How bad is Windows 8.1?

[Mark Bolton]

And I bet that MS, in hindsight, wondered the same thing. Often these big companies are out of touch with the customer and their needs. They try to fix what is not broken and the result is usually worse. Still MS is the largest OS supplier in the world with over 90% usage on computers world wide. That said i wonder why MS will still require the end user to go thru contortions and have to purchase extra software just to have a usable product? MS should listen and provide an option for consumers.

I think the issue is the same as most everything nowadays. Computers have gotten so cheap that the (forgive me) "nim nod" market trumps the people who really work with thier computers. The volume of places like QVC and HSN selling a whole bunch of 600-800 dollar computers to people wanting the gee gaws trumps the people who actually work with them. Its no different than the tool market catering to home center customers (because thats where the dollars are) as opposed to shops and professionals.

Of course MS knows that anyone in the computer world/IT world is going to know 8.1 isnt going to work so they have an acceptable offering for these folks with 7.

To me its just a continual move on behalf of most all companies to tap into the never ending cash stream thats coming out of all these people who have been living in a recession/near depression. Its ludicrous. Right through it all you can tune in to QVC, HSN, and watch thier tickers go up and up and up. Drive down your street and see every Tom dick and harry driving a zero turn mower and a new car in the drive. But the country is in the ditch.

My point is, they have the ability to (as was said) add a front end on it and make it look like a giant Iphone and by the time the money is spent and the thing is plugged in people are googling "gorilla arm" haha.

[Mark Bolton]

Here's a preview:



I guess there's a general announcement on Sept. 30. I really hope there's a way to change the theme back to something that makes sense. Everytime I see something like this, I just can't figure out just what on Earth they're trying to do. The flat looking interfaces go against everything we've learned and known about GUI design for the past 30 years. You NEVER want the user to wonder which part of the screen they can interact with. It's incredibly, insanely bad. I would say it's a step backwards, but honestly I'm not sure we were ever this stupid . Perhaps if we look back to the earliest interfaces with light pens we might find something this awkward.

I cant agree more about the flat interface. I find myself in 8.1 constantly wondering "what can I do here, and where". But it involves remembering to swipe in from the right, or down from the top, or hovering in the upper right corner, and so on. I do kind of understand the logic because its what all smart phone companies do with phones. They are trying to maximize the efficiency of a small display (even though many are carrying around a mini tv set with them now) so they make all of the user interface disappear in the margins. For some reason we can all remember that the menus are in these hidden locations on our phones but it doesnt seem to make sense on the PC.

I do find it frustrating but I guess for now Im trying to get my head around looking at my computer differently than I have before. I see to love the efficiency of my phone and I guess Im trying to get myself to figure out why Im not able to apply those same concepts to my desktop.

[Moses Yoder]

It seems to me it would be much better if my car flew. I bought my laptop before touch screens were readily available and use a wireless mouse with it, no touch screen. So far as I know, that is not against the rules. I cannot comprehend why someone would use a 24" touch screen monitor all day until their arms are tired when you can buy a wireless mouse and get carpel tunnel syndrome instead. I have shortcuts to all my frequently used programs in the bar at the bottom of the screen and can have multiple applications going in multiple programs and 8.1 allows me to simply click on the program button and then gives me the option to open the screen I want. Windows 8.1 is by far my most favorite interface ever, and I have used 98, Vista, and 7. The fact that a professional IT guy or whatever uses exactly the same interface that a moron like me does seems to be the real problem here.

[Tom Stenzel]

Get ready for a rant. Microsoft has me burned up.

Both of my daughters have laptops with windows 8.0 on them. My younger daughter will stay after school and use the school computers (Win 7) if she has to write a school paper. I doubt if it’s because using a thumb drive to carry the file is so difficult. It tells me just how useable Windows 8 really is when there’s work to be done.



The Windows 8.x discussion reminds me when we upgraded to Office with the ribbon interface at work . It didn’t make anyone faster at their job. All it did for me was to make all the Alt functions from 2 key sequences to three or more. Everyday I had several reports to crank out with only so much time to do them. Having to move my hands from the keyboard to the mouse and back was just wasted time. Having to use a keyboard and a touch screen to accomplish a task? Who would think that was a good idea in an office environment?



When the Win 8 laptops at home get balled up I have to patch them up. Yesterday I was looking at one of the computers and saw an odd process running. I was running a Google search when everything I was doing stopped, the screen went completely dark and a window popped up with a message sorta like:



This program wants to make changes to your computer. Do you want to continue?



Turns out that Java wanted to update. I’ll say this: there is no way the OS should allow any idiotic message like that interrupt what someone is doing. Period. It’s just contemptible.



Last week I installed Office for home (shrinkwrapped box from a store) on my older daughter’s computer. Put the disk in, and entered the product key like instructed. Then it went through the “installation”.



