Windows 8 adoption rate reportedly worse than Vista

[fatclue_98]

Look. Windows 8 is like classic small block v/s Dohc AMG M156 V8. The newer build has a lot going for it. Why should anyone avoid W8? It is stable, fast like **** and superb on touch devices. It is a two in one, classic and touch OS.

Yeah, but that small block V-8 is stout and built to withstand much higher stresses than any Coke-can Twin-Cam being built today. There's a lot of us old timers that believe in durability and robustness over ketchy features. The performance gains of W8 over W7 are imperceptible to the human eye as to justify the time and resources spent upgrading. There is no stopwatch to measure benchmark units, only digital tools that spew out numbers that are quite meaningless. I'll take your automotive reference one step further to illustrate my point. If you have two top-fuels duking it out for a final and you're standing at the start line, can you honestly tell who got to the end of the 1320 first? No. You need to wait for the lights and the times.

 

[CHIP72]

Rick Carroll - what specific issues do you have with Windows 8, either in desktop mode or Metro/tile mode?

Two quick things I'll mention:

1) The Charms bar (the bar that appears on the screen when you place the cursor in the upper-right corner or when you swipe in from the right bezel on a touchscreen device, essentially is the new Start button. (You can access the Charms bar in either Metro/tile mode or desktop mode.) Perceiving the Charms bar in this manner IMO helps considerably.

2) What I like to call the "just type" feature in Metro/tile mode is similar to but considerably more powerful than the Search box (located directly above the Start button when you click on it) in Windows 7. To access, just click anywhere on the Metro mode screen that isn't in a tile and start typing what you are looking for. Search results will show up on the right grouped by class and include not only applications, settings, and files but also the Windows Store and selected applications installed on your computer (i.e. you can search within the application via the "just type" functionality without entering the application first). Incidentally, you can also access the same search functionality via the Search option in the Charms bar.

 

[conanheath]

I think a few people need to get "Win8 for Dummies" and I don't mean that to be derogatory in any way. I picked it up after I got my RT back at launch. With the major change I thought it would be a good idea to know what I was getting before I got full W8 laptop. There were a lot of changes and some are not exactly "figure it out as you go" or intuitive, at first. But, once you figure out the changes, you see why MS changed things up a bit. You see how much more powerful searches and the charms bar really can be. Also how much faster interface can be. Also, it is a touch interface even though you can use a mouse. Don't let anyone fool you. They are pulling the carpet out from under power users a little. But, average Joe is the market and touch is the future. I have found absolutely no problems with desktop mode once I read up on new search features. Everything I had before is there except a start button. Everything can still be pinned to task bar or shortcut to desktop as well as pinned to Metro. I'm not a big "Dummies" fan, but it was the best investment I've made recently. If you haven't read up on W8 you don't know half of what it can do or the ease at which it can do it.

 

[ohgood]

I think a few people need to get "Win8 for Dummies" and I don't mean that to be derogatory in any way. I picked it up after I got my RT back at launch. With the major change I thought it would be a good idea to know what I was getting before I got full W8 laptop. There were a lot of changes and some are not exactly "figure it out as you go" or intuitive, at first. But, once you figure out the changes, you see why MS changed things up a bit. You see how much more powerful searches and the charms bar really can be. Also how much faster interface can be. Also, it is a touch interface even though you can use a mouse. Don't let anyone fool you. They are pulling the carpet out from under power users a little. But, average Joe is the market and touch is the future. I have found absolutely no problems with desktop mode once I read up on new search features. Everything I had before is there except a start button. Everything can still be pinned to task bar or shortcut to desktop as well as pinned to Metro. I'm not a big "Dummies" fan, but it was the best investment I've made recently. If you haven't read up on W8 you don't know half of what it can do or the ease at which it can do it.

Find control panel. Intuitive?

 

[martinmc78]

Find control panel. Intuitive?

Click anywhere without a tile and type control panel - even better just start typing what you want from the control panel and cut out another step. Works for everything else also works for control panel. Is that not intuitive?

 

[Coreldan]

Find control panel. Intuitive?

Being intuitive is sort of a questionable argument. I could say that before Win 8 finding Control Panel wasnt specifically intuitive either,but we're just used to where it is in all these years now. Typing "contr" and by that time the metro UI will let you just hit enter and open control panel is just as intuitive as something else, really, it just comes down to people not being used to doing that for years now. If you ask me, it's easier and faster to do than before.

