Are Windows 8 Convertibles Being Given a Fair Chance?

Hi

I found the app named Modern Mix, it makes Windows 8 open everything in a windows like all other Windows versions always have.

It really makes Windows 8 a lot easier to use.

http://download.cnet.com/ModernMix/3000-2344_4-75886833.html

Mike

Is this worth the 5 bucks?

Hi

If you want to use the Metro interface it make it a lot easier.

I do use Classic Shell and I have since Windows 7 came out, (I don't like the scrolling program menu in 7) and it is really all you need if you want to totally avoid the Metro look.

But if you want to run things from the Metro UI then having things open in Windows really helps.
You can open multiple windows and access the taskbar just like you can in real Windows.

For $5 I think I'll spring for it, if it was more I probably wouldn't.

Mike

The key or keys to having to "buy" or purchase beyond the means in which we intended is the problem, is it not? To "force-feed" anything down our throats is the ultimate demise of any culture who wishes to dominate its' populous. Thus, what makes MS any different? Again, as I keep stating, if MS wants to offer constant placebo-improvements, that's all fine and dandy, AS LONG AS THEY LEAVE THE ORIGINAL QUALITIES INFUSED INTO THEIR PRODUCTS -- hence, that which made their product great in the first place.

Hey MS, if you want me to like MS 8 then really do make it better, without taking away the other constructs which made me a happy and useful PC user in the first place.

Signed,

A very disgruntled MS8 explorer.

Why should anyone spring an extra $5.00 for anything?
This is bad PR for MS. It's rich man telling poor man to pay.
We're sick of it, got it MS, we're really tired of the pay-game.
Like oatmeal, be glad you've got a cash cow in XP/7, and be happy!
STOP JAMMING CR*P DOWN OUR THROATS!!!!!!!!!!

by abandoning their customers. I have grown weary of the whole Microsoft OS scene. I ran XP on machines designed 2 to 4 "generations ago and they worked well. It is clear to me; I can't say for anyone else, that Microsoft sabatoges their earlier OS and Office releases with "service packs" that in addition to fixing security issues are possibly designed to degrade the performance of previous generation hardware and third party software. 2 years ago when I bought my Windows 7 laptop, it was fast and easy to use. Since windows 8 has been introduced, it seems to have gotten fat and slow. Same thing happened to XP. Hmmm. Coincidence? My imagination? And in the newer operating systems (7 or you have to buy at least the professional version upgrade to be able to run XP compatible programs in XP mode. "If we can't sell you a new office version, then you'll have to pay for an OS upgrade to continue to use the programs you know and like."

I don't like the fact that if you have a motherboard or processor problem and you upgrade your motherboard, you have to buy a new license to run the OS you already own. Their licensing policy is so confusing, they themselves do not understand it.

I didn't need Windows 8. I don't need Office 2013. But if I get a new machine, it is at least very difficult to get the previous versions that worked well for you in the past and would continue for some time. It is my opinion that MS designed Win 8 for the Surface and that's what they want everyone to run it on. I have an Android tablet that does everything I want a tablet to do and I don't want to have my OS and applications hampered by gesturing and dragging and such.

You can still buy Windows 7 computers if you shop in the business section of the online company's like Dell, and others. As for Windows 8,I think that Microsoft got so scared of the iPad that it completely gave up on computing to be competitive with that portable little pad. Now, the only operating system they have is a mobile one for their Microsoft Surface devices, and they are expecting the rest of the computing world to come around to what they are doing. That leaves us desk top, and lap top users out in the cold.
The Metro interface is a cutesy design for mobile devices, not for real computers that do real work. Now the only real computers left on the market (other than Windows 7 devices) are Apples, and Lenix boxes.
It may take until Windows 9 that they finally admit that they were fundamentally wrong, and offer two operating systems. One for their mobile devices (Windows Surface, and Windows Phone), and one more traditional system for desk tops, and lap tops. Just like Apple dose today. Live and learn Microsoft.

Regards,
TMV

Microsoft has left the desktop fully intact. Everything works as well or better than Windows 7. Just ignore metro and go on with your computing. If you really don't want to deal with metro at all download one of the start button replacements.

I just don't see the problem as you've described it.

My favorite OS is Windows 7 but I'm running Windows 8 and feel that the desktop is just as good if not better than Windows 7.

