My Experience With Windows 8

A few months after Windows 8.1 came out, I bought a Windows 8.1 DVD for my Lenovo V570 that I bought in 2011.  When I had Windows 8.1, my experience was the worst experience on the laptop.

1) Immediately after installing Windows 8

After installing Windows 8, I knew something was wrong.  When installing, the drivers on my computer stopped working.  I had to wait to install them from Lenovo’s web site.  After installing that, I had to reinstall my copy of Microsoft Office 2010 AND Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD 11.

After installing the programs and the drivers, there was another problem:  The UPDATED mouse drivers.

The first major problem was with swiping.

On a tablet, you’re able to simply swipe in from the edge of the screen.  With a mouse, the swiping is the same as moving the mouse.  This just causes a the user to swipe when trying to move the mouse.

The next problem is the Start Screen.

When pressing the Start button, I got a ton of tiles with the apps (that I never used once).  The Mai app was also never used because I just downloaded Microsoft Live Essentials.  One of the problems was if I tried to back up the system.

Windows 8 removed the Backup and Restore program.  Instead, it had “file history”.  But things like updating had to be accessed by going to the settings app and then loading the Control Panel (That was only after I got the 8.1 Update 1)  Before then, I had to find the Control Panel EACH TIME.  I never got it to work.

Another problem is the Charms Bar.

You could either bring it up with the Win+C or hold your mouse to the corner and hold it there for a second.  Then move the mouse down.

The biggest problem is the UI.

They just combined the Modern UI with the original UI.

When you close applications in the desktop is to click the red button with an x.

• Desktop applications are:
  • Windowed, but can have an option to have full screened programs.
  • Menus
  • Universal Navigation conventions
    • With Windows 7, applications use the Windows 7 UI theme.
• While using the Metro Design:
  • Only full screen
  • No menus
  • Navigation changed between apps.

 

Companies that make operating systems have reports on how people should develop their applications.

These are Human Interface Guidelines.

• Apple
• One for Mac
• One for IOS
• Google has one for Android.
• Microsoft also has one.
• And also added another completely set of guidelines for the Windows Store.

When Windows 95 was introduced, there was a button added to let you access everything on your computer.  But since it was new, people wouldn’t know what it was, so Microsoft added the word “Start” onto the button.

They stuck with that until Windows XP.  Vista replaced it with an orb.  But by then, we knew what it was.

They got rid of the Start menu COMPLETELY!

The PC review experts that are even saying the same thing. 

“Windows 8 is optimized for content consumption rather than content production and multitasking.  Whereas content consumption can be easily done on other media, such as tablets and phones, production and multitasking are still best suited for PCs.  Windows 8 appears to ignore that.” –Raluca Budiu, User Experience Specialist, Nielson Norman Group

“One of the worst aspects of Windows 8… is that the product’s very name has become a misnomer.  ‘Windows’ no longer supports multiple windows on the screen… the product ought to be renamed ‘Microsoft Window’.”-Jakob Neilson,Co-founder, Neilson Norman Group

If Microsoft let people chose what you want, it wouldn’t be as bad.

It’s not just a bad operating sytem, it is a bad OS that Microsoft is forcing PC users to buy.

It is so bad that it should be recalled.

Who sold out to accept this?  Whoever did should be fired!

Windows Vista Features

Features new to Vista:

Windows shell:

• Windows Aero
• New Start Menu
  • All Programs menu is no longer a horizontally cascading list.
  • Instead, it is a folder view with a fixed size.

