
I hope this idea helps somebody; I was running out of options, and nearly tossed a perfectly good laptop in the trash.
Cheers-
I’m glad I found this thread. I am trying to find out how I can have multiple Windows Explorer windows open to drag and drop files from one directory to another. I can’t seem to find “My Computer” or “Windows Explorer” when I type those characters in the search bar from the “Settings” menu. I’ll keep looking…
I am not going to download Win 8.1 after reading this. I already don’t care for win8 as it is, such a hassle finding anything quickly. You really have to take the time to learn how to use it. Not something I was expecting, which is why I always chose PC over MAC. I won’t do this again. Someone started a petition on Change.org asking MS to add the “start menu” option in Windows 8 but it was closed after only 58 signatures… Not nearly enough for MS to blink an eye I guess.
My personal laptop is a ASUS so I appreciate Gramps199 post. I’m not a PC expert, so I don’t know that I would take the steps that you did (don’t want to break anything), but thanks for posting your solution.
I use a 3rd party file manager called Explorer++, it has pretty much all the functionality of Windows Explorer. an interface I prefer, and the ability to open tabs (like in a web browser) so you can keep several folders open at once.
It can be downloaded here.
I’d actually recommend getting Windows 8.1 for a couple of reasons. Firstly it does have some improvements over 8.0, and nothing I’ve seen that could make it worse, and also because I believe Microsoft will be stopping security updates sooner on 8.0.
I fucking hate Windows 8. I am so on board with this pitting.
I recently purchased a new, top-of-the-line laptop that was running it, and I couldn’t fucking stand the thing. I returned it for a Macbook Air (to replace my Macbook Pro) and the difference is so utterly profound as to be ridiculous.
FWIW, for many versions of Windows including 8, if you press the Windows key plus ‘E’ that brings up a new explorer. If you repeat, it keeps bringing up more.
So, it’s 2015, and Windows 8/8.1 still sucks. Changes to the UI aside, it is impossible to troubleshoot this damn OS. The only way to fix the stupid piece of crap is to ‘refresh’ or ‘restore’ and reinstall every non approved by M$ program. I have now had the displeasure of attempting to fix 3 different laptops that have botched OS issues due to the inability of M$ to design a working operating system. And God forbid you ever have to reinstall the OS, cause if you didn’t have the foresight to create a restore disk (which is the stupidest move ever Microsoft) you’ll never be able to install a clean copy because the product key is now embedded in the OS. Since the OS is now broken, there is no way to get at it. All in the name of combating piracy by screwing their paying customers.
They took the simplest tasks and buried them so you either cannot find them or have to go through 3 more commands to find them. I’m all for change if it is an improvement, but absolutely nothing in this OS is an improvement, just a move sideways to make it look like they are accomplishing something.
Some advice for Microsoft with the next iteration of Windows:
Return the user interface to the Windows 7 version, give us functionality for DirectX 12, and put the windows key back on a sticker on the DVD or laptop. If you can do that and reduce background processes by 50%, then you’ll have a winner.
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Is Win8 more difficult to troubleshoot because of its smaller user base compared with Win7 or XP?
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Creating recovery media: http://www.howtogeek.com/131907/how-to-create-and-use-a-recovery-drive-or-system-repair-disc-in-windows-8/
So a lot of MS’s incompetence is an extension of essentially dysfunctional office politics.