I use an add-on, classic shell, it boots into the desktop, puts the "Start" button back. Its then not much different to using Win 7, except you can go to the Metro interface any time you want, though why you would want to, I don't know; metro is ugly as sin. I don't know why MS did not have a boot to desk top option.

My main issue is apps that don't close. The default PDF reader for example, once you have a PDF open in it its there until you reboot. You cant minimize it in the traditional way. Alt-Tab seems to be the only way to deal with it.

I am pretty sure a lot of the apps, like news and weather feeds, are running in the background, pulling down data. So far I have not found a way of uninstalling apps. When I do I will nuke the lot.

Windows 8 was rather stupid to have a touch screen come up first - when most screens ain't today.  If they had simply made the older interface come up andswtich to tiles people wouldn't complain.  It is like X1 - nobody knew where anything was.

But touch is coming.  Just got a new windows phone today and it ain't bad.  Of course, I ahven't had time to do much but charge it and transfer my old numbers etc.  It seems to work pretty well but nobody has thought through the whole touch experience.  Windows phone imported my other accounts, including an ancient juno account from my wife.  YOu'd think it would be easy to delete one email from her page but I still ain't figured it out.  I guess it is time to watch the online demo....

@

I prefer to sit at a desk when computing because I'm an old fart and don't want to embrace change. I have Office 2013 and usually use Open Office because I hate the win 8/Surface interface.

I also hate smearing my paws all over a touch screen. I clean my glasses a dozen times a day, and I expect the touch screen would make me crazy. I hate smudges.

It seems like the designers/programmers have not always realised, that not all computer users are novelty-seeking pioneers of new frontiers.
PCs have been around for so long that many (most?) users have already developed their familiar fluent routines and workflows, and they don't want to re-learn everything whenever a new version comes out. The ones to whom computer technology is also a hobby, are interested in totally new solutions, but the ones who just want to get their
daily jobs done get only frustrated.

AT


Windows 8 was rather stupid to have a touch screen come up first - when most screens ain't today.  If they had simply made the older interface come up andswtich to tiles people wouldn't complain.  It is like X1 - nobody knew where anything was.

But touch is coming.  Just got a new windows phone today and it ain't bad.  Of course, I ahven't had time to do much but charge it and transfer my old numbers etc.  It seems to work pretty well but nobody has thought through the whole touch experience.  Windows phone imported my other accounts, including an ancient juno account from my wife.  YOu'd think it would be easy to delete one email from her page but I still ain't figured it out.  I guess it is time to watch the online demo....

@

I think these are good insights AT. I also think MS is pricing its hardware way too high. Its not competitive with an ipad in price or Andriod based tablet. The other thing is that unlike Apple MS can't control the market. As soon as the majority of PC builders decide to go touch with new laptops and tablets the price will drop. However they could choose to go Android for touch.  At present as far as I can tell there is no compelling reason to buy a new MS based PC desktop for touch. Touch is not in the commodity mainstream yet for a PC. And this is where MS makes its money, PCs as a commodity.   

Time is not on MS's side here. 

We audio people have our own requirements that touch may or may not help. In a way I am a bit neutral on it.

It all depends on how things fall out. 

I've had a touch phone for as long as you can have a touch phone.

While it is fun to pretend that it is fun to surf the internet on it... the reality is that the "touch" part about the experience sucks.

Touch is good for some things - other things, not so much.  Touch typing - sux.  it can work for short texts, but for a writer, no.  It is analogous to a real fader or real knob for a musician.  Tactile response.  Off course, in the future when humans have developed tentacle finders because of touch, such typing and fading may seem the norm.  Before that happens, touch should just be another way to input.  That is where MS made a mistake w/ the metro first interface.

Yea, John, right now, the ms hardware is too expensive.  But I don't' think they did it to sell their own hardware, but their software on all the other hardware makers. The iPad is where it is at, tho Android might have overtaken them now.  MS needs to be in the tablet game to sell their OS.  Both the RT and regular Windows 8 will work, but that is kinda funky.  RT won't (from what I've heard) work w/ Office, which is a killer for me.  I've had android office whatever and it ain't seamless.  By the time 8 is adopted even cheap tablets should have enough firepower to run the real programs - hell, my wife's 2 year old windows 7 touch laptop w/ an atom runs it.

