I realize there are older threads on this topic but they haven't been responded to in several months and are off the front page. I think it's time for a fresh thread.
My own experience is below.
wot i like
I really like the new visual style. It seems like they went for a more simplistic approach which I prefer immensely over the cheap flashy look I think Windows 7 and Vista had. 8 just looks much cleaner and attractive overall. I like the new task manager as well. It fits the theme and it seems more efficient with how it displays information. Minor, but I also like the lock screen. It gives me yet another desktop to put a background on.
wot i dislike
Touch gestures. At first, I wasn't sure if this was the OSs fault or if the laptop I bought that had Windows 8 just had very poor drivers. However, I spoke with several other people running 8 on their laptops from completely different brands, and they all reported similar issues. Therefore I am placing the blame for this solely on Microsoft. It seems that they wanted to borrow OSX's idea of porting keyboard shortcuts over to trackpad gestures. It just works out really awfully for Windows 8. I'm in control of it now after a few months (mostly), but at the beginning I was sliding all over the place, opening Metro by accident, opening the little right sidebar, switching between apps like crazy, etc. It was actually a bit of a nightmare. I still have an issue where I try to scroll down on a webpage but I end up zooming it towards infinity. but that's happening less often now.
I also do not really get the point of Metro overall for desktop use. It seems to me like Microsoft wanted to enter the tablet market, but did not want to develop a separate OS for those products, either because they did not want to invest in developing two operating systems at once or they wanted greater compatibility between their devices. However, it ends off coming really awkward for non-tablet use. I don't really hate it so much as I... don't really get why it's there. 95% of my time is spent in the desktop app. The apps themselves for the most part seem pretty useless. I only really tried the Netflix app. It plays back video just fine, but it definitely loads slower than Netflix on a regular browser and the interface seems much less efficient as well. I've also heard nothing but bad things about the Skype app, although I've never tried it myself because running it normally just seems a lot easier.
Overall, Metro isn't really a deal breaker, it's just something that'll leave you confused as to why it's there sometimes.
wot i want to know more about
I've used Windows 8 on my laptop for a few months now, and I feel pretty acquainted with it, but there's still more I'd like to know that I haven't already figured out from personal experience.
I've heard that the Backup and Restore tool from Windows 7 was removed in favor of something else? I recall hearing that it saves older copies of files somewhere locally. This seems easier for just deleting a file but pretty useless in the event of hard disk failure, which is the main reason I have a backup.
I like Windows Defender overall (the new version of Microsoft Security Essentials now baked directly into the OS), but I can't seem to find a way to run regular scans. Windows 8 seems to not have that option in favor of kludging it together with a bunch of other processes in something called "Automatic Maintenance". If I've missed something I'd be interested to know.
I've heard reports of not being able to launch certain games. The most I've experience about this was Fallout 2 crashing once in a while but I'm not sure if that's Windows 8's fault specifically. Everything else seems to run fine but I do not do much gaming on my laptop so I'd like to hear more from someone who does.
Summary
Overall, Windows 8 is not the horrible catastrophe people have made it out to be, at least in my overall experience. Rather it seems to just be a bit disappointing. It's complete usable and possible to work with, but you can't help but wish they went in another direction.
What are your thoughts on Windows 8? Do you have any computers running it?
My own experience is below.
wot i like
I really like the new visual style. It seems like they went for a more simplistic approach which I prefer immensely over the cheap flashy look I think Windows 7 and Vista had. 8 just looks much cleaner and attractive overall. I like the new task manager as well. It fits the theme and it seems more efficient with how it displays information. Minor, but I also like the lock screen. It gives me yet another desktop to put a background on.
wot i dislike
Touch gestures. At first, I wasn't sure if this was the OSs fault or if the laptop I bought that had Windows 8 just had very poor drivers. However, I spoke with several other people running 8 on their laptops from completely different brands, and they all reported similar issues. Therefore I am placing the blame for this solely on Microsoft. It seems that they wanted to borrow OSX's idea of porting keyboard shortcuts over to trackpad gestures. It just works out really awfully for Windows 8. I'm in control of it now after a few months (mostly), but at the beginning I was sliding all over the place, opening Metro by accident, opening the little right sidebar, switching between apps like crazy, etc. It was actually a bit of a nightmare. I still have an issue where I try to scroll down on a webpage but I end up zooming it towards infinity. but that's happening less often now.
I also do not really get the point of Metro overall for desktop use. It seems to me like Microsoft wanted to enter the tablet market, but did not want to develop a separate OS for those products, either because they did not want to invest in developing two operating systems at once or they wanted greater compatibility between their devices. However, it ends off coming really awkward for non-tablet use. I don't really hate it so much as I... don't really get why it's there. 95% of my time is spent in the desktop app. The apps themselves for the most part seem pretty useless. I only really tried the Netflix app. It plays back video just fine, but it definitely loads slower than Netflix on a regular browser and the interface seems much less efficient as well. I've also heard nothing but bad things about the Skype app, although I've never tried it myself because running it normally just seems a lot easier.
Overall, Metro isn't really a deal breaker, it's just something that'll leave you confused as to why it's there sometimes.
wot i want to know more about
I've used Windows 8 on my laptop for a few months now, and I feel pretty acquainted with it, but there's still more I'd like to know that I haven't already figured out from personal experience.
I've heard that the Backup and Restore tool from Windows 7 was removed in favor of something else? I recall hearing that it saves older copies of files somewhere locally. This seems easier for just deleting a file but pretty useless in the event of hard disk failure, which is the main reason I have a backup.
I like Windows Defender overall (the new version of Microsoft Security Essentials now baked directly into the OS), but I can't seem to find a way to run regular scans. Windows 8 seems to not have that option in favor of kludging it together with a bunch of other processes in something called "Automatic Maintenance". If I've missed something I'd be interested to know.
I've heard reports of not being able to launch certain games. The most I've experience about this was Fallout 2 crashing once in a while but I'm not sure if that's Windows 8's fault specifically. Everything else seems to run fine but I do not do much gaming on my laptop so I'd like to hear more from someone who does.
Summary
Overall, Windows 8 is not the horrible catastrophe people have made it out to be, at least in my overall experience. Rather it seems to just be a bit disappointing. It's complete usable and possible to work with, but you can't help but wish they went in another direction.
What are your thoughts on Windows 8? Do you have any computers running it?