The first time Office was used, it popped up a window about repairing, modifying or entering the product key. So the product key was entered again. Then that window went through a 30 minute “installation and updating” When that window was done, I dismissed it. Then a smaller window popped up, saying the installation was “completing” and not to turn off the computer off. 2 1/2 hours later it was still at it. Later when I stopped to check on it, the computer was off. I turned it back on and the window was still there. I’m still not sure if something’s wrong with the installation or not.



This is after almost four hours that I checked on and a couple where I didn’t watch. Gee, what if I NEEDED the thing to just work? Operation systems and office suites are supposed to be Microsoft’s core competencies. How is it they made software installation so obtuse and fragile?



Makes me think the days when we used Ofis Designer at work were the good ones! Oh, you don’t remember Ofis Designer? Think Burrough BTOS systems. Don’t remember BTOS? You kids annoy me. ;-)



The real problem is in Microsoft's business model. Microsoft's customers are Dell, Acer, Leveno and the like. We are merely users.

-Tom

[Greg Peterson]

Like I said, the only innovation MS does is redesign the UI. The core competency at MS is generating revenue. There is no state of the art in any of their OS's.

[Moses Yoder]

I am using Office 2013 and the program now works in conjunction with the web. It requires a high speed internet connection to install. Once installed, it takes a long time to finish its installation online, I think 2 days for mine but that was a long time ago. This was ridiculous to me as well, all I wanted was Excel and Word simple functions. As I said, I agree Office is now ridiculous. The various templates are handy sometimes but I only use the simple functions generally.

[Jerome Stanek]

Get ready for a rant. Microsoft has me burned up.

Both of my daughters have laptops with windows 8.0 on them. My younger daughter will stay after school and use the school computers (Win 7) if she has to write a school paper. I doubt if it’s because using a thumb drive to carry the file is so difficult. It tells me just how useable Windows 8 really is when there’s work to be done.



The Windows 8.x discussion reminds me when we upgraded to Office with the ribbon interface at work . It didn’t make anyone faster at their job. All it did for me was to make all the Alt functions from 2 key sequences to three or more. Everyday I had several reports to crank out with only so much time to do them. Having to move my hands from the keyboard to the mouse and back was just wasted time. Having to use a keyboard and a touch screen to accomplish a task? Who would think that was a good idea in an office environment?



When the Win 8 laptops at home get balled up I have to patch them up. Yesterday I was looking at one of the computers and saw an odd process running. I was running a Google search when everything I was doing stopped, the screen went completely dark and a window popped up with a message sorta like:



This program wants to make changes to your computer. Do you want to continue?



Turns out that Java wanted to update. I’ll say this: there is no way the OS should allow any idiotic message like that interrupt what someone is doing. Period. It’s just contemptible.



Last week I installed Office for home (shrinkwrapped box from a store) on my older daughter’s computer. Put the disk in, and entered the product key like instructed. Then it went through the “installation”.



The first time Office was used, it popped up a window about repairing, modifying or entering the product key. So the product key was entered again. Then that window went through a 30 minute “installation and updating” When that window was done, I dismissed it. Then a smaller window popped up, saying the installation was “completing” and not to turn off the computer off. 2 1/2 hours later it was still at it. Later when I stopped to check on it, the computer was off. I turned it back on and the window was still there. I’m still not sure if something’s wrong with the installation or not.



This is after almost four hours that I checked on and a couple where I didn’t watch. Gee, what if I NEEDED the thing to just work? Operation systems and office suites are supposed to be Microsoft’s core competencies. How is it they made software installation so obtuse and fragile?



Makes me think the days when we used Ofis Designer at work were the good ones! Oh, you don’t remember Ofis Designer? Think Burrough BTOS systems. Don’t remember BTOS? You kids annoy me. ;-)



The real problem is in Microsoft's business model. Microsoft's customers are Dell, Acer, Leveno and the like. We are merely users.

-Tom

I think there is a free upgrade to windows 8.1 from windows 8 to help with some of those problems.

[Chuck Wintle]

I am using Office 2013 and the program now works in conjunction with the web. It requires a high speed internet connection to install. Once installed, it takes a long time to finish its installation online, I think 2 days for mine but that was a long time ago. This was ridiculous to me as well, all I wanted was Excel and Word simple functions. As I said, I agree Office is now ridiculous. The various templates are handy sometimes but I only use the simple functions generally.

Yes i agree about Office 2013....it takes forever to install and is not "better" than the previous version. I was disappointed when i discovered what MS did to one of their "core" products. There is always libreoffice for free which is pretty good. It makes me wonder just who is hired at MS as product managers.

[Chuck Wintle]

Get ready for a rant. Microsoft has me burned up.

