Discussion on:

Learning to love Windows 8

>>The Windows 8 Start Screen is simply a combination of the Start menu and the Task Bar that is always visible taking up the screen real estate where we used to put our unused icons.


The screen real estate on my desktop is not cluttered with icons, but has active applications that I monitor while doing other things. A start screen that covers everything that's already running is nothing like a taskbar and start menu.

You don't have to show the Metro style start screen at all once the computer boots up. You can go right to the desktop with a click of the mouse,press of the enter key or the press of the Windows-D keys or if you have a touch screen, touch of a finger, or tap of a stylus.
Once there, you will find that the desktop looks very much the same as it does in Windows 7. You can still have tiled applications open across multiple monitors, applications shortcuts pinned to your taskbar, widgets on the screen, and icons on the desktop.

You can look stuff up on the start menu without having to switch back and forth which makes it slow and annoying to use, plus navigating back to the start screen is really annoying in Windows 8.

Windows 8 isn't really good on anything, imo. A lot of people say it is great on tablets and weak on desktops, no, it's better than Windows 7 on tablets but not great.

"You can look stuff up on the start menu without having to switch back and forth"

You don't have to switch back and forth to look up stuff. Windows Explorer has a search box. You can pin it to the taskbar on your desktop. You can even save searches under Favorites. I have one called "Find Programs" It grabs all "*.exe" in c:\Program Files and all subfolders and displays them in a window much like Start > All Programs > etc..
I prefer jumping back to the Metro style screen because I can check in on the live tiles while I type "Exc" to call up Excel for example.
In my opinion, it's faster than the old start menu. (Start > All Programs > (scroll down) Microsoft Office > Excel).

I never use the Start menu to launch Excel, it's on the taskbar as are the other apps I use constantly, so they are one click away. Can I or can I not launch Excel and the other dozen or so apps I use all the time with a single click in Windows 8?

but you might have to find the right page it is hiding on.

It looks and behaves the same as Win 7.
If I wanted to open excel from the Metro style screen, I would type "exc" and hit enter.

Would finding the page take extra clicks? The question is about one click.

I think what mckinnej is getting at is if the Excel tile you want is way over off screen to the right, it's not one click to open the program. It's slide the scroll bar until you find the Excel tile.
But you can order your tiles any way you want. I move the most frequently used tiles on the far left so that they are always visible.
That being said, I think a better way to open programs from the Metro style screen is to type part of the name of the file.
For example, typing "exc" + Enter opens Excel. There is no dialog box necessary. Just type. I think that is awesome.
It works for everything provided you can spell.
Example: Typing "2012 Bu" + Enter opens my 2012 Budget Report.xls file.
If you don't press Enter you will see a list of possible file matches to pick from.
So yes to one click and there are other possibly more efficient ways too.

nt

At last, someone who answers the question.

I use my Windows 7 PC for web and software development and photographic and creative design. So I have about 30 apps that I use frequently - I have software development apps like Eclipse and Visual Studio and Blend, and various debugging, profiling emulation and test tools. I also have the full Adobe Creative suite - with each tool - Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Acrobat, etc as its own icon. I also have a complete set of video and audio editing tools, and specialized tools for the equipment I use, e.g., for Nikon, Canon, etc. I also instances of different browsers or browser rev's to test compatibility for my web designs.

I organize them as icons on my screen clustered by purpose - sw development tools here, image-editing tools there, web-browsing, FTP and downloading tools over there, etc. But all of them together consume only a small part of my screen and I can access each item with 1 click.

How would I do this with Windows 8?

It is quite a common misconception that you are stuck with the Metro ( ahem... Modern ) desktop. It is simply untrue. The old style desktop screen is still there. You can put all of your shortcuts there just as you do in Windows 7. What is missing is the Start button and the Start > Program Files list but you can recreate them if you want to. There is plenty of information available on how to do this.

To inet32: Running the upgrade from Win7 to Win 8 leaves your Win 7 Desktop icons in the same place on the Win 8 Desktop. Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom work just fine on Win 8 without even needing an upgrade from Adobe.

