[CubaMark]

[rant]

So... my bro-in-law has a new Toshiba laptop, preinstalled with Windows 8 (I advised, and he took it to a shop to remove that POS and install Win 7 Ultimate, but for "some reason" they couldn't get rid of Win8).

And... he has a recurring problem with his internet. Not unusual... Megacable here in Mexico is hit (but more often) miss. Today I managed to get his cable modem working again with a simple power off / 30 secs / power on, but his Wifi? No friggin' way. This is the third WiFi router they've provided that just stops working (to the point where even my MacBook couldn't talk to it).

But the point of this post - Windows friggin' 8. While there, I de-installed all of the pre-installed Norton security crap and installed a Avast! free antivirus. I figure that between Avast! and Windows Defender, he should be pretty well protected. Yes, my anti-Norton crusade continues...

In the process of trying to do software uninstalls and also check networking configurations, I had occasion to make several trips to the Configuration section of Win 8.

Anybody know how to get there? Are you SURE? I played the hover-click in a bloody corner for I don't know how many wasted minutes to get the stupid "charms bar" (WTF?) to come up (this Toshiba, or rather Win8 on this Toshiba, is a total dog). Once the bar finally comes up and stays up, I go and click on the "Configuration" icon.

This is where my blood begins to boil. it seems that, depending on your mood / position of Europa relative to Saturn / your cousin's astrological sign / the blood type of your dog, clicking that G-D icon may or may not bring up the menu that lets you choose the Control Panel. 95% of the time, it just gave me three options: Home, Icons and Help. 5% of the time I got what I wanted.

Now tell me - what the H-E-Double-Hockeysticks is the point of a button that gives you different results each time you click it?

[/rant]

Doing Windows tech support for family & friends: Making you so damn happy that you have a Mac to go home to...

 

[fjnmusic]

Perhaps they want to appeal to all the different kinds of Windows users who are looking fo a little variety in their computer transactions.

 

[a7mc]

I've had Win8 on a couple of machines here, and it works incredibly well. No issues whatsoever.

I have a feeling the issue here is the Toshiba. Getting the charms bar is as easy as putting the mouse on the right edge of the screen. Or, on a proper laptop, swiping the touchpad from the right edge in.

The settings are actually a brilliant implementation. I find anyone who takes the 30 seconds needed to understand it instead of being blindly biased against Microsoft agree. The settings (and in fact, all items in the charms menu) are program dependant. So, if you are on your home screen, the settings are about the tiles. If you are in your mail app, the same button brings up your mail settings. If you're in music, it's your music settings. Easy peasy. Furthermore, if you were looking to change system settings (like the "old" control panel) there's always a link at the bottom right that says "change PC settings". That's where you, ahem, change settings.

Win8 is an incredible modern OS. Anyone who chooses to hate it without understanding it is just doing themselves a disservice.

A7

 

[Kosh]

The settings are actually a brilliant implementation. I find anyone who takes the 30 seconds needed to understand it instead of being blindly biased against Microsoft agree. The settings (and in fact, all items in the charms menu) are program dependant. So, if you are on your home screen, the settings are about the tiles. If you are in your mail app, the same button brings up your mail settings. If you're in music, it's your music settings. Easy peasy. Furthermore, if you were looking to change system settings (like the "old" control panel) there's always a link at the bottom right that says "change PC settings". That's where you, ahem, change settings.

What if you're in your mail app and you want to change your sound or display settings? I may be starting to see CubaMark's point. I mean I can see why Win8 is assuming something, it sounds all great, but again when you assume something you sometimes fall into that old saying of assuming the wrong thing.

I haven't had much of a chance to work on Win8, at work we're on Win7. We're usually a couple years behind so that they can test and certify the new platform (the OS and all the software and junk that gets put on the machines).

 

[CubaMark]

The settings are actually a brilliant implementation. I find anyone who takes the 30 seconds needed to understand it instead of being blindly biased against Microsoft agree. The settings (and in fact, all items in the charms menu) are program dependant.

I am, admittedly, biased. But not blindly - I've worked with Windows from the 3.11 days - every version - including LAN tech support, a university computer lab for a few years, etc. I've read a good deal of Win 8 material, tips, tricks, etc. In another thread, I've detailed my experiences getting Win 8 to run on a MacBook (as the sole OS - not entirely successful).

The charms bar is ridiculous. It may very well be that the Toshiba came too overloaded with preinstalled crap (perhaps the greatest reason to avoid Wintel machines) and simply wasn't as responsive as I was expecting. The trackpad is horrid, and the mouse-to-the-corner thing just wasn't working reliably.

But let me clearly explain the problem I was having: With *no* other apps open, fresh from a restart (after deinstalling Norton, for example), I would go to the charms bar and click on the Configuration icon. Sometimes I received that stupid "Home / Icons / Help" menu, and sometimes - very rarely - up came the menu I wanted, with the link to the Control Panel, from which one can access the program deinstall app.

That's not program dependent. That's just wrong. And it's one of a gazillion issues Win8 threw at me that Win7 doesn't. Don't even get me started with troubleshooting networking issues....

 

[a7mc]

What if you're in your mail app and you want to change your sound or display settings? I may be starting to see CubaMark's point. I mean I can see why Win8 is assuming something, it sounds all great, but again when you assume something you sometimes fall into that old saying of assuming the wrong thing..

When you hit settings from the mail app, you get the mail specific settings at the top, plus options for sound, network, display, keyboard and notifications, plus the "change PC settings" link to get the full control panel.

But let me clearly explain the problem I was having: With *no* other apps open, fresh from a restart (after deinstalling Norton, for example), I would go to the charms bar and click on the Configuration icon. Sometimes I received that stupid "Home / Icons / Help" menu, and sometimes - very rarely - up came the menu I wanted, with the link to the Control Panel, from which one can access the program deinstall app.

That's not program dependent. That's just wrong. And it's one of a gazillion issues Win8 threw at me that Win7 doesn't. Don't even get me started with troubleshooting networking issues....

You're right. That's just wrong. And that's not how Win8 works at all. So again, there's something wrong with that machine, or that installation of Win8. That's simply not how Win8 works and I have the proof on several machines in front of me. Sorry you worked on a lemon, but I've had my fair share of Mac lemons too.

A7

 

[CubaMark]