Windows 8 - Is it really that bad?

[tungthai]

I'm looking for a new laptop for under £400, most of the models I have looked at are Acer models. The only downside is that they all come with Windows 8 and the reviews of Windows 8 are very negative.

I had a laptop once with Vista on it and I hated it with a passion. I'm not that technical and like computers to be user friendly. I'm
happy with Windows XP and also like my iPhone.

Is it worth considering?

[chicaguapa]

I have Windows 8 on my tablet and got used to it very quickly. It's intuitive by touch but I know it's hard to learn it with a mouse. Would a tablet not work for you or do you definitely want a laptop?

[Chanatan]

Definitely worth considering,if you download classic shell,you will have a start button and menu.It is different and a steep learning curve but there is a lot of help on the net.

If your not convinced ,Argos still have quite a few windows 7 laptops,possibly the best ever windows operating system.

[tungthai]

I need a laptop rather than a tablet. Why do you think it is hard with a mouse? I'm quite a visual person so the little apps might not prove too bad for me.

I could really do with having a go on one. I have had a brief look at one in Tesco but what I really need to do is to type a document, create a folder and see how easy it is to retrieve it.

[tungthai]

Have you downloaded that Chanatan or have you managed to get the hang of Windows 8?

[YoniBottsBumgina]

I like it and I don't think it's hard with a mouse at all. DP uses his with a mouse and so do his parents. I like the way the mouse works.

[tungthai]

Doesn't sound too bad... It certainly looks very snazzy!

[chicaguapa]

Windows 8 relies on swiping from the sides a lot which to me doesn't seem to naturally lend itself to a mouse. But I love it and like pinning stuff to the homepage. Not having nicely ordered favourites irks me though.

[Chanatan]

I downloaded it,turned off the login screen and very rarely see the Metro ui screen,only when I choose to or when I press the wrong button.

I loved windows 7,so classic shell gives me the latest operating system with the desktop I love.I am gradually learning my way around the windows 8 system,it is good but its very different,classic shell gave me the option to use the normal desktop and learn whats new and different in my own time.

[YoniBottsBumgina]

Well it depends which one you mean, if you mean the swipe into the corners etc to get the start button to come up then you just move the mouse in that direction and it recognises that very easily, similar to how you could "hide" the start bar in old windows but move your mouse to the bottom of the screen and it would appear again.

If you mean swiping the tiles across to scroll them, that is done with the mouse wheel. It's very smooth. Not sure how easy it would be with a laptop touchpad, though.

[12thmonkey]

windows 8 is poor. Its Microsoft's attempt to produce an OS that looks pretty on a tablet and can work on a desktop and they've not done either well. The desktop version is so frustrating as you can see from the above comments people skin it to look like and older version of windows.

If I was you I would buy a decent laptop and then get a copy of Windows 7 off ebay or somewhere like that and install it.

[mummylin2495]

My dh bought me a new comp for Xmas. I hate it and very rarely use it, preferring to stick to my old XP one. But then , for our silver wedding he bought me an iPad so now I mostly use that. I can't get to grips with the 8 at all.

[Solo]

Windows 8 is awful! I can't work it out at all. They seem to make a duff system every other one!

[alto1]

My dh is a computer pro. We've just bought my mother a new laptop and setting it up was his first encounter with Windows 8. He got so angry he couldn't sleep that night.

[Damnautocorrect]

My oh punched the laptop and broke it, it is that frustrating.
Most if the computery people I know have put windows 7 on instead.
If your going touch screen it's probably fab but not mouse driven.

[mummylin2495]

I have read there is going to be something that all windows 8 users can put on so that we can have a start button and a few things like we used to have, have no idea when that is coming though. I know that things have to progress but don't understand why everything was changed. Haven't met anyone who really likes it yet.

[tungthai]

A lot of unhappy people then. I'm not sure what to do.

I would love a MacBook but they are so overpriced.

[Naoko]

It works fine - it's stable and not bloated and slow, like Vista was. It does, however, look quite different from what people are used to, and some of it is a bit counterintuitive. You would get used to it though, especially if you go in with an open mind and an acceptance that this is different but not necessarily bad and you will learn.

Also, there will soon be an update to Windows 8 - the test versions actually ship this week if I recall correctly, and it will go out (for free) as a Windows update to everyone in a few months. Among other things this will bring back a version of the start button, although not quite the start button as you know it; but that should restore a lot of the functionality that people are missing. It will also allow you to bypass the tile screen on startup and go straight to the desktop instead.

I personally think Microsoft made a mistake with their changes here, and am certainly no fan of Win8, but it doesn't quite deserve the appalling press it's getting either. It's a damn sight better than Vista ever was for starters.

[alto1]

I'm sure you're right but my elderly mother will never get used to it, so it's good to hear we can make the interface look and behave in a more familiar way. She can't use the phone any more (too deaf) so e-mail is v useful.

[Solo]

My elderly Mum can't get on with it either. She's just bought a new laptop and I had a go on it and it's horrible and incredibly slow! she hates it!

[Chanatan]

Solo,has the laptop been configured properly.Because of all the complaints I have heard about Windows 8,being slow is not one of them,most techies seem to agree that it is on a par with Windows 7,unlike Vista which was so bloated.

[Bunbaker]

OH is a computer geek and isn't impressed with Windows 8. It isn'y intuitive at all and is aimed at Smartphone users and isn't very PC friendly. As he is a geek he managed to change the front part of it to look like Windows 7 and got rid of the "apps" and reintroduced the start button. He managed to download info on how to do this from the internet.

Apparently Microsoft are bringing out an updated version of it for all the Windows 8 haters.

[Solo]

I believe so Chanatan.

[CatsAndTheirPizza]

I think this is quite good value for an i5 processor.

www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-S3-391-13-3-inch-Ultrabook/dp/B009R16Z7K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372955918&sr=8-1&keywords=acer%20aspire%20s3%20391&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

I've seen the i3 version and it's quite nice.

[CatsAndTheirPizza]

Sorry, wrong thread

[chateauferret]

SIL has it on a new PC and it drives her potty. It looks like shite as well. She asks me for help and I'm a techy but it still baffles me. I got it on a new laptop in December and immediately dumped it in favour of Ubuntu.

But then I find Windoze 7 bad enough, work forces me to use it. I'll probably have to resign when they "upgrade" to Windoze 8.

I think you can now get GUI shells which replace the provided interface with something nearly useable though (Swappable window managers giving different interfaces have been standard on Linux platforms since nineteen-canteen).