Invoking a program by typing something seems like something people would have done 30 years, back when DOS command-line interfaces, Unix shells, and dinosaurs rules the earth.

I have always used the run / search box to find apps and files. But that's the way I work. Maybe that's not the way you do.
For me, not having to open a dialog box to type in "Acro" to open Acrobat saves me a step. When you are on the Metro screen, all you have to do is type. You don't need a dialog box.
For me it's faster. For you, maybe it's faster to click Start > Program Files > Adobe > Acrobat.
Both ways can work.
As Gandhi once said, "You will find there us room for us all."

It's like MS added a second door to the front hallway of my house. "Sure, you can still get to your living room; just open the second door too! That second door doesn't benefit you in any way, but some of the guys with different floor plans needed one so you have to have one too."

We know the capability is there to disable Metro; the registry shortcut was common knowledge ten minutes after the Developer release rolled out. Put the option back in and prompt for it at install.

Microsoft's fear is that so many people will disable Metro on desktops that developers will abandon it, the lack of apps will cause the MS Store and Surface RT to crash and burn, and the rejection of W8 and MS-brand hardware will drag everything else down with them. They've wagered their desktop dominance on the demand for cross-platform applications.

It's ugly in comparison, and full of holes.

An application that runs at start up and is always running and can freely access the web.... A virus makers wet dream....

If you don't want use Metro however briefly, don't install Win 8.
I argue that Metro goes to the desktop so quickly it's like you opened the first door and if you closed your eyes for 2 seconds, you are past the second door and in the room you wanted. I grew up in an apartment like that. We called that room the reception hall.
To be sure, Microsoft is taking a big gamble with this front end interface and maybe we are being forced to use it as consumers if we plan to buy a new computer in the next 12-18 months but that is not the case with the enterprise as our support for Win 7 will take us more than seven years down the road.
I am hoping that Microsoft has a winner in the consumer market. Who knows, if enough consumers buy into the new interface, they may ask for it at work.
Or is that your fear?

Personally, I am ready for a new way to interact with my computer.

If the upper echelons say we're going to support it, I'll install it for those who ask. I don't see us rolling it out en masse like we did XP or are doing with W7 now, but that isn't my call. Ask me if I recommend it, and I'll explain why I think the learning curve isn't worth the effort. I won't voluntarily inflict it on anyone who doesn't ask for it, but tell me to implement it and I'll make it happen. Maybe I can even get some formal training if a deployment decision is made.

as the Director of IT for a small biotech company, I don't plan to deploy Windows 8 to any of our existing 600+ desktops and laptops. It's not because of the learning curve. It's because most of the desktops are more than 4 years old and most of our enterprise applications are even older. The desktops can't handle Win 8 and I don't have a compelling reason to upgrade or replace them.
I suspect most companies are in the same situation of shrinking budgets, aging applications, and Windows XP boxes.
I have a three year keep, refresh, or obsolete plan for all of my hardware and software. Windows 8 is not in that plan. We are slowly rolling out Windows 7.
The staff can learn to use Win 8 on their home computers.
My IT staff can test Win 8 out at work and I will probably bring in a personal Windows Surface Pro to try out on the domain.
That doesn't mean that I don't like Windows 8.
It just means that it is not practical in my enterprise environment at this time.

I don't see any conflict in making a case supporting a course of action even it if isn't appropriate to your own circumstances. I can see plenty of cases where Linux is appropriate even if it doesn't fit my needs.

Your operation sounds a lot like mine, as do your W7, W8 and Surface (non-)deployment strategies. The big difference is W8 leaves a nasty taste in my mouth on 'traditional' platforms.

It's just that I can't resist explaining how one can apply new hardware or software when they claim it will not work.
Win 8 has its strengths.
Awesomely easy search
Improved Task Manager
Clean lightweight apps.

but I am not a "change for the sake of change" guy.

To use Metro or not it is up to the end user. I like Metro interface as a step to make interaction "human being-machine" more friendly.