Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

[JSR]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

I did find a better driver for one of my printers (MFC-295CN), but not for my A3 (MFC-5890CN). So I'm between two stools on that one.

I did find a better driver for my MFC-5890CN but, in typical Windows 8 style, it's more of a hassle than it should be.

In the old days, I'd just download the driver from the Brother website. With Windows 8, the website just says that it's available from Microsoft (which is what the HP website says, so this is clearly the modern way of doing things). It is available from MIcrosoft, but so are three others.

Windows 8 just installs a, frankly, useless generic driver. Using Windows Update, you can find another one - it's called "Brother MFC-5890CN Printer" - not "Brother MFC-5890CN". But that doesn't matter, because both are useless generic drivers.

Windows Update does locate a third driver - "Brother MFC-5890CN XML Paper". This one has the advanced settings (i.e. a "proper" driver of the type we'd download directly in the old days).

How they expect any regular user to go through this many hoops just to install a usable printer driver beggars belief. And this is Windows 8 making things easier is it? I'm rapidly becoming convinced that there was nothing more easy than just not installing your hardware until you'd downloaded a driver for it from the OEM's website.

Doing it the Windows 8 way means that you're not only jumping through hoops to install something that previously was so easy, but it also means that you don't have the originally downloaded driver. Prior to Windows 8, you could download the drivers and store them safely on your HD or a CD - so that you could install them again when you wipe your computer in a few years time, or when you buy a new one. With Windows 8, we're at the mercy of Microsoft. If they chose to delete the driver from their servers (let's say, because they want to push the next version of Windows), then we're all going to be stuffed when we want to keep our old computers going because we won't be able to install any drivers.

Having drivers only available via Microsoft and not able to download them separately is a recipe for disaster. It doesn't make installing the right driver any easier, and it doesn't allow us to backup the driver for future use.

[Ian]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

On a different subject - does your new laptop have a mult-touch touch pad? Trying scrolling with two fingers or pinch-zooming.

Ian

[JSR]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

On a different subject - does your new laptop have a mult-touch touch pad? Trying scrolling with two fingers or pinch-zooming.

Ian

Yes, it does.

I don't like multi-touch touchpads much, particularly those with secret gestures and things happening when you touch the corners, or drag in from the sides. More often than not, I don't intend to do anything except move the mouse but Windows goes crazy - thinking I wanted to do something else entirely. That's one of the reasons for going with a touchscreen. You can't inadvertently do something wrong with a screen, because your fingers only go near it when you want to do something.

All that said, this Vivobook has the largest touchpad I've ever seen. It makes the one on my friend's 15.6" Toshiba look positively tiny. As a result, it is much easier to avoid the edges and the corners when you're using it - so there's much less likelihood of Windows confusing what you're trying to do.

[Ian]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

Yes - my Dell has an enormous touch pad as well. I think this ties into Windows 8 and the multi-touch gesture nature of Windows 8's user interface. The Dell doesn't have a touch screen but maybe the touch pad will be an able substitute for Windows 8.

Ian

[JSR]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

Yes - my Dell has an enormous touch pad as well. I think this ties into Windows 8 and the multi-touch gesture nature of Windows 8's user interface. The Dell doesn't have a touch screen but maybe the touch pad will be an able substitute for Windows 8.

Ian

It could well be, but lower-end machines (like my friend's) don't have anything more than a normal-size touchpad.

Personally, I find multi-touch on a touchpad somewhat of a disconnect from the experience. If I want to pinch-and-zoom, or scroll, or drag in the charm bar, then I find it more intuitive using the touchscreen. Using the touchpad requires more thought - looking at the pad, working out what my fingers need to do, then looking back at the screen to see if I've done it right and that Windows hasn't misunderstood what I'm trying to do. In that instance, I'd much rather not bother doing it at all. With the touchscreen, it feels natural because it's what I've been doing on my iPad, my tablet, and my phone. No extra thought is required because your fingers are touching/swiping just what you're looking at.

I wouldn't use Windows 8 on a non-touchscreen device unless I was using a separate mouse and keyboard and using it in the traditional Windows environment (i.e. with ClassicShell, the start menu, and no tile mode!).

My friend is coping a little better on her laptop now but this is largely due to ClassicShell bringing the start menu back (and defaulting to the desktop instead of tile mode), together with using a separate mouse, and playing the XP version of Spider Solitaire. Now that it looks and behaves more like "traditional Windows", she's not pulling out her hair anymore. She has said, though, that if we hadn't made these tweaks, she would have been intent on getting rid of it.

[JSR]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

I thought today that I would install the Kindle reading app on my Vivobook. I have a Kindle, but I always download the app to my portable devices and the software to my regular computer.

How easy was it with Windows 8? Answer - it isn't.

Previously, I'd just download the software from Amazon, and install it. Job done.

Not so with Windows 8.

Windows 8's Kindle software is an "app" from the Microsoft Store. At first the Store wouldn't open, throwing up an error. Trying again, and the page opens okay. I try to install but it just throws up an error - I suspect it's because I've not yet signed up to the Microsoft Store, but the error doesn't say anything about that.

I haven't signed up to the Windows Store because I don't see myself using it much. Why should I need to sign up to anything to do with Microsoft in order to download and install the free Amazon Kindle reading app?

