Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

[Enforcer]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

Using Windows 8 is just like learning to drive a new car. You hate it, until you get used to it. Then you realise what a great improvement has been made.

[SXGuy]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

Windows 8 is great! Once you get used to it. Example, last week I was asked to go out in new company car, now I am used to driving my 17 year old, dead reliable car.
First problem, put the key in door to unlock it, holy hell let loose, car shrieking like a banshee. Work mate shows me that you have to press a button to unlock it, why? I then get into motor, key in the ignition turn it, nothing! dead! won't start. Back into office, apparently have to press the clutch pedal before it will start, confusing. Put it into reverse and an alarm starts beeping, another fault with the car! Then realised that the lights were on, I certainly didn't do it, stopped and put handbrake on, lights turned off, got it, some idiot at the factory has obviously wired lights to handbrake by mistake! I can see a problem with flat battery. So many faults already with a brand new car!
Six gears! Why 6, when I started driving we only had 3, going over the top now.
Stopped down the road to try and get radio to work on Radio 4, no chance, need a university degree to use this radio. Then I realised another fault with motor, they had forgotten to put the window winders on, brand new car and there is no way to open the windows! Crap! To cap it all, started to snow, wipers turned themselves on, screen now smeared so badly that I could hardly see through it, bloody dangerous if you ask me. By now an orange light had come on the dash, it then turned red. Do I stop? No load of crap this car, let it blow up! Wheels started to slip in the snow, yet another warning light on the dash, showing skiddy thing, does this mean the wheels are falling off already?
Why do manufacturers let cars out of the factory without checking that they work? This car is virtually undriveable, why can't they make proper cars like in the old days. I for one would not buy one like it!

And that has to do with Windows 8 how?

[Enforcer]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

Windows 8 is great! Once you get used to it. Example, last week I was asked to go out in new company car, now I am used to driving my 17 year old, dead reliable car.
First problem, put the key in door to unlock it, holy hell let loose, car shrieking like a banshee. Work mate shows me that you have to press a button to unlock it, why? I then get into motor, key in the ignition turn it, nothing! dead! won't start. Back into office, apparently have to press the clutch pedal before it will start, confusing. Put it into reverse and an alarm starts beeping, another fault with the car! Then realised that the lights were on, I certainly didn't do it, stopped and put handbrake on, lights turned off, got it, some idiot at the factory has obviously wired lights to handbrake by mistake! I can see a problem with flat battery. So many faults already with a brand new car!
Six gears! Why 6, when I started driving we only had 3, going over the top now.
Stopped down the road to try and get radio to work on Radio 4, no chance, need a university degree to use this radio. Then I realised another fault with motor, they had forgotten to put the window winders on, brand new car and there is no way to open the windows! Crap! To cap it all, started to snow, wipers turned themselves on, screen now smeared so badly that I could hardly see through it, bloody dangerous if you ask me. By now an orange light had come on the dash, it then turned red. Do I stop? No load of crap this car, let it blow up! Wheels started to slip in the snow, yet another warning light on the dash, showing skiddy thing, does this mean the wheels are falling off already?
Why do manufacturers let cars out of the factory without checking that they work? This car is virtually undriveable, why can't they make proper cars like in the old days. I for one would not buy one like it!

[SXGuy]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

Not having used win 8, i am sure you can install dual boot or reformat and install win 7, ive never known any win version which wouldnt allow it.

I was lucky when i bought my new work pc, it was literally a week before win 8 release lol luckly i had win 7 ultimate on my laptop so was already used to it, however it did take some getting used to for work related software.

I am actually shocked at how ive left XP completely, i remember thinking when Vista was around, ill never leave XP, but i was slightly more impressed with Win 7

[undecided]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

The most extreme malice of all can be found in the fact that Windows Hate PCs cannot even be “downgraded” to 7 or replaced with a usable operating system due to Microbug's malicious tinkering with the BIOS.

Can you not install, say, Windows 7 as a dual-boot? My main concern with Windows 8 would be lack of drivers for some hardware I have.

What happens if you reformat your HD and do a clean Win7/Vista install?

[ScabHunter]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

I can get through the Metro screen, but I just hate it.

As part of the research I carried out on my journey through Windows Hate hell I did find several programs which were able to replace the vandalised start menu. Classic shell is one, StartW8 is another.

That is not the most important issue by a long way. The “system” is designed so that it puts silly menus on the screen every time you move the cursor in from an edge. That would be annoying enough in itself, but it doesn't even work. In over a month of testing the vile thing, I never once managed to get a menu to appear deliberately. Instead, they just flash up on the screen whenever you try to move the cursor to do something useful on the PC you've just paid good money for.

The hardware I had was probably defective. That goes without saying, but nothing excuses Microbug's bloody mindedness, lecherous greed and total contempt for the consumer in the way the “operating system” has been designed. Software is supposed to be customisable so that people can use the features they want. Microbug have deliberately and maliciously engineered it so you cannot disable these so called “hot corners”. Would any Linux developer ever behave like that?

Both Classic Shell and Skip Metro Suite have menu options which are designed to disable these features and give people their PC back. They don't work. Microbug has somehow managed to thwart their functionality just to inflict their own misguided view of the future on the unsuspecting consumer.

The lack of a Start Menu means you have no direct access to any software which you may deem useful, instead you have a screen which looks like something from a £20 cell phone linking to irrelevances and Microbug spam. I assume they are in league with parasites such as Xbox who have managed to corrupt the system to such an extent that the spam site is now the default player for your audio files! That is easy enough to fix, but why the hell should anyone have to?

