Belmont31R
11-02-12, 20:24
Upgraded my laptop to Win 8, and want to share a few thoughts.
1. Don't be afraid of Metro. You can use or not use it as much as you want. Think of it as an expanded start menu with more functionality with the introduction of apps. There are some good apps like Fox news and WSJ. It's not some faggy new screen with a bunch of useless stuff. You can customize it as much as you want, and increases the amount of information your PC can display to you. Without opening any browsers you can get news headlines from apps you want, time, weather, date, and a ton of other stuff. Stock market data, currency, whatever.
2. You still have a fully functional regular desktop minus the start menu. The idea here, is, instead of hitting the start button in the lower left corner you hit the windows key to get to the start menu. 'Metro' is your new start menu, and UI is WAY better now than the Win 7 start menu which was horrible. I went from Vista to 7 to 8, and for me 7 had the worst start menu. For instance using Office products you had to go to start>menu>office>[word]. Now all you have to do is hit the windows button and then click on the tile for word. Half as many steps, and word opens in the the regular desktop.
3. You have shortcuts built into the desktop but are hidden. So you have to take the cursor to the top right which brings up a menu to share things, shut down/restart the computer, ect.
4. Metro/start menu is awesome because you can just start typing while on there and it brings up programs/apps you have installed or you can click on other options like the store to get more apps.
Don't listen to the people stuck in Win 7. Win 8 has all the same functionality and is not another ME, and if you take an hour to get used to it you'll find out how much quicker it is, and setup the Metro screen to work for you. Im using this on a laptop. Still have Win 7 on my desktop. Once touch screen becomes common on laptops, and they are coming out, Win 8 will be even better. The WSJ app is great, and it's not filled with ads. I was expecting these apps to come full of ads but there are hardly any on any of the ones I use.
But keep in mind, even without a touch screen like I am using, it's still awesome. I hardly used the windows key on keyboards before but that is prob the biggest change to using 8. You'll use it a lot more. Its basically the new start button instead of having it as a clickable item on the taskbar. It's actually more efficient, to me, because if Im typing its easier to go hit another key than take my right hand off the keyboard, move the mouse to the start button, and then go through the start menu to what I want. Win 8 I hit the windows key, and have a full screen start menu of whatever I want to be displayed. Just think of the Metro/start screen being the Win 7 start menu being displayed as a full screen. Thats all it is, with the addition of apps you want. You can still have all the same short cuts or programs displayed as you would on the win 7 start menu but easier to navigate with more options.
1. Don't be afraid of Metro. You can use or not use it as much as you want. Think of it as an expanded start menu with more functionality with the introduction of apps. There are some good apps like Fox news and WSJ. It's not some faggy new screen with a bunch of useless stuff. You can customize it as much as you want, and increases the amount of information your PC can display to you. Without opening any browsers you can get news headlines from apps you want, time, weather, date, and a ton of other stuff. Stock market data, currency, whatever.
2. You still have a fully functional regular desktop minus the start menu. The idea here, is, instead of hitting the start button in the lower left corner you hit the windows key to get to the start menu. 'Metro' is your new start menu, and UI is WAY better now than the Win 7 start menu which was horrible. I went from Vista to 7 to 8, and for me 7 had the worst start menu. For instance using Office products you had to go to start>menu>office>[word]. Now all you have to do is hit the windows button and then click on the tile for word. Half as many steps, and word opens in the the regular desktop.
3. You have shortcuts built into the desktop but are hidden. So you have to take the cursor to the top right which brings up a menu to share things, shut down/restart the computer, ect.
4. Metro/start menu is awesome because you can just start typing while on there and it brings up programs/apps you have installed or you can click on other options like the store to get more apps.
Don't listen to the people stuck in Win 7. Win 8 has all the same functionality and is not another ME, and if you take an hour to get used to it you'll find out how much quicker it is, and setup the Metro screen to work for you. Im using this on a laptop. Still have Win 7 on my desktop. Once touch screen becomes common on laptops, and they are coming out, Win 8 will be even better. The WSJ app is great, and it's not filled with ads. I was expecting these apps to come full of ads but there are hardly any on any of the ones I use.
But keep in mind, even without a touch screen like I am using, it's still awesome. I hardly used the windows key on keyboards before but that is prob the biggest change to using 8. You'll use it a lot more. Its basically the new start button instead of having it as a clickable item on the taskbar. It's actually more efficient, to me, because if Im typing its easier to go hit another key than take my right hand off the keyboard, move the mouse to the start button, and then go through the start menu to what I want. Win 8 I hit the windows key, and have a full screen start menu of whatever I want to be displayed. Just think of the Metro/start screen being the Win 7 start menu being displayed as a full screen. Thats all it is, with the addition of apps you want. You can still have all the same short cuts or programs displayed as you would on the win 7 start menu but easier to navigate with more options.