There are many glitches in that desktop mode and I'm sure folk that want to sell 8 will write such but it's not that good.
Bob

I'm sure you like Windows 8, and to a degree so do I. I have been running it in a virtual machine on my Windows 7 desk top since the upgrade first went on sale. What I don't like is the Metro/Modern interface. Almost every program I install, and run dumps me back onto the old desk top. That is not a well coded OS in my opinion, and yes one of the first things I did was install a Start button/menu replacement.
Windows 8 is a solid OS, but if you have to learn to use it all over again, and it still dumps you back to the same old desktop as Windows 7, I don't see the point of it. I will say it again, Microsoft should have split it's efforts into two products. A mobile OS, and a desk top OS. To me, this whole experience stinks of the New Coke debacle, change just for the sake of change.

Regards,
TMV

and that's what I've been saying all along from the first day I tried Win 8 out... it is a NITEMARE.. might work on Tablets but as for using it on a PC it is horrendous experience.. unless one just wants to txt..email..FB.. what a disaster MS created trying to force-feed a tablet OS down the throats of the PC user.. as for me...I don't do tablets .. to top it off a tablet with Win 8 is laughable.. I'd rather use my Droid

The three major complaints I read about Windows 8 are 1) the missing start button, and 2) the computer boots into the start screen instead of the desktop, 3) MS changed the way things such as the Control Panel are accessed.

I can certainly understand why, for some, those changes are annoying. But for me they are no big deal.

1) As for the start button being gone I didn't use it much anyway. I tacked the applications I use most of the time to the start bar and rarely ever went back to the start button for any reason. I do hope MS changes this though and puts the start button back so it doesn't keep coming up as a complaint.

2) Many don't realize how well laptops and desktops make use of sleep mode in Windows 7/8. My laptop will sit for a week or more in sleep mode without draining the battery. My desktop will sit indefinitely (as long as there is power). Why do I mention this? Because if you don't fully shut down your computer but rather put it to sleep it will come back up in the state you left it when you put it to sleep. If you were on the desktop when you put it to sleep then it will come back up in the desktop. No big deal for me.

3) MS moving things around. Well MS has changed the way people access things like the Control Panel in every new Windows version. Most people like XP or W7 but in both cases they have gotten used to the new way of accessing control items. This is nothing new and it is just a learning curve. I find going to the control panel is no big deal in W8, just different.

Most people don't complain about the tile interface. For me, with W8 running on my desktop, I'm in the desktop 95% of the time, but switch over to the start screen for fun. There are a few things I find easier to do on the start screen and I do them there rather then through a browser.

The biggest error I think MS made was attempting to push people down the path to the start screen and tiles rather than making W8 more like W7 with an optional switch over to the tile interface. If they make just a few changes I think most people would find very little to complain about and a few things to really like about W8.

Frankly speaking, and with all respect, 7 came and went, but I love it. What's with dozer-8? What, am I stupid enough to need little icons for my JUNK? NOT.

I agree with your outlook on 8, it sucks, as do all these little "cutesy" little tablets, and flip-top computers. And what about the robotic-type commercial they have out for 8, where everyone sits around a table and flips their computers, all around??? Is this 2013 A SPACE ODYSSEY? Sorry, but like you, I don't buy into 8, and never will. What's next, real robots tossing around 9, then 10? If MS keeps it up I can see myself a MAC MAN sometime in the near future.

MS is quickly becoming the biggest joke in town.

Did you ever see or use Microsoft BOB?

MS Bob was aimed at the HOME market.

It was an attempt at making the software more interactive. For power users, it really wouldn't be helpful, but for those who weren't - it may have been a bit more useful. Children might have gotten it better than adults who already mastered the 2% of MS Word they were already familiar with and used regularly.

Also, Clippy was something you could disable entirely.

Care to try again?

I'll have to think harder to find a good one. I will share that at the office and home we are on 8 now. Not a good reason except we must be sure our apps work.

"Eat your own dog food."
Bob

Hey, that's it, let's get the two year olds' out of the box and get them to the big box stores -- now I see, that's where MS is going. I'm sure the kiddies get a real real kick out of the commercial with the android-looking humans sitting around a table tossing, flipping and freaking us out with there notebooks, flip-tops, or whatever the hell they are.....

