Day One.
HP Elitebook 8440p with external keyboard, mouse, monitor.
Things same as W7, or not much different
+How to add to domain? Still System Properties, but now must access via Control Panel. There’s no longer a Start menu to provide a right-clickable ‘Computer’ menu entry.
+How to access local Admin account and change password? Still Control Panel, Admin Tools, Computer Management, Users.
+Office 2010, Sophos Anti-Virus installed with no problems.
Actively dislike
+Resizing tiles on Start must be done individually. If two or more tiles are selected, the ‘Smaller’ option disappears
++It is not possible to select multiple tiles on ‘All Apps’ screen, if you want to pin more than one to Start, uninstall more than one, etc.
++Some sort of ‘AutoArrange’ with tiles; cannot be positioned exactly as desired. Cannot move tiles to bottom of block; autoarrange forces tiles to top and left of a group.
++Wide ‘dead zone’ margins where tiles cannot be positioned.
++No games. Can be downloaded / purchased through Store but requires a Windows Live account. Absence of previous standard feature used to drive creation of Windows Live accounts?
++Large number of default tiles that require Windows account. Unpinned most of them since they don’t do anything I’m interested in anyway. may delete in future.
+Created unwanted tiles for Sophos Anti-Virus application; installation on XP or W7 created only out-of-the-way menu entries.
+Unlike Classic desktop tray icon, Metro desktop has no apparent way to tell if Sophos is active.
+Inability to arrange tiles and groups on ‘All Apps’ screen to my preference.
Disorienting
+Lower left ‘Start Screen’ hot spot must be clicked, but clicking upper or lower right Charms hot spots makes the Charms bar go away.
+Constant jumping between Metro and Classic desktops.
+How to get help? Must type ‘Help’ on Metro screen, where F1 does nothing. F1 does still work on Classic desktop. (Later learned on TR that starting help in Metro requires Win+F1, not F1 alone.) Ironic that when started, ‘Help’ runs on Classic desktop only and can’t be seen on Metro screen.
+Going to bottom right corner to cl;ick ‘-‘ button to shrink tiles, but clicking desktop to enlarge them instead of going back to corner and expecing a ‘+’ button.
Hard to break habits
+Heading for the Start button.
+Heading for the Start button with the intent of clicking ‘Run’
+Heading for the Start button with the intent of entering characters in the ‘Search’ box.
+Heading for the Start button and clicking the IE icon since it’s where the Start button used to be.
+Being able to type on the Metro screen but not on the Classic one.
+Right-clicking on Metro desktop and expecting a ‘Personalize’ menu option.
+Overshooting the upper or lower right corners and inadvertently activating the Charms bar.
Other thoughts
+Start hotspot on Classic menu behaves better than in betas (in my opinion). In betas, the Start icon was positioned a few dozen pixels diagonally out of the corner, and it disappeared as soon as the cursor left the corner. This confused me since I wanted to move the cursor up to the slightly-out-of-corner icon before clicking. Now moving the cursor out of the corner does NOT make the Start screen icon disappear, and icon is positioned in the corner itself. It remains on the screen even with the cursor out of the corner about twice the cursor’s width.
Questions Yet Unanswered
+What will it take to make IE 10 do what I want (assuming it’s possible), especially considering it behaves differently on each desktop? Forget it and install Firefox?
+Why is IE not picking up default home page and trusted sites from Group Policy?
+What’s the difference between the ‘Computer’ and ‘File Explorer’ tiles?
+How to put a clock on the Metro desktop?
+How to change wallpaper on Start screen, beyond the limit dozen or so MS-provided options.