Is anyone else up late downloading windows 8?

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 1:16 pm

reible wrote: . . .
Anyway learning new things keeps the little gray cells healthy.

Ed

Like redundant physical exercise, I consider mental equivalents unsavory!:eek:

paulmcohen · Post by **paulmcohen** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 12:18 am

stephenrc wrote:Everyone seems to think that there isn't a Start button in Win8. There are two hidden start buttons on the desktop, put the mouse in the lower left corner or the two right side corners on the slide out menu. All they do is switch between the tile screen and desktop.

Be more specific or please provide a picture I can't find the Start Menu. I can fine the metro desktop with the label Start but that is not the start menu or anything close.

damagi · Post by **damagi** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 2:41 am

paulmcohen wrote:Be more specific or please provide a picture I can't find the Start Menu. I can fine the metro desktop with the label Start but that is not the start menu or anything close.

The start menu in windows vista and windows 7 had two "modes" essentially. One was a "recent apps" and/or pinned apps. The second was when you hit the all programs option and you got the list of all the programs you have installed that have start menu entries. In essense, those are still there in windows 8.

Hitting the windows key or the start button gives you the start screen. This is similar to the recent and pinned apps scenario. Before you had a small space to try and find the icon for what you wanted, though searching helped with that. The icons were static. With the start screen you get the similar pinned app experience, but the icons are bigger and bring underlying data to you.

If you slide to the upper right, you will get the sidebar. If you click search, you will get the list of apps by default. This is the closest thing to the old "start menu" in terms of the list of every app you have. In either the start screen or after clicking search you can just start typing and it will find the matching apps.

Also, from search you can search anywhere. Just type what you want to find, then click on the place where you want to search. For example, if you have the ebay app installed (which is free), you can hit start, type shopsmith, then click the ebay app icon on the right side and it will use the app to search for shopsmith stuff.

bffulgham · Post by **bffulgham** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 9:07 am

One of the guys I work with is also trying out Win-8. He found a free app from SourceForge, Classic Shell.
I have not tried it myself as I'm trying to get accustomed to the new stuff, but my friend seems to really like it. You might give it a shot.....

Bud

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Mon Dec 03, 2012 11:55 am

This morning in the Tampa Bay Times technology section of the paper the writer said DON'T Upgrade to Windows 8. He cited various reasons but it boiled down to
1: high high learning curve.
2: not suited to non touch screen system
3: no real benefit other than a 30 second decease in boot up time.

His predictions is mass release of touch screen laptops after the first of the year. Touch screen monitors that can replace your existing monitor and new touch pad technology in both laptops and desktops.

I have seen some touch screen laptops and number of new laptops with touch pads very similar to Apple.

I need to upgrade and I waited for windows 8. Now I think I will probably go to Apple. Unless I can find a Window 7 laptop with a touch pad like an apple.

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:34 pm

I have a variety of gadgets. I've got a first gen iPad, an iPhone from work, my personal Android phone, my personal Android tablet, my work laptop, my office PC at work, my office PC at home, and then there's my wife's Android phone and tablet, my son's Android phone and laptop, etc.

I think there is a time when a touch screen makes sense and comes in handy. I'm becoming more proficient "typing" on a touch screen (using just my thumbs), but will never achieve the speed and accuracy of a full keyboard.

I hate iOS. I admit it's a very solid and usable operating system, but it's so locked down, forces the user into a box, and dumbed down. I much prefer the openness, expandability, customization, etc. of Android. My phone and tablet go everywhere with me and there's really not much I need to do that I can't do with them - include manage the network for the university I work at.

But, while I can do just about anything with my touch-screen Android devices, some things I can't do as efficiently and quickly as I can with Windows and a full keyboard and mouse. Conversely there are some things that the touch-screen devices excel at.

My laptop is set up to run both Windows 7 and Ubuntu. It's a Dell XT3 - it's a laptop but also has a touch screen, and the screen will spin around and fold over the keyboard making it a tablet. There are some rare occasions where the touch screen comes in handy. But it mostly goes unused. Windows (at least versions 7 and earlier) just aren't made for a touch screen. Windows 8 is, but it's clunky to use with a mouse and keyboard. Not to mention it is hideously ugly. I do not want to swap Windows 7 and a keyboard/mouse for Windows 8 and a touch screen. For what I need Windows for, I need a real keyboard and mouse. If I were going to go touch-screen exclusively, I'd still not switch to Windows 8. I'll stay with Android. Just looking at Windows 8 gives me a headache.