Yes we do expect more from manufacture's like MS. But when it mandates a learning curve, and boxy little icons to lead me to my stuff, well then I am certain that they had a crew of little kids helping out in the "green room". I don't know about you folks, but I say if a corp like MS brings out a product that is supposed to be special, then by all means MAKE IT SPECIAL. Maybe it's just me, the leap from OS98 to XP, well that was neat and better, and 7 was a definite improved over VISTA. But 8? What makes it better? Let's race.

MS has done a lot of good things over the years. Unfortunately Windows 8 is not one of them. There were plenty of us during the pre-release days telling them that taking the Start button away for notebook & desktop users was lunacy, but they didn't listen then, and it's too bad but only when it hits squarely in the pocketbook will they hopefully start to listen. As the old saying goes, sometimes you have to hit a ******* over the head to get its attention! I started using PCs back in the DOS 3 days and have stuck with every release since (including Windows ME and Vista), but this time they've defied any rational form of logic that I can see with Windows 8. It's too bad they haven't listened to their customers, but when they get hit hard enough in the pocketbook, maybe they will. In the mean time thank goodness for Start8 and Classic Start for those unfortunate enough to be stuck with Windows 8.

... ever since then they've basically been resting on their laurels. What caused me to switch to Linux was my concern over malware. What is it about security that's so hard for Ballmer & Co. to understand?

Quoting 18 year old security issues kinda shoots any holes in your cred.

I take it you haven't paid much, if any attention to anything that's been going on in the Windows realm for far too long.

Yes, there have been issues with security - but for the most part those are in the past.

1.) XP SP2 was all about security. There were numerous changes - too many to name offhand mostly because I've forgotten - it's been so long.
2.) Vista introduce UAC - which is much like Linux in so far as you run as a regular user and need to escalate to Administrator to install new stuff and introduced Windows Defender - an antimalware product.
3.) Windows 7 made UAC less annoying.
4.) Windows 8 now includes Microsoft Security Essentials - and was merged with the existing Windows Defender to be a more comprehensive all in one product.

I really don't mind you being a Linux fan, but if you're going to comment on another OS - at least take the time to do a bit of research into what's been going on. It makes you look better if you do.

"The only free security product we've tested this year, Microsoft's Security Essentials, is our default recommendation of what to install to provide your PC with a bare minimum of protection against malware. It's only available for Windows 7 and below. Windows 8 has its own integrated Windows Defender, which looks just like Microsoft Security Essentials in terms of its interface, but which appears, in preliminary tests, to behave differently when confronted with malicious software.

Security Essentials protected our PC in 85 per cent of malware exposures. Admittedly, it only completely blocked 57 of 100 viruses, but it neutralised another 28 after the process of infection had begun. In 15 cases, it failed to protect us. That's better than having no protection at all, but 15 infections is not good. It did well in our false positive tests, only blocking one legitimate program, giving it a total accuracy rating of just 223.5."
h t t p : / / www.expertreviews.co.uk/software/1295698/microsoft-security-essentials

57 out of 100 viruses. Those numbers fail to impress.

When I switched to Win 7, it scrambled my desktop and left me with many programs and files in limbo. It could do some things better and faster, but I spent too much time searching. Later, while duplicating some files to another internal drive, Windows 7 crashed completely and refused reinstallation from the disc. $$ gone!
Windows 8, which seems to 7 plus the tablet look, is of no interest to me. I don't use smartphones or tablets, so its famous appearance help me a bit. I do most of my computing by keyboard and trackball, not tapping icons. I know that the tablets can be turned off, and then I'd have something like Win 7. No, thanks.

Now M$ is pulling 7 from the stores and trying to force 8, in spite of its widespread unpopularity. The wants of the people be damned!

I'm not going to be controlled by M$. I'm moving to Linux A.S.A.P.

I'm concerned about my wife, who doesn't take to computers well and can barely do the things she does with it. I'm just going to keep her XP going as long as possible instead of confusing her with another OS.

It's very XP-like, runs Firefox and Skype and pretty-much anything a casual PC user could possibly need. Installation can be a bit daunting for a neophyte (the whole re-size Win partition, set swap file, set Ext4 partition thing), but if you're already setting yourself up with GNU/Linux, you'll have some experience with it.

I've been installing Mint as dual-boot for users disenchanted with Microsoft products for some time now. I've only found myself unable to do so on one occasion: a laptop with dynamic drives (can be done, but a bit daunting even for me). The general consensus has been delight with the OS - well, more like, they don't *notice* it, they just do what they want as they were accustoming to doing before, but without the annoyances, which I suppose I translate as 'delight'.