Friday, June 28th 2013
Windows 8.1, and Why You Should Let Go of Windows 7
When Steve Jobs went upstage in early-April 2010 to unveil the iPad, it was expected to be the next logical step to Apple's successful miniaturization of the MacBook to the category-defining MacBook Air. It was expected to be an OS X-based handheld that ran on hardware not much different. When Jobs revealed the iPad to be an upscale of the iPhone idea, rather than a downscale of the MacBook idea, the industry was never the same again. The successful reception of the iOS on both the iPhone and iPad is what could have been the genesis of the Windows of today, which looks great on smartphones, tablets, and touch-enabled notebooks, but is hated on desktops, particularly by the PC enthusiast community. Much of that hatred is misdirected, and is a waste of time. Here's why.
While Microsoft Windows CE and Windows Phone powered PDAs for years before the smartphone revolution, Microsoft's most popular creation in the mobile space has been Windows Phone 7, and its successors. The brand new 'tile' interface, coupled with clear, finger-friendly, and forgiving UI elements finally gave Microsoft the UI design it was looking for. Rather than making a repeat of Apple's winning formula of upscaling Windows Phone 7 to a software for tablets (i.e. being content with Windows RT), Microsoft extended the UI to the entire Windows product family, including operating systems for the PC, and shockingly, even Windows Server. With the new Windows 8.1 Release Preview, it's clear that Microsoft isn't going back on the direction Windows 8 took, and so as PC enthusiasts, we're forced to ask ourselves if putting up a fight against it, by clinging on to Windows 7, is really worth it.
The Start Menu that never really left.
The guiding principle behind a tile-like UI on mainline PC operating systems isn't that people would drop their mice and stretch their arms out to the monitor (a touchscreen), and begin using their PCs that way. It was so the PC in itself could evolve. The biggest point of contention for PC enthusiasts refusing to upgrade to Windows 8 and its inevitable successor is the lack of a Start menu. Well, not sure if you noticed, but the Start menu never left. It's only not a menu anymore, it's a screen. When you click on the start button on older Windows desktops, whatever shows up as a result, has your undivided attention. You're either looking for a program to launch, a document you were just working on, or finding your way to the key areas of the operating system. Your business with the Start menu gets wrapped up in a few seconds. So why not stretch that Start "thing" to cover the entire screen, and make it more functional?
Submenus of the Windows XP Start menu stretched out to the entire height of the screen, and with enough items, you could practically fill the screen with an extremely collapsed Start menu. Ask yourself if a fullscreen Start screen is really that different, after all, when Microsoft shrunk the Start menu to a fixed-size one in Windows Vista, by dropping in a scroll-bar, it sparked outrage.
Finding programs, documents, or OS-related functions using the Start screen takes nearly the same time once you get the hang of it, and can actually be quicker. When people screamed from the rooftops asking for their familiar Start button back on the taskbar, Microsoft obliged. The upcoming Windows 8.1, which will be a free upgrade to current Windows 8 users, features a Start button, right where you expect it to be. Before you get excited, all it does is spawn up the Start screen. Windows 8.1 also features an option with which your computer starts up straight to the desktop, instead of the Start screen.
The Modern UI bloat that doesn't really exist.
Another point of contention for Start screen opponents is the modern UI apps that come included with the operating system constituting bloatware. Well, they don't. These are apps that tell you the weather, list out the headlines, track your stocks, and so on. The default set of apps that come with Windows 8 barely have a couple of dozen megabytes in memory footprint, which is made up for by an overall better memory management by Windows 8. Besides, enthusiast PCs begin at 4 GB of memory, 8 GB is considered mainstream for gaming PCs, and enthusiast builds are getting the whiff of 16 GB already. Plenty of room in there for an app that tells the weather.
The grass on the other side stays greener even after you get there.
With the Windows 8.1 Release Preview we got to play with, Microsoft made it clear that it's not going to make steps backwards. There's "a" Start button, not "the" Start button. What shows up after you click it is bigger and better than its predecessor's Start screen. There are new tile-size options, including "large" (double the area of a medium tile), and "tiny" (a quarter of the area of a regular tile). The new "tiny" tile size is perfect for organizing shortcuts to scores of programs or games, the tiles have just enough room for a clear icon.
Windows 8.1, like its predecessor, starts up quicker than Windows 7 does. The kernel of the operating system never really shuts down, but hibernates, and wakes up in a snap each time you power up the PC. The new Storage Spaces, which is similar to Linux LDM, lets you better organize data across multiple physical hard drives.
Windows 8.1 introduces a new display driver model, WDDM 1.3. This brings with it a few new display features, including the standardization of wireless display, 48 Hz dynamic refresh rates for video playback, V-sync interrupt optimization, video conferencing acceleration, a Direct3D API feature so major, that it warrants a version number change. Introduced with DirectX 11.2, a new API feature called "tiled surfaces."