I've been toying with the idea of installing Macintosh OS X on my Dell laptop. I will move to OS X before I move to Windows 8. There's still a learning curve, but OS X doesn't hurt my eyes.

I digressed and don't even remember what I had started out intending to say.

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Mon Dec 03, 2012 4:56 pm

heathicus
I don't think a touch screen precludes a keyboard. I have played with a few of the touchscreen laptops and I use the touch screen for most things I would use a normal Laptop touchpad for and I use the keyboard for all normal data entry type functions.

I agree I would go to IOS before I go Windows 8

Question everyone I know that has used both IOS devices and Android tell me they abandoned the Android.

I have played with IOS devices, mostly walk into the Apple store start playing with IPAD, IPHONE, IMAC and while I was forced to ask a few questions I figured most of it out.

I have tried doing the same thing with various Android machines, Sony, Samsung, Lenovo, and a few others. I have had sales rep standing by me and without fail I can't figure out anything on my own.

Same way with Windows 8, it is great if all you do is facebook but try to clear you Explorer temp storage or erase you last search history. Or find which file you hid your quicken password in.

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Mon Dec 03, 2012 5:27 pm

I love that there are options and don't expect Android to be best suited for everybody - just like iOS is not very well suited for me! I agree that it is very easy and intuitive. But that comes at a price. iOS, for one thing, has no file manager. You can't open a file in one app and work with it, save it and work with that same file in another app. I can't browse the files on my home network over wifi, and copy files back and forth between the iPad and my home file server.

On my Android tablet, I can lay in bed or sit on the couch with one of my kids snuggled in my lap, browse my file server, copy a picture to my tablet, open it with one app and do some color editing, open it with another app and add a text caption, and copy the new file back to my file server. If there's a way to do that on the iPad without physically going to the computer and using iTunes and synching, then I haven't figured it out. Every time I try to just copy a file to the iPad it seems like an exercise in frustration.

I have other apps that will automate functions based on criteria I set up. When I get to work it will automatically turn my wifi on and automatically turn it off when I leave. It will put my phone in "quiet" mode at 10:00pm every night. And if I'm in a meeting or go see a movie and silence my phone, I can set a timer and it will un-silence itself when the time is up. There are other options that I've played with but don't use that often like the ability to automatically launch my audiobook program when I plug in the headphones, or the ability to control my phone from a web browser on my PC. You can't do those kinds of things on Apple devices (unless you jailbreak them) because they don't allow that type of hardware access to developers.

But then, Android isn't quite as fluid and intuitive as iOS. Then there's the problem with every manufacturer using a customized interface so how you do something on a Samsung might be different on a Motorola. But these are problems I don't mind dealing with. They might be a show-stopper for someone else. And that's ok. Variety, options, and competition are good things.

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Mon Dec 03, 2012 6:51 pm

I have Ubuntu 12.04 running on 3 laptops and a desktop PC and OS-X running on an old "Slot-load" G-3 iMAC. I may re-install a copy of XP as a dual boot with Unbuntu on the desktop just to run a couple of items now and then. I still have a copy of XP, I wouldn't do it if I had to pay anything...

.

paulmcohen · Post by **paulmcohen** » Tue Dec 04, 2012 12:35 am

Ed in Tampa wrote:This morning in the Tampa Bay Times technology section of the paper the writer said DON'T Upgrade to Windows 8. He cited various reasons but it boiled down to
1: high high learning curve.
2: not suited to non touch screen system
3: no real benefit other than a 30 second decease in boot up time.

His predictions is mass release of touch screen laptops after the first of the year. Touch screen monitors that can replace your existing monitor and new touch pad technology in both laptops and desktops.

I have seen some touch screen laptops and number of new laptops with touch pads very similar to Apple.

I need to upgrade and I waited for windows 8. Now I think I will probably go to Apple. Unless I can find a Window 7 laptop with a touch pad like an apple.

AT&T was selling a Windows Surface Pro machine what blew me away, it was $500, has an Intel i7 quad core, SD hard disk and touch screen. I got to use it for an hour and it did everything my HP laptop did and more. Most importantly is everything ran including the original version of CutList which required Windows XP. HP while slow has been releasing new drivers include one for the touchpad to do a lot of what could only be done on a touchscreen so I am getting happier.