The most extreme malice of all can be found in the fact that Windows Hate PCs cannot even be “downgraded” to 7 or replaced with a usable operating system due to Microbug's malicious tinkering with the BIOS. If you bought a pair of shoes from Tesco, and had to return them because they didn't fit, would they chop your feet off at the ankles to stop you buying some from anywhere else? Microbug would.

Here is a useful link -

How to bring back the Start menu and button to Windows 8 | ExtremeTech

There are some vitally important comments at the start before it degenerates into the usual meaningless arguments. The bottom line is that you need to be VERY careful when buying new computer hardware.

I have to stress that I am not a Microbug hater, or someone with a grudge. I have used their operating systems for well over 95% of my computing life, and been satisfied with them. Having experienced the extreme vileness and sickening immorality of Hate, I hope it puts them in the bankruptcy court. If there was any justice in the world, it would put them in the criminal court as well.

SH

[Enforcer]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

Now you need to get rid of AVG! Windows 8 has full antivirus protection as standard. Defender. Don't install anything else.

[vint1954]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

I have managed to find the add & remove programmes so Norton is gone.

Purchased an external DVD and that works fine.

I can get through the Metro screen, but I just hate it.

Should read the instructions first I suppose, but never had to on other versions.

[evilcartman]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

Well I have only been using it for a day, and not impressed. I hate the smart start up screen and cannot get rid of it.

The learning curve is significantly steeper than previous generations of Windows but it's a much better operating system under the skin.

To get past the "Metro" screen, just hit your Windows button and click "Desktop".

If you really can't live without the Start button, google for "Classic Shell".

However, if you start typing the name of whatever you're looking for in the Metro screen, it usually comes up in the list of suggestions anyway.

[vint1954]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

Well I have only been using it for a day, and not impressed. I hate the smart start up screen and cannot get rid of it.

Cannot find out where to remove programmes. There is a Norton AV installed with the ultrabook that I cannot remove, having installed AVG.

You may be able to download the media centre free at the moment, but you have to upgrade to 8 pro first.

The laptop has no dvd player, too thin. Seems there are no external dvd players for windows 8.

Reserve judgement for a short while, but 8 seems too controlling and too limited in being able to alter your own laptop as you want

[Numpty Monkey]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

Glad you got got it sorted mate,
I hate Windows 7 (and I'm trying to install Win XP onto a lappy that had Win 7 on)
so trying Windows 8 is a now a definate big NO

[ScabHunter]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

Just to update this saga and close off the thread -

Today I finally received the refund from Amazon for the laptop running Windows Hate, so the nightmare is over. It is a lot of time spent, though, just to get back to where you started.

The only positive thing to come out of my experience is that I was finally pushed into researching and testing Linux. This has been successful, and I now know that if Microbug continue down the path they have embarked on with Hate, I will have a position of refuge.

I have now invested in a refurbished PC which is running XP Professional. I have used that operating system before for many years and never found it to be a problem. Most of the refurbished PCs being sold today have either this OS or XP Home. How many years will it be before 7 is routine on refurbished PCs? Whatever the answer, it is obvious that PCs running either 7 or XP will be available for a long time to come.

I am now older and wiser. I will work with Windows XP Home, XP Pro and 7, and also hopefully do more experimenting with Linux. If the future of Windows is Hate and similar systems, the future of me will be Torvalds.

If you do decide to buy a PC with Windows Hate installed despite all of the warnings, at least do so from Amazon so you are protected by a return policy which is actually honoured. Test the PC extensively during the early days, to see if you really can come to terms with it.

My relationship with Hate is over for good. Whatever you decide, I hope it works out for you.

SH

[undecided]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

If you are not confident in burning iso files to disc, I suggest thet you spend the £49.99 and get the disks. Dead easy to dual boot then.

I have burned lots of ISO files to disk, the problem can be to get your PC to boot using them, even when you use the bootable option to burn them.

With my prvevious PC, I couldn't get it to boot using any of the Vista disks I'd burned as bootable, even though they were fine on the VMWare machines I had installed at the time. I could only get an old XP CD to boot my PC, maybe because the others were DVDs, had to be due to the size of the newer versions of Windows. I also tried burning a free self-contained bootable Lynux disk (Knoppix) and using it to boot but it didn't work either. I ended up having to install XP from the only bootable disk I had, then installing Vista on top.

Haven't tried booting my newer laptop from a 'bootable' DVD yet.

[evilcartman]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

Having said the above, I'm still using the preview release edition of Windows 8 at the moment. It works beautifully on my hardware, as I said.

However, I've just ordered a barebones bundle from Novatech as my present desktop computer is very long in the tooth and definitely past its best. The snag is that my licence on the preview ends on 15 January. I'm reluctant to pay for and download the official release until the new machine arrives, as I don't want any hassles in then transferring the Windows licence to the new machine.

Novatech are generally very good at sending goods the next day, even though they always say 3-4 days to cover themselves. If it does arrive a couple of days later, I may end up installing good old XP to tide me over until it arrives.

I have also now downloaded Mint 14, so I'll have a little play with that too.

[Enforcer]

Re: Windows 8 Is Entirely Unusable

I have had some major probs with Linux. But only since 10.04. Wont read wireless cards, firefox too slow, graphics cards not recognised etc. Still think it is a great "free" os. Have to be a dedicated user to make it work on some hardware.