Windows 8 Is Not Intuitive To Use, At Least For Now
Have you ever watched someone with little computing experience use a computer? If you ever worked tech support or are the go-to guy when tech issues come up, you probably know what I'm talking about. Their way of using a computer is often fundamentally different from ours.
Most use a limited number of apps and techniques to get the things done that they need to do. Most ignore the keyboard when they do not have to enter text into an email, Word or Excel, and rely on the start menu and the desktop to load their applications.
I just watched the "How Real People Will Use Windows 8" video on YouTube, and it once again reminded me of what regular Windows users will go through once they upgrade to Windows 8, or buy a new PC that ships with the operating system.
Here is a short summary if you do not want to watch it. Chris Pirillo's father is trying out Windows 8 for the first time, and tries to figure out for most of the video how to get back to the Metro Start page that he saw in the beginning (and his mean son does not explain to him how it's done).
You probably know that Microsoft has done away with the start button in Windows 8, and that the operating system comes with a new Metro user interface that is optimized for tablet PCs.
Microsoft has released two public preview versions of the operating system. First the Windows 8 Developer Preview, which still sported a small start menu, and then the Consumer Preview without the start menu.
Both versions shared that they did not offer any visual clues on how to use the "hidden" control options. Experienced users might try the keyboard when they cannot find any clues on the desktop, and many will try the Windows key as they may remember that it opened the start menu back in previous versions of Windows.
But moving the mouse to the lower right (or upper right) corner of the screen to bring up the Charms bar? That's more likely discovered by accident. The bar is another new concept in Windows 8, linking to the start page, control panel, or power options among other things.
Windows 8 users can also move the mouse cursor to the lower left corner of the screen to display a start page thumbnail that they can click on.
While it is likely that Microsoft will play a tutorial on first start, and maybe even add visual clues to the operating system, it is not written in stone that they will. But how would Windows 8 users find out about the hidden controls otherwise?
Maybe the release candidate will have the answers that we are looking for. For now, Windows 8 is not as intuitive to use as it needs to be.
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What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277