Tiled Surfaces is analogous to the OpenGL mega-textures technology demonstrated by id Software on "Rage," which helped it create vast, detailed, and smoothly animating 3D scenes. Instead of streaming textures as the scene is being rendered, mega-textures allows developers to deploy larger textures that are fewer in number, and dynamically show portions of it. These textures needn't be loaded to the video memory entirely, can stay on the disk, and the API would access portions of it as they become relevant to the scene, as it's being viewed. In essence, mega-texturing is a sort of "virtual-memory" for GPUs, and could shift focus from larger video memory to faster memory, in the upcoming generations of GPUs.
In conclusion
Suck it up. Windows for PC isn't going to change, and was always prone to significant change. Windows 95 was Microsoft's response to PCs that were firmly capable of GUI, at a time when people at large were getting the hang of using a mouse. Windows 8 and 8.1 are just as landmark, whether we like it or not. Microsoft is catering to a large mass of people that are getting the hang of a touchscreen, and prefer a uniform experience between devices both on the desk, and on the move. Improvements such as new "tiny" tiles make the Start screen just as functional and quick to use as a menu, and Microsoft isn't stopping with its innovations that will get increasingly out of reach for Windows 7 users.
The Start Menu that never really left.
The guiding principle behind a tile-like UI on mainline PC operating systems isn't that people would drop their mice and stretch their arms out to the monitor (a touchscreen), and begin using their PCs that way. It was so the PC in itself could evolve. The biggest point of contention for PC enthusiasts refusing to upgrade to Windows 8 and its inevitable successor is the lack of a Start menu. Well, not sure if you noticed, but the Start menu never left. It's only not a menu anymore, it's a screen. When you click on the start button on older Windows desktops, whatever shows up as a result, has your undivided attention. You're either looking for a program to launch, a document you were just working on, or finding your way to the key areas of the operating system. Your business with the Start menu gets wrapped up in a few seconds. So why not stretch that Start "thing" to cover the entire screen, and make it more functional?
Submenus of the Windows XP Start menu stretched out to the entire height of the screen, and with enough items, you could practically fill the screen with an extremely collapsed Start menu. Ask yourself if a fullscreen Start screen is really that different, after all, when Microsoft shrunk the Start menu to a fixed-size one in Windows Vista, by dropping in a scroll-bar, it sparked outrage.
Finding programs, documents, or OS-related functions using the Start screen takes nearly the same time once you get the hang of it, and can actually be quicker. When people screamed from the rooftops asking for their familiar Start button back on the taskbar, Microsoft obliged. The upcoming Windows 8.1, which will be a free upgrade to current Windows 8 users, features a Start button, right where you expect it to be. Before you get excited, all it does is spawn up the Start screen. Windows 8.1 also features an option with which your computer starts up straight to the desktop, instead of the Start screen.
The Modern UI bloat that doesn't really exist.
Another point of contention for Start screen opponents is the modern UI apps that come included with the operating system constituting bloatware. Well, they don't. These are apps that tell you the weather, list out the headlines, track your stocks, and so on. The default set of apps that come with Windows 8 barely have a couple of dozen megabytes in memory footprint, which is made up for by an overall better memory management by Windows 8. Besides, enthusiast PCs begin at 4 GB of memory, 8 GB is considered mainstream for gaming PCs, and enthusiast builds are getting the whiff of 16 GB already. Plenty of room in there for an app that tells the weather.
The grass on the other side stays greener even after you get there.
With the Windows 8.1 Release Preview we got to play with, Microsoft made it clear that it's not going to make steps backwards. There's "a" Start button, not "the" Start button. What shows up after you click it is bigger and better than its predecessor's Start screen. There are new tile-size options, including "large" (double the area of a medium tile), and "tiny" (a quarter of the area of a regular tile). The new "tiny" tile size is perfect for organizing shortcuts to scores of programs or games, the tiles have just enough room for a clear icon.
Windows 8.1, like its predecessor, starts up quicker than Windows 7 does. The kernel of the operating system never really shuts down, but hibernates, and wakes up in a snap each time you power up the PC. The new Storage Spaces, which is similar to Linux LDM, lets you better organize data across multiple physical hard drives.
Windows 8.1 introduces a new display driver model, WDDM 1.3. This brings with it a few new display features, including the standardization of wireless display, 48 Hz dynamic refresh rates for video playback, V-sync interrupt optimization, video conferencing acceleration, a Direct3D API feature so major, that it warrants a version number change. Introduced with DirectX 11.2, a new API feature called "tiled surfaces."
