Windows 8 (Desktop) worth it? Are you using it?

[eastyy]

been trying windows 8 now seems ok (got a start menu replacement thankfully ) and using windows media player classic to play vids .Doesnt seem to bad though if it was not for this stuff i really would find it annoying


Probably an obvious thing but when videos run and it goes to the "metro" would be nice to press escape to actually quit it but since i now have a video player thats no longer a issue

Though some games have issues with my 6950 in cross fire though bizarrely skyrim seems to run a lot better in single card then it did in windows 7

[Lyris]

I was a little bit taken aback last night when I was booking flights (to CES in January).

That includes about 3 different flights which all have to line up and coincide exactly (Glasgow->London->Las Vegas->Santa Ana, and back again). So basically, a bunch of different tabs open trying to get everything to align and get the best prices.

Windows then told me it was going to shut down in 5 minutes to install updates. There was *no way* to opt out. It was as simple as that - restarting in 5. Absolutely no way to say "do it later" and not a single solitary crap given to the user - I couldn't believe it. I had to figure out the whole thing again because the stupid thing decided it was time to close. That is another definite step back. In Windows 7 you could tell it to wait 10 minutes or even a few hours.

Again, fine if you're using a computer to watch YouTube videos on the bus, not so fine if you're using it for actual work.

[charlesr]

Change your settings dude. Tell it to check automatically but let you choose when (or if) to download and install. You don't want it downloading 200MB during a gaming session or a netflix vid something.

[mekanor]

Just installed this today. Still getting used to the start screen and still deciding if i try and bring back the old one...

I do really like the metro interface, but it's clear it's not designed for desktop PCs, so I find it weird that they try and force you to use it so much... Like I said, I quite like it, but I think at any one time I'd rather be using either the desktop or metro... not both at the same time if that makes sense?

Anyhow, depending on how I feel about it in a couple of days, I may buy a surface tablet when they come out. I find ios too restrictive and lightweight so even though I've wanted a tablet for a while, I'm not getting an ipad. A tablet running a full version of windows sounds like it might be a keeper for me though, depending on how I get on with this in the next couple of days.

[EJG1980]

I finally stopped a few weeks of to-and-fro and bought myself a new gaming PC, which was delivered yesterday, so I've now stepped aboard the Windows 8 train.

I quite like the look of the metro interface, but it's not really very intuitive. I found myself having to look up how to do various little things online (or trying stuff at random) rather than being able to work them out naturally.

The whole metro / desktop mix makes things feel very disjointed and a bit messy, such as various items in the metro PC settings taking you to the desktop control panel rather than everything being in one place. Agree with mekanor that it'd feel better if you were just permanently in one or the other. I think in a couple of versions MS will probably try integrate old desktop programs into metro a bit better so it doesn't seem like you're switching back and forth.

Oh, and like Lyris, I have a high res monitor (2,560 x 1,440) and everything being full screen in metro wastes a lot of space. A lot more options for arranging metro windows would make things better (such as being able to have a web browser taking up half the screen, and three small apps stacked vertically in the other half).

Still, I'm not really going to use the PC for much more than gaming so I expect I'm barely going to be touching the metro side of things.

[charlesr]

Screw metro. Tablets are slow and cumbersome (in terms of GUI) compared to using a mouse, so you just accept that. But I shouldn't have to accept it on a desktop. The install should have "are you touchscreen or mouse" and make it awesome for you either way. Massive fail trying to compromise both at the same time.

[Baseley09]

Built a new PC and have gone with 7 hooraaaaa. Fight the power.

[JSR]

It seems you're unable to run a recovery of your machine if you're unable to boot into the OS or have the recovery discs. Pretty insane step backwards compared to Vista and 7, essentially making tons of home users unable to run recovery if something messes up their Windows partition, or get a virus that prevents the in-system recovery option.

[charlesr]

For real? Shurely Shome Mishtake? Link?

[Lyris]

Please tell me you're kidding...

[Brad]

I don't understand. If you can't boot into the OS and you don't have install/recovery disc how could you ever recover your machine anyway? You need to boot into something in order to run a program to try and fix it no? Was there some kind of magic in Windows 7 that got around this issue?

Built a new PC and have gone with 7 hooraaaaa. Fight the power.

Way to show the man dude. Installing Windows!

[speedlolita]

Clean install every time.

[JSR]

For real? Shurely Shome Mishtake? Link?

I don't have any link that explicitly states it, but if you search for options on how to enter recovery from boot, you'll see all answers basically saying that it isn't possible. It seems Microsoft has urged PC manufacturers to no longer include the proprietary recovery start-up system (pressing one of the F-keys during boot etc), as almost nobody does it anymore. On all the PC's we have encountered at work, only Samsung still includes the option - but only on select models. And if you want to boot directly into the recovery partition with something like Gparted, you'll need to turn off UEFI boot mode and activate legacy BIOS support, otherwise you won't be able to boot from anything else than the HDD/SSD. But this in turn makes the HDD/SSD unavailable, so this isn't an option either. The only solution is to use either a Windows 8 disc, or a model specific recovery disc.

If your PC is unable to boot, get used to seeing this screen:



That's another cool feature in Windows 8: emoticons.

[speedlolita]

What? You always needed a disc for a recovery install.

Edit: UEFI sucks btw. Far too fiddly.

[Brad]

I think what we're talking about here is that OEMs used to put a recovery partition on the PC so if you knackered your boot drive you could boot form that and attempt a repair.