Same sorta goes for Android's, iOS, Symbian, WP.. There are ways to make things more intuitive and it's sorta by giving visual clue where to find something, apart from that I cant really say that Ive ever got a feeling of "I so had this intuitive gut feeling that feature X would be here!" apart from past experience with a similar/earlier version of the OS. I for one think Symbian was really intuitive, it just wasnt user friendly W8 might not be intuitive, I can honestly say I couldnt go with a gut feeling of where to find a certain feature if it had changed or was new in metro UI, but probaby 95% of those features I love now and think they are better than their equivalent in W7or earlier (and probably most of the features can still be used like in W7 in the desktop mode).

 

[martinmc78]

Give the guy a break. Wouldn't you have your jocks/panties in a bunch if half your subordinates were idiots?

Doesnt everyone have that? Thought it was a natural occurence in every office.

 

[martinmc78]

Being intuitive is sort of a questionable argument. I could say that before Win 8 finding Control Panel wasnt specifically intuitive either,but we're just used to where it is in all these years now. Typing "contr" and by that time the metro UI will let you just hit enter and open control panel is just as intuitive as something else, really, it just comes down to people not being used to doing that for years now. If you ask me, it's easier and faster to do than before.

Same sorta goes for Android's, iOS, Symbian, WP.. There are ways to make things more intuitive and it's sorta by giving visual clue where to find something, apart from that I cant really say that Ive ever got a feeling of "I so had this intuitive gut feeling that feature X would be here!" apart from past experience with a similar/earlier version of the OS. I for one think Symbian was really intuitive, it just wasnt user friendly W8 might not be intuitive, I can honestly say I couldnt go with a gut feeling of where to find a certain feature if it had changed or was new in metro UI, but probaby 95% of those features I love now and think they are better than their equivalent in W7or earlier (and probably most of the features can still be used like in W7 in the desktop mode).

To be honest dont think it will take long for some bright spark to fiddle with the kinect for windows SDK and make windows 8 gesture and voice compatible and cut out the touchscreen

 

[conanheath]

Find control panel. Intuitive?

Like Martinmc said, but also WIN+X key from anywhere gives you even more options. There are a couple of apps in store which list shortcut keys and descriptions for powerusers. Or search from Metro home screen and it is one of the apps or open all apps and its a tile. From there you can pin it to start screen or pin to task bar and do what you want whenever. MS did a lot of research and followed stats to find out what people used "search" for and reworked it accordingly. Its very intuitive for me after a little bit of reading.

 

[ohgood]

Like Martinmc said, but also WIN+X key from anywhere gives you even more options. There are a couple of apps in store which list shortcut keys and descriptions for powerusers. Or search from Metro home screen and it is one of the apps or open all apps and its a tile. From there you can pin it to start screen or pin to task bar and do what you want whenever. MS did a lot of research and followed stats to find out what people used "search" for and reworked it accordingly. Its very intuitive for me after a little bit of reading.

Good job listing routes and shortcuts for finding a program.

The point was, in previous versions, it -was- intuitive:

Start...
Scroll around a little with the pointing device...
"Aha! Control Panel, that might change my screen resolution, or sounds, or mail accounts, or " etc

I've watched people (people watching is addictive) at various box stores, and they always stumble when confronted with windows 8 on a display pc. Usually, a perturbed expression is followed by a quick look around for whatever isle they might want next, and the pc is left in whatever state the customer gave up on. I did see a kid plug a usb dongle into one, but had no idea what he did.... and in demo mode at that ! Really intrigued by his actions, maybe one of you knows an exploit ?

 

[conanheath]

Ok, I give up. Stick with win7 and don't ever change. If you don't like Win8, you haven't spent any time with it. It is so much easier and faster to navigate if you know what you're doing. If you don't want to learn it, then don't. There is a learning curve to any OS. If you don't want to learn it, then don't gripe about what it won't do when you have no idea what it can and will do.

Learned behavior is not intuition. This is why toddlers can get around our smartphones better than we can. They have no learned behavior to get in the way of their intuition.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Find control panel. Intuitive?

Click anywhere without a tile and type control panel - even better just start typing what you want from the control panel and cut out another step. Works for everything else also works for control panel. Is that not intuitive?

winkey + x, then click control panel.