Tiled Surfaces is analogous to the OpenGL mega-textures technology demonstrated by id Software on "Rage," which helped it create vast, detailed, and smoothly animating 3D scenes. Instead of streaming textures as the scene is being rendered, mega-textures allows developers to deploy larger textures that are fewer in number, and dynamically show portions of it. These textures needn't be loaded to the video memory entirely, can stay on the disk, and the API would access portions of it as they become relevant to the scene, as it's being viewed. In essence, mega-texturing is a sort of "virtual-memory" for GPUs, and could shift focus from larger video memory to faster memory, in the upcoming generations of GPUs.
In conclusion
Suck it up. Windows for PC isn't going to change, and was always prone to significant change. Windows 95 was Microsoft's response to PCs that were firmly capable of GUI, at a time when people at large were getting the hang of using a mouse. Windows 8 and 8.1 are just as landmark, whether we like it or not. Microsoft is catering to a large mass of people that are getting the hang of a touchscreen, and prefer a uniform experience between devices both on the desk, and on the move. Improvements such as new "tiny" tiles make the Start screen just as functional and quick to use as a menu, and Microsoft isn't stopping with its innovations that will get increasingly out of reach for Windows 7 users.
353 Comments on Windows 8.1, and Why You Should Let Go of Windows 7
I have used metro and disliked it. I find the Windows 7 setup to work better for my needs. I do not have a touch screen on my desktop nor do I plan on getting one. If Microsoft doesn't want to recognize myself and the other 90% of users they are doomed to fail. I couldn't tell you how many people on this deployment I have installed windows 7 onto PC's because windows 8 pisses them off.
Windows 8 can go sit on the shelf next to Windows Vista for all I care. I for one will not be purchasing it to simply have to hunt down some 3rd party BS program to make it work they way it should have worked off of the shelf.
The only thing I miss is Chess Titans, hope someone manages to port it :respect:Any new version of any program which introduces many aesthetic changes is generally bashed. Confirmed.
Thanks but no thanks. No interest in this Windows 8 junk (and yes, I've tried it... it's junk). There is simply no advantage to me to switch from Windows 7, even if it were free. And it's not free.
Rage was years ago and imo it wasn't a good game even.
I'm not hatin, I only upgrade when it's worth doing performance and cost wise.
No game improvements.
I just don't care then.
[INDENT]- It was single player [/INDENT]
[INDENT]- People expected something else, and they were sure they going to get it. It was a simple fps with good control, very fast engine and nice graphics to entertain for a few nights, nothing more.[/INDENT]Bindless texturing is not equals to Megatexture, it's just a hardware support vs a software solution. You could use bindless textures support in you Megatexturing engine, and that would free a lot of resources (I was hoping a patch would do this for Rage tbh, but since there are no high quality addons and the original world resolution runs fluid on Dualcore+G92 relics as well, it's not really needed after all).
Carmack were continuously bombarded by Microsoft about why using Opengl and go for DirectX and Xbox360,etc and when he was praising MS for advancing faster than OpenGL (they did improved a lot indeed tbh), OpenGL answered with bindless_texture in the OpenGL 4.0 release (too late for Rage).
New engines built up from the ground could indeed benefit a lot from the new DirectX feature, but - on the other hand - there is a lot more what could have been done with dynamic tessellation too, but somehow the industry did not really went for it (well, not yet at least), so who knows how this will turn out.
Windows 8 = Windows for Dummies.
Let the flaming commence!
The fad of insulting Windows 8 and its users must die.
I would argue that the trend of treating desktops like tablets and/or phones is the trend that needs to die (and Windows 8 is part of this trend though the trend is a broader phenomenon).
1. First, press the Start + R buttons, to open the Run menu.
2. In the Run window, type “regedit” and hit Enter.
3. Now scroll on the top of the list and double click on “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE”. This will expand the folder.
4. Do the same for “SOFTWARE “.
5. In the list, search for “Microsoft” and open it.
6. Now using the same procedure, navigate to Windows->CurrentVersion->Explorer and some registry entries will appear in the right side of the screen.
7. Click on the one called “RPenabled” and change its value from “1? to “0?.
Diasble Metro:
1) Don't buy Windows 8
2) ?????
3) Profit!
And by using Start8 how the heck are you saying to MS that your not happy ?.. Guess what they don't give a flying monkey if you use Start8 only if you buy it the OS.
If enough people stood firm on what they believe just like with the XBOX 1 instead of folding maybe shit would of changed by now..
Hit'em were it hurts don't give them ya money.
But many people think Windows 8 = Metro and you are forced to it, when you can bring it down easily by installing a classic shell. It's easier or equivalent to changing the default desktop background, or changing themes, or changing icons, or installing a alternate program, whatever.
People ignore the new Windows 8 features aside from the Metro thingy. And I've listed them here.