What I need is a touch screen for my main, music desktop to have direct control of softsynths and effects as well as transport and moving around the screen.  The keyboard works fine for editing right now.  I need both, tho, and a hardware knob and motorized fader w/ the touchscreen would be most excellent.

Then I need personal computer.  It needs a keyboard for writing - a nice tactile one where I can touch type like I learned so long ago.  It needs to do office - or Word mostly.  Plus browse the internet & email.  Those are the main functions.  I don't play many games.  A tablet would be perfect if it has one of those attachable keyboards that feels right.  Something I can take to the couch or out of town.  It doesn't need to be fast or have a lot of storage, so the surface or something similar is fine.

So in the next year I hope to get one of those fancy touchscreens with the adjustable stands that will lay flat - put it right under my main monitor. Right now they are $600-700.  Those need to drop by 1/2 before I can justify it.

I also plan on getting another tablet that I can use instead of a laptop.  Not a $1000 surface or sony, but probably a $600-700 one.

That is $1000+.  That should be enough for MS & whomever for the year.  And that is what it is about for them - selling stuff.  Just make it work and improve my workflow.  I just got a new phone - I want it mostly for, well, phoning.  Also mapping.  The rest of the smart phone experience I'm not into.  Call me a neanderthall.  These things are tools, not a fricking lifestyle.

@

The Windows 8.1 update ("Blue") that is coming out will not remove the "tiles".  It restores the start button on the desktop but will not include everything that is in the "start" that older Windows versions had. 

Microsoft has reported selling over 100 Million Win 8 licenses.  How many of those are actually in use ????  

My Win 8 installation is primarily for support.  I do support and have a couple of clients with Windows 8 so I have it in case I get user questions.      

I have a dual boot, Win 7 and Win 8.  I have the $4.95 Stardock "Start8" that adds the full functionality start button to Win 8 (everything is there the same as Win 7).  With the Start8 addon, Win 8 boots to the desktop, just as Win 7 does.   Win 7 is what I use for Sonar, but I installed Sonar X2, my Roland Octa-Capture, BCF2000 and my add on software to see if it works.  All my recording software and hardware, except my Frontier Tranzport that had to be installed in a Win 7 compatibility mode, is Win 8 compatible and works just as well in Win 8 as it does in Win 7.   But, I don't have any current plays to migrate my recording production to Win 8.

Glyn Barnes


I use an add-on, classic shell, it boots into the desktop, puts the "Start" button back. Its then not much different to using Win 7, except you can go to the Metro interface any time you want, though why you would want to, I don't know; metro is ugly as sin. I don't know why MS did not have a boot to desk top option.

This ^. Classic Shell takes away the biggest problem with Windows 8. Once I installed it, all of my frustration went away.

My main issue is apps that don't close. The default PDF reader for example, once you have a PDF open in it its there until you reboot. You cant minimize it in the traditional way. Alt-Tab seems to be the only way to deal with it.

Dragging from the top edge of the screen to the bottom shuts down a Metro app. Or you can use (on mine) the left edge to switch between Metro apps or the traditional desktop. The biggest problem for me is, as far as I can tell, you can't undock and resize Metro apps. But I don't really have much need/use for those apps, though there is a Unit Conversion app that's handy.

I am pretty sure a lot of the apps, like news and weather feeds, are running in the background, pulling down data. So far I have not found a way of uninstalling apps. When I do I will nuke the lot.

You can right click on many apps on the desktop and select uninstall or "turn live tile off".
The main thing I don't get is why so many apps are so slow to load.

Zo


nope my friend , windows make the world work , osx makes it have fun ....lol i'm talking pro's , i can choose what ever os i want to use on my computers .....and this alone is pricelless ... 

Ok, obviously this is going nowhere if you get down that road. I don't know how one could even suggest that. A pro uses whatever works, for what it's worth.

Anyway, I could have sworn that all the pro recording studios I've seen were using Mac. I'm not talking about little independent pro studio here whee DJ/Producers make "beatz", but big studios, you know, where people record and mix music for record labels - the Palms here in Vegas, or Avatar in NY and such...