 

[ohgood]

Ok, I give up. Stick with win7 and don't ever change. If you don't like Win8, you haven't spent any time with it. It is so much easier and faster to navigate if you know what you're doing. If you don't want to learn it, then don't. There is a learning curve to any OS. If you don't want to learn it, then don't gripe about what it won't do when you have no idea what it can and will do.

Learned behavior is not intuition. This is why toddlers can get around our smartphones better than we can. They have no learned behavior to get in the way of their intuition.

Just what I've seen and experienced, my os's of choice were made years ago. Venturing out to see how things have changed for better or worse is interesting, that's all. Watch people attempt to use w8, young and old... you may find things different.

 

[Nataku4ca]

Good job listing routes and shortcuts for finding a program.

The point was, in previous versions, it -was- intuitive:

Start...
Scroll around a little with the pointing device...
"Aha! Control Panel, that might change my screen resolution, or sounds, or mail accounts, or " etc

since we're on this topic i might as well throw my weight behind this, the philosophy of Win8 is different from the previous version, so if you actually understood that you would try looking in settings in the charm bar when you are on the desktop where it shows itself as an option

hey, don't take this as an insult, but with numerous users i've had to work with, most of the time when i ask them to open the control panel over the phone, i've had to tell them step by step on how to get to it (in win 7 and win 8 case i end up telling them to press start then type control panel...u'd be surprised how many people are blind...) for most of us, it's memory that makes it seem intuitive, but as with most things on a desktop, they are mostly unintuitive, they are "logical" that is all that is

i think "intuitive" is getting mis-used a lot in these past few years

 

[martinmc78]

i think "intuitive" is getting mis-used a lot in these past few years

Yeah - along with "innovative"

 

[a5cent]

Yeah - along with "innovative"

I would say every single tech related buzzword has become meaningless this past decade. The words of those developing technology are drowned out by those marketing it.

 

[martinmc78]

I would say every single tech related buzzword has become meaningless this past decade. The words of those developing technology are drowned out by those marketing it.

Im waiting for someone to brand the next iphone "REEM"

(Apologies to the majority that wont understand what reem means. For explanation google "The only way is essex" be prepared for a shock - its like crossing Jersey Shore with Jordie Shore and dropping the IQ levels of the "cast" into single digits.)

 

[ohgood]

since we're on this topic i might as well throw my weight behind this, the philosophy of Win8 is different from the previous version, so if you actually understood that you would try looking in settings in the charm bar when you are on the desktop where it shows itself as an option

hey, don't take this as an insult, but with numerous users i've had to work with, most of the time when i ask them to open the control panel over the phone, i've had to tell them step by step on how to get to it (in win 7 and win 8 case i end up telling them to press start then type control panel...u'd be surprised how many people are blind...) for most of us, it's memory that makes it seem intuitive, but as with most things on a desktop, they are mostly unintuitive, they are "logical" that is all that is

i think "intuitive" is getting mis-used a lot in these past few years

No insults taken at all (where's the thumbs up icon on tapatalk?)

The frustration you deal with, from people that won't even attempt to navigate "start - control panel .... " is a little different than what I'm on about:

The person with a fresh w8 install has no clues where to "start". Experience with past os's isn't going to help them other than "guess I need to start clicking around and experiment".

 

[Nataku4ca]

The person with a fresh w8 install has no clues where to "start". Experience with past os's isn't going to help them other than "guess I need to start clicking around and experiment".

that's what i mean, you are basically starting fresh in many parts of the OS since the philosophy behind it changed so much, when i started using and fixing my wife's OSX it was pretty much the same, the philosophy change took some time to get used to (and i don't know why or how she use it that makes it break down so often =..= and i'm fingering HP for the crappy software they make for OSX too...)

 

[LeLee092]

Not switching to Windows 8 any time soon unfortunately..
I've had many bad experiences with Windows before, and even though I do have a WP8 and LOVE it, I kinda dont wanna ruin the good streak I have going on with Windows 7...
plus my computer isnt touchscreen..I'm deff considered part of the late majority or even Lagger when it comes to technology, I dont find the need right now to invest time, money or energy into familiarizing myself with a new OS when like they say "If it aint broken, dont fix it!"