And if you read posts like Arctucas, then you lose any hope. I haven't still read any post saying that not upgrading to Windows 8 was dumb, and, at least I haven't said that.Even when this is a forum, called a user dummy because he does like Windows 8 is not justifiable. That's not a opinion.
Using those words (Junk, retarded, etc...) without any justification is not valid. If you hate and insult something, at least, state why, it's not that hard.
You are right, a phone is a phone, a tablet is a tablet, and a desktop is a desktop. You cannot blend them. That's why I think MS is going wrong with that trend, unless it makes it OPTIONAL.Fast boot being the best of them, my computer did took 15 secs or more with windows 7. Now it takes 5 or less (not counting my pc's damn slow POST process). Task manager is far more informative. The copy process is way improved and feels faster (maybe placebo effect). and more...
For example.
Does Microsoft knows that IE is hated by people switching to another browser, and that's why now is trying harder to make it better since IE9?? what happened to Xbox One?? the same could happens to Metro, do you think MS won't do anything when acknowledges people are "removing" Metro?? So even when I give 'em my money, they know that. A company should try to make customers happy and loyal, and MS is going to get the opposite.
I am not defending MS, and that would be the last thing I'd do, specially after the Xbox one fiasco but I think Windows 8 as a whole is getting excessive backlashDisable Metro:
1. Download start8 or classic shell or whatever shell mod software you want.
2. Install it. Next next next finish
3. Reboot.
4. Done. You won't see it anymore unless you click the Metro shortcut. Besides, you'll get the Win 7 start menu.
EDIT: No it doesn't work, nothing happens when opened maybe because my netbook is 32 and my desktop 64Well OK, but reinstalling drivers, apps, configurations, settings are a pain for me unless MS makes it easier.
For everyone that prefer the Start Menu and no Metro simply installing ClassicShell/Start8/Startisback will fix Windows 8 for you. There really are some nice features in Win8. However, at the same time I don't think any of those features are worth paying a large amount of money for. So the people that are on Windows 7, IMO, are completely in the right to say they are sticking with it. It is a solid OS. I wouldn't be using Win8 right now if I didn't get it for practically nothing, and I still don't use it on my main computer.
Now, we also have to understand that a lot of people will not buy or use Win8 based on principle. They don't feel that Microsoft forcing Metro on us is right. And, honestly, I'm in agreement there. So to them buying a copy of Win8 would be telling Microsoft it is OK to force us to use things we don't want to use, it is OK to do things that we believe hinder the usability of the OS and not give us the option to change it. The simple fact is that all Microsoft had to do was leave the option to disable Metro and use the standard Start Menu in the OS and 99% of the arguments against Win8 would be solve. They didn't have to make it the default, they can still have Metro enabled at first, but just give us the option to no use it if we want. IMO, and in the opinions of a lot of other people, the best version of Win8 was the Developer Preview because it had that exact option. So we know that it is possible, but Microsoft decided to remove it.
A lot of people believe they can vote with their wallets, and to an extent it works. Microsoft isn't totally insane. The terrible XboxOne pre-sales make them do a completely 180 on their hardline stance on DRM. So it is possible to send a message to Microsoft with our wallets. However, in that case Microsoft has some pretty heavy competition. In the OS field they have basically no competition, so the change takes a lot longer, but it is still possible. The horrible sales of Win8 has caused Microsoft to at least start to address the issue we have, even if they did so in a laughable insulting way. The fact is that Win8 is a marketing failure, and sales have been terrible. The only reason sales are even anything close to what they are is because Microsoft no longer allows the major computer OEMs to sell new computers with Win7, they have to have Win8 licences. Even if the computer is sold with Win7, it is a downgrade using a Win8 license. That means that computers sold today with Win7 on them actually count as a sale of Win8. But if you look at the market share of Win8 it is lower than OSX at this point, and that is a big black eye to Microsoft. And people have been avoiding buying new computers because of Windows 8. Computer sales have been down dramatically since Windows 8 was released, and market analysts all say it is because people don't want Windows 8. Microsoft is responding to this.No, sorry for the confusion, there are more steps than that I was just saying where you get the source files.
This should help: forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/33214-How-to-use-Microsoft-Games-from-Windows-7-in-Windows-8
Probably not true having to spend so much time searching for the browser JK.
Hell even Mac OSX has it's own version of THE start button it's called spot light you press command space and start typing and it gives you nice list of applications documents or anything else you might be looking for and no it doesn't take up the whole screen the other difference is it's in the top right not the bottom left.
Apple at least understands the difference between a Mac with a keyboard and a iPhone that's why the make Mac OS X and iOS.
Also I will never switch from KB and mouse because motion and touch controls are just too inaccurate you also can't rest your hand on a touch keyboard because it register as a button and motion is to inaccurate / awkward for anything smaller than moving entire application windows around also speech control has the inherent issue of what if I'm not talking to the computer but to someone else.