Explorer

• Task Panel removed and relevant task options are integrated in the toolbar.
• New views are available.
• Icons are scalable up to 256 x 256 pixels.
  • Are stored as .png to maintain compatibility.
  • Only larger sized icons can use .png
• Column headers are available in all explorer views and allow filtering, sorting, grouping, and stacking.
• The Details Pane also allows for the change of some metadata such as the Author and Title in files that support them in Windows Explorer.
• Tags are added to allow easier categorization and retrieval.
• When moving or copying files, Windows Explorer displays the full source and destination path, size and number of items and the transfer speed in megabytes per second.
• When renaming a file, Explorer highlights only the file name to prevent the extension from being changed and corrupting the file.
• For all Vista Premium Ready PCs, when using Alt+Tab to switch between open windows, a preview of each open window appears instead of the icons.  Also, win pressing Windows+Tab, a Flip 3D feature will stack the windows and they can be rotated in 3D.
  • This feature is also in Windows 7, but was removed in Windows 8 and shows the recent apps list instead.

Other Improvements:

• The Date and Time control panel has been rewritten completely for Windows Vista and allows two other clocks.
• Blue-Ray, HD DVD, Super Video CD, and Video CD were added to Auto play.
  • Auto play is a global Control Panel Setting instead of a per-device setting starting in Vista.
• It is now possible to install and select non-English languages on a per-user bases which transforms the entire shell user interface.
• JPEG Files can be natively set as the desktop wallpaper without using Active Desktop.  Also, the aspect ratio of images is maintained properly while applying them as the desktop wallpaper.
• New Disk Cleanup handlers
• Property Sheet extension know as Previous Versions is added.
• Dialog boxes also display their status on the taskbar.  Previously, only windows showed their status on the taskbar.
• The Version tab that appeared in Windows XP and the Summary Tab for al files on NTFS volumes have been combined into a single Details tab.
• Context menu commands to open a command prompt at the selected folder and to copy their path.
• A new Task Dialog API.
• Common dialogs for applications such as Open, Save, Choose folder, Print, Page Setup, Font, Etc. have been enhanced.
• Games Explorer provides access to all installed games from a single location, making it easy to manage multiple games.
• WebDAV now supports operation over SSL connections.
  • This was available in Windows XP in the Service Pack 2 Update.
  • Improvements in C++.

Search

• System-wide Integrated Search.
• Added in the start menu, open/save dialog boxes, and several applications in Windows Vista.  By default, Instant Search indexes a small number of folders.
• The search engine uses indexing to allow for a quick display of results.
• Options allow the user to choose the file type, how it should be indexed, the properties, or the properties and the file contents.
• The Start Menu search doubles as the run command.

Sidebar

• The Windows sidebar is a panel that can be placed on either the left or the right hand sides of the screen where the user can place Desktop Gadgets.
• The gadgets can also be placed on other parts of the desktop.
• Windows Vista ships with 11 gadgets.
  • Calendar
  • Clock
  • Contacts
  • CPU Meter
  • Currency
  • Conversion
  • Feed Headlines
  • Notes
  • Picture Puzzle
  • Slide show
  • Stocks
  • Weather
• Additional gadgets were published at Microsoft’s web site.
• Getting new gadgets on both Windows Vista and Windows 7 was discontinued because of security issues and to promote Windows 8.1’s use of Windows Store apps.

New and upgraded Applications:

• Backup and Restore Center
• Windows Mail
• Windows Contacts
• Windows Calendar
• Windows Fax and Scan
• Windows Meeting Space
• Paint
• WordPad
• Sound Recorder
• Snipping Tool
• Magnifier
• Photo Gallery
• Movie Maker
• DVD Maker
• New and updated Games.

Internet Explorer 7

• Adds tabbed browsing
• RSS
• Internationalized Domain names
• Search box
• Phishing filter
• anti-spoofing URL engine
• Controls over ActiveX add-ones
• thumbnails of all open tabs in a single window (quick tabs)
• Page zoom
• Tab groups
• Add Protected Mode
• Has no access to the system, except for temporary files.

Media Player 11

• Media Library no longer has category trees
• All albums are 200x200 resolution jpegs.
• New features are also added.

Other features

• Improved graphics
• Improved power management
• New fonts
• Language Support

Welcome!

This blog will include updates about new PCs, game consoles, mobile devices, etc.  Posts will begin shortly.

This blog will also include rumors, as well as answering questions.