Windows 8 De-Personalization

[Andara Bledin]

So, my computer at work was replaced because it was slow and the Windows install had become corrupted.

I'm already hating Windows 8, for a variety of reasons.

Not least of which is the fact that they've forced it so that you have to make multiple clicks to do almost anything. Gone is the quicklaunch buttons that I used to, you know, quickly launch all of the programs that I use on a constant basis.

Another thing that irritates the crap out of me is that some items that are pinned to the ribbon (the new task bar) launch new windows unrelated to the pinned item, while others auto group them with the ability to separate them specifically removed. I work with three separate Firefox windows and I'd like them to be locate in different places on my task bar to help ensure that I click the right one the first time and don't have to hunt for which one I want. Plus, since it launches on the pin itself, I can't just launch a new window, I have to select a current window and tell it to spawn a new one. >_<

Then there's the font. There's a default font. It's probably Courier New. I specifically use Verdana everywhere for the fact that the capital I (as in Indigo) and the lower case l (as in Lima) have different display characters. The fact that I can't change that pissed me off enough that I bitched about it at their site.

Next up: colors. I can't change my background colors. Or my tab colors. Or any of the other color personalization I use to help make the interface easier to use. But, no. With Win8, you get to change the window border and task bar and pick a background color or picture. That's it. There is a workaround for this where you can choose a High Contrast theme, then tweak colors from there (maybe about 1/3 of the choices available in XP), but apparently the primary program my company uses isn't programmed to display properly in Win8, and the background ends up being a sickly green if you choose a high contrast color scheme. Uck.

I hate the fact that my desktop experience is devolved because they want to focus on tablets. >_<

Time wasted trying to figure out how to do simple shit on my work station so far: 2 hours. I've only been using it for 4. And the worst part is that familiarity isn't going to make me waste that much less time, since they've made it so that nearly every single operation I might want to do now takes significantly more actions on my part just to start.

[Ginger Tea]

I read a lot of hate about 8 when it was first out and also the beta, but beta is beta.
I bypassed 7 and was expecting to downgrade with an OEM disc when I recently got this new box.
Had XP for years but had a temp 2nd hand system with vista cos last one died and I only needed a stop gap (that ended up being nearly a year old), got used to that cos i'm not a heavy windows user.

I do miss the start button and finding things there, but on the whole the pin to task bar is a boon, these are the most used apps and they would take up that bar space anyway by being active, but having the option to pin means I don't have to search around for things.

My recent documents I miss, there may be a way to reactivate it but I am not sticking files from my external to the documents folder just to make it easier to find, they are external for a reason.
I have not gotten into the search options to see if it can be like the xp days, 8 is only installed cos it came with the pc, but it has not caused me to rage as yet.

Sometimes I hover over one of the icons that may have multiple windows, internet or file explorer and it shows all of them and when I go to one of them I end up a bit over the edge and it goes away and I end up either clicking on the desktop or at the bottom left of whatever app was dominant at the time, that so far is my biggest mild gripe.

edit:
I also found out before hand a few of the foibles of the OS's touchscreen bias for keyboard mouse users when someone complained that he couldn't do X and Y.
One of them was getting to the desktop quickly, a keyboard shortcut was delivered, which iir was listed as there since xp, but this guy said ne never used keyboard shortcuts. Never ever? he was asked, they are called shortcuts for a reason.
The other is a mild gripe too, the top right brings up the side bar, unfortunately that is the area where close min/max and the odd other widget reside, seeing as this is touch bias, how would I stop it from doing one when I want the other?

[Andara Bledin]

Screw the pins. The fact that there's only one per line makes them more annoying than useful and they take up task bar space pointlessly. Particularly with some programs opening up separate from their pins.

Thankfully, the Quick Launch capability still exists, you just have to track it down and add it as a toolbar. Which I've done. Much better. But since you can't change the icon size or how the titles display (only the words), it's still not as good as it was.

As for the multiple windows, I've forced it to never group them. I open them as separate windows on purpose, I don't need Windows acting like it knows better.

As for the touch bias, I suspect that your answer to that is to press on a part of the screen that has no active function (blank window, toolbar, or desktop space) and then drag to the area that brings up the side bar, etc. I don't have the same issue with the close button, as I keep my task bar on the right, not the bottom, because it provides for more readability of task bar window names, among other reasons.

[gremcint]

I don't have win 8 yet, I plan to get a tablet later. I've been warming up to it a lot. MS is updating it by the end of the year to fix some features, they haven't said what they are changing yet though.

[Andara Bledin]

I have no reason to get a Windows based tablet. I have an Android phone and when I get a tablet, it's likely that will be Android, too. Nothing that Windows does in the mobile space makes them stand out to me, and their screwing with the desktop space to appeal to mobile users is an extreme turn-off, killing any chance of me using a Windows tablet outside of being gifted one.

[crashhelmet]

My dad and my little sister both bought laptops with Win8 on it. Trying to teach them how to use it has been painstakingly difficult.

I've been saying since it was first announced that it's a mobile OS and should've been exclusive to mobile devices like phones and tablets. keep it off desktop and laptop computers

[Kheldarson]

If you can afford it, just load Win7 on. It's got the funky "are you sure you want to do this" feature on everything (seriously, I'm loading the disc up. Why are you asking me if I'm sure I want it to make changes to my computer?!), but everything else is much the same. Didn't take long to get used to.


Edit: Nevermind, just saw it's your work computer. Maybe talk to the IT guys then?

[Andara Bledin]

Alas, there is no going back.

But from what I could find, Win7 lost a lot of the ability to personalize things like colors, also, so it wouldn't be an improvement, there.

[Kheldarson]

Like what kind of colors? Cuz right, my desktop is the awesomest Okami pic ever and the color's set to transparent for the rest of the desktop.

[Andara Bledin]

I want my 3d elements to be colored. You know, the window bits inside application.s Such as the tabs in your browser.

I want my applications to have a unified color scheme with the rest of my system.

[Kheldarson]

Oh...

I didn't even know those were changeable.

[Gravekeeper]

I want my 3d elements to be colored. You know, the window bits inside application.s Such as the tabs in your browser.

I want my applications to have a unified color scheme with the rest of my system.

Windows 7 is highly customizable and if the default options aren't enough there are extensions like the Universal Theme Patcher that will make it even more nitty gritty.

I'm not going anywhere near Windows 8 though. It looks really argh worthy.

[Andara Bledin]

I discovered a new "feature" today. The default image viewer launches in a full screen with zero controls. Nothing. I can't tell you how much that one pissed me off.

Thankfully, I know that Ctrl+D drops to desktop, so I got out of it that way. But I found out later that it was still running. But I rightclicked the element (the popup in the top left that showed that it was open) and killed it.

I do have to wonder, though, how any non-geek is every going to figure out all of these bizarre things that you can only find if you have a habit of drifting your mouse along the edges of the screen. Seriously, what the Hell?

[Kheldarson]

I thought Windows was supposed to be the most user-friendly OS. That sounds insane.

[lordlundar]

Win8 is meant for tablet interfaces. The image setup is for touch controls similar to the appleOS/iOS setup like sweeping to switch, pinch to shrink, etc.

The problem is that there's no mouse equivalent controls available so if you don't have a touch screen there's nothing you can do.

There's a reason why the advertisements and promotions for Win8 utilize tablet PCs exclusively.