So I guess reading my Kindle books is something else I won't be doing for a while thanks to Windows 8. I sometimes wonder if this is a step forward, or a step backwards...

[TheBull1875]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

JSR, I am kind of starting to feel you don't like Windows 8. Would I be right in that assumption? :-)

Sorry you are having so many problems. I have not really encountered any yet (apart from the wife)

[JSR]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

JSR, I am kind of starting to feel you don't like Windows 8. Would I be right in that assumption? :-)

Sorry you are having so many problems. I have not really encountered any yet (apart from the wife)

Well, I like it more now that I have a touchscreen laptop than I did when I first used it on my friend's non-touchscreen laptop.

During the day, I'm doing my business work on it in "desktop mode" and it's mostly okay. It's only when you run into things that used to "just work" and now don't because Microsoft have changed the way Windows does things for no good reason. The "store" being a good case in point, and the "generic printer driver" being another, not being able to whitelist programs in the UAC is another.

Some things are better - such as the decent progress monitor when copying/moving files; and Windows 8 does run more "old" software than I'd previously expected.

It's like they've fiddled too much with things that didn't need fiddling with.

[19ninety]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

I tried Windows 8 on Monday night as it was only £25 for me to buy. The first time I installed it it broken after installing nVidia drivers. The second time it installed ok and updated. I then found ou that Kaspersky KIS 2012 (whish I have 18months subscription remaining for) doesnt work on Win8. I then also found out theres no Win8 drivers for my motherboard = no sound.
I did find some helpful free software to remove the Metro UI and add a traditional style Windows Start Menu, handy if your not using a touch screen: http://www.wentutu.com/

However, I've uninstalled Windows 8 as its not for regular PC users.

Microsoft should have added an option in the install process to let the install know if your a tablet/touchscrren user or regular desktop/laptop user who doesnt have touchscreen and therefore any use for Metro UI and fullscreen apps.
I dunno why how Microsoft didnt think all this through before release... seriously. Theres some great progress with Windows 8 thats ruined by a poorly thought out UI

[Ian]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

What PC were you working with (age and spec.)?

Isn't there a pre-upgrade inspector tool to tell you if your PC is suitable for Windows 8?

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

This is what I meant:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/upgrade-to-windows-8

Ian

[JSR]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

Microsoft should have added an option in the install process to let the install know if your a tablet/touchscrren user or regular desktop/laptop user who doesnt have touchscreen and therefore any use for Metro UI and fullscreen apps.
I dunno why how Microsoft didnt think all this through before release... seriously. Theres some great progress with Windows 8 thats ruined by a poorly thought out UI

I'm inclined to agree.

I've been using my new Windows 8 laptop on my desk for most of the week - while I get all of my cloud storage backups sorted out. I've had no use for the tile UI for the last few days, and ClassicShell has made the whole experience much smoother.

I'm not saying that I have no use for "tile UI" because I believe it'll be very useful when I take my laptop away from the desk and use the touchscreen but, while it's on the desk, I'm connected to a much larger non-touchscreen Dell monitor - and there's no sense to the tile UI when used like this.

I get annoyed from time to time when double-clicking something launches a "tile UI" app that covers the screen and then takes several seconds to get going. All the while it's doing that, I can't work on one of the several other windows I have open on the desktop.

Forcing users into using full-screen apps all the time is just a nonsense. I can decide for myself if I want something running full-screen - it used to be as easy as clicking the icon in the top-right of the window. Now you get fullscreen whether you like it or not. I've spent a lot of my time this week changing the "default" software for certain filetypes to traditional software, just to get away from the annoying full-screen takeover that's obsessed by Microsoft's built-in Windows 8 apps.

[patmoore]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

I'm trying to be objective so I go back to the Win 8 interface on occasion but still can't find anything attractive about it. Apps take over the entire screen and can't be minimized, partially minimized, or shut down with a single click. Since I don't have a touch screen (and with a dual monitor setup I'm not replacing two monitors) I have to hover and click multiple times to accomplish what used to be a single click process. Microsoft didn't think this one through clearly.s

WIndows 8 has been described as a Christmas Gift for Someone You Hate.

Start8 for $4.99 works like a charm.

[JSR]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

WIndows 8 has been described as a Christmas Gift for Someone You Hate.

And that's on a tablet!

I noticed Microsoft are now "sponsoring" the new US Sherlock Holmes TV series - Elementary. This week, for absolutely no sensible reason whatsoever, Sherlock Holmes grabbed his "Surface" tablet, connected his brightly coloured keyboard, and tapped the screen just so that he could "Bing" to search the internet.

Every previous week, he's been happy to surf the net on his smartphone - as has everyone else. Not this week.

There's Sherlock Holmes in his scruffy clothes, dingy flat, trying to solve the mystery in his grubby bathroom, and he pulls out this brightly coloured sparkling product-placement Windows Surface. I thought for a moment that they'd gone to an advert break at the wrong moment! It was totally distracting because the first question I had was - how on Earth was he able to afford that?!

And there, on the end credits, is text that says something like "This programme is partly sponsored by Microsoft." No kidding, Einstein!

[JSR]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

If it's of any interest to anyone, yesterday I successfully installed Windows XP through VirtualBox on my Windows 8 laptop - so it will still be possible to access software that won't run properly in Windows 8. It's also possible to install older Windows (98SE and ME) but they run so slowly that it's not useful to do so unless absolutely necessary.