I want to pick and choose the features I want...
Windows 7 is stable and very functional. I don't think the issues with Win8 are as much about program compatibility than it is about GUI style. (Every upgrade has some issues.) I have only toyed with Win8 in a VM, (and not the final retail product either, only the downloadable RC,) but it seems that after I installed ClassicShell, it worked just fine. (I personally have no use for the start screen or live tiles.) But why should I have to install ClassicShell to get back the functionality I am accustomed to in earlier versions? Why can't M$ leave the old GUI features as options and let users customize it however they want? They wouldn't have half the bitching from users right now if they did that.
I want to pick and choose the features I use in my OS. M$ keeps reinventing the GUI, but they want to start over each time, so they discard the good and the bad and come up with a whole new and different set of good and bad. The end result isn't better, it is just different. Apparently, they forgot that the OS is not the end product. The installed software is the end product. The OS is supposed to present the software to us quickly and efficiently, and then get out of the way!
I want the Win2K style start menu, search options, and explorer windows. (I never search by content and disable indexing.) I want the Areo-style snap windows to the top and sides. I like the animations and previews in the taskbar. I want to use both the taskbar and the old Quick Launch bar. (I like to click the icon and get a new instance of the program without right or middle clicking, and some programs behave better on one or the other.) I want the Win'98 style windows and menus that just appear without scrolling, fading, dancing, or dangling at 95% of full size and out of focus for 3/4 of a second then zoom into full focus, (it is annoying and gives me motion sickness. I had more complaints from my users over that than any other feature in Win7. Seriously, who at M$ thought that was a good idea to play "keep away" with the windows and menus? My computer is about 25,000 times faster than my old Pentium I, so why should opening windows be slower?) I don't want to waste GPU cycles on shadows, beveled boarders, etc...
I don't even mind having to go into buried control panels to configure it all, but when they completely remove options to force the new "user experience" on me, it really pisses me off! The code was already written. They went out of their way to remove it! Doh!