Both of my daughters have laptops with windows 8.0 on them. My younger daughter will stay after school and use the school computers (Win 7) if she has to write a school paper. I doubt if it’s because using a thumb drive to carry the file is so difficult. It tells me just how useable Windows 8 really is when there’s work to be done.



The Windows 8.x discussion reminds me when we upgraded to Office with the ribbon interface at work . It didn’t make anyone faster at their job. All it did for me was to make all the Alt functions from 2 key sequences to three or more. Everyday I had several reports to crank out with only so much time to do them. Having to move my hands from the keyboard to the mouse and back was just wasted time. Having to use a keyboard and a touch screen to accomplish a task? Who would think that was a good idea in an office environment?



When the Win 8 laptops at home get balled up I have to patch them up. Yesterday I was looking at one of the computers and saw an odd process running. I was running a Google search when everything I was doing stopped, the screen went completely dark and a window popped up with a message sorta like:



This program wants to make changes to your computer. Do you want to continue?



Turns out that Java wanted to update. I’ll say this: there is no way the OS should allow any idiotic message like that interrupt what someone is doing. Period. It’s just contemptible.



Last week I installed Office for home (shrinkwrapped box from a store) on my older daughter’s computer. Put the disk in, and entered the product key like instructed. Then it went through the “installation”.



The first time Office was used, it popped up a window about repairing, modifying or entering the product key. So the product key was entered again. Then that window went through a 30 minute “installation and updating” When that window was done, I dismissed it. Then a smaller window popped up, saying the installation was “completing” and not to turn off the computer off. 2 1/2 hours later it was still at it. Later when I stopped to check on it, the computer was off. I turned it back on and the window was still there. I’m still not sure if something’s wrong with the installation or not.



This is after almost four hours that I checked on and a couple where I didn’t watch. Gee, what if I NEEDED the thing to just work? Operation systems and office suites are supposed to be Microsoft’s core competencies. How is it they made software installation so obtuse and fragile?



Makes me think the days when we used Ofis Designer at work were the good ones! Oh, you don’t remember Ofis Designer? Think Burrough BTOS systems. Don’t remember BTOS? You kids annoy me. ;-)



The real problem is in Microsoft's business model. Microsoft's customers are Dell, Acer, Leveno and the like. We are merely users.

-Tom

Are you able to return to a previous version of MS office? I like the 2010 version much better than the 2013 version.

[Larry Browning]

I wonder what the OP did? Has this thread been helpfull to him?

[Tom Stenzel]

Are you able to return to a previous version of MS office? I like the 2010 version much better than the 2013 version.

This IS Office 2010. I just installed the 3rd license of a 3 license package. There was no network activity during the install until it reached the third install window. It downloaded something for about 45 minutes. The rest was just the hard drive chattering away.

Updating from 8.0 to 8.1 isn't in the cards. Because the update comes from the Microsoft store, EACH laptop has to download it. That's over 3 gig PER laptop. Plus if the OS needs re-installation the download has to occur yet again. It's just a non-starter.

I went to the Microsoft site to see about getting the update on a DVD, when I went there I was stymied. Why? I used my XP box to go to the Microsoft site. YOU HAVE NO SUPPORT! YOU ARE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR THE UPGRADE.

So I need Win 8 on my machine to support other computers that do have it?

Ain't happening.

Remember too that after I had to reinstall Windows 7 on my wife's laptop, the updating took two DAYS because of a seriously broken update system. And that's the OS that everyone counts on to be the good one.

When I picked up this XP box off the curb it didn't come with the recovery disks. If the OS bellies up, it'll be a Linux box after that. No dual boot, no looking back.

-Tom

[Curt Harms]

Darrel Waltrip?

I wonder what Win 10 will be like?

It sounds like you've been dealing with computers & MS long enough to know the likely answer to that. Even number and all.

[paul cottingham]

The answer to the OPs question is: really bad.
Of course, I recommend a steady diet of Linux as the cure. :-)
J/k of course, I just can't help myself.

[Dave Lehnert]

I wonder what the OP did? Has this thread been helpfull to him?

Yes, very helpful. Been reading everything written.

I plan to hold off for now and see what MS has to announce at the end of the month. But like everything, what makes one think the new Windows won't have problems.

[Larry Browning]

Yes, very helpful. Been reading everything written.

I plan to hold off for now and see what MS has to announce at the end of the month. But like everything, what makes one think the new Windows won't have problems.

I hope you realize that there is some misleading information laced throughout this thread, along with good information. Which is which is not clear. The only way you are going to know for yourself is to actually try it out and make your own informed opinion. I am not sure what good holding off will do for you. Even after MS makes their announcement, it will be sometime next year before the newest windows will be available. And even then the same debate will rage on.